Throughout my practicum I discovered many different things about my teaching style and what I viewed as important and vital to implement in the classroom. I believe that every year my ideals will shift slightly depending on the needs of my students and what will help them thrive.

My students were very active and always wanted to be moving so I created a chart for them every time they completed a lap around the field. We were lucky to have access to the field right from our classroom door. It was a great action break to do throughout the day which allowed them to run off any energy and usually created a calmer classroom atmosphere. As you can see in the picture, they students also really enjoyed putting up their own stickers. 🙂

I also made an effort to blend my subjects together instead of having different assignments and tasks for each subject. I taught my students yoga, which we practiced most days. Once they became comfortable with the different postures I had them create their own yoga stories and read them allowed to each other. This project involved physical education, literacy, art and their social skills. I was so happy how well it worked and how excited each student was to share their story.

Another cross curricular activity I did with the students involved baking. We had so much fun! Each student got the chance to help me measure, pour, stir and bake banana bread which we then shared with their parents during the student lead conferences. This may have been one of my favourite afternoons despite all the chaos that ensued. The students were thrilled and so excited to show off their baking skills  to their parents.

During my final weeks at Irwin Park I developed and implemented an inquiry unit that emerged through our beach explorations. Again I think this unit worked so well because we spent so much time exploring and learning outdoors with natural materials ad objects as opposed to being indoors on the carpet. West Vancouver has some of the most beautiful scenery in Vancouver and I couldn’t help but take advantage of all it had to offer.