Isa-Teachers Blog

How to handle personal hygiene can be a sensitive subject for students. It is hard to immediately know what to do when this matter comes up. A student may seem embarrassed, and parents may be offended. However, it needs to be addressed. Ignoring it was my first instinct. But upon occurrences on multiple occasions it is an issue. Not only may other students be teasing, because I remember it happening in my class when I was in elementary school, but it can also negatively effect the close attention situations from the teacher.

A few solutions that I have looked into are holding a whole class lesson on personal hygiene. No student should feel pointed out, and students hopefully wont know who it is about either. Anther option is talking to the parents or students, both while being mindful of what to say.

During my practicum last visit I asked a student what they were going to do on the weekend. This student told me that she was visiting Grouse Mountain, but did not seem very excited about it. I asked her why she doesn’t seem happy about going there when its such a great place to visit and she answered that it is too far away from her T.V. This has not been the first time I heard about the overuse of screen time in this class. At the beginning of my visits another child told me that she doesn’t want to be at school or doing work because she would prefer to be on her iPad watching videos. I strongly believe that parents should raise their children with restrictions on screen time, and encouragement of other activities, but even with the best intentions, i’m sure that this can be hard considering the prevalence of technology now a days.

I also believe it is the teachers duty to help children understand that watching T.V. is not something that they should spend most of their time doing when they get home. How can teachers do this? Its something that doesn’t take place in the classroom? Do they even have that arms reach?

Technology can take teaching places that it has never been before. Teachers can use new, fun, and exciting activities to engage students, and they can find a convenience in it too. However, the over use of technology for children, and lack of rough and tumble play can cause ADHD, lack of social skills, health issues and so much more. I can see it just becoming harder and harder for teachers and parents to find this balance. I cant imagine how technology will look like decades from now. It is a scary thought, but teachers need to get on this topic ASAP and do what they can to prevent the worst.

It is clear that having good behavior management is key to being a teacher and a teacher on call. During my time in my practicum, I have seen several TOCs in my teachers class. My class is a chatty bunch, and I have seen many of the TOCs struggle to keep the students quiet. I noticed that the TOC who had better class management skills had a much more enjoyable experience. This skill can change determine whether or not the teacher will have a good or bad day. Having a bad day as a TOC may mean that you don’t get a call back from that teacher, or may not be recommended. I am hopeful that this chatty class will help me learn all the behaviour management I need to be a good TOC.

On this same day, I attended a IEP meeting with the LST. I was shown all of the different goals children who are struggling might have in our class, and how they plan on working on those goals. I was shown the program that the LST uses to document all of is information.

I learnt a lot during my short practicum, but what I found most useful was classroom management strategies. My practicum class LOVES to chat, and this gave me many opportunities for learning and practicing techniques to manage that. Sure you can tell the children to be quiet, but after a few minutes they will just start talking if there are no consequences or firm rules set out. Over the course of my observation I noticed the teacher doing many strategies, but it isnt until you try them yourself that you figure out how to get your class to respond accordingly.

My practicum teacher has the students names on magnets on the board, and students who are noisy move into the warning zone, and later the after school zone. Teachers should be sure to make the noise expectation clear. Even whispering should not be accepted if the teacher asks for complete silence and full concentration. However, sometimes whispering may be OK. I noticed that many kids were not threatened when their names were moved, but when a large sum of names started to be moved they know the teacher means business. This is also a great strategy if you let students work their way out of the warning/ after school zone. Another extrinsic motivator is grouping the class up and giving the best behaved groups points. At the end of the week the group with the most points gets a small candy. It is amazing how competitive the students get for those points. Points are easy to give during transition times and even during silent working.

A great strategy for transition times is counting down from 10. By 0 the class should be attentive. Whoever is still talking may be put into the warning zone.

Other strategies for getting the class’s attention is to do a clapping rhythm, and expect the students to do it back. A bell can also be used for this. During gym, I noticed clapping wasn’t working at all because the room was too loud and large, so a whistle was essential for this setting.

These are A LOT of strategies. During my first few days of lesson implementation I was having a hard time remembering what to do and when. Finally during my last day of practicum I used ALL of these strategies. I learned that different strategies are used for different times, behaviors, and purposes.

Another question I have about teaching involves children with different levels of academia. I have recently witnessed a teacher make many different levels of worksheets and tests for one class which had children at many levels of skill. Is this the preferred way? This may be a good way to slow progress to a slower pace for slower learners. However, if by the end of the year some are still not up to grade level then they may be below grade level every year.

I noticed that the teacher had to put in a lot of extra time in order to get this done. It would be faster for her to have everyone do the same work and just get worse scores. Which way is common for most teachers?

A question I have thus far into my practicum and education program are how do teachers motivate children who have no motivation in school. I have observed and heard from classmates that this is a common problem. I have witnessed students saying they hate school, suck at school, are bored at school, and have an overall unhappy persona when doing any schoolwork.

I can already feel myself worrying more about these students; hoping I can reach them, hoping to be a good teacher, and of course I want students to enjoy what I am teaching them. For some students, motivation comes MUCH harder. How do teachers manage this? Do they dig into what is happening at home? Do they try to get parents on board? How do teachers not let themselves get too stressed or worried about these students?

Today’s practicum visit was a fast, hands on, and wonderful learning experience.

Our student adviser was away all afternoon and the class was a bit more out of control than usual. Additionally, the TOC had a hard time keeping eyes on everything that was going on. During a math block, two girls who are a level behind than the rest of the class were working on their math problems together off on the side. One of the girls had a hard time, but with a little bit of positive encouragement she was more motivated to do her work. This did not work for the other girl. She was completely unwilling to even pick up a pencil, and mentioned as she has on other days before that she doesn’t like doing any work. I quickly realized that I wasn’t getting anywhere with her. Luckily my faculty adviser stepped in at the perfect moment, and like a fairy god mother gave me some extremely helpful advice. I am in a lucky position that I am a student teacher, and I should use my time at the beginning of my practicum to just focus on building relationships and trust with the students. After this advice I went over to the struggling student and chatted about her favorite foods, hobbies, family members, future goals, and more. Her mood and body language changed quickly, and im really hoping that the ground work of a good relationship with her will help her be more willing to learn from me later on.

My homeroom is quite interesting because the children are all on different levels of academic competency. Some students are below grade level, and some are above. The children that are above, and usually finish their work faster are given a chance to work on academic programs on Chromebooks when they are done early. These children are also given math worksheets that a more difficult to challenge them. Children that are below average are often given math sheets, or spelling tests that are a bit easier, and do their work on the side with the guidance of an EA (there are 2 EA’s in this class).

Today was my second visit at my practicum school, and the focus of the day was question asking. I noticed several ways of asking students questions. One way was for a teacher to ask a question and pause for the last word in hopes that the students would fill in the “blank”. This was for easy questions. Another question asking method I observed was for a teacher to give a small hint, and go around the class asking students what they thought the answer was. When a student would not answer the question right the teacher would move on to the next hand, and so on until a student answered it right. If it was a discussion, the teacher would then provide a small hint about the content and then ask more questions in the same manner, with many students engaging, thinking, and answering. This is an example of scaffolding a discussion.

Another way of inquiry questioning that I observed at this school was a lesson plan made by the students. Students were learning about the digestion system. The teacher let each students come up with a question that they wondered about the digestive system. The teacher compiled all of the students questions into a duo tang for each of the students to have. The the questions were organized as “Essential to know, Important to know, and Extra”. Each student had time to work with books and iPads, and by the end of the period the students had answered their questions about the digestive system and learnt a lot!

The inquiry based cycle that this teacher used went like this:

connect/ wonder –> investigate –> construct –> express –> reflect

Finally, I observed another inquiry based lesson plan formed around students questions. The teacher let each student come up with any question/ topic they were interested in. Some questions were better than others for deep investigation, and some were too simple. However, the students will be given time to research their question more and some will find out that they may want to change their question (if it is too simple). The teacher is leaving all of this up to them! When the students form a good question they will then research it over many weeks, and share what they have learnt with the class. There is so much opportunity for autonomy here. The teacher even admits that the students wont be used to this and it may seem strange to them. The inquiry based cycle that this teacher wrote down for these students went like this:

make plan –> investigate/ research –> experiment –> show what you learnt –> share –> reflect –> ask more questions (and back to the beginning)

First Visit at my practicum school

A few things that stood out to me today were that the teachers used zones for their students. This included the blue, green, yellow, and red zone. I really like how one teacher had her students faces showing their feelings posted in the room, which helped identify easier with their emotions. There was also a zone room, dedicated to children who need to go there for a break and calm down. I also noticed that most of the children at this school were of an Indian background. Having so many students with a different background, teachers might have to learn different cultural practices that some students might engage in. For example, a teacher told me that in Indian culture it is really important to be able to give your family food. Packing food is not preferred for many families, and many of the students grandmothers come bring it to them at lunch. I think that because so many children are of the same background, this might make them feel as though they have more of a community at school. I overheard one teacher saying that a few of the students mothers are friends. Another thing I noticed is that all the classrooms have an iPad and a projector for students to use. Many of the teachers mentioned that they frequently use media/technology with their students. Finally I noticed that all of the classrooms I observed today had very interactive lesson plans. There was not sitting and listening to the teacher spt out information. The whole class was engaged in every room I was in today. I can see why our SEL cohort was chosen to go here, as it aligns with many of the things we have been taught. A teacher even asked the students to do a few squats as a bit of a break after they were listening to a story for a while.

I felt really welcomed by all of the teachers. It was also really nice how the students stood up to greet me in every classroom. They also couldn’t use an abbreviation for my difficult last name. These are a few of the differences being a traditional school.