Inquiry Project

For my inquiry project, I decided to pursue a topic that I was personally invested in. The question I attempted to answer the following question: What are the academic achievements, interpersonal skills, and motivation of only children compared to children with siblings? 

My childhood as an only child wasn’t ideal and it definitely had an impact on my personality. I was interested in exploring whether or not the stigma against only children had any basis in scientific research. It turned out that scientific research on this topic was inconclusive. Only children were were not significantly different in terms of academic achievements, interpersonal skills, and motivation. This experience was significant because it gave me concrete evidence that the stereotypes I had against me throughout my childhood was unfounded. It provided an additional source of confidence that I was able to tap into when I began my long practicum.

LLED 361 Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUFrp1HLwy0

The most rewarding experience that I’ve had so far this year involved the production of the video shown above. In this case, the process of making the video was equally as rewarding as the end product. I was lucky enough to work with a group of teacher candidates that I’ve known through the whole year and enjoyed working with. It was gratifying to see everyone putting forth their full effort and wanting to see it done to the best of their ability. It showed me the value of collaboration, how we can be more than the sum of our parts. This is hopefully something I will take with me when I begin my career at a secondary school.

Critical Moments of Practicum

I remember the first time that I needed to put my foot down to remove students from the lab. I was performing a demo that involved a strong acid and needed everyone to keep their safety goggles on. I had informed the class ahead of time that anyone caught removing their goggles would be immediately taken out of the lab. However, 2 of my students did not heed my warning and fooled around. I immediately took them out of the lab and continued with my demo. Afterwards, I calmly informed them that they would not be entering the lab again if they continued their behavior. At that moment, I really didn’t go into it knowing what to say. But I relied on my teacher presence and proceeded as best I could. This experience gave me the confidence to manage my students in a similar way in the future.

Another moment came when I took on my first grade 11 class. Although I had prepared for weeks tweaking my lesson plan and refining cooperative learning activities, the class did not go well at all. It was a much different experience from grade 8s because none of the grade 11s seemed engaged at all. It was the longest hour and fifteen minutes of my practicum. Afterwards, I decided I needed to adapt. I spent the entire night changing my lessons for the week. I ended up replacing many whiteboard activities with hands-on labs that involved observing plant samples with compound and dissecting microscopes. From then on, I figured out a balance that worked for both me and my students. This experience overall taught me a valuable lesson on adaptation. Sometimes lessons plans will just not work with a particular group of students. It is important to recognize that fact and make changes when needed to better fit the class.