Today was a pretty weird/crazy day!
I thought that the students were pretty restless the entire day, so I honestly, was pretty nervous about doing my lesson later in the afternoon. (Spoiler alert: It all works out well!)

I read the students a book in the morning called Counting Animals. It was an interesting book and something that I probably wouldn’t read again if given that opportunity. It was a book that was all about counting to 100. 100 bears, 100 rabbits, 100 bugs, 100 birds, 100 pigs…  The students were really engaged at first, but after the 100 bears and the 100 rabbits — I could tell that they’ve pretty much had it. So I started counting by 10’s instead to get through the book. The book also had “mini dialogues” happening around saying things like “Can you see the strawberry?” “Find the blue egg” — so it was pretty much like a look & find book as well. I love look and find books, but having a class of 15 students look for a small small item in a small book — not the most fun.

A bright spot in the morning was taking the students to gym class. For the past few classes, I’ve been struggling to get them to be quiet as they walked to gym — and today they FINALLY were! They were really quiet and polite and great. I was really proud of them, and myself. I told them to be quiet and sneaky like a ninja! And also, if I hear anyone making noise, we’re going back to the classroom. It worked! Wohoo!

Most of the students had Hot Lunch today which was exciting (for them). They had hotdogs and chocolate milk, and regular milk, and juice, and cookies, and donuts, and fruit cups, and chips. A very exciting lunch for my kindergarten/grade 1s!

After lunch, I did my lesson! I read the book Click Clack Moo! It’s a funny story about cows that type! At first I was a bit worried when some students told me that they’ve already read this book or they’ve already watched it (I didn’t even know it had a show). But I thought that it went well. The students were engaged and they thought it was funny so that was good! The activities afterwards went good too. The Grade 1s are writing so well lately. I feel like every time I’m there, their writing is getting better and better! So are the K’s, they are becoming much more independent with their tasks. It’s so great to see their growth 🙂 It makes me even more excited for the long practicum!

P.S. The students got tattoo mustaches !!! (M for Magic Mustaches!) — It’s always a great silly funny wonderful time in Kindergarten/Grade 1!

Xin Nian Kuai Le!
Happy Chinese New Year!

I don’t think I have ever been as excited to teach a lesson as I was to teach today.

I taught a lesson on Chinese New Year to my class today and I thought that it went really well!
I read a book called, The Great Race: The story of the Chinese Zodiac. I gave each the student an “animal on a stick” and when their animal is called out they have to raise their animal up! I thought it was a little bit risky giving my kindergarten/grade 1 kids sticks with animals on it, but it paid off! The kids were actively engaged in the story and were so excited when their animal name was read out. We practiced saying and writing the Chinese numbers in the air as well.

We also made Chinese Drums! The students pre-painted plates red and I came in early to prep the drums, taping and stapling the drums together as well as tying ribbon and beads to the side (to make the drums). The students coloured and traced the Chinese character “Fu” which means luck as well as a picture of a monkey! They then cut the characters out and glued it on to the drum.
I showed a video of the Chinese New Year song “Gong Xi Gong Xi” and the students were able to play their newly made drums during the chorus. It was a lot of fun.

After recess, my SA prepared some Chinese food for the students to eat. It was a really cool, she set up red table cloths, chopsticks, plates, Chinese zodiac place mats, etc. We had a parent come in to help make rice and pick up chow mein and beef and brocolli! I brought some Tikoy or Nian Gao or Chinese New Year Cake as well. The students enjoyed it very much. Most of them tried everything — which was so great. I was a little hesitant at first bringing in the Nian Gao, because it would be something totally unusual to them. It’s brown, pan fried with egg, sticky and a little sweet — I wasn’t sure how they’d take it. But I’m glad that a lot of them did like it! My favourite quote from one student was “At first I thought it was weird looking, but I LOVE IT! This is my favourite food that we had today!”. He ate FIVE pieces of that Nian Gao! My students also ate with chopsticks (most of the time) and it was so amusing to see them try to use it.

I thought that this entire day was so great! Before my lesson began, the students knew very little about Chinese New Year — some knowing nothing at all. But I believe that when I left, a lot of them knew a whole lot more 🙂 It’s such a great feeling! I really do hope that I instilled with them not only the awareness of Chinese New Year as a tradition but the appreciation of it.

Last year, we were asked to look for research in relation to our Inquiry question. One of the more interesting research articles I came across while doing research on my Inquiry was “The Difference Between Multigrade and Monograde Education: A Quantitative Casual-Comparative Study” by Scott Linehan (2013). It focuses on Canadian students from Newfoundland and Labrador. I think that this might be the only Canadian study that focuses on multigrade education/ split classrooms or the only one I found so far. Which makes this study, extra special for me. The purpose of this Inquiry project is to explore practical solutions to our “questions”, so using a Canadian study would probably be much more practical than using an American study… just because the population being studied would more or less be more similar to the type of classrooms I’ll be in in the future.

Basically, the research looked at the difference between multigrade and monograde classrooms and found that “Peer collaboration, such as the multigrade classroom, is an effective classroom organization for teaching and learning (Gnadinger, 2008) which maximizes student learning (Chick, 2006; Swenson & Strough, 2008). However, with respect to the effects of multigrade education on the specific issue of student achievement, research is mixed (Kappler & Roellke, 2002), inconsistent (Kinsey, 2001), inconclusive (Brinegar, 2010; Little, 1995; Little, 2008) and controversial (Comish, 2009; Fosco, Schleser, & Andal, 2004).” (Linhenan, pg. 123).

I thought it was surprising how the research found that there is a greater variability in reading skills in monograde classrooms than multigrade classrooms. Multigrade classrooms also seemed to have a higher average comprehension score at 71.3% while the monograde classrooms scored 69.9%. Despite their score being higher, because the difference isn’t “great enough” statistically, there is no statistical difference in the comprehension/reading level of the two kinds of classrooms.

Similar to reading skills, writing skill variability also tends to be higher in monograde than multigrade classrooms. The multigrade Grade 6 students from the study was shown to be slightly better in their writing skills than their monograde Grade 6 counterparts.

In terms of mathematics however, multigrade students seemed to do more poorly than monograde students. This however, is not great enough statistically thus, there is no statistical difference in mathematics skill between multigrade and monograde classrooms.

Throughout the research, there is no clear evidence that one classroom type is better than another. Based on research, both classrooms are equal academically. In terms of social skills development, peer collaboration is what is necessary in developing social relationship skills, a concept that can be applied to both monograde and multigrade classrooms.

I do appreciate how the article does debunk the idea that multigrade classrooms don’t and won’t provide the same opportunities (academically and socially) as monograde classrooms. I know a lot of parents have this illusion that multigrade classrooms are messy and “slowing their child down too much” or “speeding things up too quick”, and honestly, I sort of thought that way at first as well. But now knowing all this gives me a new outlook on multigrade vs monograde classrooms because no matter what classroom you’ll be in, you’ll have students of varying abilities. It’s something that, as a teacher, you have to be aware of and prepare for.

I have to admit, I am getting really attached to my students/kids. And how can you not be? They’re all so sweet and brilliant and unique and lovable!

Today I read them a story about groundhog day. Which was interesting because I don’t really know anything about groundhogs! But that’s the beauty about being a teacher — sometimes it seems like you’re the student. I asked my students to tell me what THEY knew about groundhogs. Turns out, they knew a LOT about groundhog day. Which was so great! I was really nervous, but I’m glad that it went well. I steered the conversation of the story to a different direction — more about the emotions of how the main character, the groundhog, might have felt scared, worried and brave. I guess all the social and emotional learning I’ve been learning in school is now just second nature to me!

My class really is a great class and I’m constantly reminded how lucky I am to be under the guidance of my SA and how great the students are. Sometimes, I think that because I’ve grown so attached to them — it’s getting a bit harder for me to instill the same classroom management techniques that I had back when I just met them. It’s not that I don’t have any at all — but I do think that I’m becoming a little bit softer and more easy-going with them. It’s something that I’m going to continue to work on.

The class did a LOT of Valentines day stuff today. I took each kid one by one outside to work on their valentines day heart envelope (I made one myself too! hehe) It was a good opportunity for me to sit with the students one by one and talk to them a little bit more. I really enjoyed having that time to get to know every student — Even if it was just 5 minutes-ish per student.

Afterwards, I stayed quite a bit to see the student-led conferences as well as to help my SA do prep work for next week. There’s ALWAYS something to be done in a K/Gr1 classroom — and it’s a lot of work, but I’m so glad that I was able to help get things prepped. I think the students will enjoy all the activities we got prepped for them to do next week!

I’m also really excited to teach my lesson on Chinese New Year next Thursday! My SA is going to observe me, but I’m really excited to share my Chinese culture to my students. It’s going to be really fun 🙂