Monthly Archives: May 2016

Week 6 & 7 down! What an adventure. It is bittersweet to think about how close I am till the end.

My class and I had an exciting couple of weeks. Last week we watched a high school performance of Shrek. There was a lot of excitement from the students and at times it was hard to contain during the day. My fellow TCs and I started our mini soccer tournament with our school and it is safe to say that the students love it! All grades are so excited to play at lunch, they keep asking their teachers when its their turn to play. It feels good knowing that we have created an opportunity for the soccer lovers at the school (there is a lot!) to get a taste of some competition and have fun at the same time. We first decided to hold the tournament to every Tuesday, but there are a lot of children from each grade that signed up so we decided to do Friday at lunch as well.

I almost done teaching my butterfly unit and my class really enjoyed having the butterflies be a part of the class. They loved coming into class every morning to check up on them and see if they saw anything different. Having the insect in the class made for a better learning experience.

I have so many more ideas that I would love to include of the last 2 weeks of practicum, but sadly there is not enough time. One of my ideas is for the students in my grade to hold a lemonade sale. As I am teaching them about coins, and the value of the coins, I thought it would be great for them to deal with exchanging coins through a lemonade stand. I also wanted to put the proceeds towards the Alberta Canadian Red Cross to help those affected by the Fort McMurry fires. I need to discuss details with my SA and hopefully I can put this plan in action!! I think it would make for a great learning experience.

The last two weeks of being Ms. Johal have been great learning experiences. I think I am learning more from my students than my students are learning from me! I have noticed how fast time flies by and how little time I have left for everything I have planned.

On April 20 my class and I went to a field trip to the Earthwise Garden. I had recently taught my students about composting so we learned more about what to put into a worm compost bin and the tour guides there even gave our class their own worm compost bin! So currently in my classroom we have a worm compost bin that we take care of together, and we have caterpillars as well. I found field trips to be a little stressful, because you have to constantly be checking if all the kids are there and keep them calm. Students were very excited to be at the garden but there were many times where some of them were mis behaving and I had to pull them aside to talk to them. Some students just cannot contain their excitement!

My midpoint meetings with my SA and FA went very well and I am surprised and excited that they both think so highly of my work so far. It is a good feeling knowing that I am doing something right and that my hard work is paying off. I want to thank them for their support and sharing their wisdom. Things that I can continue to work on from this point on: be a little more firm with the students that disrupt my lessons, be more confident in my story telling and singing in front of the students and take my time on my lessons. Some lessons that I have had I rushed through them so that I could get the full lesson done in the time I was given. This is not always a good idea. If we do not get through it all it is okay, what I should focus on is how well my students are understanding the content. This could be done through personal assessment (asking the student individually during or after the lesson) or as a class (asking the class if they have any other questions or asking them what they have learned so far).

Lots of excitement for the last 4 weeks of practicum! I have so much more to teach and I am really looking forward to it all.