It is time to say good-bye!

It has been an emotional week. I have been with these kids for 10 weeks straight. I have spent more time with them and in the classroom than I have at home. I have gotten to know each student very closely. Each student has a personality of their own. I know these personalities very well. Now all of a sudden I have to leave.

I am leaving with great memories and an awesome experience. I would not trade these last ten weeks for anything.

Looking at each student, especially their marks, I have seen growth in so many of my students. What I was really impressed with were the hand full of students that never had any work done. It was hard to assess them as nothing was getting handed in. Push come to shove they handed everything in. On a normal basis everything is usually an incomplete, but, as of right now they have nothing that is outstanding. I have very proud of each and every one of my students.

I simply hope I have not let them down in any way!

It is that time where I start to panic. There is so much to do with such little time.

This week has been like a giant to do list. Things are getting done, however, I am scared that I might not achieve what I had planned for myself.

I do not leaving things undone, but, I have no choice. I have to let my SA take over my French unit as it has not been completed. I have been working on the French unit for only two weeks. This is one subject area where I struggled with when teaching. This subject is something I had struggled with in elementary school and high school, thus, I was not confident in teaching.

While teaching I made sure I kept my lesson plans very simple. Each lesson had a similar format, meaning, I made sure their was an oral component, written component and exploration component. We would sing songs, practice writing and matching vocabulary and explore the material in order for the students to make any personal connections.

At times students did not look at happy/engaged about the content. This only decreased my confidence in teaching French. After this experience, I have learned that I need to do more than brush up on my French material. It is going to require some work on my end, however, for my students and their success I feel I need to do this.

This week has been a little hard in regards to the effort my students are putting into their work.

With the help of my SA we started a class literature circle where students are placed in similar reading groups. All the books had a common theme of personal dilemmas. Each student had a specific role in their group: discussion leader, word wizard, summarizer, character analyzer and story/real-life connector. Each role was then followed by a reflection/prediction sheet. In order to make this literature circle a success I had the kids practice roles and doing the prediction sheet with smaller stories. I was hoping to provide with practice so when it comes times for the actual literature circle the student would do a well job. In an attempt to help the student be successful I modelled how to complete the role sheets and prediction sheet, provided in-depth feedback on the practice run and provided a clear and concise checklist of my expectations.

After week one of the literature circle I was astonished to see that students did not do so well. I then went back and gave students more feedback and an opportunity to improve their marks. I even told the student out of the four week I will only assess two of their best ones. Even with all these means of support and attempts of setting them up for success majority (not all) of the students did not bother.

I was very disappointed in myself. I felt like I was not doing my job properly. I thought I was setting my students up for failure than success.

This week I was very overwhelmed with assessment. I have been to a few workshops of for strategies, however, I am not confident. My SA has provided me with ample feedback and direction when it comes to assessment.

I started to mark the students spelling tests. I then saw if my SA agreed with the marking. I realized I mark a little bit harder than my SA. So to ensure I was at par with my SA I read/mark my students a work at least two times to get a proper assessment. It take a very long time, but, I rather be thorough than be totally off.

Sometimes when I am marking I feel I am looking for marks to give to my students, especially, those who are low. I try my best to adapt the class work so that my lower students are able to complete the task on hand without feeling stressed. I try to provide them with a directed means of communicating their ideas, but, I do know know what to do when they still hand in incomplete work. I do not want to become a teacher that gives easy mark just to have the child get buy. I want my students to learn.

I feel assessment is something all teachers battle with. It only becomes easier with time.

My social studies unit is on Aboriginal content. I am covering treaties, fur trade, residential schools, treaties, Indian Act and concept of colonization. In the beginning I was very nervous to take on such content as I am learning everything myself. This content is not easy to digest for an adult, how was I going to teach this to my students. As I created my road map for social studies I slowly learned to simply and filter details. I did not want to the students to feel guilty for what was happening, however I did want them to make an emotional connection.

This week was part two to the residential school lesson. I had decided to show them the Shi-Shi-Etko video to my class and simply do a reflection journal entry. After the video, two of my students started to cry. I was taken by surprise.

At that moment I realized I had to change the mood of the class. I had to redirect the class. As a class we had to discuss what could the possible positive outcomes of residential schools. I did not want to go in that direction, but, I did not know what else to do. A couple of my students started the conversation that what if an Aboriginal student did not want to become a fisherman or a hunter, instead they wanted to be a blacksmith man. I just grabbed on to that idea and went with it. I glad my student could empathize, however, I could not bare to see them cry. I guess this is all a part of learning.

I do not know if I have mentioned this before, but I am teaching a grade 4/5 split. I have six grade 4 boys in my class. For the most part teaching a split has not been too difficult because one grade always seems to be an extension of the other.

However, in science this is not the case. The grade 5 students need to learn about the human biology: circulatory system, respiratory system, and so on, whereas the grade 4 students need to learn about the five senses and how animals fives senses adapt to their environment to survive.

I was so scared to take this day on. But, to my surprise it was a huge SUCCESS!

I started off with the grade four doing a brain check in while I started the grade 5 lesson with a hook for the respiratory system. Once the I got the grade 5 students started on an “I wonder quest…” I went back to the grade 4 students to start their lesson. I could go on and on about how I had independent work, collaborative work, brain breaks throughout the day. The best part was the class was understanding what I was trying to teach them.

Throughout the day I had to make sure all the students were in some shape engaged. There was times where I had to switch things around last minute, but, everything seemed to flow. The kids left the class content, not overwhelmed and happy.

This totally made my day. Days like this is what I look forward too.

Its already week four of the long practicum. I have no idea where time goes.

As I reflect on my practicum I see a growth in myself and my students. I feel my students are improving their behaviour when I am teaching. It makes a huge difference when you are in front of the class either for longer intervals at a time or more often. They are responding positively to my strategies of getting their attention. I am very content with the students.

Last week as a class we created a road map for our social studies unit. As a class we are asking a big question which will be answered by answering three smaller question. I have started to update the boards so the students can see where we are as a class. Looking at the board my students are starting to question and expand their “I wonders…” Sometimes they ask questions that even I do not know how to answer. I am happy I am able to get my students to question what they are learning.

Its been a good week for both myself and my students.

This week I was really trying to get my students to ask questions to help with their learning.  It has been a struggle. It seems as though the students are so worried about being right or wrong instead of exploring what they want to know. Instead of having the students come up with question I have created the question for the students.

For my social studies unit I created a big question that we as a class will be answering. In order to answer the big question we need to answer smaller questions for better understanding and making connections that students can relate to.

When the lesson was being taught and the questions were introduced I could sense the anxiety in the classroom. The students were not able to answer the question right away hence the panic. I had to explain to the class that these questions are going to be answered together. Each student is not expected to answer the question on their own. I had to emphasize this is a journey that we as a class will go on!

I have a goal in mind. I hope this inquiry method helps my students to make the connections and learn.

Being the second week of practicum I have been in front of the class more often. However, there have been a few challenging moments. I have built a positive report with students on a personal level, but I feel I am struggling to build my presence as a teacher.  I have been working on simply getting their attention.

I have implemented two new strategies for better classroom management. In my previous time in the class I used the same techniques as my SA, but they were starting to become ineffective when I use them. My first strategy was “5 on ME”, which required students to: put their hands on the desk, keep their feet still, eyes on me and mouths closed. My second strategy was for the students to respond to my class. Meaning, I would say “Are we ready?” and the students would reply “We are born ready!” (a reference from KungFu Panda movie).

I feel my first strategy is strict and not fun, therefore to lighten the classroom environment I am using a reference that majority of kids are familiar with. I have a feeling using the movie reference might cause the students to react with an outburst versus calming them down. Lets see how it goes. My main focus this and next few weeks is classroom management.