My field experience has been one to remember! I have loved every minute in the classroom with my placement teacher.
My favourite part of field placement was connecting what we discussed in the ECS 100 lecture and seminar to the classroom I was placed in. Many lessons connected to the classroom from ECS 100. For example, invitation and hospitality in my placement classroom was strong. My placement teacher welcomes her students every morning at the door of the classroom. The classroom environment was very welcoming; there were many inspirational quotes around the classroom to keep students inspired to learn. In the future, my classroom will be a welcoming place for all students. Our placement teacher has a great relationship with her students; therefore, all students respect her and her classroom rules. It was a great experience to observe the grade 5 classroom, and when I got to help in the Kindergarten classroom I enjoyed it too. I think I would prefer teaching Kindergarten to Grade 3 classes, but I would teach to grade 5 if I had the opportunity. I am thankful I had the opportunity to experience a classroom that I didn’t think I would enjoy. The students got so excited every time they have seen us and were always asking us questions. The connection I had with the students was one of my favourite parts. My placement teacher was a fantastic mentor to me. She was willing to answer any questions I had thought of when I was in her classroom. I am grateful she was willing to open her classroom and let us join her and the grade 5 class. There was information she shared that I had never thought of, and it opened my eyes to important educational topics. This field placement experience has made me understand more of the behind the scenes tasks that come along with being a teacher. I learned many important lessons throughout my eight weeks in the classroom. I was nervous about my first day at placement, but now I don’t want it to end. After these eight weeks in the classroom, I am glad I am pursuing my dream of becoming a teacher. All the information I have learned so far will stick with me forever and will help me grow as an educator. I am very excited to continue my educational journey in the upcoming years. ~Karlee
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What a fantastic topic to explore today! Technology is a huge part of society. It is important for children to get a good understanding of technology because it is used everywhere. Technology is a useful tool in classrooms today. Our placement teacher uses a microphone to help project her voice every day in her classroom. This is a very neat tool to help students hear at the back of the classroom.
Our placement teacher wishes she had more access to technology to use in her classroom. The school has two laptop carts that can be signed out to the older grades in the school. The grade 5 class doesn’t get them very often due to the high demand. Most of the younger grades in the school have a few of either Chromebooks, laptops, or iPads. Our placement teacher has tried to apply to be a tech teacher but got denied. If she would have got this, she would have had her own laptops for any class she teaches. The school has lots of technology and resources available to them. They use a website to update student’s marks regularly. Marks are put into the system and calculated according to the teacher’s outcomes. The children’s parents can log on to the website with a username and password to check student’s success regularly. Many teachers use Seesaw in their classrooms. Seesaw is a great way to see student improvement throughout the year. There are many ways to use Seesaw depending on the grade you are teaching. Also, there are interactive boards in most classrooms in the school. These boards are like smartboards, but they project on to the whiteboard, so the whiteboard is still useable with whiteboard markers. There are many tech resources in this school provided to teachers for lessons. In the grade 5 class, there are two students that have laptops available to them in the classroom. They use the laptops to type some of their assignments if they will be done more efficiently. Sometimes these students take longer typing because their typing skills aren’t used enough. Our placement teacher is trying to improve their typing. She believes it is important for students to know how to properly type for the future. She encourages her students to practice typing at home for their fifteen minutes of homework when they have no other homework to do. Students do not have outcomes involving keyboard skills. Our placement teacher wishes she had more laptops available for some other students to type their answers because some of their writing is so poor she cannot read it. In the grade 5 classroom, they could use more technology to improve their learning. Have a great last placement next week! ~Karlee Hello everyone!
Today I got to talk to our teacher a lot, and learned many things! We focused on talking about the class and how she teaches. Today we had some fun helping our placement teacher mark some English questions, and we had a few laughs at some of the responses we read. She showed us the program the school uses for report cards and grading. Parents can sign on to the website to see how well their child is doing with the assignments. I think it is important for parents and their child’s teacher to stay in contact. If parents or the teacher have a problem they can work out a solution and do what is best for the student. In grade 5, they have just started a novel. I think it is called “As Long As The Rivers Flow.” The book is about First Nations people. They have learned about many First Nations traditions and culture. The book also explains the Residential school experience for Indigenous people. Our placement teacher said the students have been making good connections and asking questions. The grade 5 class has just started this novel, but are very engaged in it. Our placement teacher says she sticks to the curriculum as much as she can just to make sure she is staying on top of all the outcomes that need to be met. She gave me one tip today that I will remember forever: “whenever you can try to hit two or more outcomes within one assignment.” Our placement teacher says she tries to do this all the time because there are so many outcomes to hit in a year, plus all the other things that you have to do. For example, at Halloween, they had to draw a Halloween picture for arts education, and label it with French sentences. She hit two outcomes and marked this assignment in two portions, half as an arts education mark and half as a French mark. The next assignment she has planned is an essay on a Canadian sports hero because one of the outcomes she has to teach is sports hero’s in Canada for physical education class. She will also be giving the students an English mark for this because they are working on essay formatting and punctuation. Other teachers probably do this but I have never thought of this before. At my school, the last couple of nights they are having parent-teacher interviews during the evenings. The students are involved in the conferences. Our placement teacher has an ongoing binder that she puts all-important assessments and assignments in so when conferences come around she is prepared. Students can also choose any work they are proud of and want to show their parents at conferences into the binder. At conferences, they look through the binder and discuss the student’s accomplishments. Another thing our placement teacher does is has the students make goals prier. She has made a circle diagram that they fill in with their goals and steps. At conferences, they all talk about the steps the student will take to achieve their goal. I think goal setting is a great way for students to be accountable for themselves and gain responsibility. It also helps if the parents are aware of the goals being set. Another great day! Only two more days in the classroom :( ~Karlee Today was another fantastic day in the classroom!
My favourite part of today was helping groups of students invent new or modify an existing game to play with their class in physical education class. Some groups knew exactly what they were going to do for a game and others had no idea what to do. I guided some groups on the right path or help them think of a game to modify. It was super cute when groups were telling me about their games because they were so excited to share. When I was circulating I noticed some games that were being created wouldn’t actually work, so I asked them questions to help them solve the problems they would have ran into when actually tried the game with a group of people. This activity demonstrated teamwork, problem-solving, and creativity. Also, when they present the game to the class the group members will have to be the officials keeping the game under control. My placement teacher said that when students officiate their game they sometimes get mad at the rules on some occasions, and our teacher has to calm them down. This was a super great planning period. I hope I am in the classroom when they present their games because I am curious to see how they turn out. My placement teacher is a very positive person. She reminds the students constantly to be kind to each other and to themselves. At the front of the classroom above the whiteboard, there is a border that has kind words and inspiration on it. I love this because the students often look at the front of the classroom to get instructions. This small border is a daily reminder to treat all classmate’s kind and to be a positive person. They have been reading a book by Craig Kielburger that is called “It Takes a Child.” This book is about Craig’s inspirational journey from when he was a child. They have been relating what Craig did as a child and want they are doing or will do to make to world a better place. My teacher said they were so into the story this morning that she couldn’t get them to put the book away after their English class. When they do pray at the end of the day, they pray for everyone. The students feel welcomed and comfortable in the classroom. After school today, my placement teacher told me in the past she has incorporated cultural dance into the dance portion of arts education. She has asked students to teach the class any cultural dances from their backgrounds. She has had many different students willing to share the dance they know with the class. I think this an interesting way to incorporate cultural diversity into the classroom, and is a great learning opportunity for the class. I would also like to touch briefly on the connections I have made in the classroom to our Indigenous people in Canada. In the classroom, they have books available to sign out for silent reading about Indigenous people. Today in French class, the students learnt mother and father in the Cree language along with learning members of their family in French. One day they went with their grade 2 buddies, and they did a video response to a book they read about Orange Shirt Day. They made some very detailed answers and discussed the topic in a very respectful way. They had learnt about this topic in previous years as well as this year and had a very good understanding of residential schools and Indigenous people in Canada. I learned many things today that I will remember when I am a teacher! ~Karlee Today was a fantastic experience. We got welcomed by a student who had made up treat bags for the class and brought enough for us. We got to help take students out of the classroom to extend their learning on a field trip and to perform their Thriller dance. We got to feel the kid’s excitement about Halloween. Everyone was very excited about all the things happening that day.
Their Thriller dance performance was very well done. They went to Queen Victoria’s seniors’ home to show the residence all the hard work the grade fives put into practicing for this day. All of the students were dressed as zombies for the day, and some of their costumes were very well done. The students all participated except for one. One of the students made a deal with the teacher that he didn’t have to do the performance, but he had to dress the same and come along to Queen Victoria. This student has very high anxiety, and couldn’t do the dance in front of his school in a large group, so he wouldn’t have been able to do it at the senior’s home. This student stood with me when his classmates were performing and felt very comfortable standing with me watching the group. He asked me many questions and told me some stories while together. This is a very good example of unseen diversity amongst the students. This student is very different from the others but still participated as much as possible. He still was part of the group which made him feel included. All kids feel differently about certain things and it is important to make all kids feel comfortable with what they have to do in your classroom. The seniors were thrilled to interact with the kids after the performance. When I am a teacher I would like my class to interact with the senior in the community. Our field trip to Government House was fantastic! I have never been to Government House before, so it was a great experience. We split the students into two groups for the tour and crafts. The students in my group were very content and well behaved. They were asking great questions to our tour guild and very engaged in the conversations. We all learned many things that help the students to understand the novel they had finished reading in class. Our tour guild allowed some students to play a self-playing piano. The kids all wanted to try to play it but we ran out of time. I am very glad I got to experience a field trip with the grade 5 class. I think they all enjoyed the day and learned many new things! We took candy to share with the grade 5 and Kindergarten class which they loved. All the students were very excited to go out trick or treating with their friends after school. It was a fantastic day! I can’t wait for next week! ~Karlee |
AuthorWeekly posts about my field experiences in the classroom. ArchivesPictures of the Classroom
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