Solar System Inquiry Projects

For the past few weeks, my grade 6 students have been working on their solar system inquiry projects––their final assessment for the science unit that I have been teaching. Since I am only in the classroom once a week, I have not been able to see the students’ progress on their projects, so this week, I did not prepare a lesson to teach––instead, my co-operating teacher and I agreed that it would be beneficial to provide the students with a full work period to work on their projects while I was in the classroom. That way, I would be there to help students with their projects and to answer any questions, as the due-date for the project is quickly approaching.

This week, I was particularly worried about classroom management. While I am teaching, there are specific classroom management strategies that I use to re-focus the class during a lesson; however, this week I wasn’t teaching a lesson, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle classroom management while the students were working on their projects. I didn’t know what to expect.

As the students were working on their inquiry projects, the room was noisy, but I would say that it was a good kind of noisy. The majority of the students are doing their projects in pairs, so there was a lot of talking going on between partners. Some teachers might have been strict about the noise level, but I believe that a lot of learning can happen through dialogue, which is especially important in group situations like this. In fact, as I wandered the room, I heard a lot of great conversations about the students’ learning. I wanted to foster these conversations instead of impede them. That being said, there were a few students that I had to deal with who were off-task and/or being disruptive to the rest of the class. Instead of interrupting the entire class for classroom management, I chose to deal with these student individually––I reminded them that their inquiry projects were due the following week and that if they chose to waste the class time I was giving them, they would have more work to do on the weekend. I used this strategy because, rather than giving a punishment, it puts responsibility on the student for their own actions. After my conversations with these students, I noticed that they quickly got back to work.

Although the students are excited to see me when I enter the class every week, it is obvious that I come second to their actual classroom teacher, which is understandable. However, to make the students feel more comfortable approaching me with their questions or comments, I circled the room while they were working and made an effort to talk to each group individually, asking how their research was going and how they were planning on presenting their projects. I think these one-on-one conversations helped the students to feel more comfortable around me, and by the end of the class period, many students were coming up to me, excited to show off their projects, and more students were coming to me with their questions instead of going to the classroom teacher.

It’s hard to believe that next week is my last week with my students. Over the past seven weeks I have worked on building strong relationships with these students––it is going to be hard to say goodbye.

Taking A Step Back: Revising a Lesson Plan

For this assignment, I chose to revise the second lesson that I taught this semester, and my first ever Phys.Ed lesson––Factors that Influence the Popularity of Sports. While re-writing this lesson plan, I chose to focus on three particular elements: 1. Differentiation, 2. Adaptive dimensions, and 3. Treaty Education.

My Phys.Ed lesson plan, pre-revision, included only two adaptive dimensions: one suggestion for extending the lesson for higher-level students, and one suggestion for modifying the lesson for students who struggled with the lesson content. Differentiation was also meagre in my original lesson plan, as I only differentiated my teaching process. Before I did this assignment, I used to think that differentiation and adaptive dimensions were grand gestures––ways of completely changing my lesson in order to meet the learning needs of all my students. Maybe this is why, until now, I have shied away from differentiation and adaptive dimensions. However, what I have learned in my field experience this semester is that differentiation and adaptive dimensions are just tweaks to a lesson––however big or small––regarding lesson content, lesson presentation, assessment, in-class activities, multiple intelligences, etc., that help with the inclusion of all students. With this in mind, I revised my lesson plan to include differentiation strategies and adaptive dimensions all throughout my lesson. For instance, in my revised lesson plan, I included strategies to differentiate content, process, and assessment. To differentiate the content of my lesson, I included different learning activities for students who are at different learning-levels. To differentiate the teaching process of my lesson, I included different teaching strategies that would be inclusive of multiple intelligences, such as a lecture/group discussion for auditory learners, visual aids for visual learners, and physical activities for kinetic learners. Lastly, to differentiate the assessment of my lesson, I created an option that allows students to complete their exit slip verbally to a teacher, or with the help of a scribe.

Overall, my teaching of the original lesson plan went smoothly; however, after making changes to include more differentiation and adaptive dimensions, I believe that my revised lesson plan is more inclusive––it does a much better job of meeting the different learning needs of all of my students. However, this was quite a challenge––it took a lot of researching and re-writing in order to expand my lesson plan. But, I have to remember that I am only beginning my teaching journey. As I continue on throughout my education and my career, I will continue to add to my repertoire of strategies, and soon adaptive dimensions will become less foreign and more natural.

I also wanted to focus on including Treaty Education into my revised lesson plan. This also proved to be a challenge––I wasn’t able to link any of the Treaty Education outcomes to the topic of my lesson. However, I still saw an opportunity to incorporate Aboriginal content into my lesson, so I did some research and I found a traditional hunting game of the Aboriginal Peoples of Australia. I included this game (it’s called Taktyerrain) in my revised lesson plan. Originally, the game was created to prepare children for adult life, as it simulates a combat or a hunting situation, which, prior to colonization, was a means of survival for many Aboriginal tribes. Although I adapted the game to be played with dodgeballs, the game is often played with sticks to simulate spear throwing. In addition to this game, I also wanted to have a conversation with my students about the impacts of colonization on Aboriginal ways of life, such as their recreations. However, while I was re-writing my lesson, I felt that it was important to make realistic revisions––that is, revisions that would still allow me to complete the lesson in a 45-minute period (the amount of time that I had when I taught this lesson). That being said, I knew that it would not realistic to have a meaningful conversation about colonization in such a short amount of time, and I do not believe that such conversations should be brief in risk of them being tokenistic. If I had more time in my field experience, I could have extended this lesson over a period of several days where I would have discussed the impacts of colonization on Aboriginal Peoples, making interdisciplinary connections to Treaty Education and Social Studies outcomes.

Although my revised lesson plan does not link to any specific Treaty Education outcomes, I still thought that it was important to include knowledge of our Aboriginal neighbours to increase students’ cultural awareness. In my opinion, if teachers openly educate students about different worldviews, students are likely to become more understanding and accepting of others who are different than them.

Overall, I found this assignment challenging––it’s difficult to critique your own work. However, I enjoyed taking a step back to revise one of my old lesson plans using the tools that I have learned over the semester. This assignment demonstrated to me how much I have grown both personally and professional in a matter of a few weeks. I can’t wait to see how much I continue to grow over the next few years of my teaching journey.

And Then There Were Eight…

The word “perfect” is rarely used by teachers to describe their days in the classroom because the classroom is so unpredictable––nothing ever goes completely according to plan. However, dare I say, I think that my teaching experience this week went perfectly.

Last week I started a unit on the solar system with my students. The unit is inquiry-based––for the next three weeks, the students will be researching a particular planet, and from their research, they will put together a project (a poster, a PowerPoint, a video, a diorama, or something else of their choosing) that demonstrates what they have learned. To help students with the research component of their projects, this week’s lesson was on jot-notes and graphic organizers. I found an article on the International Space Station awhile back and had the students through the article, pick out the most important information, and organize the information into a graphic organizer using jot-note form. When I was originally planning this lesson, I planned it for a class of 30 kids––I had specific teaching strategies and classroom management techniques in mind. However, a few days prior to my lesson, my co-operating teacher e-mailed me saying that there was a band concert that day, which most of the students would be absent for. As it turns out, out of a class of 30, 22 kids are involved in band, which left me with a class of only eight students…

Teaching to such a small class was awkward at first. Over the past six weeks, I have gotten used to teaching to a large class, and I have adapted my teaching style, the activities that I plan, my classroom management techniques, etc. accordingly. However, it actually ended up being a great experience for both me and the students, and I discovered many benefits of teaching in a smaller classroom setting. First, the classroom atmosphere, which is usually quite loud and disruptive, was relaxed and quiet. The students were all attentive, and they all participated in the lesson, which allowed us to have some really good discussions about what they had learned.

Second, teaching in a smaller classroom setting made it much easier to gauge student learning because I didn’t have to dedicate as much time to classroom management. As a result, I was able to spend one-on-one time with students, which doesn’t happen often in a larger classroom setting. During my one-on-one time with students, I was able to assess their learning, and if they didn’t understand a certain concept, I was able to differentiate my teaching and explain the concept in an alternate way. I think this one-on-one time with students made a huge difference in student learning, as by the end of my lesson, I was confident that every student had mastered the lesson material.

Third, I noticed that students were more relaxed and outgoing in the smaller classroom setting. A few students made comments that they liked how quiet it was in the classroom because they could actually concentrate. In addition, a couple of the quieter students started to open up and become more talkative throughout the lesson. The smaller classroom setting also influenced my teaching and I became more relaxed, too. For instance, I adapted my lesson and allowed the students to work on their assignment with a partner, instead of individually. Normally, I try to avoid group work for classroom management purposes; however, I think that working in pairs and being able to discuss with a friend helped reinforce student learning.

Teaching in a smaller classroom setting this week was a great experience for both me and the students. The classroom atmosphere wasn’t so strict, so I was able to spend less time on classroom management and more one-on-one time with the students––reinforcing learning and building student-teacher relationships. Overall, I think my lesson went perfectly. However, my experience this week made me realize how much stress and anxiety a large, disruptive classroom setting puts on students and teachers alike. I believe that overpopulated classrooms are a problem within the education system, and unfortunately, it is a problem that teachers have little control over. So how do I work within a large classroom setting to create a positive learning atmosphere for myself and my students?

Breaking Out of My Classroom-Management Shell

This week, I finally started teaching my unit on the solar system. For the last couple weeks, I have been very busy preparing the unit and have put in a lot of time and effort. I’m hoping my hard work and planning will result in a smooth experience for both me and my students!

The lesson I taught this week was my best, by far! I am only at my school teaching for one afternoon a week, so I dedicated this week’s lesson to outlining and discussing the solar system research project that my students will be doing as part of the unit. I wanted to make sure that the students knew exactly what the project entailed, I wanted to set out my expectations, and I wanted to address any questions about the project at the outset so the kids could get a head start on their research over the next week (my co-operating teacher has been nice enough to allot all of the science periods over the next few weeks to the students’ projects). During the lesson, we went through project duo-tangs that I made for the students, which included the project outline sheet, marking rubrics that outlined how the students will be assessed, as well as a project tracking sheet. The purpose of the project tracking sheet is to hold students accountable to their work while I am not at the school. It is also a way for me to gauge where students are at in their projects so I can adjust my future lessons accordingly. I included my marking rubrics in the students’ duo-tangs because I believe that it is important for students to understand how they will be assessed and what they will be assessed on so they can plan their learning accordingly. Also, I think it is important that students are part of the assessment process, so after we read through the marking rubrics, I discussed with the class whether they thought my expectations were fair and something that they could achieve. I wanted the students to feel like they have a say in their projects, so I thought that this was something important for me to do with them.

My teaching target for this week was to practice using positive reinforcement in the classroom. I chose this as my target because I think that it is really important to practice different classroom management techniques so I can build my repertoire. I want to have an array of techniques to use at my disposal during pre-internship, internship, and even in my future classroom. In addition, and so far during my pre-service placement, I have noticed that my co-operating teacher often raises her voice to get the class’ attention. In my opinion, yelling only works on students for so long before it no longer phases them, so I wanted to try a new strategy. Now, some people don’t believe that positive reinforcement works, but let me tell you, it does! I nailed my target this week! The students weren’t out-of-hand by any means (in my opinion, they were actually quite calm throughout the lesson), but when they did get to be a little too chatty, I complimented a student who I thought was setting a positive example by sitting quietly and listening, and within a few seconds the rest of the class gave me their attention again and we were able to continue on with our lesson. In addition to how well my classroom management strategy worked, I think it positively impacted the students––rather than being punished for misbehaving, the students beamed when I complimented them. My co-operating teacher even commented on this in our post-conference: she said that she thought that my positive reinforcement worked really well to get the students’ attention, and she wants to try using more positive reinforcement herself now in the classroom because of my success!

This week my placement partner and I learned about the harsh reality of classroom dynamics: classroom dynamics can make or break a lesson. Right now, my partner is doing a unit on Treaty Education, and this week she played a Treaty simulation game with the students. The game went very well––the students clearly recognized the unfairness of the Treaties, and they were very upset by it. However, no matter how many classroom management strategies my partner tried during her lesson, the class just couldn’t be controlled. Maybe it was that the students had just come back from recess? Maybe it was that we played the game in the gym? I’m not sure, but this situation made me realize that as a teacher, you can create the perfect lesson plan, you can be totally organized, but if the dynamics of the classroom are off, it can really affect your lesson. Something else that I picked out is how quickly the classroom dynamics can change! My partner taught her lesson before mine, so I was expecting the kids to be just as rowdy for my lesson; however, as I mentioned earlier, the students were actually quite calm. Maybe it was because the students were excited to start their projects? Again, I’m not sure, but it was definitely a learning experience for both me and my partner.

Reunited

After being away from my students for two weeks, I was FINALLY back with my grade 6s today. I missed them, to say the least. When I got to the classroom, I was greeted by the students with excitement–I guess they missed me too! Last week my students were on a class ski trip, so I spent the day helping out in another classroom at my placement school. While I enjoyed my experience in the new classroom, I was bummed because I was missing out on teaching opportunities, and also opportunities to continue building relationships with my students. This week, I was determined to make up for my lost time!

I kicked off the afternoon with my Phys Ed lesson on physical disabilities in athletics. To begin, we generated ideas about what the terms “disability” and “handicap” mean. In an activity like this, I would normally make a mind-web on the board that included student answers; however, I believe that there are a lot of misconceptions about the terms “disability” and “handicap”, so I provided the students with the true definitions instead. Right away, students seemed to be invested in my lesson. I think this was because they could relate to it, as there is a student who is deaf in the classroom. Because deafness is something that the students are familiar with, we discussed deafness as an example, and we talked about certain adaptations that are made for people who are deaf (i.e. sign language, interpreters, hearing implants). From there, I was able to move the discussion to adaptations to sports and games for people with physical disabilities. This initial class discussion went great! The students were eager to respond, and they had a lot of good answers that I was able to build off of. However, I think the video that I showed (look at me using technology in the classroom!) really reinforced the focus of my lesson. I showed the students a clip of the sport that we would be trying, the Paralympic sport sitting volleyball. During the video, I heard a student say, “Wow! Those players are so good, and some of them don’t even have legs!”

The students loved played sitting volleyball! At first, some were frustrated because they felt like they had to be technical and do the proper volleyball serves, sets, and bumps, and this was difficult for them to do while sitting. But I simply reminded the students that this was only a chance for us to practice, and I encouraged them to have fun and not concentrate on the technicalities. During the game, there were also some challenges that I had to deal with: The students had trouble rallying because they had such a large space to protect and they couldn’t move very quickly, and some students had trouble serving the ball over the net. I had to think on my feet and make some quick adaptations, but once I did, the game really got going!

Afterwards, we went back to the classroom for a wind-up discussion. The students agreed on two things during our discussion: sitting volleyball is a lot of fun, and sitting volleyball is really challenging! I asked the students why they thought it was challenging, and one responded, “because we are so used to playing volleyball with our legs, we never thought about how difficult it would be without our legs”. The students’ comments reassured me that they got the lesson, and I was proud of myself. This meant that I taught my lesson well! However, my lesson was not without its downfalls. I had an informal exit slip assessment planned for the end of my lesson, but I was really running out of time. As a result, my explanation of the assessment wasn’t great, and I had a lot of students re-ask me what they were supposed to do. In addition, in preparation for my next week’s lesson, I asked the students to pick their partner ahead of time and write their partner’s name on the bottom of their exit slip. This was not a smart idea on my part, as many of the students were distracted trying to find a partner and didn’t focus on their assessment.

For my teaching target this week, I chose to focus on addressing students by their names during my lesson. Since I was away from my class last week, and the week before that due to reading week, I’m still a little fuzzy with the students’ names, so I wanted to practice. I think that I successfully met my target! Every time I called on a student to answer a question, I made sure to use their name instead of simply pointing at them. And even during my one-on-one dialogues with students, such as when they were handing in their exit slip, I made sure to say, “Thank you ________”. I think that addressing students by their names is an important step in building strong teacher-student relationships because it shows the students that you care enough to remember who they are. To help build on my target, I made a seating chart during my placement partner’s lesson, which I plan to bring with me to use in future weeks.

Next week I will start my big solar system unit which I will be teaching for the next four weeks. The students are going to be doing a research project, and I’ve been busy planning the unit and organizing all of my materials. Hopefully all of my hard work and preparation will pay off!

Expectations vs. Reality: The Ultimate Teacher Struggle

This was the third week of my ECS 300 field experience! Unfortunately, my grade 6s were away on a field trip. I missed seeing my students, and I missed out on an opportunity to teach another lesson plan; however, I was fortunate to spend the afternoon observing and helping out in a different grade 5 classroom. I was a little nervous to be in a new classroom, as I’ve just started to feel comfortable in my regular classroom where I am familiar with the teacher and students and am accustom to the class rules and procedures. That said, the grade 5 teacher, Mrs. Kerr, was very welcoming, and she had the whole afternoon planned for me.

Right away I took notice to Mrs. Kerr’s classroom management technique. After lunch and after recess, she had her students line up outside the classroom door, and she said to them, “When you’re ready to be quiet, to be focused, and ready to learn, you may come into the classroom. If you’re not ready yet, take some time in the hallway until you are”. I had not experienced this classroom management strategy before, but I thought it was a positive and student-focused technique. Instead of reprimanding those students who were still excited and full of energy after recess, she gave all students a choice making each of them accountable for their own behaviour.

First, the students had math. Although I am interested in math, I have never had the opportunity to teach it, so I was excited to take part in the lesson. The students were working on the multiplication and division technique, halving and doubling. Mrs. Kerr instructed me to circulate the room and help students if they had questions, but I ended up working one-on-one with a student for the entire math period. It was apparent that this student was having a lot of trouble––when I went over to help him, he was staring blankly at his worksheet, and as we worked together, he would get into his own head, struggling to comprehend what each question was asking. Even when I asked him, for instance, what 3 multiplied by 4 was, the terminology confused him. In addition, this student lacked basic math skills––even simple two-digit addition proved to be a challenge. I learned a lot from my interaction with his young student. Since he struggled working with numbers, and since he didn’t understand some of the mathematical terminology, I had to re-evaluate my teaching strategy and take a whole new approach. Instead, I had the student draw circles to represent numbers. This visual approach seemed to work better for him as he was able to see his final answer as he counted it. In this sense, I was differentiating instruction on the fly.

During recess, Mrs. Kerr informed me that the boy that I had been working with during math had autism and that she was extremely grateful for my help. In addition to this young boy, there are two hard-of-hearing children in the class as well. While the class has a full-time interpreter to assist with the hearing-disabled students, Mrs. Kerr said that she very rarely has help for the autistic student. In fact, there is only one educational assistant for the entire school. I was discouraged by this. As I continue toward my degree and gain more in-class experience, it is apparent that there is a conflict between what teachers are expected to do, and what they really can do. In every one of my ECS classes thus far, it has been stressed how crucial it is to differentiate and adapt instruction, assessment, teaching materials, the physical classroom environment, etc. to meet the needs of every single learner in the class. However, it was obvious from my experience this week that educators, and their students in turn, are not always provided with the resources they need to be successful. So, while I am committed to my students’ learning whole-heartedly, this expectation puts a lot of pressure on teachers. How can I possibly meet every student’s learning needs without adequate resources?  This seems to be a major systemic conflict in our education system today.

All in all, although I missed my students, I was glad to have the opportunity to make new connections in the school and to experience a different classroom environment. Next week, I will be back with my grade 6s and tackling another Phys. Ed lesson.

Stay tuned!