As I began my first week of the short practicum, my grade one class started a new unit called “Personal Experiences shape self-expression”. The unit focused and reflected on the transdisciplinary theme of “How we express ourselves”. Students inquired about different ways in which they discover and express their ideas, feelings, thinkings, culture, beliefs and values.
During the Unit of Inquiry class, I was surprised to see how the students were able to throw out many different ways to express themselves. For example, one of the student mentioned how she loves to draw to express herself. Another student shared to the class how she coloured her drawing blue when she felt tired and sad. I got really surprised when I heard this because it was just amazing how she was applying the concept of “Zones of regulation” to express her everyday emotions. She was being knowledgeable by exploring and applying the Zones of regulation concept to the U.O.I class.
This is the poster of the concept “The Zones of Regulation” by Leah M. Kuypers that was displayed in Grade 1 classroom at my practicum school.
This inspired me so much that I looked it up to learn about this concept in depth so that I can use it during my teaching. I was happy to see how not only I provided the knowledge to the student, but I also learned something from the student during my practicum. In other words, students teach me as much as I teach them! This is one of the reason that becoming a teacher is such an exciting moment for me. This really encourages me to feel that I really want to teach and interact with the students and with the class more.