This Thursday I led my usual read-aloud but I also got to experience some new teacher responsibilities. The F.S.A. exams were completed by my grade seven class recently; however, some students were absent so had to catch up this week. As I was there on Thursday, I had the chance to administer these exams. Although it felt like just giving out a normal exam for the most part, I made some really interesting and valuable observations when I had to monitor a grade four student taking the English writing and numeracy portions of the exam. This student while not on an IEP does have special needs that affect her learning. As a result, she could have benefitted from specific adaptations and modifications. It was interesting for me to watch this student as while she was taking the exam, she was thinking out-loud, so I had the opportunity to in a sense, hear what was going on in her head. For the writing portion, she kept saying, “I can’t do this,” “I don’t know what to do,” “I don’t want to write.” However, I could see that she really did want to put something onto the paper as she kept taking her pencil to the bottom part of the paper to write or draw something, but then would just erase it. When we got to the math portion, her behavior completely changed, she was much more motivated. And I believe this is because the first part of the numeracy portion was on the computer. From her body language, I could tell she was just eager to get started as the principal and I got the computer started up. As she went through the questions, even her tone of voice changed, she was reading quickly, looking at the multiple-choice options, and then the small visual pictures that accompanied the questions. The pictures seemed to really get her thinking as well; she would look to the pictures and then try to compare the answers. For me this was a clear example of the different learning styles present in a classroom; that is, she clearly was a visual learner. When the pictures were not present, as in the written portions, her motivation and thus performance suffered. Although her answers were not correct always, her thought process was there. For example, she would read the question and then say something like “Oh, I think it could be this one.” Her behavior changed again when the paper part came along, switching back to how she felt during the writing portion. Again, the self-doubt was evident. And for me it was so eye-opening to see how powerful self-doubt really can be. It was to the point that the student could not put anything onto the paper. However, when she was talking out loud, she actually was getting the concepts and then when she said to me “I don’t know what to write,” I simply told her just write what you told me. So, sometimes the student may even have the core idea or concept, but just does not simply believe in themselves enough to put it forward. This made me think, if this student just had some form of adaptation, it would be so helpful. Like I’m thinking something as basic as having someone write the student’s thoughts/answers as some of this student’s thoughts out loud were very telling of her understanding. I then began to think just how many students have some form of special need that fails to be acknowledged and/or supported. This is something I would like to learn more about, the process of supporting special needs.

Another new observation I made was during the morning prep my S.A. and I covered in a grade 5/6 class. The class was working on their science fair projects. I saw clear difference between this class and my own grade 7 class. Although the age difference is not too great, I observed the disparity in their independence levels. The 5/6 students ask for the teacher’s just basic advice much more than the 7 students. For example, a student needed to pick between two pictures for his project, and he came to ask me which one was better. In comparison, in the grade 7 class, I have to directly ask the students questions about their work and then they offer explanations. I thought this was a clear representation of the many changes students go through as they enter grade 7, they look more towards their peers rather than teachers (or any adult) for validation. This made me think of how the teacher’s presence somewhat changes through the years as well – with the younger students being much more dependent on the teacher. I’m actually really glad I get to experience all the different grades through the preps, it gives me a little peak into every age level!