Category: Practicum

The Drumming Lesson

Today at Sunnyside I took on my riskiest lesson yet — drumming. Going into this lesson I was slightly nervous because not only was it going to be a first experience for many of the students within the class, but it was also going to be my first experience taking on a music lesson.

In addition to the nerves I had going into this lesson, the preparation required for this lesson was also complicated and I knew that my timing and execution had to be flawless for everything to go smoothly. Since the music room is booked all day during our Thursday visits to Sunnyside, I arranged for our drumming lesson to take place in the portable outside of the school, in the hopes that we would not disrupt any other classes with the loud drumming. Since the lesson was planned for outside in the portable, this meant moving 30 large drums outside during lunch hour. Time and time again I am so impressed with how many students jump at the opportunity to help set up lessons, so luckily I had a lot of help accomplishing this daunting task.

Once the students were back inside after lunch the transition outside to the portable with the class was smooth and efficient. The kids were all beyond excited to start playing the drums. After we had settled into the portable, I re-stated my expectations and rules for the lesson, as I knew it had the potential to get out of hand considering the type of lesson it was. I first outlined my expectations for the lesson back inside the school before we left for the portable, so the students were all very aware of the ‘stop-drumming’ signal before we even left for the lesson.

After entering the portable I asked the students to take a seat in an empty desk and we played a rhythm game without the drums. This game went even better then I expected it to. This kids had a blast and wanted to play it over and over again, so we did. As we practiced the rhythms together as a class, we started performing the pattern faster and faster until the room erupted in laughter. This was a great moment. Next it was time to bring out the drums. As a class, we moved all of the desks out of the way, created a large circle in the middle of the room with the chairs, and I proceeded to hand out the drums. Before I handed out any drum sticks to students I talked about how it is important to respect the instruments, and I once again reminded them about the signal I would give them when I wanted them to stop drumming. This signal was 2 hands up over my head, holding one drum stick in each hand. Once I gave the students the go-ahead to start playing and experimenting with sounds and the drums they went absolutely crazy! It was awesome. The energy in the room was contagious. As the lesson progressed we experimented with sound, vibrations, pitch, tempo, and rhythm through a verity of different games and activities, all of which were extremely successful. In particular there was one game that the kids all went nuts over — the game ‘whats for dinner?’ In this game each student had an opportunity to speak and simultaneously drum out the rhythm of what they had for dinner as we went around the circle. They loved it. The laughter and their engagement during this part of the lesson is I think what every teacher strives for — it was simply amazing.

After completing all the games and activities, I separated the students into groups of 5 and their task was to create a 10-20 second song using the different rhythms of what they had for dinner. Additionally, each group had to notate their rhythms (song) on a big piece of paper, give their song a title, and create a band name. The groups of students all had about 20 minutes to work on their creations, and then it was time for the performances. I was absolutely blown away with the quality of the paper soundscape creations and the final drumming performances. Not only did each group completely understand my expectations for the assignment, but every single group created amazing drumming performances!! I so badly wish that I had video footage of the performances, as they were truly outstanding. It was amazing to see students, who had little to no rhythm at the beginning of the lesson, nail their rhythms in a group performance. No matter how hard I try, I will not be able to articulate though a reflection what an amazing moment this was for every single person within the class. Once each group took their turn on ‘the stage’ the classroom erupted in applause. This was exactly what I had hoped for.

Although so much of the lesson went better then I could have hoped for, it most definitely was a challenging lesson to manage at times. Overall, the students really did an awesome job refraining from drumming while I was explaining new activities or when other people were talking, but next time I may be a little firmer with a select few individuals who pushed the boundaries a little bit.

For me, one of the most special moments of the lesson was being able to connect with one of the more challenging students in the class. This particular student is quite disruptive on a regular basis and often has a hard time engaging in classroom activities; however, he absolutely loves music. While creating this lesson I had hoped that it would give me the opportunity to connect with this student more, and it did exactly that. Not only did he volunteer to help me set up, which is very uncharacteristic of him, but he was also so excited and engaged during the entire lesson. Additionally, he also took on an important leadership role during the lesson, helping many of his classmates become successful in their own drumming. In speaking with this student after the lesson, I feel as if his acceptance of me as a teacher in the classroom had done a 180 — this event alone made the lesson worthwhile.
As I move closer towards beginning my extended practicum, drumming is most definitely something that I want to continue with. I think there is so much value in learning how to play an instrument and connecting with music, not to mention the fact that the students had a blast.

Today my day at Sunnyside was a very interesting one. My short lesson with the class was DPA and since there was a short break in the rain, I decided to take the class outside to get some fresh air and run around. For a few weeks now the class has been asking me to play a game called manhunt, a game in which one person is ‘it’ and as they tag people the newly tagged people become ‘it’ as well. It’s a great game because every student is actively involved the entire time, unlike a lot of other tag games. Additionally, this particular class absolutely loves this game and they often play it outside during DPA, recess, and lunch. Since I was not 100% positive of all the rules involved in the game, I got the class to teach me how to play before we went outside. This is the second time now that I have asked my class to teach me how to play a game, and I think it worked out really well. Not only were the students excited to explain the rules to me, but it also provided me with the opportunity to make sure everyone understood all the rules and the boundaries before going outside to play.

Overall the game went extremely well. Every single student in the class participated in the game and it appeared as if everyone had a great time playing. After the game was over, I called all the students in from the field and began to line up the class before walking back towards the school. While I was waiting for a few lingering students to come in off the field I noticed that one student was starting to kick puddles of water at other students. As I began to walk over to ask him to stop, he started picking up large handfuls of dirt and throwing it at other students while yelling and screaming at them. This student’s sudden change in behaviour came out of nowhere. I quickly ran over to him and tried to calm him down, but it became immediately clear to me that this was not just an act of anger but that this student was starting to have a meltdown.

Although I didn’t really know what to do in this particular situation, I did know that I had to get all of the other students safely away from the escalating situation as quickly as possible. I asked the class to all go immediately inside the school and into the classroom to wait for me there, meanwhile I stayed with the student having the breakdown. As the class headed toward the school entrance the student’s yelling turned to verbal threats towards other students and then escalated even further to him violently kicking, punching, and throwing his body into the exterior walls and windows of the school. Since I don’t have a lot of experience with situations such as these, I didn’t quite know what to do. For my own personal safety, I tried to talk him out of his escalated state. I said things like: “please stop”, “you’re going to hurt yourself”, “just take a few deep breaths” and “try to relax and talk to me about whats making you upset”. Somehow between the screaming and the physical hits to the walls and windows I was able to get out of the student that he was mad because someone cheated right at the end of the game. Once I had this information I tried to calmly talk to him about how frustrating and annoying it can be when people cheat. I tried the best I could to be relatable and understanding so that he would stop physically hitting and kicking the cement – I was really afraid he was going to hurt himself or somebody else. Eventually, I got him to calm down enough to walk with me to the side of the building where I could get help from other teachers.

My SA, as well as the teacher in the classroom beside us, were fantastic. They knew exactly what to do to help this particular student calm down. My SA had a bag of toys and books for him in a sort of “calm down” package that he could play and relax with outside the classroom. Additionally, both teachers and myself all took turns talking with him and calming down his emotions. Eventually, after about 30 minutes outside in the hall, he was able to calm down enough to move past the situation and come back into the class. This student did have a few more meltdowns throughout the day, but they were much less intense than his big one in the morning. As a teacher candidate in the class, I was aware that this particular student sometimes struggles with his emotions and appropriate reactions to certain situations; however, I had not personally witnessed it first-hand.

Although this event was challenging for me, I feel that it was very timely in the sense that we are learning about violence and violent outbursts in some of our courses at UBC right now. At UBC we are only just beginning to discuss this topic, so undoubtedly my experience this week left me with some questions.

• As a future educator, what types of things should I say to a child having an emotional and/or physical meltdown?
• Did I handle the situation appropriately?
• Could I have done something differently to help even more?

Overall, my day at Sunnyside was a really great one. Although it was challenging at the time, I am really glad for the experience I had during my DPA lesson as I hope it will help me become a better responder in similar situations that I may encounter in the future.

Today at Sunnyside was my first formally assessed lesson since November, and overall I feel extremely happy with how it went. My lesson was on Chinese New Year and the significance of Chinese hanging lanterns during this holiday.

I began the lesson by asking students to brainstorm some ideas to several questions I projected onto the board. The students discussed the questions in their small table groups and then recorded their ideas on a worksheet. For the most part I was really happy with how this portion of the activity went because I heard a lot of great ideas being discussed by many of the students; however, after receiving a little bit of constructive feedback, I would slightly change how I presented this task. Next time, rather than giving students the task of discussing and writing down ideas at the same time I would first ask students to discuss their ideas in a group and afterwards ask them to write down some of their ideas. By splitting the task into two separate parts, I think I would get better student participation in the group discussions and also better quality written work afterwards. Once students finished brainstorming their ideas in their small groups we had a whole classroom discussion about the questions. This whole-activity provided each group with the opportunity to share some of the ideas they had discussed in their smaller groups. On the whole, I was really happy with the reactions that some of my questions got from the students, in particular the question: Why does Chinese New Year change dates every year and occur later than our New Year? Although the entire class came up with good ideas as to why, no one was able to guess the correct answer. When I explained to them that Chinese New Year is based off the lunar calendar rather than the yearly calendar all of the students were astonished and you could feel the buzz of excitement within the room. This was a really special moment for me.

Once the students had finished sharing their ideas about Chinese New Year I showed the class a short video about what some common Chinese New Year celebrations look like around the world. It was great to see so many students making personal connections with the images and content they saw within the video. After watching the video we debriefed the clips that were shown and how it related to what we had discussed so far. One student even pointed out how the video showed that Chinese New Year isn’t something that is only celebrated in China, but rather, it is an event that is celebrated all around the world. This is exactly the point I was hoping would be taken away from the video, so I was extremely happy that this student was able to make this connection and share it with the class.

After we finished debriefing the video we moved onto the next portion of the lesson – learning how to make the hanging lanterns. To explain this portion of the lesson I used a couple of students from the class, one of which can sometimes be a little disruptive, to help me demonstrate the steps. I feel that this strategy not only helped me explain the craft more clearly, but it also helped to engage the students and minimize instances of disruptive behaviour in the classroom. Once students understood the different steps involved in making the lanterns, they all began making their own. Time and time again I am so impressed with how helpful the students in my class are. Many students assisted each other while making the lanterns and everyone worked well together, even students who sometimes struggle with working properly together and staying on task. I feel as if this was another really special moment in my lesson.

Additionally, while the students worked I played traditional Chinese music in the background, which I think really set a relaxing and happy tone in the room. Many students even came up to me to tell me how much the enjoyed having the music on while they worked. Based on the student feedback alone, I think that playing music while students worked was a huge success and I will definitely use it again in the future. Overall, I feel it was a great lesson and I was really happy with the end product. The lanterns are now hanging all around the room and they look fantastic!
A few questions that I am beginning to wonder more about as I begin planning for my extended practicum are on the topic of assessment. Lately I feel conflicted about how I should asses each student and how I want to asses each student.

• Should I assess each student based on the standards outlined by the BC ministry of education? OR Should I assess each student based on their individual abilities and successes in the classroom?
• Does it matter which way I choose to assess my class?
• Am I allowed to choose which way I assess my class?

As I continue to work with my practicum class, faculty advisor, student advisor, and UBC professors I am sure some of these answers will start to become more clear, but currently they are very much so on my mind.

Today the DPA lesson that I planned and taught the class was on movement, music, and dancing. Since beginning the Teacher Education Program at UBC I have had several opportunities to participate in the ‘Dancing for Understanding Workshops’ during professional developmental days. These workshops are amazing as they demonstrate how educators, like myself, can incorporate simple movements, rhythms and music into the classroom to get students dancing. I really took to these workshops as I believe they are a fantastic way to get students up and moving inside the actual classroom.

This is the third time now that I have taught dance and movement for DPA in my practicum class and I cannot believe how successful it has been so far. When the students see me wheeling in my big stereo into class many of them start jumping up and down in excitement. It’s really amazing to see the positive impact that music and dance can have on so many individuals within one classroom.

Today when I was teaching the dance DPA lesson to the class I allowed the students time to discuss, create, and teach some of the dance moves that we used in our dances. I think this was a really successful addition to the lesson because it gave students the opportunity to personalize their own learning and to contribute to the lesson. Overall the lesson went fantastic! After 30 minutes of jumping around, dancing, and singing at the top of our lungs to songs requested by the class, everyone was sweating and laughing. There is always such a positive vibe in the classroom after we dance.

One question that emerged for me today during my lesson in DPA is how to motivate students, in particular boys, to participate in an activity that they are unsure of? In my practicum class I feel very lucky to have such a great group of kids that are so confident and willing to take risks in front of their peers; however, there are still 1 or 2 students in the class (both boys) that have a hard time fully participating. Firstly, I am curious as to what specifically it is that is holding them back from fully participating. How can I encourage these students to participate? What is the best way for me to support them while still teaching a DPA lesson to the rest of the class?

In addition to a successful DPA lesson, I also had a really great one-on-one moment today with a student that I am still trying to establish a better connection with. This moment was during math in the classroom and this particular student was struggling with several questions about mathematical line graphs. Over the course of the past few months, I have noticed that this student tends to avoid starting assigned work until the very last moment. Additionally, once he does begin working, he rushes the assignment, trying to finish it as fast as he can. The situation today was no different. This student was assigned a math worksheet at the beginning of the class and proceeded to wait until just before class IPAD time to begin working on it so he wouldn’t have to miss playing on the IPADS. About halfway through the worksheet, he encountered a series of difficult questions and was directed over to me so I could help him. When he first came over to me, I could tell that he was not impressed with the situation, as most of this class at this time had already began playing on the IPADS. Once he sat down I asked him to tell me about the questions he was having difficulty with. From there we worked together to figure out how to create a line graph with 2 separate sets of information. At first he was a little resistant to receiving help, but as time went on he really began to warm up to me and together we were able to complete the worksheet. After completing all the questions I assumed he would immediately begin playing on the IPADs with the rest of the class, but instead I was really surprised. This student stayed and chatted with me about the line graph and several other conversational topics for about 5 minutes before going to retrieve their IPAD. Furthermore this student, who I feel I have had a harder time connecting with, genuinely thanked me for the help. This was a really special moment in my day and I really hope to continue to make more connections with this particular student over the course of my practicum and be able to help him better apply himself during classroom activities.

Today was my first official day back at Sunnyside Elementary after Christmas Break. It was so wonderful to be back. During my time away from the class, I found myself wondering about the students and what they were all up to on their winter break. It was great to come back and have many of the students excited to tell me about all the various things they did while on their vacations.

Today the short lesson that I taught the class was DPA. Since the weather was nice, I decided to take the kids outside to play a game of capture the flag. I am beginning to notice each time I teach a DPA lesson that it is more organized than the last time I taught it. Reflecting on my weekly DPA lessons has allowed me to think about what I could have done differently to minimize problems that sometimes occur, keep the lesson more organized, and to make sure I am giving more individual attention to students who appear to be struggling with the instructions or the activity.

Todays game of capture the flag went really well. Several minutes in advance I asked two of the students within the classroom to retrieve all of the equipment from the gym and to take it to the field outside and set it up. Ahead of time, I also made sure that Ayla (who cannot play on the field because of her wheelchair) had chosen a couple of friends to play an alternative activity with her on the upper playground. Additionally, I remembered to ask students to put on their jackets before lining up to go outside, which made getting ready to go outside and start playing the game much more time efficient. As I establish my presence as a teacher more and more within the classroom, I notice that the students are beginning to get used to me as a teacher and understand my expectations during various activities, like today during the DPA lesson. All of the students properly followed my instructions about where to meet, how to create the teams, the rules of the game, and when to clean up after the game was over.

One question that emerged for me today during my DPA lesson was how to deal with conflicting information from students. For example, in the game today one student claimed another cheated and that they were tagged out while the other student claimed they did not cheat and were not tagged. In an event like this, where I did not see the particular event occur, how should I deal with it? It was difficult for me to know what to do in this situation without feeling like I was taking sides. Luckily for me, a similar situation happened about 30 seconds later to the other team, so I was able to defuse the situation by pointing out that the two events had evened themselves out.

Overall, my first day back was awesome. Throughout the day I continued to take on small roles within the classroom helping out with a variety of activities. I took attendance twice, brought the students in at the beginning of the day, after recess, and after lunch, helped a small group of students with math, and circulated around the classroom helping different groups of students work on their Health and Career Education Planning projects.

Sunnyside 2-Week Practicum Reflection: Carolyn Robinson

I have just completed the first week of my short 2-week Practicum at Sunnyside Elementary and it was amazing. I had just the most wonderful time getting to know my class, teaching my first formal lessons, and learning from Kristen.

My week (unofficially) began on Thursday October 30th when I began establishing myself as a teacher within the classroom. As I have already reflected in great detail this specific day in my reflection from the last week, I will only mention that at the end of this day Kristen and I sat down and figured out the formal lessons that I would be teaching the class during my first full week. My lessons were as follows:

Monday: DPA (30 Min)
Tuesday: Descriptive Writing (40 Min)
Wednesday: SEL Lesson ( 1h 15m)
Thursday: Peace Window Art Lesson (2h30m)
Friday: DPA (30 min)

On Monday my first real experience teaching and managing the class in an activity was in DPA. I planned a game of California kickball outside with all the students. Considering it was my first lesson and first time organizing a whole class activity, I would say that I was fairly happy with the outcome. It took a bit of time to get the game, the equipment, and the students properly organized, but after about 10-15 minutes, there was a successful game of California kickball being played by the class. I definitely learned a lot about classroom management and organization from this lesson. I noticed that there are many ways that I could have improved the organization of the game and the students by altering how and when I delivered my instructions and expectations to the class.

On Tuesday my lesson plan was on descriptive writing. I was much better prepared for this lesson in terms of classroom management and organization. I made sure to try and clearly state my expectations to the class before starting the activities I had planned within the lesson. For the lesson, I had borrowed enough books from the library so that each student was able to have their own “descriptive-style book’ to refer to during the activities. Personally I think this worked out really well. This lesson plan one that required students to write their own descriptive paragraph at the end. I am currently in the middle of marking them (using the new grading system) and I am so pleased with how they turned out. It really feels good to see a topic that I taught be so well understood and applied by the students. I’m also so impressed with the creativity of some of the students within this assignment. One student even took it upon herself to make her own book about ‘Lizzards’ in which she describes the different ‘whats’ about lizards on each page. Although I was really happy with how this lesson went, of course I also learned a lot from it. I think the most important thing I learned after reflecting on this lesson was that it is so important to go over instructions a couple of times and perception check with the students afterwards.

On Wednesday I taught my SEL lesson plan, which was also observed by Dave. On the whole, I was extremely pleased with how the lesson went. During the lesson, I could really feel myself finding my place as a teacher within the classroom. Thanks to a lot of advice that Dave provided me with beforehand, I was really surprised with how well I was able to structure and explain the lesson to the students. I feel as if the students really engaged with the book as well as the ideas and activities that followed. In the middle of this activity, students went outside for a ‘brain-break’ before returning to complete the final part of the lesson. I think this was such a good decision as it allowed the students to get some energy out, process what they had just learned, and re-focus on the lesson once they returned to the classroom. It was great to see first hand the positive impact of brain breaks in the middle of a lesson. This lesson ended with an activity that allowed students to draw something they had never drawn before. After the drawings were complete, we had a class gallery walk in which the students all walked around the room looking at and appreciating the different art work of their classmates. This was a really special moment for me. I was so impressed with the students and the positive comments they all made about the artwork.

During my week, there are so many meaningful stories that I could share, but the one the stood out the most to me was at the end of this SEL lesson on the book ‘Ish’. As the students were walking around the classroom in the gallery walk, 1 student named Nick complimented another student named Kendall about how great his drawing looked. This was a really special moment because Nick is not always the most supportive person in the classroom, and sometimes says hurtful things to other students about themselves, their work, etc. Additionally, Kendall is a student in the classroom who often gets quite down on himself and his work, thinking that it is not good enough. It was so amazing to hear Nick compliment Kendall on his artwork in such a supportive way, and then to see Kendall so proud and happy about his drawing. After he class ended and the bell rang, Kendall even came over to me and thanked me for having such a fun activity. He then proceeded to ask me for more of the drawing sheets that I had provided the class so he could continue to make more new drawings. This was undoubtedly the most special moment of my week. Kendall was just so proud and motivated, it was wonderful to see.

On Thursday my lesson was in Art making stained-glass Peace Windows, which was inspired by Marc Chagall’s Peace Window at the United Nations in New York. I knew this lesson was a big undertaking and an even bigger risk being that it was only my first week teaching, but I really wanted to challenge myself and do something that the students would remember. Kristen was unbelievably supportive during this activity. She allowed me the long periods of time needed to accomplish it, and she definitely helped me with classroom management during it. Almost every single student was really excited about the activity, and it turned out to be a huge success. Although there were a couple self-conscious students that had a hard time with certain parts of the activity, I am excited to say that every single student in the class successfully completed the activity and made their own stained glass windows. It was great to see confident students helping out some of the more self-conscious and struggling students with the art project. Additionally, I was so blown away with the amount of help I received setting up, during, and cleaning up the art activity. Students, many of which volunteered during their lunch hour, stayed inside and helped me set up this big underatking. I think the risk paid off. Below is a picture of the stained glass pictures drying and then being laminated. Just wait until you see the finished products, after they have been outlined in black, at the Remembrance Day assembly.

The risk paid off in other ways too. It taught me so much more about classroom management during special activities such as this. I learned that it is a really good idea to provide students with other fun activities (such as related word-searches, cross-words, etc) while they are waiting for their turn at the different art stations.

On Friday I taught another DPA lesson, this time capture the flag. Kristen suggested that I have the students teach me the game, which I think worked out so well. They were all so excited to tell me the rules, organize, and to ‘teach the teacher’. Compared to Monday, this DPA lesson was far more successful. I used so many of the tips I had learned throughout the week from Kristen, as well as my own experiences, to organize this lesson so much differently. It was a great game and the kids and a blast.
A few questions that I have after my first full week are as follows:
What are some of the best techniques to manage the few students that like to disrupt the class on a regular basis?
How do you discipline a student for continually misbehaving, but still motivate them at the same time?
What other things can I do to help ELL learners?
How can I encourage students to finish their work on time?

A few goals that I have for my second week of practicum are:
Continue to improve my classroom management skills.
Move around the classroom more while teaching lessons.
Hold students more individually accountable during group-work.
Try to stop using ‘You Guys’ to refer to the class.
Get to know the students even better.
Use the classroom management board that Kristen has set up at the front of the classroom.

Today was the first (unofficial) day of my 2 week practicum in Ms. McCredie’s 5/6 split class. Some teacher roles that I took on within the classroom today were: taking attendance, helping a smaller group of students with math homework, handing out field-trip permission slip forms, and moving around the classroom talking to students about their science research projects.

Today my main focus of observation was on the 2 different types of questions asked within the classroom:

1. Instructional Questions
2. Inquiry Questions

Within the class, there is pretty much a constant stream of instructional questions being asked by many of the students. Questions such as: What are we doing next? When do I hand in my assignment? Can I go to the washroom? How much longer until we start the next activity? Can I work outside in the hall? Do we have homework tonight? Can I help hand out the worksheets? Are we going to have DPA this afternoon?

These types of instructional questions within the class are usually very quick to be answered by the teacher and most times they are a simple yes/no/soon/maybe answer. What is really interesting about observing these types of questions is how often they are asked throughout the course of a school day. So much of Ms. McCredie’s time before, during, and after activities is spent answering these types of questions for all of her students. It’s really interesting to observe exactly how much of the day is spent answering these types of instructional questions, as well as observing which students most commonly ask them. On this particular day, it appears as if the students who ask the most instructional questions are those with outgoing personalities, those who have a lot of energy, those who are hands on, those who like to be involved, and those who appear to be very outwardly stimulated by the various classroom activities.

Contrary to the many instructional questions asked throughout the day, I would say that I only observed several inquiry-based questions. The inquiry questions that I observed today appeared to take place during longer activities in which the students were able to focus on and engage with the material being taught. The main activity that I was able to observe these types of questions in was during the afternoon in science, when the students had to research in pairs about the 5 Different Kingdoms of Life. During this activity the students got to use textbooks, worksheets, and iPads to research their particular kingdom. As I walked around the class, I got a chance to speak with many of the students about what types of information they had found out about their kingdom. Every single student I spoke with was extremely excited and engaged with the assignment. They were thrilled to show and tell me about information they had already researched, and additionally, several of the students had great inquiry-type questions. Questions such as: What is the biggest shark and how does it become so big? Is bacteria the same as germs that makes people sick? Is coral an animal or would it be considered a plant and why? I thought all of these inquiry questions asked by the students were fantastic!! They were all really great questions that led them to ask further questions that were related to their original question. These questions show that the students were curious and that they wondered about something, which is exactly what inquiry is. It was really interesting to pay attention to these types of questions in the classroom and to observe when these types of questions were most prominently asked.

I think it is important to note though that today was an abnormally very busy and excitable day. There were many different activities that needed to be accomplished in a short time period of time, there were guest speakers that spoke to the class, there were several individual student reactions that disrupted the class slightly, and finally, the building excitement of the halloween dance was very evident amongst the students. Their ability to focus on this particular day was slightly off, which is likely why I was unable to observe more inquiry questions from the students.

I addition to the few great inquiry questions that I was able to observe today from the students, I also wanted to note that during the financial education presentation I was so taken aback by some of the intellectual and creative answers given by many of the students. These answers showed that this class is full of not only creative and smart personalities, but that these students are also fantastic critical thinkers. I am so excited to work with them more over the next 2 weeks and for the rest of the school year.

One big question that I have after my day in the classroom today is: what are some ways that can help to motivate a student that does not want to participate in a certain classroom activity?

Today was my first full day in Ms. McCredie’s grade 5/6 split class. It was so fantastic to finally be able to observe a class for the whole day and begin to understand many of the inner workings of the classroom.

Today my main focus of observation was on 4 key things:

1. Control Cues
2, Praise Statements
3. Management Strategies and Routines
4. Community Building and Class Environment Strategies

The control cue that is most commonly and effectively used within the class is the ‘gimmi-5’ method in which Ms. McCredie says gimmi-5, and puts up her hand while waiting for all students to also put up their hands, stop talking, and pay attention. This control cue is very effective in this class, and works quickly almost every time that it is used. I was also able to use this control technique with the class a couple of times throughout the day and also personally found it very effective.

The praise statements that I noticed today within the class were many. Firstly, Ms. McCredie is very complimentary towards students who actively listen, participate, and work hard. Additionally, there is a larger chart in the room that ranges from the positive: ‘outstanding job’ all the way to the negative: ‘call home to parents’. Every student in the class has their own individual close-peg in the middle of this chart, and their behaviour and efforts throughout the day controls which direction their close-peg travels. I love the way Ms. McCredie uses this chart to praise students, but also to remind to students when they begin going off-track in the classroom. It is great visual reminder for students. One way that Ms. McCredie praises the class as a whole is through a bucket of marbles at the front of the class. When the class impresses her, she adds marbles to the bucket. Eventually once the bucket is full, the students can then vote on a fun activity or a party as their reward. I think this is a great idea for a class-motivator! Finally, at the end of the day Ms. McCredie sought out a student (who often is distracted in class, but who had today done a great job focussing and completing work) and wrote a kind message in his planner for him to show his parents. I thought this was a really great way to personalize praise in a more unconventional way. I will definitely use many of these ‘praise techniques’ one day in my own classroom.

The management strategy/routine that is most prominent within the classroom is Ms. McCredie’s organization. On the white board at the front of the class, she has the entire day’s schedule written out for the students to see and follow along. Additionally, she always gives clear instructions about her expectations for the class in terms of assignments, activities, free-time, etc. Also, it appears as if the general structure of each week remains the same with only minor changes here and there for special events. These techniques and routines in the classroom appear to have a great ‘class managing effect’ on the students. Her organization provides the students with basic day structure but with flexibility within each day. It is a nice balance.

Community building so far within this class is great! Ms. McCredie has the students participate in a lot of group work, and she has also both modelled and created a classroom environment in which students all help one another. This is so fantastic from an SEL standpoint.

In addition to observing some of the control cues and praise statements today within the classroom, I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to try some of them myself. At several points throughout the day, Ms. McCredie allowed me to independently try a few management activities within the class. She provided me with an opportunity to properly introduce myself to the class and to explain to the students what my involvement throughout the year will be. Later on in the day, Ms. McCredie allowed me to independently get the students prepared and lined-up for DPA. This was a great opportunity for me to practice using her ‘gimmi-5’ control cue, which worked really well. Additionally, at several times throughout the day, I was able to move around the classroom and help students with the assignments they were working on. These moments allowed me to try praising students myself which was nice.

Overall, it was again a great day at Sunnyside. I really enjoyed spending the whole day in my class and getting to know the students better. To me, the most memorable and important part of my day was a long chat I had with Ms. McCredie about the different students and their different needs within the classroom. It was very eye-opening to hear about the wide-variety of issues that certain students struggle with in the class, and I think that is really important for me to begin to learn how to best support each student very early on.

Sunnyside Elementary Reflection Week 2: Carolyn Robinson
October 15, 2015

Today my day at Sunnyside Elementary was both jam packed and eye-opening. In addition to observing the 3 regular classes we have been visiting the past couple weeks, today we also got to observe a Montessori class and 2 assisted learning classes.

In the assisted learning classes I observed today, I noticed that both teachers used a lot more scaffolding with the students to help assist them in their learning. When teachers asked questions, they followed them with many prompts, clues, and varying degrees of assistance depending on the child and their specific learning needs. Additionally, I noticed that in this particular class the amount of time it took most students to answer questions was much longer then in a traditional classroom. Some of the students that I observed in the assisted learning class were ones that I had also observed within regular classrooms. What struck me as really interesting about observing these students in the assisted learning class was how much more focused and academically successful they were with stronger 1-1 attention. I assume that it also helps to have activities designed to specifically help the child with the individual difficulties they experience in the classroom.

In the Montessori class I observed today, there was not a lot of questioning done by the teacher in the short time that I was in the classroom. Instead, the children of various ages worked independently on math workbooks. This was the first time I have ever observed a Montessori class, and I was so impressed with how independent and self-motivated all the students were, even the youngest student who was only 5 years old. I was so impressed with the mature composure of all students within the classroom and with how they all helped one-another in learning. I was also really impressed with their ability to self-regulate on their own. One question that I have about this Montessori class is how do the children in this class learn to become self-motivated so successfully?

I ended the day with 3 quick visits to my regular classrooms. One major thing that I noticed, specifically in Ms Steve’s and Ms. Au’s primary classes, was how much more adjusted and settled the children were in the classrooms compared to last week. In the little amounts of time that I have spent in these classrooms, it is obvious to me that both teachers have spent a considerable amount of time creating a safe, friendly, and structured class community with all of their students. From an SEL standpoint, this is fantastic. The last classroom that I visited today was Ms. McCredie’s grade 5/6 class – which I have just found out is the class I will be doing my extended practicum in. I am so thrilled to be teaching this class of amazing students. In this class today, my classroom observations were minimal as the children had a free period in which they all played on the playground. Although I was unable to make many classroom observations with this class, I was able to observe the children in a social setting which was really unique. I was able to see who some of the dominant personalities in the class were, as well as some of the more shy personalities. Additionally, it was interesting to see how the different friendships and relationships between students in the class transferred onto the playground. As a whole, they all played extremely well together, but I did notice a few social disagreements amongst a few of the girls in the class.

Once again, my day at Sunnyside was fantastic. I can’t wait to go back next Thursday and really start getting to know my extended-practicum class better.