Category Archives: Experiences

Assessment – For real

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This week we had a session on assessment and how it is performed at SPH Kemang Village, our school.  It was refreshing to discover that much of what I have learned over the past year directly relates to how they are attempting to conduct assessment. Formative assessment is extremely important in our practice and is completed both formally through regular check ins and informally on a daily basis as a professional teacher.  Report cards are based on assessment outcomes and are all graded on a 1-4 scale, with 2 being approaching expectations, 3 being meeting expectations and 4 being exceeding expectations.  It is encouraging to see a school trying to figure out how to actually put these methods into practice even in the face of skepticism from others including parents.  I had some great conversations with experienced teachers who are using this method and figuring out ways to continue to improve assessment that is best for students.  The teachers here are clearly interested in what is best for the students and put a lot of time and effort into figuring out where the students are in order to help them progress.  I hope to continue to learn from these great teachers and improve my own practice.  I do appreciate all I have learned at UBC as I feel like I do not have to learn a whole new system of assessment.  I feel like the UBC program has given me a fantastic start on best practices of assessment, even though when leaving the program, assessment was an area I still had a lot of questions about.  Assessment is a difficult area of teaching, but one of the most important.  I aim to continue to get better at it for the sake of all of my students.

Teaching in Jakarta – Week 1

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What can I say.  It has definitely been a whirl wind.  Leaving my degree program early in order to take a job in Jakarta and transplant my family of four young children has not been easy.  Teaching with only a day in the country in a new culture and a new school has been quite an undertaking.  But on a certain level teaching in teaching.  I have had a chance to settle a little and now look to take on the challenge of being the teacher to a group of dynamic, multi-background, mostly uprooted grade 4 children.  On my first day, one of my students became overwhelmed and passed out.  Fortunately I was standing right beside him and happened to reach out and catch him so that he did not fall.  In doing so, I was then in the perfect spot to be vomited on.  Honestly I was much more concerned for the child and having four children of my own it is no longer a big deal to be thrown up on.  However, having to where a uniform to teach, black pants, white shirt and tie, and only having one pair of pants so far just made for one extra dynamic to the situation.  In the end the child was fine and I got my pants washed.  Only one week later, we had a major storm and the parking garage and main floor of our apartment flooded.  I ended up walking through waste deep water in bare feet, of course once again in my only uniform pants, to make it back home and spend time with my family in an apartment with no electricity.  In general, the teaching has been enjoyable and the school is fantastic.  My fellow teachers, especially my partner grade 4 teacher, are fantastic and have helped me so much, beyond explanation.  I now want to try to remember what I have learned over the past year to become a better teacher for these students that rely on me to further their education.

Viscosity

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A bottle of corn syrup vs. a bottle of water.

In order to demonstrate viscosity, I did a demonstration with a bottle of water rolling beside a bottle of corn syrup.  The students were very engaged in discussing the different properties of water and corn syrup and how they interacted with the bottle.  I actually was not sure how this lesson would go over, but I was really impressed with the students’ responses.  To relate it to my belief statements, I think it really makes a difference to simply change the physical set up of the class and let them move around and sit differently in different situations.  I changed the dynamic of the class and led to more discussion to have a more relaxed physical setup for the demonstration.20140529_221012430_iOS 20140529_221832504_iOS

Connecting Learning to Practice – Paper Airplanes

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Math Class Data Collection

Math Class Data Collection

Another idea pulled from our science class at UBC was using paper airplanes.  In this case I used it to get the class outside and make a lesson on graphing and data collection a little more exciting.  I did struggle a little with structure and would try to organize the actual throwing and measuring of the planes better if I did it again.  I would probably just have the students in partners instead of larger groups as I did on this day.

Heavy, but good.

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Today we had the opportunity to hear from an aboriginal elder who shared the story of her family and how the government policies and actions affected her life.  It was hard to hear.  The atrocities that were committed against her or that she was witness to were almost beyond comprehension.  I believe that we need to consistently consider the perspective of others and the context that they come from and this influences my philosophy as a teacher.  Today was a whole new experience.  Although I had heard stories and met other survivors of residential schools, today helped me continue to appreciate how the actions of the Canadian government in the past created an entire population of marginalized and traumatized people.  There is good reason for lack of trust.  And even though the people who perpetrated these crimes may no longer be in positions of power, the same organizations and structures are still in power.  I have a new understanding of the mistrust of Canada as an institution.  I must also say that I was amazed at the forgiveness of the elder.  She understood that an important part of her own healing involved releasing the anger and shame.  It was a moving and powerful time.

Community Field Experience

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During my community field experience, I had the opportunity to visit two situations.  The first was at a middle school helping with a program specialized for students how are years behind in reading and writing as well as helping the students services teacher.  This was a phenomenal experience.  The specialized program, the teaching and evaluation center, was amazing to experience.  Seeing the students enjoying reading and working so hard as well as seeing the relationship the had built up with the teacher was amazing.  I also gained an entirely new perspective on students in my class that may be struggling and appearing to not care.  Often, we facilitate their lack of interest and care by having low expectations for them.  In the afternoons we helped with the students services or special education teacher.  In particular, there were two students with autism that required extra help and it was so great to get to know them and work with them.  I wish I was able to have more time to work with them.

My final two weeks were spent at a local daycare providing programs for stduents during the strike. It was interesting to see a different perspective of the program as a teacher.  It was difficult to adjust to the lack of schedule and try to just fill time without specific aims and goals.  We did spend a lot of time outside and I thought about how I could continue to incorporate more time outside into my lessons.  Below are some pictures from one of our nature walks and the wild life that I discovered and discussed with the students.

Practicum – Week 9

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As we wind up our practicum, I feel like I am just getting into the rhythm of how I would like my class to be.  Two major activities this week I tried were paper airplanes to collect data for math and a demonstration on viscosity using a bottle of water and a bottle of corn starch.  Both of these activities had their pros and cons.  I found it frustrating to try to do activities to help students learn and enjoy classes, only to have them act out and not participate.  I still can not get over how some students do not see that we are trying to act in their best interest.  I have also been continuing teaching badminton in PE.  The hardest part for me is keeping all the students active.  In one gym there are always 2-5 students that do not have space to participate so it is difficult to rotate everyone through and keep them engaged.  Overall, it was a great week and I can not believe that it is almost the end.