Substituting in "T-Division" 2

     Yesterday I was very happy to be substituting in “T-Division” again. I was actually able to be in the same small school as I was in on Tuesday, only this time I was in a Grade 2/3 split class of 10 students. After my substituting experience on Tuesday, @MsBarteaux shared with me that when she was working as a substitute she would take photographs, with permission, of all the things she loved in a classroom to keep for future reference. I thought this was a wonderful idea! I mean, in the past I would take note of things that I liked or didn’t like but I had never consciously organized my ideas like that. I wasn’t able to take photographs of the class I was in, but here are some of the things I liked from the Grade 2/3 class:

Organization! Organization! Organization!

One my favourite classrooms from “Dandelions & Dragonflies” blog

This teacher was definitely one of the most organized teachers I have ever seen. Everything was well placed, easy to find and easy to work around. Even with everything being in French I was able to figure out where things were.
Each student also had a brightly decorated burlap bag hung off the front of their desk where they would put papers/assignments/books/etc that were to go home at the end of the day. No more looking through your desk at the end of the day, just grab whats in the bag and you are good to go!

Making Do With What You Have

It reminded me of a display case like this one!

 It was clear that the classroom had previously been designed as a science classroom and the back of the room housed a large glass-enclosed work counter with hookups for gas and water for science experiments. I imagine that those hookups are now turned off because the teacher had used the area to highlight the theme or unit they were working on at the time.
It worked perfect because the area was enclosed and had a separate set of lights right above it so with the lights turned on it almost looked like an interactive museum display showcasing all the things needed to explain the unit. It looked really neat and was a great way to work with the preexisting set-up of the classroom.

Spelling Pre-Tests

Students in the Netherlands using whiteboards in math.

Our afternoon consisted of a weekly spelling test and the introduction of a new spelling unit. Before the new words were introduced I was instructed to give the students a pre-test to see what words they were already familiar with. I was surprised when each student took a small whiteboard out of their desks and used them for their pre-test!
Each student would write the word to the best of their ability and hold it up for me to see. I thought it was such a neat way to give the test without wasting paper! Plus the students LOVE the opportunity to use their whiteboards so they were all working very hard.