Trevor's B.Ed PDP portfolio

It’s difficult to believe that the field experience is coming to an end and that this coming week I won’t be going back to Fraser Park to help teach the students again. I learned a lot about how to interact with all sorts of different youth while I was the detention facility which I will eventually use in my teaching practice.

On Wednesday, I had an opportunity to meet with the other student teachers and the learning support teacher to learn more about how to create individualized education plans, which I found very interesting. During my long practicum placement I had also learned about IEPs from the practicum school and their learning support staff, so I was interested to see that there were some significant differences between how things are done in the community schools as opposed to how they are created at Fraser Park, and I have to admit that I think the way it’s done at Fraser Park makes more sense to me. This is because there is much more consultation with the students about what their individual needs are, and because the students themselves are providing the information in the IEP, they are much more likely to buy in and follow the instructions because it’s things they have identified as what will help them succeed in the classroom.

The only other thing that needs noting is how comfortable the students have become at seeing myself and the other student teachers in the classrooms. They were very easygoing to be around for the most part, and I found that the ones I had seen on a regular basis were starting to ask me about myself and open up about themselves far more than in the first two weeks of the practicum. This isn’t to say that private or personal information was being divulged, but there was a greater willingness to talk and create a more casual environment, instead of being standoffish. One of my main observations was how easily the students would engage in teasing with each other. I was concerned at first, and once I had some discussions with the staff I realized that it was a way of showing their comfort around each other. In this last week, I saw that a few of the students were beginning to involve me in that teasing. None of it was particularly hurtful, and most of the comments revolved around my car and how old and small it is compared to some of the other cars that I could be driving. The only thing about those comments that caught me off guard was that the students could see me drive into the parking lot from their residential units in the morning, and it’s not something that I would have considered before they started talking about what kind of car I had and how small it was. Again, this was not something that I felt was a concern, and for me more than anything it was interesting to see how they began to involve me in the social structure of their classes and daily structure.

I’m so very lucky and pleased that I was given the opportunity to teach at Fraser Park over the last three weeks, and that I also had a chance to learn and to strengthen my ability to relate to students and build an inclusive classroom community. I’m looking forward to applying these lessons to my future classroom and being more willing to appropriately open up about myself to my students and create more genuine connections with the students that I will be teaching.

The second week of my CFE at Fraser Park has been more interesting that the first week, but that’s mainly been because of the extra-curricular things that I have done while at Fraser Park, as opposed to any surprises that I was having with the daily routine.

While within the classroom, I’ve noticed that the students were far more willing to communicate with me and ask for help on assignments, even if they weren’t totally sure that I knew what I was doing. Even if I didn’t know what I was doing, for example in the art class or in some of the science classes, the students seemed more willing to let me sit in and watch, and if I truly didn’t know what I was doing the students themselves seemed eager to show me what they knew and to interact with me. Most of the time we did talk about school related things and the topics of conversation had to do with what they were doing, or something else that was related to another subject they were taking, but sometimes the conversation was just idle conversation and discussions of things that weren’t part of the curriculum. In particular, I noticed this week that many of the students in my classes were asking me about the teacher education program at UBC, or at least about the community field experience that led all of the student teachers to be assigned to Fraser Park for our three week period. Because of the interest in the CFE and all of the student teachers that had been arriving and coming through the classes, I took the time to ask some of the students how they felt about having so many new volunteers come visit them in the school portion of their day. Most of the students admitted that they did enjoy having us in the classrooms because we were something different and it did change up their routine a little bit to have new teachers to talk to and get help from.

Outside of the classroom, there were two major events that I took part in which I felt improved my experience at Fraser Park, and which I think have helped improve my ability to interact with the students. Last week the students of one of the living units invited me to visit them on unit at a certain point during the day, and I asked for permission to fulfill that request. This past Monday I was finally able to go and visit the students during their lunch break, and we were able to interact more casually and outside of the context of the classroom and their immediate school work that was placed before them. The first thing I noticed was that the residents were far more relaxed in their living unit than they are in any of the classrooms, and that they were willing to be much more talkative and lively than they normally would be in the classroom. Some of the residents of those units have moved on to other locations, but the ones that remain have been particularly cooperative in the classes that I have had with them, and one of the students encouraged me to join him and his cohort while they were working out in the fitness centre later in the week. It is Sunday morning and I am still feeling a bit sore from that particular session of strength training, but having me be among the students while they worked out certainly appeared to increase their focus on what they should be doing, if only so that they could show off how much stronger than me they are.

The other event that occurred was the weekly Wednesday afternoon chess club. I used to play chess somewhat competitively back in elementary school, and I’ve always enjoyed playing whenever I get the chance, so I thought it would be another good opportunity to interact with the students outside of the classroom setting and to test their chess skills against someone they hadn’t seen or played against before. I will admit that I thought I was going to do well in the chess club and that I would be continuing in my role as a teacher in that setting as well. I was wrong. The students at Fraser Park are quite formidable chess players, and I spent most of my time there being defeated by a series of different players. I think this was good for the students as well, not just because they enjoy winning but so they can see that we’re human too. They were good wins too, I don’t believe in holding anything back when I get involved in competition, so they were definitely defeating me when I was doing my best.

I’m not likely to be returning to unit for another meal, but I do think I will go back for another round of Wednesday chess club and try to make a better impression on the players. In the final week of the CFE I will be focusing on building up my portfolio of different techniques that can be used to encourage reluctant students to focus on their task for the block, and what can be done when students are refusing to cooperate.

This week I had the amazing opportunity to start my volunteer shifts at the Fraser Park corrections facility. I admit that I came into the experience with a number of preconceived notions about what I would experience during this particular CFE, but I have found that many of those views have not been true. Most of the students that I have personally interacted with have been very pleasant and friendly, and as the week went on, the students have started opening up to me more.

Most of the students don’t ask for any help with the coursework when they are in my classes, which I imagine is mainly because they have public images that they want to have maintained, and asking for help would go against how they see themselves and how others see them. This has led me to simply give the students help right at the beginning of class and introduce myself as the person who will be helping them through their coursework for the day, instead of asking them later on in the class if they need help, which would make them look bad in front of their peers. This seems to work well, and once I begin to help the students, they don’t seem to have any problems with my being there. In terms of the actual coursework, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the work the students do is the same as what would be taught in a public high school. I had assumed beforehand that the students at Fraser Park would be doing coursework with serious adaptations to it, similar to the essentials or core classes offered in public schools.

In many ways, I enjoy teaching in the corrections facility more than I enjoyed teaching in my practicum school because of the greater amount of individualized attention I am able to give to my students. Most of my previous education employment was in tutoring and summer camps with small class sizes, so I am much more used to teaching in small groups like how classes are taught at Fraser Park. I appreciate the ability to individualize my teaching for each student and to have an opportunity to build a stronger relationship between the students and myself. I feel that I have been successful in creating these connections, as I have been invited by a small group of the students that I work with to visit them in their housing unit. While I am apprehensive about the potential experience, I think that it will ultimately be beneficial to me to take up the students’ offer, and I look forward to doing so sometime this coming week.

There was one event that occurred during the week that I felt particularly proud of being part of. One of the students at Fraser Park completed their graduation requirements, and on Friday the staff arranged to have a graduation ceremony for the student. I felt that it was very well done to have the graduation ceremony and show the importance of the event for the student. As the school principal pointed out, this is a milestone in the student’s life, and celebrating that milestone send the message that it is important, which is something that the student will hopefully keep with them as they go through life. That kind of positive reinforcement can only benefit the student in the future.

I have learned very quickly that something is always happening at Fraser Park, and I’m looking forward to the next couple of weeks and learning more about how to work with their diverse learners.