Category Archives: CFE

This week I spent more time in the sensory room. On Monday, I sat in for my second session of a social group in the sensory room. This specific social group consists of 5-8 students who need support with anger management. Like last week, we enjoyed hot chocolate together in the morning and did a check in with each other. I participated in this check in with the students so they would feel more comfortable with having me in the room. I think the check in with the group is very important. I enjoyed hearing about their weekends. It helped create a safe space for more discussion with the group. The check in also encourages students to engage in active listening with their peers. The facilitator of the group often reminded students to not interrupt when it was not their turn. I will consider doing more check in’s with students in the future. I did some check in’s with students during practicum, but not on a regular basis. However, I do see the value of checking in with students regularly. Students need to be ready to learn and this check in process can help support their success. It can also allow the teacher to have a better idea of where the students are at before the day or lesson begins.

After the check in, we did a SEL game that focuses on different ways to respond to difficult situations. The students in the group took turns participating in the discussion as much as they felt comfortable with. The scenarios were realistic for many of the students and I think that the points raised in the discussion were helpful. I would also consider prompting students in the classroom with conflict scenarios as well. While this social group is tailored to students who struggle with anger management, I think all students can benefit from engaging in learning strategies to deal with stressful/conflict situations. Overall, I have really enjoyed my CFE here at Gibson Elementary. It has given me a glimpse into the varying roles that Learning Support teachers have in schools. After I have some experience in the classroom, I would definitely consider Learning Support!

This was another busy week for my Community Field Experience. I had more practice with teaching the reading intervention lessons to the grade one students. Thus, during this second week of CFE, I have gained more insight and understanding into how students with English as a second language learn to read. Two of the students I work with are fluent in Panjabi. During our reading lessons, they sometimes associate words in both Panjabi and English. They point it out for me as well. Through my interactions and lessons with these students, it is evident that this strategy helps their progress in learning to read in English. I personally don’t speak any other languages fluently. However, when I was learning French, I used the same strategy of word association with English words. I presume that when students use their L1 to help them learn to read in English, they are also able to preserve their first language. I think preserving their first language is really important as they become older as well.

I also had the opportunity to do more benchmark assessment this week. This time around, Eva encouraged/trusted me lead the assessment and helped out when needed. I definitely am becoming more comfortable with doing the assessment. Through doing these assessments as well as a few other reading assessments, I am beginning to realize the need and importance of having prior knowledge/background of phonics and early literacy intervention. There are many strategies students can use when learning to read, and I think I would consider taking more courses to learn about using these strategies.

This week, I also had the opportunity to participate and observe in the sensory room at Gibson Elementary. I had two sessions one on one with a student in Kindergarten who has behavioural challenges in class. We went to the room to celebrate him having a fairly positive day at school. I also took this opportunity to read a SEL book with him in the sensory room to ignite a conversation on how to deal with conflict and frustration. He responded quite well and we brainstormed solutions and strategies to use when we are upset. I found this interaction to be very meaningful and I have not had a lot of experience working one on one with students in that setting. I see the immense value of a sensory room in schools to support the social and emotional development of students. I look forward to having more opportunities next week in the sensory room.

This week was a great start to my Community Field experience at Gibson Elementary. I have just completed my ten-week practicum in a grade five in Aldergrove BC. The demographics and grade level between my CFE placement and practicum are quite diverse. For my practicum, I was in an inner city school where over 75% of my class had behavioural challenges and learning designations. While this was a huge challenge, I felt by the end of my practicum I made many meaningful connections and successes with my students. For CFE, I am working with a much younger group of children (K/1). This has been a change of pace but has been a good transition overall. The children are very kind and have been very receptive to having two new teachers in the resource room.

We have been focusing on doing reading intervention with grade one students using the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark system. I am somewhat familiar with this system as I used the books from this resource for my guided reading program in Practicum. We follow a lesson plan from the resource, which focuses on phonics and sight recognition for high frequency words. I have enjoyed reading the books with the kids and implementing these lessons. I often don’t follow all of the guiding questions in the lesson. I have been finding the kids are much more engaged in the lesson when I prompt them with questions over the content and ideas they generate. I presume this is because they are more willing and interested in discussing personal connections they make with the book. I think these more personal connections are very powerful for their overall learning and progress, thus I use their connections to facilitate our discussion and comprehension of the book.

This week has also been critical for beginning the end of the year assessment with the K/1 classes. Our CFE coordinator Eva has been doing some bench marking assessment. I had the opportunity to participate in this process with her. She has taught me a few of her techniques with benchmarking, but ultimately explained that we can use our own system as well, and then covert it for the final scores. Overall, I have enjoyed the start to my CFE and look forward to learning more about early reading intervention next week.