Today is most exciting!
I FOUND OUT MY PRACTICUM CLASS!
WOHOO!
YIPEE!
YAYAYAYAYAY!
I’m going to….. *drum roll please*….. a KINDERGARTEN/GRADE 1 CLASS!
I’m over the moon happy about my placement and I can’t wait to start teaching and learning and learning and teaching!

I’m so excited! I love kindergarten and grade 1! 🙂 My S.A. was so warm and welcoming when I told her that I’d be her teacher candidate too! This makes me really happy.

But apart from finding out my practicum class, I’m psyched to have been able to explore other classrooms today as well. I observed in a grade 4 classroom and a grade 6 classroom. Definitely not what I’m used to, but a refreshing change from mostly primary classrooms.

The grade 6 classroom I observed discussed about racial stereotypes and racism in class. It was so great to see the teacher talk about such a “touchy” but definitely, important subject! Unfortunately, not all the students looked as engaged as I, and their teacher, hoped they would be. Maybe it’s because it was after recess? or maybe it’s because I was sitting there and they felt uncomfortable? Either way, I really wish they were more active in their participation on the topic. But apart from the students, the teacher was great. He used a lot of open-ended questions and really encouraged participation and insight from his students. He asked them to draw a Canadian teenager, a Mexican man and a Japanese woman and then to compare their drawings with a partner to see the similarities and differences. It was meant to visually show how we all use racial stereotypes. I thought the activity was great and definitely something I want to try out when I do get an older class.

The grade 4 classroom was interesting as well. They acted similarly to the primary kids I’ve had the pleasure observing, but they were able to analyze and reason more than the younger kids (as they should). They had a “practice quiz game” and I was able to see their group dynamics. Some students were more outspoken than others and often dominated the group. It was pretty obvious how some kids, although very intelligent, just couldn’t get their answer to be accepted by the group. At times, I wanted to step in and say “HEY! listen to him! He’s right!”, but I know I couldn’t. It makes me wonder whether the teacher even realizes that not everyone in a group gets to actually contribute. It makes me wonder if I’ll notice these types of incidents when I start teaching.

We were asked to look at INQUIRIES today and how the teachers posed their questions to their students. It was pretty difficult seeing a lot of questions, or at least taking note of them. But I realized that most teachers would use open ended questions in the beginning of the class. The K/Gr1 class had circle time at the start of the day, and the teacher initiated conversation with a lot of open ended questions! It was really great listening to little kids have a conversation. They’re all over the place and yet coherent at the same time, it’s a really weird mix of an organized madness. The Grade 6 and Grade 4 class had teachers that did a bit of open ended questioning, but it was really mostly straight forward questions (yes or no) or questions about something they’re learning (Like is it a behavioural or is it a structural adaptation?). Which makes me wonder, how many questions do I ask each day? And are they mostly open ended or closed ended questions?

Hello!

I started my first day of practicum today!
Not going to lie, I was pretty nervous starting out. We were greeted by the vice-principal and principal. We then had a mini orientation by one of the teachers in the school. She taught a really lively K/Gr1 class. We rotated on three different classrooms today. I the K/Gr1 class in the morning, a Grade 3 class after recess and a Grade 2 class after lunch. Anyway, back to the orientation, we were given a tour of the school — which by the way, had a pretty confusing layout at first, but at the end of the day, I thought I was sort of getting a hang of it!

My morning started out in the Kinder/Grade 1 class. They were having “rainbow day” as a culminating activity for finishing their unit on colours. The kids were all very cute and pretty well behaved for a class that young. The K/Gr1 teacher mentioned how they were 4-6 years old, mostly 5. The day began with reading time, either on their own or with their parents. I thought this was a great activity to promote literacy! Joy then got them to sit in a circle on the rug as she discussed the agenda for the day. My time with the class was cut short because they did have an assembly to attend to afterwards. It was a presentation on online safety, something that I thought was really important to have but at the same time, pretty surprising to me. When the presenter asked them about how many of them use the internet daily, and what games they play, etc.. I felt a sort of generational-shock. These kids are pretty much on their devices everyday, and they were all so young too (the assembly was for kinder-grade 3 in the morning).  The students were getting restless halfway through. Thankfully, they had gym next! They played tons of games that promote attention skills and listening, apart from physical ability. Before I knew it, it was recess!

I wasn’t really sure where to go during recess until Kelsey came and said it was time to “move” to my next class, which was the grade 3 class. The Grade 3 teacher had a TOC for the morning. He taught the students Math when I was observing the classroom. They were learning about number lines. It was a pretty abstract concept for some of the kids and I could tell that some of them were really really struggling. When they were given their workbooks to answer, I went around to help some of the students if they had any problems. I felt like I was able to explain it to them pretty well, so I was pleased with myself 🙂 The Grade 3 teacher also had an educational assistant in the class, which was really helpful when some kids were having difficulties. What surprised me A LOT was that the students in this class had access to chrome books that they can bring out and use after they finished with their math work. I thought that was super cool because I didn’t think they’d have laptops at that age, much less actually know how to use it and navigate it. I saw a couple students playing games, but I felt like the majority of them were typing on their blogs — like what I’m doing right now!

The last class I went to was absolutely great. It was in a Grade 2 class . They accomplished a lot after lunch time. They did spelling quizzes in pairs, they traced, cut and pasted “thanksgiving turkey” art AND they did some reading. I thought the class had pretty good classroom management and I tried to observe what the teacher was doing for the most part. She had a pretty firm grasp on the rules, but she was still at the same time caring and supportive of her students. I helped out the students who were struggling during the activities and I had a really good time doing that. I helped some students with spelling questions, questions on instructions for the crafts and with reading time. I thought the reading time activity was great. They were assessed beforehand on their level of reading, and then they read books appropriate to their “level”. They first have to read on their own, then with a buddy, then with an adult. It was a great way to encourage literacy! (AGAIN)

It’s really hard to say which class I liked the best out of all of the classes I’ve visited so far. All the teachers were so helpful and all the students were so great! I miss them already! (And I’ve only spent a couple of hours with each class)

I cannot wait for next Thursday!!!