One of the classes that I am taking this year for my education degree is Teaching of Aboriginal Studies, which I’ve posted about previously over the past few weeks. (For my followers who are from other countries, this course has actually been a Provincially-mandated requirement for all educators in Manitoba since 2008.) Today we discussed Understanding the Integration of Aboriginal Perspectives through Theory and I was especially intrigued by our highlight of the traditional Aboriginal view of education. As I will be entering the workforce (fingers crossed) within the year this discussion really encouraged me to examine specific aspects… Read More
Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday! Certification Videos & 5 Step Lesson Plans
So today was my second day student teaching. Our day consisted of staff meetings, individual meetings with the principal and prep periods alternating throughout the day. I am going to provide an update tomorrow, as my student teaching schedule has changed DRASTICALLY (in a good way). In the mean time, I have exciting news!! Our principal, “Mrs. R” has told me that I should be able to film my class when I come back to student teach in October! 🙂 Our school has a letter that goes home to all students at the beginning of the year for… Read More
Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday: Final Evaulation Meeting
Being that it is my last week of student teaching I met with my Faculty Supervisor yesterday for our final meeting. I am happy to report that everything went amazing, as it has throughout my time here at “C-Shool”. We went through the observations that had been completed by my supervisor as well as my cooperating teacher and we also went through my weekly goal summaries that I completed over the last 7 weeks. What I am left with is a “Final Evaluation Report” that I am very proud of (and good thing because it is added to our… Read More
Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday: "C School" Update
After patiently waiting for more science classes (we don’t have science everyday) I am finally able to give you all an update about how whole brain teaching has been going with our Grade 5s. Compared to my last student teaching placement in the fall I am teaching much less, but spending more time with our group of students. In the fall I was teaching more than one subject (Grades 10-12 for hour long classes) but only had a group of students once per day. In contrast, I am now just teaching one subject (Grade 5 for 25-30 minute… Read More
WBT & Manitoba's "Towards Inclusion" Document Part 2
Yesterday I started blogging on how WBT strategies might fit in with the criteria set out by the Manitoba government. I found the Towards Inclusion: Supporting Positive Behaviours in Manitoba Classrooms document and decided to focus on Section 6: Positive Reinforcement (pg. 53) and Section 7: Fair & Predictable Consequences (pg. 58). I quickly realized, however, that this was not a one-post topic and decided to split it into two parts by covering Section 6 yesterday and covering Section 7 today. SECTION 7: FAIR & PREDICTABLE CONSEQUENCES The document summarizes that a teacher must establish consequences for inappropriate behaviour BEFORE… Read More
WBT & Students who are Introverted
On Saturday I attended an EduCon conversation about the students in our classes who may be introverted and how we can best address their needs in our classrooms. Ever since then, I have been trying to brainstorm some ideas on how I may use whole brain teaching strategies and have them be a positive experience for these students. Tony Baldasaro mentioned a few times throughout the conversation that students who are introverted need time to think and reflect silently on a subject before sharing their ideas with others. He used the example that a student who is… Read More
Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday! Teach-Ok
Today is our first Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday, a special post dedicated to highlighting a specific WBT strategy in more detail than I do during some of my regular posts where I discuss my education classes as well. To kick it off our first WBT-W I would like to start with “Teach-Ok”. “Teach-Ok” is a formative assessment tool that allows for you, as the teacher, to gauge student’s comprehension on the topics you’re teaching. This strategy, however, is not your average worksheet that bores your students, requires hours of marking and kills trees! Studies have shown that when the… Read More
You Can Start Using WBT by Monday!
Friday is finally here and Friday the 13th at that. I won’t sugarcoat it, we know that Fridays can sometimes come with some management concerns. Your students are ready for the weekend and that means that it can be easier for them to get off-task and sometimes this can snowball into even larger issues. When I was student teaching, Fridays also meant assemblies, sports tournaments, hockey games, etc and sometimes it could be so challenging to keep everyone on task and focused in the classroom! With this in mind, I want to share with you a great new resource from… Read More