This semester I am participating in an Introduction to Curriculum class through Brandon University as part of my Masters program requirements. While there is a traditional class held in-person on campus I am one of 15+ students who tunes in via teleconference and online modules due to distance. Our course assignment is a large project that is slowly created piece-by-piece through the semester and is a collaborative work between two or three people. I am very fortunate to have a good friend in the course who lives only 20mins away and is also on Mat leave right now as… Read More
My Former Classroom – Reflective Blogging Part 5
This post is part of the Reflective Teaching Blogging Challenge hosted by Terry at Te@ch Thought. While the original challenge is a year-old already I thought it would be the perfect thing to keep me on track over the next little while.DAY 5 – Post a picture of your classroom and describe what you see — and what you don’t see that you’d like to. When I initially started this post I went back to my previous classroom reveal posts from 2014 and 2013; thinking that I would critique the classrooms that I helped create for my students in the past.… Read More
Student Council Is On “Insta” and Other Successes
I am still co-supervising our school’s student council with one of my colleagues and, while it is hard not being at the school for all of the day-to-day interactions and activities, I am able to make it to our weekly meetings at noon hour and some of our larger school events. I couldn’t be more proud of our student council this year. We have an amazing group of students who take charge and work well together. Despite being in school for only 11 days they have already: – cleaned out and organized the student council room… Read More
What Teachers Make – Reflective Blogging Part 4
This post is part of the Reflective Teaching Blogging Challenge hosted by Terry at Te@ch Thought. While the original challenge is a year-old already I thought it would be the perfect thing to keep me on track over the next little while.DAY 4 – Respond: What do you love the most about teaching? This is something that is hard for me to accurately put into words because there isn’t just one singular aspect of teaching that I love the most. In fact, there isn’t even a handful of aspects that I love the most. Teaching is one of those professions that… Read More
Introducing Baby Jaxson
On September 3rd Baby Jaxson entered the world at 6:41am. Everyone is happy and healthy!
Reflective Blogging Part 3
This post is part of the Reflective Teaching Blogging Challenge hosted by Terry at Te@ch Thought. While the original challenge is a year-old already I thought it would be the perfect thing to keep me on track over the next little while. DAY 3 – Discuss one “observation” area that you would like to improve on for your teacher evaluation. One area that I really want to improve in my classroom is fostering a learning environment where students are taking on more responsibility for their own learning. While this is something that I am conscious of and am trying to incorporate… Read More
Classroom Design WINS
One of the hardest parts of preparing for my maternity leave, besides saying bye to all of my students, was having to un-decorate my classroom so that my coverage could prepare it to his liking. I think a lot of teachers really pour their heart and soul into their rooms, attempting to make them the perfect spot to: – facilitate learning – initiate creativity – make students feel welcome – showcase student personalities/learning – showcase their own personalities – etc If you are new to my blog, or just want a reminder, here is what my… Read More
Blogging in the Social Studies Classroom – Reflective Blogging Part 2
This post is part of the Reflective Teaching Blogging Challenge hosted by Terry at Te@ch Thought. While the original challenge is a year-old already I thought it would be the perfect thing to keep me on track over the next little while. DAY 2 – Write about one piece of technology that you would like to try this year and why. You might also write about what you are hoping to see out of this edtech integration. Since I am away on mat leave I can’t actually write about a piece of technology that I will be implementing this year… Read More
Thinking About Choice
I think that most educators can agree that providing our students with choice can be incredibly beneficial, in and out of the classroom. This level of choice can be regarding instructional set-up, groupings, seating preferences, assessment options, etc. How do we, as educators, balance how much choice to allow while still managing our classroom? What about our students who seem to continually make the wrong choices? What do we do with students who continually change their mind and seemingly “waste” time bouncing back and forth between different choices? Yesterday the TED network shared this… Read More
Goal Setting During Mat Leave – Reflective Blogging Part 1
As excited as I am about being back in the blogging world, I am nervous that I will fall off the wagon again as soon as Baby Thompson arrives in 2 weeks?… 3 weeks?…. any day now?… I know I will need to maintain some semblance of focus, however, because I also resume my master’s classes at the start of September. I am hoping *fingers crossed* to attempt to set aside some time every 2-3 days while baby sleeps (is that delusional thinking?) to work on my classes, blog, and attempt to maintain my sanity. Resourceaholic Reflects. (2014).… Read More