Category Archives: Reflections

As the month of January comes to an end I am realizing how fast time goes by in the classroom. As I discussed with my SA, I have become aware of the many things that get left behind when teaching a certain unit. A new month is exciting because it brings forth new teachings but it also means we are closer to report cards and the panic kind of sets in….have we covered everything we were suppose to?

During calendar with the Kindergartens I try to make things a little different and add in my own brain breaks or questions to ask the students. The students to not hesitate to tell me that I am not doing what I am suppose to be doing but I go on with it anyways. This week I taught them a new song “Babar the Elephant” after the special helper had done his job. They loved it! However, I noticed one of my student’s not participating. I asked him to stand up during the second round of singing but instead he decided to stay seated and not sing. I did not acknowledge it again until it was time to dismiss everyone for recess. I dismissed each student one by one as they gave me a number sentence with a number I held up for them. I left the last one to the student who refused to participate and asked him about it. His response was that he did not feel like being a part of the song. I told him politely that he is a part of the class and as a class when we do something together he must participate. He seemed to agree and I said that I would be watching for him next week and hope to see him be a part of the song. I know that this student would not have this kind of attitude with my SA so I could tell that he was testing me to see what I would do if he just stayed seated.

Today was one of those days that started off on the wrong foot and I could not seem to catch a break as the day went on. My SA always reminds me that I come on the hardest day of the week, Thursday. It is a day where the teacher does not get a prep block and the students do not get a break from doing “work”. It is also the day before Friday which is always long as I have been told by many teachers. I actually never noticed the stretch before today. The students were not well behaved during my lesson and did not pay much attention to the instructions I was giving throughout the day; I thanked the ones that did pay attention as I appreciated their attentiveness. I did not take the behaviour of my students personally today, instead I looked at it as “one of those days” because I know my students will not always be on their best behaviour and I will have many days like these in the future. Instead I decided to take it in and observe how my teacher dealt with them when they mis behaved during her lessons and throughout the day. One thing that did hurt my feelings today was when one of the students made a rude remark during the story I was reading. When I asked a question about the character I heard him say under his breath, “nobody cares”. I chose not to acknowledge his comment and kept going with the story. I could tell he was uninterested and all he wanted to do was get ready for recess. I do wish I spoke to him privately after recess, which was my plan until I got distracted. If a situation like this arises again I definitely would talk to the student privately and explain why an inappropriate comment like that is not acceptable and can hurt someone’s feelings. Overall, many different learning experiences today that I can move forward with for next week.

First day back since winter break and I noticed how the school is slowly transitioning back to normal. No more christmas decorations, no more christmas talk but as I walked the halls of the schools I could see the new year resolutions from some students. I think it is great to teach students to set goals for the year and encourage them to keep aiming for their best. I got the opportunity to carry on with my calendar routine this week. Since I am currently taking a music class I was eager to sing the new January songs with my students. The music class has already taught me to be confident in my singing, even if I am not in tune with the song. I felt comfortable up there in front of my students and I am realizing that my confidence is rising every time I do a new lesson. I also led an art lesson after lunch, one for the Kindergartens and one for the grade 1’s. It was exciting and kind of stressful trying to help them all at once, even though I demonstrated within small groups. Time really flies during these lessons and I’ve learned that I need to keep rotating so that I can get everyone through before we run out of time. I enjoyed this lesson, I was a little frazzled but its all a part of the excitement of art lessons!

This week I was able to continue leading the math stations with the Kindergartens. However, I was able to sneak away before it began and observe the grade 1’s in their literacy stations in the other classroom. It was interesting to see that they were using word making techniques I had just learned about the day before in my LLED 353 class. There were a number of teachers helping this large group of grade 1’s complete their work so I felt as though I did not need to be there. It would be nice to maybe lead a grade 1 literacy group in my long term practicum. My SA talked about how the last two weeks of school before christmas break are always a handful. She gave me a good tip and told me that if there is anything “important” you need your class to complete, do it before the last two weeks. The kids are interrupted by christmas concert activities and other exciting things going on at school so not all work gets completed on time. I do like the environment at the school around this time though, the kids and teachers are very excited about the concert. I will be attending the concert on Wednesday night and I know my class will be happy to see me watch their performance that they have been working hard for. Well, its been an eventful start to my practicum, although it will be nice to get break, I am eager to return to my class refreshed and keep the learning journey going!!

I know I have chosen the right profession for myself as I was delighted to be back in my classroom today. Right away I felt that I was able to use some of the classroom management techniques I learned in my workshop last week. I guided a numeracy lesson with the Kindergartens, and was able to keep them on task and explain things a lot better than the first time I had done it. I tried to be firm but kind during the lesson to a few students, something that I really think I am getting better at. It came as a surprise to some students who did not seem too pleased with me but I have to get use to the attitude I will expect back when being firm. My SA informed me that this week has been a tough week for the students in relation to behavioural issues. I am glad I did my inquiry project around behavioural issues because I will have a better understanding of them after I finish my research. It is interesting to watch how the bad behaviour has excelled with one particular student, it has come to the point where this student has to be pulled out of class daily as a safety precaution for the rest of the class. I am paying close attention to how the school is dealing with this as I am interested in what may happen next. Overall I am looking forward to fun activities next week and coming back in the new year. I can already see so much growth within the students and I cannot wait for the learning experiences during my long practicum.

Being in the classroom has raised many questions for me. For my inquiry research I have chosen to look further into behavioural management in the classroom. How do I assist those with behavioural problems without making them feel like they are “outsiders” in the class? Today Steve talked about building a safe community in our classrooms and that has been my goal for as long as I can remember when people ask me what kind of teacher I want to be. Now that I have been in a classroom setting for a period of time and have observed some students with behavioural issues, I am starting to think that this may be more difficult than I thought. I see how my SA deals with these students in the class and at times I feel as though she may be putting them on the spot or singling them out, but at the same time she can’t have her class being disrupted so often so these students need to learn their lesson. I am sure my SA has gone through this same thought many times, and I understand her frustration at times. I want to be able to learn more about specific behavioural issues, what the student feels like inside, how to solve problems with them and regular students without taking sides. I know my questions cannot be answered with one single answer and its a combination of a lot of social emotional work and problem solving but I’d like to start looking into how I can go about doing this.

As I prepare to head back to UBC on Monday  I could not be more happy with how my last two weeks at my school went. I have been given such a wonderful opportunity to be a part of a great school and classroom and I am thankful for that. I write this reflection with a heavy heart in light of what is going on in Paris, France right now, an awful tragedy that should have never occurred. It makes me thankful for what I have and what and who I aspire to be. Instead of retaliating with war I wish and hope that more efforts are put towards investing in education and opportunities for children in war stricken areas of the world so they can become better citizens for our future.

Being in a classroom has been the best learning for me, and I feel as though everything we have learnt in our course thus far is becoming clearer. I got through five different lessons within the two weeks and my teacher was good at giving me strong feedback. All the feedback I have gotten so far is helping me become a stronger teacher, and I know much of what is being said comes with practice. This is why I want to keep practicing, but I know we must go back to school…. I look forward to going back to my school with new ideas and fun classroom activities, I know for a fact my students will be happy to see me again as well!

This week bought forth excitement, nerves and anticipation as I entered my first full week of practicum. Although it was only 5 days of work I feel as though I have already learn’t much more than I expected. Reflecting back onto the week I feel as though I am now comfortable in leading a few lessons in the classroom. I taught a literacy lesson on Tuesday, which went well. My SA gave me some good feedback to keep in mind. During the lesson I felt as though I really was not doing as well as I could, I was nervous and forgot a few details. But it must have been all in my head because my SA reassured me that it went very well.  I will be doing 4 lessons next week that I must prepare for, but I am not too nervous about them because I feel like I can really do this! A great learning experience for me this week was when my SA was absent on Wednesday and there was a TOC in the class. The TOC was very experienced but she got me to take the lead on some classroom activities which was great. I felt so comfortable leading the K’s through calendar, reading them stories and helping with classroom management. The students are really getting use to me being around in the classroom but I want to work on getting the students to see me as a teacher and respect me for that. I know it is hard for K’s and some grade 1’s to understand that I am learning to become a teacher but I feel as though I need to re assure them that I am not just someone that is helping in the class. My SA has told me that there are times that we need to be firm with the students and I will have to work on that next week with some students that like to push limits. Overall, a great week. The school is so welcoming and the staff is just great to be around! Looking forward to the new adventures next week.

Today was a day full of fun activities. The students in my K/1 class are starting to remember who I am, which is always a good sign. I feel as though students that are at such a young age do not always remember faces too often, especially when they only see me once a week. I did a lot of detailed observing today, listening into the students conversations and paying close attention to what they were asking the teacher. K/1’s always have many questions for the teacher and I wonder in my own practice how I will respond to all of them in a polite and reasonable way. I want to be able to respond to the best of my ability but also respond in a way that my students will understand. My SA has a lot of experience with children and I can see that through the way she talks to them. Sometimes when students ask me questions it takes me a while to respond because I do not want to give them the wrong answer OR give them an answer they will not understand.

It was my first full day in my K/1 classroom today so I payed attention to some details of the class dynamic. A kindergarten class is a very busy place. There are kids who need a lot of direction in their everyday duties and some that are eager to follow along to what the teacher asks of them. My SA is wonderful in managing the classroom when it gets a little out of hand. She uses the Grade 1’s as examples for the Kindergartens as to how they should be behaving. The teacher uses a lot of songs and lullabies to help the kids remember their tasks, there is a song for everything! There is a song for how to sit at the carpet, how to put away their toys and books, how to lineup and much more. I think this a great way to help the young ones learn classroom management and tasks. My favourite line the teacher uses is “Pick up, Pack up and Tuck in”. She says this when she transitions from a lesson and it is very easy for the kids to remember and follow along. I am learning a lot from my SA already and I hope I get familiar with the songs soon because I want to use them during my own lessons !