Goals for CFE
One of my goals for my CFE is to learn how to be a better teacher in an elementary school. I have learned by style in a secondary level which helped me pass my practicum. Now I have to develop I style to younger students which can be a struggle if your use to teacher older students. What I want to do during this till is watch and analyze the elementary teachers to see how I can handle younger students. This will help me in the future when I have to TTOC at the beginning of my career. Another goal is exploring all the grades so I can get a sense of what each grade is like and what they do on a day to day basis.
Week one Reflection for CFE- May 1, 2015
For my CFE I decided to come back and help one of my past mentors at her new elementary school in North Surrey. This was one the events that made me fall in love with teaching and mentoring young minds. For the next couple of weeks I will explore the school and see a bunch of different grades from K-7. The work environment is very friendly just like because Ruth makes a great work environment for all her teachers.
This week I sat in on a grade 7 class instructed by Mr. Reid. During this week I did a variety of things. I lead the weekly spelling test by saying the word and creating a sentence so they knew what the word was in context. Mr. Reid taught me how to mark the students reading assignments so I was able to mark the reading assignments for the class. Half the class was reading “The Giver” which I read when I was younger. The other half was reading “The Hatchet.” Mr. Reid also taught me his class structure for how he marks the students for each subject. It gave me an idea of how elementary school works compared to secondary school. Mr. Reid is a secondary school teacher who got a job at an elementary school and liked it so much that he has stayed in elementary since. I also helped students with math. I would walk around and help the students that needed extra attention. They are in the middle of doing geometry which I was teaching during my practicum during my unit on bridge unit so it was a comfortable transfer in to what they were doing and less complicated.
I also did a lot of PE throughout the week. On Monday we played baseball. On Tuesday we played capture the flag. On Wednesday we played soccer. Then finally on Thursday we played kickball. Mr. Reid loves to get the kids out playing sports because if they are sitting there all day they start to get tired and shut down for the day. This way they are up and active getting some energy. I like this system because it gets some active and keeps them healthy.
I helped out with track and field. This was during the mornings, lunch and after school. I helped with discus, sprints, long distance running, long jump and shot put. The school has a mini meet happening in a couple weeks so they are trying to get the teams together for each event. I like helping out with extracurricular activates because you get to know the students better.
Next week I will be with Sandy’s class in the morning for PE and in Kindergarten for the afternoons. This will be an eye opening experience working with such young students. I picked kindergarten because it’s an age that I really will not ever see too often but there is a chance if I’m TTOCing and they need me to come in for the day.
Week 2 Reflection for CFE- May 11, 2015
1. What activities have you participated in this week? In a table, list workshops/lessons you presented, ways you assisted and any activities/classes/workshops by name. Include grade level and approximate numbers of students.
This week I was involved with 3 different classes. I was in kindergarten, grade 5 and grade 7 classrooms. I want to get a feel of how students act differently when growing up so the drastic change from grade 7 to kindergarten was an eye opener. Every morning I would do the grade 7 PE class then I would go to kindergarten after recess. In the PE class we played baseball, basketball, kickball, ultimate, and capture the flag. I also took over some of the grade 5 PE classes throughout the week. I would take them outside to play some baseball and soccer.
For kindergarten I did a variety of different activates. I mostly observed for the first couple of days to see what the students where doing. It is quite a different learning process then what I am use to in a high school. Most of the learning they do is through playing games or physical activities so they understand better. I helped them with the math lesson on Tuesday which was on weight. They would try and make the banker scale even out using markers and pencils. They also did several arts projects when I was there including mother’s day cards and 3D clay monsters. I was able to read them a couple stories before letting them go home. One day they did jump rope for heart so I had to help teach them how to skip as well as monitor them. Many of them like to drift away from the group so keeping them together can be a struggle. It was a big difference then what I am use too but one that I would consider doing.
2. Briefly describe any project (what, for whom, how it is promoting meaningful learning) you have been working on and what you’ve accomplished so far. What is the final goal (educational and product wise) and when will your contribution to this project be complete?
I am working on overall fitness with the students. I have been doing extra PE blocks with them. Setting up inside basketball at recess and lunch for them to play, but also learn. I have been showing up to all the track teams to make an appearance. More and more students seem to be getting more interested with fitness and showing up to track and the inside basketball during the breaks. A lot of these students are going to high school next year where you don’t have a playground or a field to play on but most secondary schools have a gyms to play in at lunch. This is a way to get them thinking of activities that they can do next year. I want to make sure they stay active and involved in school sports.
From your experiences thus far, what have you learned about:
a. Children/student learning?
One of the main things that I wanted to learn during the time in the kindergarten class was how to speak to such young students. I know how to talk to young children away from a school setting because I’m not their teacher so it’s a different environment when you’re in a school. I found out it’s a lot of repeating yourself and gentle reminders for such young children. They do not react well to yelling so it’s best to talk in a normal and clear voice for understanding.
b. Teaching practice (yours in particular and in general)
I am learning some good teaching techniques from the teachers here. I picked up a new punishment technique that works on the students which is the box of doom (BOD). I had students writing lines during my extended practicum but this way is more organized. Any students that do something wrong during the day or don’t do work get there name on the board in the box of doom. After school they have to write lines. This is a way of keeping the students focused.
Another one is getting the students to stretch every now and then because they become use to sitting and can fall asleep. Getting them up moving in some type of way is better for their brain and gets them going better than before.
c. Informal and formal education (hidden curriculum)?
There is more informal education in an elementary school environment then I would think because they are so young. With older grades you seem more because they are trying to push themselves but I have seen a lot of informal learning from these students. When I set up basketball in the gym the teams form strategies against each other which I don’t remember doing in elementary school. They also give each other tips. Students even ask me to help them with their skills after school which means they take the sport seriously.
Mr. Reid does a little of both because he has his formal teaching which is giving them the basics but they also go on to explore more after school. Parents ask Sandy what their kids can do to improve and all he says is to read more which expands there brain outside the classroom. Sandy really gets his students thinking about what they are learning which is what this job is all about.
CFE Reflection Week 3- May 16, 2015
1. What did you learn or discover about your strengths as a teacher from the programs and teaching you did at your CFE site? (ie what are your strengths!)
One of my strengths during this experience much like my practicum is my way to connect with students. Because I am still relatively young I have the ability to connect with students easier. This connection makes them believe in what I am saying and want to talk to me because they feel closer to me then the teachers they are used to which are usually older. When a younger teacher comes in they open up easier because they feel like they can relate. I had a really good connection with the students which helped me feel more confident in my teaching. I was asked lots of questions everyday which made me at least feel like they liked the fact that I was around.
Another one of my strengths is how I use my coaching style of teaching for students to learn. I use a step by step method that allows the students to understand and follow easily. This style is very similar to how I coach sports. I will break down a play so each player knows where he or she should be on the court. They know when to cut and where they should be by the end of the play. Coaching and teaching are the same; it is developing the ability to clearly get your point across which can be a struggle.
2. From your experiences, what did you learn about teaching and/or how children/students learn (anything new to add to your previous ‘reflections’?)?
One thing that was really important that I learned from Mr. Reid was going with the flow of what the students are doing. If the students look board you have to change things up so they can get up and shake off the doziness. This is something that you can’t do all the time but on occasions when the class is slowing down.
I understood how important day book are coming in to my CFE but I learned really how important they are during my CFE. Mr. Reid showed me his collection of day books from all the years that he had been teaching. He also uses them as a way for students to get a head. He will make sure that it is a week in advance so students can get a head when they finish the work for the day. It is a very good system that gets the students not sitting stagnant and keeps them going.
3. What did you do and accomplish by the end of your work on any special project?
I am worked on students overall fitness. I kept on doing extra PE blocks with them this week. I also set up several inside basketball games at recess and lunch whenever I could. I showed up to all the track teams to make an appearance including going to the track meet on Wednesday at Bear Creek Park. More and more students seem to be getting more interested with fitness and showing up to track and the inside basketball during the breaks. Getting students active is important physically as well as mentally because they are able to learn more because their brains are active then if they were sitting around all day.
4. What have you learned from doing this curriculum project that you think will be useful in your future teaching?
One of the main things that I wanted to learn during the time in the kindergarten class was how to speak to such young students. I know how to talk to young children away from a school setting because I’m not their teacher so it’s a different environment when you’re in a school. I found out it’s a lot of repeating yourself and gentle reminders for such young children. They do not react well to yelling so it’s best to talk in a normal and clear voice for understanding.
Another is the day planner. I feel like this could be a useful tool for me to using in my own teaching. Making sure to take down notes every day and keeping everything up to par so if I’m sick a TTOC and walk in and know what is going on.
5. What did you see as the connections between your time at the CFE and your time in your UBC methods courses?
One connection that I notice from my 401 class was the amount of bullying that happens in elementary school compared to high school. During my practicum I did not see too much bullying. I would see students mocking each other but nothing too bad. In elementary it’s a lot more name calling and physical violence. The boys push each other a lot and mock each other. In high school it’s mostly the grade eights who do this but they stop once there in grade nine because they grow out of the phase.
This is where it blends with the 308 class on child psychology. I found that Lev Vygotsky theory was correct during my CFE. Vygotsky noticed that students learn when they are in a social environment which was the same environment that I saw in many of the classrooms. Students need to talk then go do individual work to fully understand topics. Another thing that Vygotsky believed was the use of tools to help the knowledge of students. During my time in kindergarten they used many different tools for the math lesson for weight, height, and length so they could understand it better. Using tool like bank scales, rulers, objects to see how long or how much something weighs.
6. Would you recommend this experience be continued or expanded for future teacher candidates? Please explain why or why not?
I would recommend this to any student candidate in the secondary level that will be on a TTOC list next year because it gives you more opportunities to get everyday work on a TTOC list. You get experience and knowledge with younger students that you would not normally get in a secondary school. It is a good learning experience for teacher candidates to have because it leads to understand what and where these students have learned.