Today marked my first day student teaching with Mr. R’s Grade 5 class at “C School”. This is my second of four student teaching placements that I will finish before next spring when I will officially be a certified teacher! I completed my first student teaching placement in a Grade 10-12 social studies classroom but will be teaching science this time around. This first week I am just observing, assisting as needed and getting to know the students before I begin teaching my lesson plans on Tuesday next week. My day started out with reading records which was… Read More
Resources To Start Off Your Week 8 (Electricity)
This Monday marks my first day at my second student teaching placement! What better way to start a new placement then with some new online resources. These resources are ones that I will be using once I start teaching the Electricity Unit. Remember, I will be adding these to my Favourite Websites page so ensure you head over there to check out the full list that I’ve complied so far. 1 ) Electric Circuits– This interactive website allows students to explore electricity, specifically different types of circuits.– This website would be awesome to create a webquest for our students, it … Read More
My Visit to "C School"
Today I drove out to visit my cooperating teacher for the first time at “C School”. I had never been to the town before but Google Maps assured me it was about an hour commute from the university and, wanting to be early, I scheduled to be there about 5 minutes before our meeting time. Well, needless to say, it was only a 35 minute drive and I arrived at the school over 30 minutes early (oops)! The secretaries were very friendly, however, gave me a great welcome, went over some paperwork and I was able to meet my… Read More
5 Years Down, 1 To Go!
My first year in the Faculty of Education (and 5th year in university) is DONE! After exams in Individuals with Exceptionalities, Classroom Management and Social Studies Methods (all written today) I can officially say I have completed my first year as an education student! My fiance and I celebrated with a congratulatory brunch at Smitties and going to the theater to see Dr. Suess’ The Lorax (the teacher in me couldn’t stop thinking of the inferential thinking scenarios and the social studies curriculum: sustainable development, environmental implications, ecosystems, infrastructure, politics, economy, etc). One more year to go! I have… Read More
Electricity Unit Plan Freebie!
One of our major projects for our Science Methods class is to create a unit plan. After talking with my cooperating teacher I found out that I would be able to teach the Electricity Unit while I was in his classroom so I naturally decided to complete my unit plan on the Electricity cluster. I have networked with so many amazing people since I entered the Faculty of Education and have been able to access many great resources developed by other people. So in the nature of sharing, I have decided to upload my unit onto… Read More
Resources to Start Off Your Week 7
I can’t believe that it is the last week of classes for us! Next week we start student teaching again and then it will only be a quick 8 weeks before my first year in the Faculty of Education is done. Remember, I will be adding these to my Favourite Websites page so ensure you head over there to check out the full list that I’ve complied so far. 1 ) Topogropa– This a great interactive website all about the geography of Europe.– Teachers could use this website to discuss geography, politics, history or economics and it is all summarized… Read More
Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday! The Agreement Bridge
This term has flown by, we are already on our last full week of classes and it is also my sixth Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday post! I hope that this focus on a specific WBT strategy is helpful to those of you who are wishing to learn more about how a certain strategy may work and what my personal experience with it has been. Last week I highlighted “The Genius Ladder”, this week I would like to introduce you to the WBT strategy of “The Agreement Bridge”. (I realize that my introduction of these strategies are not in any… Read More
Resources to Start Off Your Week 6
Its a new week and what better way to start off our week by finding some great new online resources to use in our classrooms. I actually found both of these resources through discussions with other education students in class today, thanks guys! Remember, I will be adding these to my Favourite Websites page so ensure you head over there to check out the full list that I’ve complied so far. 1 ) The Scale of the Universe (2nd Version)– This website provides an interactive model that allows users to use the scroll-bar to move through a list of objects… Read More
My Thoughts on WestCAST
I’m back safe & sound! All 41 of us from our university survived the 11 hour bus ride (22 hours round trip) to and from Calgary without killing each other (almost) haha. All-in-all it was a great time! I really enjoyed spending time with other students from my faculty, some of whom I had not even met before, and I learned a lot from the sessions I attended. I give props to the U of C who organized a wonderful event with some amazing presenters and super helpful volunteers. I was able to visit family, see the mountains and… Read More
Off to WestCAST!
My bronchitis is almost all better, final projects are getting completed and it is time to head off to the annual WestCAST Conference! WestCAST is an annual teacher education conference hosted by various education faculties across Canada’s four western provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Last year’s conference was actually hosted at my university but I was unfortunately not a part of the faculty yet, darn! This year it is hosted by U of C in Calgary, only a short 10hour bus ride away 🙂 I am really looking forward to this conference because:1 ) There are so… Read More