Edvolution. (2013). “So True…”. Available online at: http://edvolution.info/so-true/ Today in Grade 8 Social Studies we did a Jigsaw activity where students, in small groups, researched about different social classes found in Ancient Greece. Once completed, students wrote their findings on the board and verbally presented about their specific social class (wealthy citizen, middle class woman, slave, etc). What resulted was six different sets of information on various social classes that students were responsible for having in order to utilize, in more depth, in the next class. Once all of the information was on the board and students were writing down their… Read More
2 Stars & A Wish: Establishing Boundaries
My first week of student teaching is officially completed and I feel like I can now settle into a regular routine with my students. Two things I think went really well this week were: 1 ) Getting To Know My Students – As I shared on Wednesday, I used my first teaching day to get to know my students. Through the activities that I facilitated, I feel like I was able to get a good understanding of my students likes, routines and learning needs. – I know that this is no replacement for the knowledge that… Read More
Back to Teaching
Today was my first day actually introducing my lessons and taking over three of my four classes during student teaching. (I will continue to observe Grade 9/10 ICT until after Spring Break to accommodate my cooperating teacher’s unit plans). I am so thrilled to be back in the classroom and doing what I love. I find the transition from classroom teacher to student teacher to sometimes be quite choppy and awkward so I always plan my first day as a “get to know each other” day. If you remember back to my student teaching placement in the fall, I like… Read More
Back to Student Teaching!
Today marked my first day back to student teaching at “S-School”! This is my LAST student teaching placement before graduation and, as of May 4th, I will have officially completed all of my requirements for graduation! Last Tuesday was my last day of on-campus classes and I am so excited that I get to spend the last 8 weeks of my university career in the classroom doing what I love 🙂 Here is a glimpse at my schedule: I am actually back with two of my previous cooperating teachers as well as a new cooperating teacher… Read More
Digital Storytelling in the Classroom
On Wednesday I had an opportunity to attend a presentation by Darren Kuropatwa and Andy McKiel on Digital Storytelling. Both of these guys are doing some amazing things in regards to ed tech and I was happy to finally meet both of them after following their work online. The entire session focused on digital storytelling as a way for our students to document and reflect on their learning. Not only were we introduced to some great ideas but we also were able to try them out for ourselves. This was the very first PD session I… Read More
My Thoughts on Headphones
Last week I read a blog post over at The Spicy Learning Blog that really got me thinking about some of my thoughts on classroom procedures and what type of policies and procedures I would have in my future classroom. During my student teaching placement at “S-School” I was told by many teachers that the school policy was that students were to not be wearing headphones while in the classroom. There were some specific students, however, that had permission to wear headphones to assist in their attention while working on projects and assignments. What I found though was… Read More
Back to the Life of a Student!
My student teaching placement officially finished up on Friday and I am so sad that it had to come to an end! Now don’t get me wrong, this placement was definitely my most intense one yet (if you couldn’t tell from my severe lack of posts during the past few weeks) but I still didn’t want it to finish. I am not sure if it is because I am getting more experience or if it had to do with the school itself, but this was the first time I had really felt like I knew my… Read More
Resources to Start Off Your Week 43: First Nations Resources Cont.
Last week I posted about five awesome First Nations resources that can be used in our classrooms and I am so excited about the traffic it received! To keep this topic going, I thought that this week I could share an actual project that I completed with my Grade 11 World Issues. As you know, our unit consisted of four sub-topics:– Ethno-diversity– World View– Effects of Assimilation– Indigenous Rights For our World View topic we looked at a variety of themes including religion, emotions, values, ethics, and relationship with the environment. Since there is only 9 students… Read More
My Evaluation From My Students
Tomorrow we will start our LAST week of our student teaching practicum and I can’t believe how fast it went by. I am so sad to think that I will be leaving my students already but I am happy about how well everything has gone over the past four weeks. I have had two formal evaluations by my supervisor from our university as well as two evaluations by each of my cooperating teachers and they have all gone wonderfully! I am happy to say that I received some great feedback as well as gaining some wonderful references for… Read More
Where in the World is… Whole Brain Teaching?
I know that there will be some of you out there that have been wondering where my Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday posts have gone. Is it because I have been busy with my student teaching practicum? Partially. The main reason, however, is because I have been spending a lot of time reflecting on who I am as a educator and what my personal teaching philosophy is. In my first semester of my education degree I was asked to create a document that described my personal teaching philosophy. What did I believe the purpose of education was? What… Read More