Category Archives: Practicum-related jottings

07/22/15

On gifts and reciprocity

testEnd of the practicum is nearing — all late and missing assignments have been handed in and marked, letter grades have been finalized and crunch time was finally over.  Before parting ways with the class, I decided to leave behind a gift for each student.  I had three main objectives:

  • Thanking the student for their hard work, and perhaps offer feedback regarding their progress throughout the year
  • Recognize and acknowledge the bond we had developed together
  • Attempt to communicate how much I valued our relationship through heartfelt comments or suggestions

Some cards were easier than others to write:  some students made obvious improvements, others overcame huge obstacles; yet others opened up and shared.  For some, it was difficult to find the right words; for others, my emotions bubbled very close to the surface.

The large card on the left is the only card I wrote that took up both inside pages.  I wrote it for a student in my class with whom I truly connected; and because I felt that I shared a bond with him, it was all the more frustrating as I watched him consistently prioritize everything else in his life over completing school work.  As time wore on, the small pile of homework became a hill, and the hill eventually became a mountain.  Everybody involved ran the full gamut of emotions, and then some.

Most days began with a pleasant conversation.  Two days before Friday, the last day of my practicum, he came to me with mixed emotions.  He told me that he wouldn’t be at school on Friday because his football team would be playing an important provincial-level match.  He’s deeply passionate about football — he always chose football practice over his homework — and there was much pride and excitement in his voice as he told me.  And then, the kicker… he’s sad that he would be missing my last day.  (I later realized that he was involved in planning my surprise party, became very dejected at the fact that he had to miss it, and gave it his all to resist the temptation to spoil the surprise [he succeeded!])

This student was a handful.  He was brutally honest — he would respond to homework reminders with “I have football practice tonight, so I’ll only have half an hour… I might be able to do one of those”.  This student knew what he want, followed his passion, and chose to stand up for himself time and time again in the face of dire, undesirable consequences.  He missed both of the field trips I planned for the class due to incomplete homework; he (understandably) expressed much displeasure, but completed a significant portion of his late assignments on both occasions.  On so many occasions I wanted to slap him on the back and tell him, “good job!”  With him, I walked the fine line between encouraging and redirecting, facilitating and teaching.

painting

This was one of several gifts that I received from my school advisor and the class.  Why does it mean so much to me?

  • The students decided to graphically represent the topics that they liked the most
  • Through their expression, they clearly demonstrated evidence of learning

An informal self-reported poll revealed that the majority of the class liked Science the most; most of them cited the hands-on experiments as the main reason.  The cactus in particular made me extremely happy, because most of the class were bored to tears when it came time to tackle the Desert portion of the tasks.  The colour wheel in the top right was the icing on the cake!

This coincidental exchange of gifts confirmed the importance of strong, caring relationships.  Believing children to be appreciative of all the work I put in helps me give my all; confirming students’ appreciation through their heartfelt tokens of appreciation enhance my resilience tenfold and inspires me to surpass my efforts with the next group of students.

07/9/15

Article-sharing

Coulter, D. et al.  A Question of Judgment:  A Response to Standards for the Education, Competence and Professional Conduct of Educators in British Columbia.  Educational Insights, 11(3).

This reading resonated strongly with my pedagogical approach — there seems to be a very strong emphasis on meeting prescribed learning outcomes.  While I agree that they are important (they represent requisite knowledge that students will need to call upon in order to move on to engage with more complex topics), I feel that the manner in which they are introduced is of fundamental importance.  Learning ought to be relevant and purposeful:  as educators, we need to consider HOW to teach WHAT needs to be taught, and in doing so, must also take into account to WHOM we are teaching and within WHICH CONTEXT.

Harveen:  Tony, I really liked how you presented this article to the group. I agree that as an educator that all students learn differently. If a student is not able to learn one way then as an educator we need to change the way we teach and adapt to all student’s learning styles.

Sharon:  Tony, thanks for sharing!  I see your passion about this article.  I agree with you that the main goal of teachers should be to teach students what they need.  Of course as teachers we are required to adhere to the PLO’s but I agree that we can teach in a way that relates to the students’.  As a teacher we need to get out of our comfort zone if needed so to teach in a way that benefit the students.

05/10/15

Week 6: 2*W

One of the formative assessments I learned about earlier in the year was “Two Stars and a Wish”.  I would like to take a quick breather and look back at the happenings of the past week and spend some time appreciating what I see through the lens of Stars and Wishes.  Perhaps I might like this method of self-reflection:  it’s definitely more structured than my typical stream-of-conscious style!  For now, I shall examine an art lesson that I attempted Friday morning.

* * * * *

A brief introduction:  Draw me a Song — create a visually appealing piece of art using song lyrics as inspiration.  The typography of the lyrics can be modified and incorporated into the illustration.  The plan was for the students to be inspired and create magic with oil pastels (they’ve been using pencil crayons for the longest time).  Well… that’s not what happened:

  • The Wi-Fi was extremely slow (Murphy’s Law at its finest)
    • Fortunately, I had pre-downloaded a Somewhere Over the Rainbow YouTube video (with lyrics) onto my laptop the night prior (foreseeing something like this)
    • So far so good — I showed the students the examples and they were quite intriqued
  • All right, kids… pick your own songs, write the lyrics down!
    • … *record scratch*
    • PROBLEM #1 — many students did not even remember the name of the song they wanted to use, much less the lyrics
    • PROBLEM #2 – many students could not think of a song to use and were stuck… that lead to
      • PROBLEM #3 – I suggested they try with a “nursery rhyme”, which the students balked at… I had one student choose the ABCs, albeit with a exasperated smile on her face
  • All this culminated in kids losing direction, losing focus, and becoming distracted and off-task… I tried to rein them back in, but it was too late — they lost half an hour, and even then, it wasn’t a solid 40 minutes spent working:  I had to constantly quiet the room down and send kids back to their seats
    • Question to self — why do you keep pacing around the room?  It doesn’t really serve a purpose — maybe the kids would be more on-task if they didn’t have to worry about a teacher peering over their shoulder all the time…

OKAY!  Now we’re ready for 2 stars and a wish

STAR #1 – STRONG START

  • We can say that I had the students’ attention.  I lost them temporarily when I allowed some of them to sing along with the song, but they came back when I showed the samples
    • A side note — I opened myself up for randomness when I allowed singing… that gave a few of the students to “take advantage” and exhibit some off-task, silly behaviour.  Shouldn’t give them those opportunities..

STAR #2 – VISIBLE PRESENCE

  • While the students did get energetic and certain individuals began visiting their friends across the room, they all listened whenever I called for quiet
    • Room for improvement — instead of requesting compliance, demanding compliance; I’m too lenient and permissive and need to hold them to higher standards

WISH – BETTER PLANNING

  • I’ll be first to admit that this is one aspect of my teaching that I’m finding quite a few issues with.  A lot of the time I have these ideas, but neglect to consider how they will pan out.  I am very good at accounting for technological issues… I need to take that transferable skill and apply it to the more important “issues” — how to proactively reduce off-task behaviour and ensure all students develop the skills/knowledge they need to succeed in their assigned task?  Planning, planning, planning…

Moving forward, I tried planning next week’s HACE lesson from this perspective.  I assumed that those rambunctious students will seek to entertain themselves, and that students would get confused and not know how to proceed.  The end result is an airtight activity that is guided from beginning to end… strangely enough, prior to adopting this mindset I had always felt somewhat uncomfortable with too rigid a lesson or activity plan (I wanted to leave room for spontaneity).  Now… it feels so natural — perhaps I needed that change of perspective in order to truly appreciate why certain lessons required stricter frameworks?

I used an analogy to explain the idea to a colleague before… “sometimes, direct instruction is required.  A supervisor will want to tell new employees (at least, initially) exactly what to do and how to do it.  It won’t be until after the new employee has demonstrated some improvement and/or efficiency that the supervisor will begin to release responsibility back to the new employee.  What supervisor would tell their employee to ‘do your best’ without even a basic list of expectations, then chastise him for not performing to par?”

It’s high time I started following my own advice.

04/5/15

Week 1 – Poetry in Motion

Good evening, and welcome to the Weekly Recap show!  I am your host, Mr. Tsang, and I will be discussing the ups and downs — all the juicy highlights — that transpired during the First Week of the extended practicum.  Let’s get started!

* * *

I have to say… I get a sense that I hadn’t truly grasped how much there was to keep in mind until this week.  Sure, I had had an extended 2 week stay at the school at the end of last year, but I was still unexperienced back then — I knew little about assessment, and primarily concerned myself with maintaining a positive (and professional) relationship with the students, practicing good teaching methods, and formulating/implementing lesson plans.  At the time, my SA would assign me some marking tasks to ease me into things…

… and well, everything finally makes sense!  Now I truly grasp the significance of my SA assigning me those marking tasks and asking me to do various tasks, from signing planners and marking spelling assignments to making photocopies.  It took me a while (and quite a few mistakes) before I finally conquered the photocopier, but I digress.  And once the first week started off, I found myself… relatively calm and relaxed.  Sure, each day was filled with a mountain of different tasks — meeting and greeting students as they enter the classroom; checking homework for completion and marking their assignments; planning, touching up, editing, rehashing, and polishing my lesson plans; making photocopies; clarifying instructions; settling disagreements… everything felt natural because my SA has given me plenty of chances to practice prior to the beginning of my extended practicum.  My admiration grows… because THERE’S SO MUCH TO KEEP TABS ON!!!

It’s very exciting, to say the least.  There were a few instances where I felt frustrated and lost, some instances where I felt down… and I found that focusing on my students and asking myself, “what should I do next to get them where I want them to go?” helped me stay grounded, on my feet, and ready to adapt and adjust.  I’m practicing my organizational skills, so let’s separate my comments by headings…

Lessons learned – STAY ORGANIZED.  I know that this is one of the weakest areas of my teaching practice.  The way I make sense of the world around me is somewhat vague and “networked” — reading certain words and phrases call up entire networks of relevant knowledge and information, and as a result, I end up taking a lot of my notes that way.  Teaching has emphasized the importance of being SPECIFIC and GROUNDED — I applaud my SA’s patience with my lesson plans, as often I would write down a phrase when what I envision within my head are 3 bullet points and an explanation or two.  Also, I realize that I am a rather messy person and leave things around all over the place — after a particularly busy day, I realized that the hexagonal table on which I was working (it’s about 1.5-2metres across) was completely filled with papers from several different projects.  Clean as I go, I need to…

Surprises – I very surprised by how hard my students tried to make things work for me.  I’ve seen the class evolve since I first met them in September, but I am still impressed by how attentive they are when I’m standing in front of the class.  I was also surprised that the students who had originally struggled the most have tried the hardest to participate — this is confirmation that affirming and building off their responses will encourage further participation.  Also, I opened up a can of worms during my science stations sessions — by giving the students freedom to work independently, in partners, or as an entire group (within the table groups), I had created the possibility for someone to be left out.  And as Murphy’s Law would suggest, someone indeed had felt left out and I had to get in there to help dispel the situation… while things worked out in the end, unfortunately the affected student was not able to get much done.

A big surprise was that I discovered possible evidence of plagiarism in some work that I had assigned.  After teaching a lesson on figurative language (focusing on similes and metaphors), I learned that a small handful of my students had written down the exact same metaphor.  I had expected some collaborating, but I didn’t expect word-for-word copying… on a hunch, I punched that metaphor into Google and found an online resource (for kids!) that… contained several other metaphors on the students’ papers.  I was a little disheartened to find this… not so much because they had tried to pull a fast one o’er Mr. Tsang, but more the implications of passing off others’ work as their own.  The students don’t realize that the act of handing in someone else’s work implies that their own work isn’t as good.  That thought infuriated me — the students might not be the best in the world in whatever I have them do, but I want them all to be PROUD of their own work!  With my SA’s help, I hope to turn this into a good learning opportunity, as academic dishonesty has very serious implications further down the road.

Things I was happy with – this is always going to be the shortest section.  I was very pleased with how the students remained engaged during the science stations.  I had a few of them come up to me, both during and afterwards, telling me how they really liked the stations.  Also, I was happy with getting some quality 1-on-1 teaching in during the self-directed math program — it’s always great to see those “A-ha!” lightbulbs go off behind the eyes!

Things that need improvement – my social studies lesson… in my opinion, was a complete failure.  I kept the discussion open and as a result ended up losing myself at times.  I ended up talking for >80% of the entire lesson… which was over an hour in length.  Completely unacceptable… I need a lot of work on flow.  Moreover, my lesson plan looked great on paper… but in getting lost, I found that I had completely forgotten about an activity I had planned — an activity that was meant to get the students doing something to give myself time to regroup, as well as to give them a break from listening to me drone on and on.  The lesson plan that I had in my hand… given, I had been concentrating very hard on the clarity of my explanations and instructions (which I think I had done fairly well), but that definitely does not mean I should be neglecting any of the other aspects of teaching a proper lesson.

Also, I found that the science stations were rather difficult for a lot of the students.  I will be going through and refining them… perhaps taking the ‘second’ task and extending it through to the second activity.  For each Extreme Environment I aim to have something hands-on for them to play with, investigate, observe, and make hypotheses from.  Perhaps reducing the overall workload will give the students a better fighting chance?  40 minutes to read pages of information and answer questions is proving to be rather difficult for many of my students… another reminder that my tasks and assignments need to be adjusted to my students’ levels.  Granted, I was trying to do that, but marking the assignments were a good way for me to assess the students’ current levels of achievement.  I’m going to be keeping this in mind.

Things I intend to focus on – as Second Week rolls in, I will be stepping up the organizational side of things:  I will be looking for ways to stay organized (paper-wise) and remain on the look-out for any other tells of students’ learning styles/methods/challenges.  And perhaps start a log book/document where I jot down things I notice, lest I forget.  Also, I will be focusing heavily on lesson flow for any lessons I teach during this week, as I feel that I have done clarity enough justice.  I can rest assured that with my (current) abilities, I will be able to teach without misrepresenting any information the students need to learn!

PS — I am happy to report that the conclusions I arrived at as a result from my inquiry project remain confirmed!  More details on this to come after I have gathered more data and done yet more “reflecting”

02/19/15

Scripted Connection

Good evening, kind readers!

Thank you for staying with me through this rollercoaster ride of an adventure!  A whirlwind of assignments, presentations, projects, unit plans, and practicum looms on the horizon — perfect time for a storm-chaser like myself!  Building upon the way in which my previous lesson panned out, I had set several goals for myself.

  • Carefully plan out my lesson
  • After carefully planning out the lesson (and accounting for my crowd), script what I’m about to say
  • Commit the script to memory
  • Follow through on the script and don’t do anything strange

In designing the script, I tried to imagine myself in the gym in front of my class… and it all flowed to me — I foresaw several students having experience with lay-ups, with the vast majority not quite sure what I’m talking about.  Thus, to level the playing field (and also offer more experienced students a refresher), I decided to script step by step.  Before stepping into the classroom, I already messed up twice:

  • In consulting the detailed resource for the basketball unit… somehow I had forgotten to include the first instruction (approach the basket at 45 degrees)
  • The email with the lesson plan attachment didn’t send properly
  • I had my cheap plastic dollar-store whistle in my back pocket, and it shattered beneath my weight when I sat down… *sigh*

That first point is ridiculous.  Next time I am going to type up every single step verbatim before tailoring to my response.  Less emphasis on the image training — that should come after getting the instructions right.  As for the second point, I am glad that I followed through with my original plan to commit what I had written down to memory, because I realized (after my SA asked about my lesson plan) that it hadn’t sent… again.  I thought it was strange for us not to have discussed it earlier… need to purchase a new router tomorrow.  Either way, I quickly wrote down the flow of what I was to say, and my SA felt that my instructions were good.  She gave me a good suggestion (aim for the upper corner of the box on the backboard), which I wrote down and committed to memory.  Also, as some of the students still needed to be video-taped as part of Fresh Grade, I was to lead a set shot warm-up.  If that’s to be the case… warm-up will be changed to 3 laps and then a quick mini-lesson on the set shot, with the rest of the class getting videoed.  Once they were all done, lay-ups shall commence!

* * *

… French took a little to wrap up, so we began with ~5-10 fewer minutes to work with.  And I grabbed the wrong clipboard… off to a great start already.

During the mini-lesson I made sure to clearly demonstrate and describe the set shot — athletic position, arm at 90 degree angle, hold ball so it isn’t blocking view of the basket, aim, push UP with arms and follow through.  Demonstrated this twice, then separated the class among the 4 baskets.  I waited until my SA was done with all the videos, and then… lay-up instruction time!

I wanted all the students to be able to see me, so I instructed them to sit in a half circle around the 3-point line.  I demonstrated the lay-up step by step as per the script I laid out, paraphrasing slightly to elaborate on what I felt might have been important to keep in mind; while changing up the wording, I tried my best to stay true to the essence of the plan.  It felt… grounded to teach in that manner.  I demonstrated this skill twice, and then gave the students a chance to try.  This time, I split the class between the only two baskets with the box on the backboard (I wanted them to practice aiming for the corner).  Feedback from my SA, which I will follow through on next time:

  • Better positioning — while the half-circle ensured all students were able to hear me, most of them could only see my BACK during my demonstration
    • I need to be mindful of maximizing the students’ ability to see what I’m doing (this is PE class!)
  • When performing the lay-up, approach the basket from an angle (to really maximize the “aiming for the corner” technique)

This lesson felt quite good, but still left a somewhat sour taste in my mouth.  The class gave me their undivided attention and were quick to stop and listen when I called for everyone’s eyes and ears.  It could’ve been so much better, had I actually provided proper instruction… I can’t shake the feeling that my faulty instruction kept the students from doing better than they would have.  It may mean more time spent, but I definitely need to double my efforts into crafting a solid lesson plan.  I need just one — things may not go as planned, but I want to make sure I know what it feels to not just be prepared, but be backed up by valid and accurate teaching.

02/16/15

On the up-and-up!

Top of the morning!  End of Term 2A, unit-planning for practicum, keeping up with assignments… stepping back into the modular is always a highlight to the week!  This time around, things were a little different…

During prep block in the morning, my SA and I sat down and went through her report card software.  I was blown away by how organized the report card software was!  Drop-down menus filled with PLOs!  It was rather overwhelming scrolling through all those different PLOs, but as a side benefit… not only do I know for sure what I will be teaching, I also know the specific PLOs I will be designing my units around!  So excited!

* * *

Today I paid extra close attention to how my SA taught because there was no spelling to mark.  She went through expectations over the blog aspect of a novel study.  I don’t know what it was, but I think I can finally say that I was able to observe and fully appreciate her teaching approach.  Perhaps it was due to the increased emphasis on instructional methodology and the different means of assessment, but I was able to clearly discern how my SA pre-teaches important phrases and/or words, the assignment instructions.  She then elaborated upon her expectations, detailing (point by point) the criteria upon which students’ works would be addressed.

As an example, she instructed the students to transfer a conversation thread that they started on the blog.  She clearly defined thread as a conversation, and in going through the blog in search of a good example of a thread, she used humour to call attention to threads that were of inadequate length.  Unfortunately she was not able to find an appropriate example, which my TA turned into a teachable moment that culminated with a reminder to participate.  Moreover, she used that opportunity to discuss her expectations for proper online posting etiquette and expectations.  After our classes’ discussions on assessment and clarity (as well as previous conversations I had), I feel that I was able to pick up a bit better on the entire process and how it all comes together to offer students a firmer understanding of the expectations placed on them.

* * *

Today marks the beginning of a new term!  Sadly, there won’t be as many days at the modular as we are now entering workshop territory… also, next week I will only get half a day due to obligations arising from our math methods class.  We’ll make the most out of them and then hit the ground running!

02/7/15

Work in progress…

Hello again, blog… now for this week’s edition of Practicum, brought to you by the Social-Emotional Learning cohort!  This post will include more introspection-related musings, so bear with me… the initial post is for my own reference (to provide context), and the meat of this entry will appear after all the stars.

* * *

Today’s task is to teach a mini-lesson on long division featuring decimals divided by a whole number, and numbers less than 1 divided by a whole number.  I was fairly confident heading into this lesson, as I have quite a bit of experience with teaching long division — many of my pupils in the past have struggled greatly with this particular fundamental skill.  So, when my SA assigned this to me as a topic, I was excited for an opportunity to reach the entire class with my instruction!

Arriving early, I spent some time discussing my plan for the mini-lesson with my SA.  I had to clarify some of the particular wordings that I had used in describing what I intended (note to self:  clearer language!), and asked her for more input as to how she want the lesson to be taught.  I really appreciate my SA’s attention to detail — she teaches a strongly grounded, step-by-step method that not only guarantees the correct answer but also incorporates the importance of checking one’s answer after calculating.  She had emphasized the importance of instructing the students to write the equation out horizontally first prior to performing any calculations (ie — translating the bracket form into 3.45 / 4 = ).  This step is vital because while some students had issues with placing the decimal after dividing, this simple step of writing the question out horizontally greatly increased decimal placement.  I wrote down some sample questions that I intended to use as models (I’ve run into trouble in the past by not performing this step) and prepared for the lesson…

I typically spend the recess break reviewing my notes and going through the lesson in my head, reminding myself of the key steps and phrases that I wanted to use during the instruction.  Recess that day had been cut short due to several other goals I wished to accomplish (marking the rest of the spelling assignments).  I had instructed the students to take out their note page that was given to them by my SA because I wished to stress the usage of that resource, and intended to go over how to use the notes to guide their questions.

The first moments were spent setting up the projector (do this before the lesson!!), then walking over to turn out the lights.  In the future, I should ask a student to turn off the lights instead of doing it myself.  I launched into the pre-lesson by asking a question, “What is the first two things we need to write down during our test tomorrow?”  After exchanging puzzled looks, a student offered, “Our name and the date?”  Yes, that is correct… but I was looking for the two tools my SA had introduced:  the Place Value Chart and “HMS Bring Down” (how many, multiply, subtract, bring down).  After fumbling around, I finally wrote down the first question.

… and I forgot the most vital step that my SA stressed in the morning:  write the question horizontally before proceeding further.  It was not until the last question that I realized my error and told the class this vital step.  I walked the class through the process of dividing, stressing that dividing decimals by whole numbers consists of two separate goals:  dividing the numbers themselves, and placing the decimals correctly.  I broke down the steps provided according to the two goals:  the initial dividing was to be straightforward, with the estimation process intended to tell us where to put the decimal.  I ran into some issues with the rounding portion — we are supposed to round numbers bigger than 1 to the nearest compatible whole number; I intended to highlight this by reminding students to look for the first set of numbers we divided.  However, the way I phrased this was rather different from what has been previously taught to the students and fortunately my SA stepped in to correct my error and stated the step in very clear language.

The next question went relatively smooth, but because I had fully explained every single step in the first question, I had sped through the division portion and did not model the HMS Bring Down method mentioned at the beginning of the method.  In retrospect, I should have went through this as I had during my instruction of the first question.  The rest of the lesson went relatively smoothly; E, as usual, asked very thoughtful questions, A helped with a few good contributions, and M asked a really good question about how to decide where to put the decimal.

I fumbled M’s question somewhat.  The estimated answer was 1, after rounding the dividend up; she wanted to know whether to place the decimal before (.425) or after (4.25).  After going through the estimating process, I tied the estimated answer back to decimal placing by examining the numbers created by placing the decimals at all the possible locations.  When we got to .425 vs. 4.25, I explained that .425 is the correct answer because “.425 is closer to 1 than 4.25”, which was vague and ungrounded.  My SA offered a much clearer explanation — “when we estimated earlier, we founded the dividend up to get 1.  Therefore, the answer should be smaller than 1.  Where should you put the decimal to get a number smaller than 1?”

Wow.

* * *

I felt that the lesson proceeded very smoothly and devoid of Ums and Uhhs.  That being said, the way in which I taught the lesson brought out a very serious problem:  my SA had instructed me to teach a certain method and I had not done so; to make matters worse, the method I taught was exactly what the students were doing, and what we were attempting to correct.  During the discussion my SA made sure to clearly communicate the importance of that step as well as her reasoning behind the methodology, which I agreed 100% with and said I would teach.  I did not do that.

This, I imagine, is extremely frustrating for my SA, and this is definitely not the first time that something like this had occurred.  My SA always clearly explains the way she marks each kind of assignment, and I always fully understand her instructions and promise to act accordingly.  However, when time comes to actually follow through, I act as though I had not understood because… well, I had not done what was told of me.  This comes across as negligent and perhaps even suggesting a lack of attention due to a lack of care; definitely not an impression I intend to give off, but I cannot deny the fact that my actions reflect that.

I’ve thought long and hard about why this may be the case… one hypothesis is that the steps and things I omit are not what I would normally consider.  For example, for long division, I do not usually write down the equation horizontally before proceeding.  Moving forward, I believe I need to write things down as I am discussing matters with my SA, especially those points that are stressed.  I need to focus less on the big picture, but more on the details… because often it is these small details that have the biggest effect on the success of my instruction.

Forgetting to do things leads to shoddy teaching, and I do not feel that is acceptable.  My SA deserves better, and I definitely expect more of myself.  Hopefully this is the last time that something like this happens.

Ugh.

02/3/15

A belated update

Hello, readers!  This week’s update comes a little bit late, and for that I apologize.  And now, without further ado…

* * * * *

PE class this time around was a little more hectic, with chaos abound, but the class cooperated well with us.  My SA needed to assess each student’s fitness, as it is one of the components that make up their PE grade.  As a result, we had to go through the class roster in groups, as the fitness stations did not accommodate the entire class.  We split up the gym into two portions, with myself running set shot practice on the other side of the gym.

There were a few challenges we faced.  While we had access to two separate baskets, they were at 90 degrees to each other, which resulted in the two lineups bunching up together at the ends.  Fortunately the class did really well staying on task and practiced dribbling while they were waiting in line.  M, one of my students who is diagnosed with ASD, had a few challenges as well.  He had difficulties with the technique involved with set shots and was not able to shoot the ball high enough, which led him to attempt different kinds of shots such as overhead lobs, underhanded tosses, and so on.  These choices led to him gradually becoming off-task, with him starting to bother the classmates standing behind him in line.  Moreover, as the fitness test wrapped up for the first group, my SA called for other students to take their places; the transition created a little bit of confusion and chaos.

My initial idea was to run a set shot workshop similar to the lesson I taught last class, but quickly realized that this would not be possible after discussing our goals for the day with my SA.  Moreover, French class ended several minutes later than expected, so we had to make up for it by starting as soon as we entered the gym.  I decided to mainly focus on set shots and circulating to give individual tips while formatively assessing the students on their technique.  Initially I instructed M verbally, and gave him verbal prompts for redirecting off-task behaviour.  When that did not work, I began pulling him aside to help him focus on the proper technique, which was moderately successful for a short period of time.  As his off-task behaviour escalated, I informed him that continuing that behaviour would result in him being assigned a different activity aside from the rest of the class; he chose to participate in the activity properly, and I affirmed his positive choice with praise.

As I was transitioning into the “baskets for pushups/situps” activity that the class loved (D explicitly asked for it), my SA blew the whistle, signalling a group change.  We decided to continue with the previous set shot activity, as the new additions to our set shot camp were rather tired and not as receptive.  I decided to keep it simple and continue the workshop until the end of PE class, which worked out rather well.

* * *

My SA and I discussed our plan of attack for the extended practicum.  It’s coming soon!  I’m very thankful for the opportunity to lead the class… the idea fills me with excitement!  That being said, one of my objectives for the practicum will be to fully emulate and incorporate my SA’s teaching style, expectations, and structure.  Over the course of the first term I had seen the class grown tremendously and begin to shine.  I need to remain mindful of the students’ expectations, as I’ve noticed that a few of them have begun to assume that things are “different” when Mr. Tsang is standing in front of the classroom.  One of the first things I will do with the class is to spend perhaps an hour going over the classroom expectations (again) and being firm on the expectations.  I am contemplating, however, discussing a Social Contract with the class, tying the idea to the Social Students unit on Governance.

That’s all for now!  Time to put all those ideas swimming around inside my head onto paper!

01/25/15

I think I like PE now!

I must admit… prior to stepping foot into the classroom as a teacher candidate, the idea of teaching physical education unnerved me somewhat.  So does the thought of teaching French, but we will save that story for another time.  Fortunately, I have the wonderful opportunity to study under Steve McGinley and learned that PE doesn’t have to be taught in a meritocratic manner.  And so, tasked with leading a class full of wonderful individuals possessing a diverse range of experience and skills, I move forward with this week’s task:  dribbling, chest passes, bounce passes, and a juicy introduction to set shots.  In the sake of brevity, this post will focus solely upon the lesson and lessons learned from said lesson.  Another post to follow on the meat of the happenings of last week, and more musings to come…

* * *

Plan:  modified warm-up allowing for dribbling and pass practice.  How to achieve this and introduce/set shot practice?  Well, I wanted to make sure each student had a good opportunity to practice, which involves time… and I had no clue how many baskets were going to be available (we had 5 at my elementary school as a child… which, in retrospect, was a rather impressive number).  So, during the drive to the school (and while weaving in and out of rain-slogged traffic), I had the bright idea of forgoing the typical 3 lap jog around the gym and use the skills practice to warm up!  Seeing as we recently covered assessment techniques in PE, assessment was somewhat on my mind…

… and so I hatched the great idea of having them all run around the gym to pass me the ball.  Yes, just me.  While it was great for formative assessment (and the kids loved the idea of doing something other than running around the gym), it created the unfortunate problem of TRAFFIC JAM!  On the bright side, most of the students took the opportunity to practice their dribbling while chatting with their friends, but this issue could have been mitigated by separating the class into small groups or partners.

My set shot mini-lesson and following activity went fairly well.  The students were having fun experimenting and celebrating their successes; I stopped the class and gathered everybody around for some strategy-sharing.  After giving a few more pointers, I tasked the groups with trying to score as many baskets as they can (as a group) within 5 minutes, with the winning group deciding on a kind of exercise I would get to do (ie — I do pushups, or burpees).  I feel that changing the focus from individual to team helped some students get away from their fear of failure to simply having fun participating with their classmates.  While no group got even close to the minimum number of baskets I challenged them with (haha, nobody can get 100 baskets!), we still had a great time debriefing.  Well, they did — I did a pushup for each student’s contribution, whether it be something they tried that worked or “nothing”.  I temporarily forgot that there were 25 students in the class, and that while they all had the option of participating, it was still in front of the class.  Perhaps next time I will use more Think-Pair-Share.  And next time I’ll have them join me in pushups, too!  Or perhaps a Walk-and-Chat, that would make a nice cool-down… can’t wait to try next week!  My class is awesome — it’s hard to believe that the same class who bounced off the wall in The Story of the Wasp is the same class that gave me its undivided attention as I hit the rim not once or twice, but three times as I was demonstrating the set shot.  Nothing but net on the fourth attempt, though!

PS — D was invaluable as a classroom resource.  Initially he shared, nonchalantly, “I have to shoot from further away.  I can’t score baskets up close.”  I looked at him and jokingly replied, “seriously?”  He replied, “yes, Mr. T,” turned around, paused for a second to aim, and shot a basket from just outside free throw range.  Nothing but net.  “Respect,” I said to him, passing him my ball.  Without a word, he shot the ball I tossed to him, which followed his to its home through the red iron.  Okay, I trusted him to give his classmates pointers from then on.  I’ll share the story of how we began our amicable relationship another time.

01/8/15

And now, for a change of pace…

… and we’re back to school!  Winter break was very enjoyable (a little too enjoyable), but it’s great to get back into the groove.  And back to school means… back to practicum, and back to another fun-filled day at the school!  My SA requested that I try my hand at teaching another PE class last time we met, so we went into the gym after French.  The kids all brought their gym strip!  I was so impressed with them that I immediately sent them on 3 laps around the gym (being sure to touch all four walls) to get the party started… and hadn’t noticed that I had yet to turn on the lights.  Ecstatic, E shouted, “All right, Mr. T!  You’re awesome!  Guys, let’s go run in the DARK!”  Being the way he is, he shouts this as he’s running into the gym.  Fortunately he stopped when I told him to wait as I fumbled around for the lights.  Aside from that, the lesson turned out very well!  We were starting basketball, and my SA had suggested that I try to teach some passing techniques along with dribbling (which I originally intended).  The kid surprised me with their full, undivided attention and enthusiastic participation!  By the end of the class everyone was able to do chest passes — a few of the girls, who’ve actually never held a basketball (what?!), exclaimed that they were actually good at a sport, which brought a huge grin to my face.

Aside from that, however, today was a teaching-free day.  Today’s math block was self-guided; science in the afternoon was not only self-guided, but my SA was assessing the students’ ability to independently follow instructions and problem-solve.  So, I can only speak of the French lesson that took place within the classroom (our prep block).  The following is an observation of a team-taught French lesson (!) that I absorbed via osmosis, as I was marking the kids’ spelling homework.  This announcement may have been met with alarm, but please, suspend your uneasiness for a moment — it will make sense further on.  PS:  my SA told me to pay special attention to the other teacher, because his teaching style was very different from my SA’s.  This interesting change is made even more interesting in that I now know that the French teacher was actually replacing the teacher who normally taught French.  And that teacher, interesting enough, is our vice principal.

* * *

The lesson hook was simple enough — the kids recognized the vice principal and were rather energetic… very uncharacteristic of the class, as French was usually met with little enthusiasm.  The vice principal and his partner took turns talking and teaching:  the vice principal would say a phrase en francais, and his partner would provide an English translation.  He spoke in English as well, but the vice principal spoke mostly in French during the instructional phase.

The interesting difference, I noticed, is the fact that the vice principal taught in an anecdotal method.  He would say a phrase, ask the class to repeat the phrase several times, after which he would teach the meaning and tell a short story about the phrase, or make a short comment or joke.  Today, I learned that asking for the “wash basin” (which means washroom) in the wrong place in the world would be met with snickering and a retort, “Why, do you smell?  Do you need to take a bath that badly?”  Funny enough, few people make that association in English, as most public bathrooms don’t come with fancy shower facilities.  Or any facilities, but I digress.

The students quite enjoyed the lesson, and showed their enthusiasm in full participation.  Several students carried on side conversations, usually comments on the funny and silly anecdotes the vice principal shared with the class; while my SA and I would normally address the side conversations, the vice principal was very comfortable with these and as a result, the environment was noticeably noisier and more boisterous.  I can say without a doubt that the kids all enjoyed today’s French class; whether they retain the phrases learned, however, will need to be determined in the future.

Perhaps the students quite enjoyed the change of pace; perhaps they liked the more active nature of the new unit.  While they didn’t exactly all rush off to the toilet at the same time, the kids got plenty of practice standing up, sitting down, raising their hands, asking for words like “banana” (banane), “roast beef” (rosbif), and “salad” (salade) en francais.  They particularly liked the vice principal’s silly pun — his way of saying “making roast beef” was “duing rosbif” (du is a subject marker, and a fun homonym for “do”).

And the class, surprisingly, calmed down and lined up orderly (with no chatter!) in preparation for PE class.  I find it kind of cute how one or two students would find out I was teaching (one or two kids would always ask me in the morning, “Are you teaching us today, Mr. T?”) and quickly spread the news, sending everyone into “best behaviour mode”.  I’m thinking that this might be a good thing to take advantage of… oh well, I’ll take it!