Week 6 reflection
The grade 8s this week have been somewhat more unruly than they were before Spring break. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that they did just have Spring break, and therefore they have more energy to be in the classroom. This week was the first time I attempted to bring my grade 8 classes into the computer lab without any other supervising teacher. The students seemed to like the game and they definitely enjoyed the fact that they did better at the game than I did, and it’s becoming a bit of a recurring theme that they remind me that they were better than me at something. While I don’t mind them taking pride in their achievements, I do hope that it doesn’t lead to the students becoming intentionally unruly and unresponsive because they no longer see me as this person who knows how to do everything that’s done in the classroom and as part of the lesson.
There was a change in topics with my grade 10 classes this week as well. Prior to Spring break we had been focusing on First Nations issues in the history of the Northwest Territory, and that was really difficult to get into with issues such as the Residential Schools and the treaty process being brought up in class and made a central focus of those lessons. This week we moved more into the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was a bit more comfortable for me as there were significant political components that I had a greater awareness and understanding of, which allowed me to create lessons that the students were more interested in.