Bacall, A. (2011). Parent Teacher Conference. Available online at: http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/p/parent_teacher.asp This week not only marked the last week before spring break, but also “S-School’s” springtime Parent-Teacher Interviews. While parent’s could technically come in anytime during the week, depending on their schedule, our main interview dates were yesterday evening and today during regular school hours. Luckily, I was able to sit in on parent teacher interviews and learn more about how they are organized and how to address any parental concerns. As I am student teaching and not a staff member, however, parents need to give their consent for me to sit… Read More
A Snapshot of Information
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
Case Study of Aboriginal Content
One of our assignments that we worked on completing while student teaching was a case study of Aboriginal content in our schools. Was Aboriginal perspective being incorporated, was education inclusive to Aboriginal students, what would we have changed, what did we do, etc. For the most part, we had free reign in regards to what topics we discussed but it had to be within five pages. This did limit me to what I could cover but I tried to touch on as much info as I could. Here is what I created: ________________________________________________ Where I Was I… Read More
What Makes A Good Portfolio?
A major component of almost ALL of our Faculty of Education classes is our professional portfolio. This is what we will use to “sell ourselves” and let potential employers know what we have to offer their schools. It can be electronic:– Website– Blog– Slide-share– PowerPoint– etcOr it can be done in a hard-copy form:– Scrapbook– Binder– File System– etc I had started a portfolio last year when I first entered the Faculty of Education but now, looking back at it, I realize that it is not the best reflection of who I am. In that short… 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