2 Stars & A Wish: Finishing on Time

     My fifth week of student teaching is all finished up which means that I officially have two weeks left to wrap up my units and complete final assessments with my students!  A reoccurring theme during this placement has definitely been a lack of time and this week was no exception. This week we only had a four-day week because of a division-wide PD day on Friday and on Thursday our high school students were away at a local career fair. Unfortunately, this meant that I really only had three teaching days instead of the five that I would normally have. Even though it was a short amount of time, two things that I think went really well this week were:

1 ) Providing Students with Choice in the Classroom
– I really want to focus on providing students with learning opportunities
  that are relevant and meaningful to them so that they can have the most
  positive experience possible while at school. One of the ways that I can
  accomplish this is by providing students with choice so that they are
  working on assignments that actually mean something to them
– I understand that there is a lot of different ways to learn and demonstrate
  that learning so it is my hope that giving students options allows them to
  learn and demonstrate that learning in a way that meets their needs.
– In my Grade 10 Geography class I allowed my students to submit
  activity suggestions to me to determine what kind of activity we could
  work on for our discussion on forestry. (We have already completed
  mineral infographics, vintage fossil fuel posters, and water displays). I
  tallied the results and then, as a class, we decided what activity would
  work best for them!

2 ) Creating Successful Environments for my Grade 8 Class
– This week I had, by far, my most successful class with my Grade 8
  Social Studies class! We have been working on a QR Code
  Scavenger Hunt to learn about some of the important events that
  occurred in Ancient Greece. This multiple-day assignment has
  allowed the class to work in different groups, use the iPads,
  interact with text, read maps, watch videos and create timelines.
– On Wednesday, the students who finished first were actually my
  students who are usually disengaged and then they went to work
  on assignments that they were missing from earlier in the week.
– It is my hope that this is because I have been able to help them
  be successful in the classroom through the different activity options
  and allowing them freedom to make choices at their own pace.
  Lets hope it continues this week 🙂

     One thing that I feel like I need to work on, however, is finishing up my units on time (by Friday, May 3rd). This week we have badminton zones, a music field trip and a science fair for my various classes so I will have a short week again in every single one of my classes. I am working today to make sure we will be able to finish up our units appropriately within our time frame. I can’t believe how much in-class time is lost to extracurricular that spring up without much notice! I would like to finish up by Tuesday, April 30th so that we  can review and complete final assessments by Friday. Wish me luck!

Week 4: 2 Stars & A Week Update

     Last week I shared that I wanted to work on getting into a rhythm with my ICT class because we got started late in the placement. Luckily we were able to move through the basic skills of PowerPoint quite quickly because a lot of my students had prior knowledge with the application. I now have all of my students working on the first part of our digital storytelling project, My Life In Ten Slides. I hope to have them finished up this first section by Tuesday and then move onto the audio component! I will make sure to post some projects when they are completed.