It is easy to get wrapped up in your own classroom and forget that there is much more going on in the rest of the school. Teaching can be an isolating career and it is important to recognize that you have opportunities to get involved outside of your class. The best reason is your own personal well being – enjoy talking and being around other colleagues with the same interests. What are some clubs you can get involved in? Enjoy coaching? What teams can you work with? Don’t forget about professional development – what are other people doing?
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Something to keep in mind are the opportunities to become involved in school committees such as the Professional Development Committee or the Staff Collegial Council. Perhaps there is an opportunity to talk/work with others on assessment as a group before/during/after school. Sometimes whole departments will be working on cross grade exams, or if you’re really lucky, cross curricular discussions could be occurring between departments. Be on the lookout and read most emails in the discussions area before deleting them!
I have tried to get involved in a number of ways, I have attended school plays and performances, helped to supervise the school dance (as all good student teachers do!), gone on a field trip with the spectrum students to see the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra perform Romeo and Juliet. I have also started helping out with Spinebreakers, the grade 8 reading program, and I will be helping out with the girls soccer team. I am excited for the last 3 weeks and I am already feeling sad about how quick this practicum is passing by!
Mary,
It is great that you are involved with students outside the classroom setting! I feel it is important to get to know students outside the classroom as well as inside the classroom. It is also important for them to also get to know you as an individual with a variety of interests and not only as a teacher. I think is is a mutually beneficial experience!!
While participating in extra-curriculars should never take priority over your actual teaching, it can be great way to broaden your understanding of your students and of the school as a whole. You get to see students in an entirely different light and it helps you recognize them as complete human beings. Sometimes, you see individual students very differently when you’re interacting with them on the volleyball team (where they are very proficient) than in your classroom (that might present them with difficult challenges). Interacting outside of class can make a student a lot more likely to seek you out for help during class, or to take risks in class because they’ve learned they can trust you. It can be very powerful.
A couple of suggestions if you’re still looking for ways to get involved outside of class:
1. We are running a reading incentive program for the Grade 8s called Spinebreakers (mentioned above by Mary). This involves students coming in on Wednesdays at lunch to write quizzes to prove they have read books in their spare time. When they pass a quiz they get their name entered in the prize draws that happen monthly. If you would like to help out with Spinebreakers, there are several things you could do:
A. Help supervise the quizzes on Wednesdays at lunch in Room 409.
B. Help mark the quizzes. These are super-easy True/False or multiple-choice quizzes with simple keys.
C. Write a quiz for a book that’s not on the Spinebreakers book list yet (there is a link from the Library website). Choose any book you think would be appropriate for an 8th Grader to read, and write a 20-question True/False quiz for it (with a key). The book could be fiction or non-fiction, straight text or graphic. Difficulty levels range from about the Grade 4 reading level up to Shakespeare, as long as it’s not explicit!
Any of these would be wonderful and very appreciated. No continuing commitment is required — help out whenever you can and that would be great. If you’re interested see me in Room 409.
2. The SLSS Dance Teams are putting on a Dance show in conjunction with the dance teams from Burnett and McMath Secondary Schools. The performances are April 17 and 18 at 7:00 pm in the SLSS Theatre. These are the last two days of your practicum — so you may be rather busy! — but if you’re looking for a last-minute way to get involved, we could put you to work with tasks like helping supervise front of house, backstage, etc. If you’re interested in helping out on performance night, talk to me, Nicole Matsuzaki or Sonya O’Neill.
Music is basically go onto trips and perform in school events. I got a chance to go onto the Victoria music festival trip with the bands and a day trip to a jazz festival in surrey. I was able to go as a chaperon while learning to become a better music teacher through clinics that they give to the band after their performance. One time I got put to play with the string orchestra without rehearsing beforehand by my SA. It was a fun experience.
Outside of the classroom, I have had the pleasure to supervise the elementary basketball tournament, as well as helping coach the grade 8 and 9 volleyball teams. Both have been extremely positive experiences. As a phys ed teacher, I am sure these are both activities I will be involved in throughout my entire career. It was great to work with the basketball tournament seeing how well it was organized. As for coaching, I have already learned a tremendous amount when it comes to organizing drills, motivating students and teaching tactics and techniques of volleyball. Although the season is just beginning, I can’t wait to cheer for the grade 8 and 9 boys throughout the season.
Although this topic has already been discussed about, Jim asked me include some forms of formative assessment I use in the classroom. Off the top of my head, I find the fist of 5 and Muddy/Marvelous sheets very effective for getting accurate feedback from the students.
-Fist of 5, is when I get all the students to close their eyes and raise their hand in the air. With their eye’s remaining closed, I ask them how they feel about the material we have just covered and they show 5 fingers if they are very clear, a closed palm if they are completely lost and anywhere in between if they partially understand.
-Muddy/Marvelous is just a cheesy exit sheet where I get them to write 2 area’s that they are muddy or unclear about in the content, and 2 area’s that that are marvelous or crystal clear about. If they want to write their names on the sheet, I can talk to them discretely at a later time, or they can hand in the exit slip anonymously. If I see a common theme of muddy material then I know I have to cover that material again.
Thanks a lot, and I look forward to my final weeks at Mcnair
Cheers
When I first began thinking about extra curricular help in the school, I was a little at a loss because I should never actually coach a sport!! That beging said, I found some other ways to be involved with my school. I have teamed up with the student based club “The Marlinaires” to help raise money for charities through fundraising events. We organized the first annul Carnival Day with games, prizes, and food sales. I was able to help students develop games to play, obtained carnival themed music to play, and organized set up and running the event on the day. I hope it becomes a staple in the McNair calendar because the club members and the student body had a fantastic time.
Other than this club, I find being available during lunch in a classroom for students to gather, eat, and socialize really beneficial for building a strong student-teacher relationship. Students feel more comfortable in the classroom and I am able to find out information about their interests and extracurricular activities. I have found that students really appreciate when you ask them how a tournament or performance went. Even connecting over favourite T.V. show has helped build relationships with students. I’ve seen the positive influence on participation and achievement in the classroom from certain students when I have made an effort to be supportive of them.
And finally on a professional level, I have made myself available for other teachers to help out when I was able to. For example, I have helped step in for a class when a teacher was ill and used my prep block to supervise a gym class while the teacher oversaw the musical “Honk!” I have found swapping activity ideas, worksheets, resources, and websites with other student teachers to be so helpful. Asking fellow teachers for advice and suggestions has been very helpful as I develop as a teacher. Hard to believe that there is only a few more weeks left, and I’m sure there are many more opportunities for extra curricular involvement for years to come!
The extracurricular activities that I perform are actually based inside my classroom. I believe that the main thing about an extracurricular activity it to have a safe environment where kids can be kids. Opening the CADD Lab during break and lunch has allowed students to have a safe environment that they can play and be themselves. During the lunch times that the CADD Lab is open upwards of 50 students come to the Lab to play on the computers or foosball. On top of opening up the Lab for kids to play I have also made/ repaired things for the school such as a new flag stand and machinery. I find that I’m always there to help when the school/admin are in a bind and need something made or fixed quickly.
Being involved in extracurricular activities has been one of the most rewarding experiences during this practicum. I joined the Marlinaires club, which is a club that organizes special events around the school for charity! I suggested that we do a Carnival day, and the club helped come up with ideas on what to, and we ended up throwing the first ever Carnival day at McNair! There were a lot of fun carnival games and snacks, and the students really seemed to enjoy it. Also, I helped my SA, Aman, supervise the coveted elementary school basketball tournament, which took place at McNair this year. It was great to see some of my students in a different setting, with both of us having completely different roles. Mostly, it was just fun chatting with them while score keeping a game and seeing a different side of them. Truly unforgettable, and something I will continue doing in the years to come as a teacher.
I found becoming involved in extracurricular activities like Grad events or just attending performances like Glee or the dance competition events can really help you to relate to your students and likewise for them to relate to yourself. I found that by being there and showing support, even as a member of the audience really helped me to better understand my students (especially my 12’s). Students become more receptive and engaged when they feel like you care and that your interested in their lives outside the classroom. (Also who doesn’t like pie-ing the teacher in the face or nailing them with a dodgeball 😛 ) Its also just amazing to witness students talent and to see how funny and creative students can be outside the classroom, its like “I didn’t know you had a sense of humor! Where was that in class!” Not only is it worthwhile to have gotten out there and seen what students could do but it also created this bond between yourselves and students really respect you and engage better because of it.
Not like any of that is a surprise to any of you AWESOME teachers who already know this and exemplified it so that it would an example we happily followed 😉