Observation Days in my new class - grade 6

So I don't think I could have had a weirder set of observation days in my new Grade 6 class. The first day was like any other...getting to know the students (personalities and abilities), and finding out what they have been up to all year. The next scheduled day involved me attending the second half of a TRIBES workshop that my associate was running. That left me with Wed and Friday before March Break. It just soo happens that a snow storm arrived. Buses were cancelled on Wed, so we had a total of 11 students by the afternoon. Therefore I had a very productive day lesson planning in the computer lab.

Friday arrived and it was the last day before March Break. The kids were super hyper and pretty much played games the whole day. The only true class they had was when the Public Health nurse came to our classroom. Watching the students learn and get "disturbed" as they put it, provided me with a quick laugh. It really didn't seem like it was much to squirm about but I guess grade 6 is just one of those grades...

Block II - A new level

Well today was the day we found out about our new placements...grade 6 it is. My response to this is split. There is EEEK on the one end and YAY on the other. This is not an age group that I have a lot of experience with therefore there are some nerves developing inside me. BUT these nerves are being eased by the comforting words of the students that have been at the school for Block I. They have told me that my associate teacher is an amazing one and that she will be great model for me. Furthermore she is big on TRIBES (one of the seminars from Social Issues Day II), so this will definitely come in handy in my future teaching.

Last Day of Block I

Well the Block one has come and gone and it was not easy to say goodbye to the students. I had such a great grade 3 class and couldn't have asked for a greater class in which to start my teaching practicums. Although creating lessons and fitting in everything that needed to get done was stressful at times, the students really made it all worth while.

Saying goodbye had to have been the hardest part of the block. Despite only teaching the students for a month, I felt that I made a connection with many of them. During the last period of the day after the desk clean-up and class clean-up for parent interviews night, my grade 3s had a special surprise for me. They had all written a goodbye/thank you card for me. Not only that, but they all read their cards to me as well. How can you leave such a great class...

The lesson I have learned from my students and my associate teacher will stay with me as move on in my endeavours. I will never forget my first teaching block with my grade 3s!!!!

We just play with Volleyballs!!!

WE DON'T PLAY WITH BARBIE DOLLS...

WE JUST PLAY WITH VOLLEYBALLS!!!!

WE DON'T WEAR NO MINI SKIRTS...

WE JUST WEAR OUR WOODLAND SHIRTS!!!!

GO WOLVES!!!!!

Coaching jr. girl volleyball...what an experience! Coaching the junior girls volleyball has definitely showed me another side of what being a teacher is. These girls really look up to their coaches (being myself and their principal) to help them play their best. They get soo excited when they make us proud. Little do they know, what we are proud of goes way past the scoreboard. Seeing them use the strategies that have been taught to them, working as a team and doing their best is all that is needed. Sure, it does help that we are third in the league!!!

Keep it up girls...GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WOLVES!!!

First day...come and gone

Well I hope my fellow counselling group members had a successful first day! Mine was a little rough around the edges but pulled through in the end.

My first lesson, an Introduction to Rural and Urban Geography was a tough period. To start off, I have never seen or taught a social studies unit and therefore was a little unaware of how exactly it should be taught. To make the situation harder, my students thought they could take advantage of the fact that my associate was not the one teaching them. After the class was over, my associate chatted with me immediately after. We discussed more what was expected of me in social studies and I now have more structured lessons for those periods. In addition, we agreed that I would have to show my discontent with their behaviour during the social studies period before my math lesson began.

After having time to settle down over lunch and a prep, I was ready for my second lesson...Introduction to Data Management. Before I started my lesson I did discuss with my students that i was very disappointed with their previous behaviour and pointed out that I deserve the same respect they give to any of the other teachers at the school. After this discussion, the students were better behaved. They came over to the meeting place and were all very engaged with my lesson. I had prepared some props in advance and the students knew immediately that they were going to have to sort them. Not only did I have certain students sort the shapes, I had the others guess what the thinking was behind the grouping. This kept them all very engaged with the activity. Even during their seat work, the students worked independently and raised their hands if they had questions...surprising what a little behaviour talk will do!!! One of the questions was causing many difficulties for the students, so instead of having them work individually on the question, we took it up as a group. Overall, it was a much more organized lesson.

Well day one is now done and day two is coming. Off to lesson planning for the future.

First day countdown

First day of the teaching block is in less than 24 hours away...the waves of emotions tell all! It is hard to believe that we are already at this point of our "teacher's college" year! A mix of excitement and nervousness has been building inside of me all weekend, all this planning and work we have done over the past 3 years is finally going to be put into practice.

Tomorrow, I will be teaching two lessons to my class, Math and Social Studies. I will be starting a new unit in both subjects which leaves me with an empty pool to just jump right into. In some ways, I think is has made my lesson planning a little easier, no need to worry about where my associate has already been, just need to worry about what direction to take my students.

Will keep you posted on how the lessons go as the weeks go by, but it is time to get back to the lesson planning.

Micro Teaching

So the starting of the day didn't go soo smoothly. Technology...does it really help our everyday lives or does it make things harder? Well in my case, it made things a little more difficult. One camcorder wouldn't let me even get the main menu and once we figured out that it was the camera and not, we figured out how to unfinalize the disk. But due to neither of us at our school seeing how the camcorder works, we apparently didn't tape my teaching...all this said, I still believed that it was on. Therefore it still made me aware of my behaviours.

The actual activity went well. My 6 kids were awesome. A few were a little hesitant at first, in particular two of the girls. The boys were exceptional, although answers were sometimes quiet, they were ready for anything! The students really enjoyed coming out of the class and having a special lesson, and due to this helped my activity go smoothly.

The observations that my two counsellors made really open my eyes to new ways to approach my lessons. The feedback was really constructive and appreciative. Although the teaching went well, I am glad that the micro teaching is done. Now I can move on to getting ready for the teaching block.