Week 1: Khushbu
Week 2: Catharine
Week 3: Amy
Week 4: Sai
Monday, 28 November 2011
Fourth week... The end of first practicum :(
Saying goodbye was harder than I had thought. Looking at the goodbye cards they made for me...I miss them already. Hope they miss me too!
I'm also quite proud of myself for making through the first practicum. I believe it was successful and rewarding seeing what I have accomplished in the past four weeks.
So in the last week, I mostly supervised the students on their big science project. They had a lesson on "recycling" and learned about the importance of recycling and its impact on the environment. Then they were introduced to the project of making an object (a piece of art, or an object that can be used in our daily life) from recycled materials. The students were so excited and engaged throughout the whole process, from planning to building to presenting to peers in the gallery walk. They had so much fun, and their work turned out great!! They also showed great team work (they were doing the project in pairs). Considering they only had one day to built, they are quite efficient!
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Third week!
This past week is quite eventful! It was the parents interview week, there are many things that teachers had to prepare for the interviews: every students file (their school work, tests, notes, etc.) I wasn't able to sit and listen during the interviews of my grade 5 students, but I was fortunate to be an interpreter for two grade 6 ESL student's parents. They've just came to Toronto recently and didn't know much English. The parents were very concern about their child's progress in English learning and questioned whether it would affect student's academic learning in math and science. I think the two grade 6 teachers whom I was helping translating were very caring and encouraging, their answers were very comforting for the parents. I could relate to both of these parents' concerns because I've experienced being an ESL student before. The parents were also concerned about their child's social development in school life. Integrating to the education system and school life isn't easy. So the teachers recommended that the ESL students can join lunch or after school programs that are not too heavy in communication, so the ESL students can make friends and be more involved in school community.
The book fair was also held last week for three days in the school's library. My students were very excited, almost all of them bought books. (which means they finally have something to read during silent reading time, and I will hear no more complains about them not having interesting books to read). some of them even visited the book fair every recess everyday. I've also noticed this wristbands trend. Students would spend their extra money on this "stop-bullying" wristband. some of them even bought 10 of them ($1 per wristband). I'm not sure whether they bought the wristband because they really want to promote "stop-bullying" or it's just because they think it's cool to wear so many of them on their wrist.
The students also went skating on Wednesday afternoon, at a walking-distance skating arena. They had lots of fun. It's too bad that I can't skate. Watching them skate made me really want to learn as well.
One more event that happened on Monday was the music prologue of Hansel and Gretel. I personally liked it and I think it was a good introduction for the kids to Opera singing.
The book fair was also held last week for three days in the school's library. My students were very excited, almost all of them bought books. (which means they finally have something to read during silent reading time, and I will hear no more complains about them not having interesting books to read). some of them even visited the book fair every recess everyday. I've also noticed this wristbands trend. Students would spend their extra money on this "stop-bullying" wristband. some of them even bought 10 of them ($1 per wristband). I'm not sure whether they bought the wristband because they really want to promote "stop-bullying" or it's just because they think it's cool to wear so many of them on their wrist.
The students also went skating on Wednesday afternoon, at a walking-distance skating arena. They had lots of fun. It's too bad that I can't skate. Watching them skate made me really want to learn as well.
One more event that happened on Monday was the music prologue of Hansel and Gretel. I personally liked it and I think it was a good introduction for the kids to Opera singing.
Sunday, 13 November 2011
Second Week
This week went pretty well! my students had a lot of fun in the activities they did in my science class (lego building, outdoor shipwreck, watched Rube Goldberg machine video and observed an oil-boom experiment). My first read-aloud of a picture book called "Ira says goodbye" in my "All about me" lesson was a success, the class was with me and fully engaged.
My classroom management skill definitely improved a lot. I've tried several strategies: clapping hands, waiting time, 8 seconds count down, putting hands up or sometimes on my head, walking to the student who is talking. These strategies all works well depending on the situations.
There are serveral things I learned this week. First, some students like to shout out answers, and sometimes I get carried away that they were so engaged in answering questions. I then responded to their "shout outs"which discouraged students who had their hand up and acknowledge the "shout out" behavior. Secondly, I find doing a detailed lesson plan is really helpful in preparing a good lesson. writing the order of the tasks and questions to ask on a paper as a reminder is very useful as well. I have a tendency to rush when I explain things. Sometimes I feel I ran-out of things to say and I stand in front of the class looking awkwardly and trying to think what's the next step on my lesson plan. My AT also explained to me that plaining tasks in order is very important, because it might interrupts the "flow" of learning and loose students' attention. In one of my lesson, I was explaining the contents, then I asked my students to get their science notebook out and write down some important information. Immediately they stopped listening and started chatting while they get their notebooks. what I should have done was to ask them to have their notebooks ready before I start the lesson. I'm still not very comfortable teaching science, I find I don't have enough knowledge about the contents I'm teaching, especially when I get challenged by students' wonderful questions. Occasionally, my AT would step-in and help me. She always has these wonderful personal stories that she can make connections to the lesson. I wish I can have too, but again, she reminded me that all these stories and knowledge comes from experience and age.
My classroom management skill definitely improved a lot. I've tried several strategies: clapping hands, waiting time, 8 seconds count down, putting hands up or sometimes on my head, walking to the student who is talking. These strategies all works well depending on the situations.
There are serveral things I learned this week. First, some students like to shout out answers, and sometimes I get carried away that they were so engaged in answering questions. I then responded to their "shout outs"which discouraged students who had their hand up and acknowledge the "shout out" behavior. Secondly, I find doing a detailed lesson plan is really helpful in preparing a good lesson. writing the order of the tasks and questions to ask on a paper as a reminder is very useful as well. I have a tendency to rush when I explain things. Sometimes I feel I ran-out of things to say and I stand in front of the class looking awkwardly and trying to think what's the next step on my lesson plan. My AT also explained to me that plaining tasks in order is very important, because it might interrupts the "flow" of learning and loose students' attention. In one of my lesson, I was explaining the contents, then I asked my students to get their science notebook out and write down some important information. Immediately they stopped listening and started chatting while they get their notebooks. what I should have done was to ask them to have their notebooks ready before I start the lesson. I'm still not very comfortable teaching science, I find I don't have enough knowledge about the contents I'm teaching, especially when I get challenged by students' wonderful questions. Occasionally, my AT would step-in and help me. She always has these wonderful personal stories that she can make connections to the lesson. I wish I can have too, but again, she reminded me that all these stories and knowledge comes from experience and age.
Saturday, 5 November 2011
First week at practicum
After the first week at Owen PS, I've learned a lot, and there is too much to absorb. I don't even know how to start. well... At least I'm becoming more comfortable being in the classroom, and I've established pretty good bonding with my AT and the students. I believe I'm making good progress each day.
I would have to say that my biggest challenge is classroom management skills. I've taught three science classes so far. My first lesson on "What is Energy" was the day after Halloween and...my AT wasn't there. So I taught the lesson myself, with a supply teacher around. It was a tough day, I did not know how to handle the kids, I had a hard time trying to get their attention as they were working in groups with the Graffiti chart. (and the Graffiti charts ended up being very messy :( ).
With the help of my AT and Caroline, I'm starting to apply some of the classroom management strategies, I'm stilling working on finding out the strategies that would work best for me, and finding my balance of being both firm and friendly with the students.
I'm looking forward for next week, for my "All about me" lesson (as part of their language lesson). and some math homework take-ups. I should also make a good use of the SMART board in my classroom!!
Have a good weekend Mid-towners!!
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