It is hard to believe that my community field experience has came to an end so soon. I really enjoyed this experience and gained a lot of useful skills about teaching, learning, students, and class room environments. This opportunity made me grow as a person and more passionate about teaching younger kids. I feel that I can create fun and interactive lessons for students. I got an opportunity to evaluate students through games, quizzes and interactions.

The most joyful experience that I will take away from this CFE is the relationship that I developed with my students. The happy faces and bright smiles that greeted me every day encouraged me and has enhanced my love for this profession. As usual, I got the opportunity to interact with students during running club, adventure club, morning walk, and lunch play time. Another great experience I had during this CFE was to teach study skills to students. I learned that experiential learning through the use of role plays are efficient teaching methods for students with learning disability.

Through my CFE experience I became more confident in teaching math and study skills to students with various academic challenges. I realized that if I as a teachers am able to love and care for the students, the students will reciprocate by learning better. I also got an opportunity to help more students on a one-on-one basis. This helped me to build a good relationship with students and the students felt comfortable in sharing their life contexts with me, which helped me to help them better.

It was hard to say goodbye to students on the last day of my practicum. They showed their immense love and affection to me through a gift – a painting. I was emotionally touched when one of the students told me to come back to the school in the next academic year to teach them.

My mentor teacher was very supportive and she gave me feedback on my teaching, which really helped me to improve my skills. While it was challenging at the beginning of the CFE to teach a block of 35 minutes, later I learned to manage the time. It was an awesome and memorable experience to work with EAS staff and student community.

Priskilla Oommen

It is hard to believe that my Community Field Experience is coming to an end in another week. The past week was filled with great learning and excitement. I learned a lot to interact with younger students with learning disability. I was surprised to see the improvement in the cognitive development of the students when they underwent drilled practice. One of my significant learning this week was with regards to applying different reinforcement strategies to motivate students, such as lunch privileges, paper cash, stickers etc.

In this week I got an opportunity to help students on a one-on-one basis in the cognitive class room. I was able to tailor my lessons based on the learning needs of the students. The collaborative form of teaching-learning at EAS helps students meet their goals. The students are involved in setting the goal for the day and this helps them to become responsible for their learning. I am grateful to the supportive staff at EAS, who appreciates and encourages me to adapt to this different context.

I also got an opportunity to teach senior students about identifying goals and time management. I am still in the process of learning to teach topics on personal development, which is different from my usual academic subjects. This experience helped me gain some confidence, and I still have a long way to go.

On Tuesday students celebrated teacher-appreciation day by giving out cards and gifts to teachers. I was pleased to receive a card with the names of students and the principal. I was touched by this gesture. I also enjoyed the opportunity to accompany the students during PE, morning walk, and lunch hour. The informal interactions with students helped me know them better. I was very excited to see how teachers and students used creative ideas in preparation for the Mother’s day. They prepared plotted plants for their mothers (See pic below).

I am really thrilled to teach in EAS, and I am looking forward to the final week of CFE there.

Priskilla Oommen

My Community Field Experience is at the Eaton Arrowsmith School (EAS) at White Rock, which is a private school for students with learning disabilities. At EAS there are 17 students and 5 staff members. I really enjoyed my first week working with students there.

I especially love the daily morning walk with students and staff. The informal time with students such as the morning walk and play time before lunch gives me an opportunity to know the students better. Even though the students are constantly being challenged by academic tasks and assessment activities, their active engagement keeps the school alive.

There are mainly two subject areas for students to master – cognitive and academic. Cognitive classroom activities involve auditory, memory, word, tracing, visual recognition, speech recognition and thinking exercises. Academics class mainly focusses on English and math. I am presently teaching math to students of four different levels ranging from grade 2 to grade 9 and study skills to grade 6-9 students.

Initially it was a challenge to teach students with learning disabilities, especially elementary level students. Now, I have gained some confidence.  It is both humbling and encouraging to be appreciated for my work by the students. I am learning to teach using games that motivate students to work productively.

I also had an opportunity to wear my ethnic clothes on Friday on the occasion of “dress to impress” day. I really enjoyed dancing and meditation during break times with students. I am surprised to see how time flies at EAS. Students have started asking me, “Will you leave us in two weeks?” I believe, I was able to develop good rapport with students and teachers. I’m so lucky and pleased that I was given the opportunity to teach at EAS, where I also had a chance to learn and to strengthen my skills of relating to students. I am looking forward to enjoying with the lovely kids there in the coming week.

Priskilla Oommen