Teaching with Heart

As part of an integrated Social Studies and Language Arts unit, students explored the diverse cultural backgrounds of family, friends, classmates, and neighbours in their community.  To frame this unit, I sent home a letter to students’ parents asking them to discuss and review their child’s responses to three questions. The questions surrounded students’ linguistic background and cultural experiences, including favourite foods and traditions. I appreciated the parents’ willingness to support this project by sharing their gifts and heritages.  Students then used their responses to create and share a book…read more

During my 10-week practicum, I was fortunate to be working in the same grade level as one of my close colleagues. As a result, we were able to collaborate on several units and create connected learning experiences for our classes. In our Community unit, for example, we arranged for our classes to exchange postcards, describing the activities they like to do and places they visit in their respective communities. Not only were the children excited about writing letters to another school, the letters prompted further inquiries that enhanced students’ exploration…read more