Did Someone say Crazy?

Within the first 5 minutes of school I knew it was going to be a long day of crazy students. There was so much chatter and craziness and it took the students almost 10 minutes to calm down in their seats. They were excited about the super long weekend they were about to start and the last place they wanted to be was sitting in class. The craziness happened all day but it was actually an awesome way to see how our coop handled it. The problem with this was the students already know he is the authority in the classroom and would listen to him for 5 minutes and then go back to what they were doing before.

This week I taught percentages, fractions, and decimals in an interactive game. This game was called the race to mars. The students were split into six teams and were given a rocket. One team would roll the dice and the number was the spots they were playing for. Once this was determined, a question about percentages, fractions, and decimals would come up on the interactive white board and teams would race to solve the question. The first two teams that completed it would move the number of spots.

Overall, it went well and the students really enjoyed it! I had problems with space and I think next time I would add play cards for every round. For example: There is a black hole! The first two teams must move back 5 spots! I would also make teams smaller if I could. I would make teams of 2 or 3 people maximum!

Overall, this day was a lot to tackle because the students were really excited for the long weekend. But I got through it!! I learned that the best way to handle these kind of days was to have lessons that are interactive and moving. The students will love it and Ill love the energy they are burning!

Love is Love

This presentation has to be one of my favourites yet. I believe this because it was very touching and helps be me a better person and teacher. I really had no idea what to expect walking into this presentation because this isn’t something I personally see everyday. As Laura continued through her presentation, I realized that the best teacher is the teacher that is supportive of all students. I might have a student that feels as if he or she is in the wrong body and the best thing I can do is be supportive.

The presentation was very inspiring to me and I noticed that I left smiling. This was because of how her family turned out and the pictures shown. The pictures included her and her family and her and her wife getting married. These stuck to me because it really shows that love is love no matter what. It also shows that the best thing to do is be supportive and accepting. I  personally believe that if someone is happy, who are we to judge?

What is Classroom Management?

For this reflection, I read two different blogs about classroom management and how the authors personally handle it. Out of the two, I agreed with with what Dr. Richard Curwin had to say. I liked that the students should help make the rules as they are the ones following them. It also allows them to understand the rules and what is considered breaking them. In my personal schooling experience, my teacher allowed us to make our classroom rules and the consequences of breaking them. This meant we had little excuse to break the rules because we were the ones to make them.

I had trouble agreeing with the second author and his way of classroom management. This was because I just saw flaws in the system. First of all, allowing the students to award and take points away from other students just causes a popularity contest. A well liked student will receive more points than a student who is quiet. This does not mean one student is better than another. This is also just encouraging the more confident and popular students to participate in class. Even though this is a good thing, we are forgetting about the students who do not like to talk in front of a class. Does this mean points should be taken away? The second thing I disagreed with was what he considered bad. One example was not completing homework. What if a student does not have the materials at home to finish homework? or just doesn’t understand? Should a student get points taken away? Overall, I just don’t like the idea of this program. I don’t like that the students can decide points and its visible for the whole class to see.

 

Blanket Exercise

Today, my partner and I taught our students the brief Indigenous history through the use of the Blanket Exercise. This was a very different experience for me and I struggled to just get through it. We started this lesson by showing the students a video to show them how Indigenous communities worked prior to European settlement. This helped show that the communities actually worked very well and the people were happy without the Europeans. We then moved into the Blanket Exercise.

I played the part of the European and it was my job to be mean. I struggled with this because seeing the students faces just broke my heart. Knowing that at one point, adults were cruel and vicious towards Indigenous children, I just could not do it to my students.

All of the students really enjoyed this activity and we received nothing but good feedback. Most students noticed how fast the land was taken away from the indigenous people and how fast students were told to sit down. One student even mentioned that they thought this happened a long time ago not only a couple of decades ago. This activity was completed with a group discussion and then individual exit slips to help my partner and I note how effective this activity was for this class.

My First Lesson

Bonjour! Today I taught my first lesson which was french and it went surprisingly well. I started the lesson off by introducing the I can statement which was understanding how to conjugate ER, IR, and RE verbs in french. We then discussed what a verb is and what a pronoun is. The lesson went well because everyone was engaged and participating in the examples. After we went over the lesson, we started the activity which consisted of figuring out how to conjugate words to solve a puzzle. My coop loved this activity but the students found it to hard for the time period we have.

In the morning, we had a presentation done about the heart and how it works. This was cool because he actually brought in a cow heart and let us and the students touch it. I enjoyed this presentation because he used technology to present and showed many interesting videos that kept students engaged.

 

SAFE Conference 2016

I am going to use this post to discuss what the key note speaker, Chelsea Vowel, had said. She said that the Indigenous have a lot of white allies but this takes the spot light away from the Indigenous speakers. Out of all I have learned about reconciliation and Indigenous ways I have never once even thought about this. When she first said it, I could feel my mouth just drop because I was just confused and  I believe I just completed over thought it. I was automatically trying to figure out how I could possibly teach about treaty education without taking away from Indigenous people. I do not want to come across as I know and understand everything because I never will. This motivates me to bring in indigenous speakers so I can learn from them as well as my students. It also shows my students that I do not know everything and our history is something that cannot be changed.

How Many Marbles Can Your Boat Hold?

Day 2 of our pre-internship was very chaotic from before the bell even rang and that was because the grade 8’s had a health conference out of school and the grade 7’s had a leadership conference at the school. My partner and I were in charge of a morning activity that was provided for us which challenged the students to work together to solve clues that would lead them to candy. I really liked this game mostly because I knew the answers but also because I got to see first hand how the students made it through each problem. I also enjoyed it because this activity can be used for pretty much every subject and for what ever grade. The only problem with this activity was that my partner and I just had to supervise and not really get involved.

In the afternoon, we had to present the students with a challenge that was STEM based and was grade appropriate. We decided to give them materials and ask them to build a boat that would float and be able to hold marbles. The students loved this activity because it was creative, they worked in teams, and it was different than just sitting in desks all day. We started this activity by asking students what they knew about buoyancy. The students all agreed that it was something that floats and connected it with buoys that are at their lakes (Instantly was jealous because I don’t have a cabin at a lake). The next step was discussing boats and the different designs. After this discussion, the students were free to make boats however they thought would work the best. There were many different designs that were successful in their own ways. We also had students that went above and beyond with ideas that I had not even thought of. This includes deciding to make a base that was full of air so it would sit on top of the water, and making a base that is square shaped so it is even on each side. The most successful boat managed to hold 123 marbles with room for more. We just ran out of marbles and time. Overall, I think this activity went successfully and the students really enjoyed it. If I could change anything I would give students more time to create their designs and more time to have a discussion at the end. I would have even given different groups different kinds of materials to see what would happen.

At the end of the day, the grade 7’s went to the gym to play some games so my partner and I went to watch. The P.E teacher asked if we wanted to try and teach and activity which of course we would love to try. We decided to choose an activity that was showed to us by another group of students in our EPE class. This activity was completely hectic and the students would do what we told them but would not follow all the rules. I think this was crazy because the students had a fun day with lots of candy. I also think its because we were completely put on to the spot so I had not yet figured out what and how I was saying things.

My First Day !

The sound of the bell woke me from my sleep and as I lay there waking up, I realized that today was the day and first impressions mean a lot. I was full of so many emotions that all made me want to throw up. I was excited to finally get back into a classroom, anxious to meet the kids, and nervous that I will be the one to cry or makes a student cry. The first hour was social studies and I had some time to just relax and realize that I was really over thinking it.

After social studies, we had the opportunity to do our introduction activity. I concentrated on walking around and making sure my voice was clear. For our activity, the students wrote down three facts about them that no one else knew about them and then gave them to us. We would then read each one and the students would have to guess who it was. The class is split into 4 different teams that compete for points. At the end of each month, the team with the most points gets a prize (ex. An ice cream party). My partner and I used this to our advantage and made every right answer a point for their team. The students and the teacher really loved this activity. The only problem was that not everyone was involved at the guessing and there were some quiet moments. I think this was because it is such a big class. It would have also helped if we wrote down the names that were already called out so that the students wouldn’t constantly guess the same name. Personally, I did think that I would be nervous and maybe mess up or freeze but instead it felt so natural.

For the rest of the day, the class tackled math, ELA, and religion. I noticed that technology was used for each lesson in a way and instead of giving the students answers the teacher would just keep asking them questions. The students then used their funds of knowledge to answer each question. The biggest subject for me was math because I realized how long it has been since I did math on paper. So brushing up on basic skills would really help me in the future. At the end of the day my partner and I offered to help with the volleyball tryouts at the school. This gave us the opportunity to get to know more of the students as well as some other teachers.

Overall, I thought it was a very successful first day with only a couple of hiccups. It was hard to come back to school after that because I did enjoy it. I am very excited to go back next week and see what comes out of the second day.

Others thoughts on Treaty Education

I thought I would write another blog about the treaty ed workshops and camp we have attended this week. I decided this because of one thing that has stuck with me. At the workshop, the elder said that treaty education can be used to get rid of the negative out there. I didn’t catch on to this right away and just kept listening to what she was saying. As I left that day, what she said just kept going through my head. Then it clicked. Growing up, all I would hear is how the Indigenous people are stealing our hard earned money and they are all criminals that drink a lot. I am not proud to admit that. Throughout my university journey, I have learned a lot more about their culture and their perspective.

The elder meant that treaty education is really the first step in getting rid of these negative ideas and views. It is the first step to getting two cultures to work together.

Pipe Ceremony

Walking into this pipe ceremony I had no idea what to expect. At first, all that was on my mind was the annoying long skirt I had to wear and that fact that I am allergic to tobacco smoke. I had also never been apart of a ceremony like this one so I was very concerned with how it would work out. I was aware that the pipe had some importance in the indigenous culture so I was interested in how it would be treated. Treaty education is important for the future generations and attending this ceremony spikes my interest about the culture. It also helps me understand what I missed out going through school. I learned about one side of Canadian history, which is a shame as the other side has many different unique parts to it. Experiencing this reminds me that there is a lot to this culture and if more people were aware of this we might not be where we are today.

I did not have a moment of discomfort but as a female I did feel left out until Noel talked about the importance of us. I do feel that women are often second to men and at first I thought this when the males sat in the center. So I really appreciated Noel talking about how women are close to the creator and that the reason we did not have a pipe was because there are different kinds.

Participating in ceremonies such as this one, with my students would be beneficial to me as a teacher and to my students. It would show me how students feel and where I would like them to be. My goal is to help the next generation have some kind of connection with the culture so we get closer to a better society and they understand. It will also benefit students in the future so they have positive attitudes and are connected to the history of Canada. It gives students the opportunities to be more open with diversity. I also think this would be a nice break from school as it’s a comforting and refreshing experience. The pipe ceremony was also a hand on experience for most and can help students have a deeper understanding about the indigenous culture.