Week One: School Community

Wednesday, 5 February 2020, 8:29 PM

My first day in the field was everything I had anticipated and more. I am placed at Douglas Park elementary school, located in the east part of Regina and near the Holy Cross Church. I was nervous at first but once I met some of the teachers and students, I felt comfortable. As soon as I arrived, I was greeted by a few of the teachers and even a substitute teacher that arrived at the same time I did. The school is filled with outgoing people who made me feel included right away. The students in the school are all middle classed I would say, being a nice school in a good location in the city. The school itself is very nice and upkept as it is relatively new. It was my first time seeing an open concept classroom area as well, as both the main level and upstairs had an open area with tables and white boards for the open concept. 

 I believe the school is connected to the community in a variety of ways. One of the first things I noticed when observing the class was that everyone got along. This was surprising to me as there is typically a couple personalities that don’t click, but that was not the case here. I believe the reason for this was the teacher, it seemed like every single student loved being in her class and had so much respect for her. That was the next thing I noticed; every kid listened when she talked. If there was ever a kid losing focus it only took one short comment to get them back engaged. Based on the teachers in the school receiving respect in their classrooms, it builds a strong student body. Thus, creating a great learning environment within the school. That kind of chemistry within the school translates to the community outside of the school as well, kids are able to go home happy at the end of the day and excited to return the next day. 

 The classroom I am in is a grade 2-3 class and we had our own classroom. My partner and I started the afternoon by correcting some simple math while the kids began a lesson in social studies. They began with a discussion about leaders in our society, and I got a few laughs about some of the answers that were shouted out during their lesson. Next up was a trip to the library to find and sign out some books. This was quite the process but eventually everyone found a few books that were appealing to them. After recess it was gym time, we had a few kids who stayed in the classroom and did not want to go to the gym. I stayed back to chat with them and to see if I could get them to the gym. After a short conversation I convinced them to show me where the gym was so that we could go play games, once they got there, they were fine. We played some rock paper scissor races, tail tag, and learnt some basketball skills. I think my favourite part of the day was right after gym class. All the students sat on the ground for their “acts of kindness” discussion. If any of the students saw another student do an act of kindness throughout the day, they were able to give them a candy. It was amazing to see how many little things the students were noticing about their classmates.

 All in all, it was an amazing first day and I am very excited to go return next week, I enjoyed building relationship with some of the teachers and most importantly the students. I look forward to the experience’s ahead. 

Week Two: Teachers, Knowledge, Building Relationships

Wednesday, 12 February 2020, 11:40 PM

My second day in the classroom was an awesome day. Upon entering the school during lunchtime, I had multiple students run to greet me and give me a hug. It was a very warming feeling knowing they were excited to see me. It was day 5 again which was again social studies, library, and phys. Ed to end the day. It was another successful day with lots of opportunities to interact with all the kids in the class. 

I believe teachers use a variety of assessment forms to honour the different ways of knowing. If a student is struggling in one area, it does not hurt to get a different angle to allow them to succeed. Extra practice, personal assignments, assessing student performances, writing, concept maps, drawings, interviews, projects. We can even allow students to choose their own assessment as we challenge them to prove not just if they get it, but how they get it. I also believe that as students learn how to connect to networks, the learning process has the ability to plug them in, not just to one teacher, or 25 classmates, or eight texts, but to something much larger if used in the right way. Direct them toward communities and resources that can help move them toward knowing and understanding.

Teachers build a sense of community in the classroom by including everyone and never letting anyone feel left out. Whether it is in a class discussion or playing a game in the gym. Students should always have the chance to participate in the same things as everyone else in the class and should never be left out because they have less insight or less skill than another student. Teachers also build a sense in community by having an open-minded approach to their day. If they can create the classroom a fun and exciting place to come to everyday. The morale of the students will increase every day. 

Teachers build relationships with students by being a positive role model in their lives. Going into the classroom with the mentality that you are going to be the best role model possible is key to building a strong relationship, but it starts with respect. If you can have a group of individuals respecting a teacher in the classroom, there is the opportunity for a strong foundation to work towards a great relationship. For me personally, in my first two field experiences, having frequent conversations with students has paid off. Whether it was helping find a book in the library, or helping spell a word in the classroom, those students have started to tend to more comfortable around me and look to me for guidance more often. 

Teachers continue to build their own professional knowledge by continuing to learn things themselves every day. Everyday different situations are thrown at you. They may be difficult, or they may not be difficult, some are situations you cannot be prepared for. These are the situations where you are able to learn things about yourself and how there are different ways to handle things. I believe that creating a good routine can also pay dividends to be a professional. Having a good routine, results in being organized and ready for the day, which gives any individual a chance to be successful in their day to day lives. 

Week 3: Students and Learning Environment

Friday, 28 February 2020, 7:10 AM

For week 3 of the field experience, there was a school wide carnival. For the entire day there was activities for all the students both inside and outside the school. Students were in large groups with a variety of age within their groups. The station I help run was the colouring of ice sculptures in the snow outside the front of the school. For the entire afternoon I was filling up spray bottles with warm water and food colouring so the students could spray it onto the snow to change the colour of the snow. It was tedious to continue filling the bottles as the students continued to use them but it was all worth after seeing the look on their faces when I brought back a full bin of spray bottles. 

Who are your learners? 

The learners in my eyes are the students, not just for the grade 2/3 class I am in, but every student in the school. The carnival was a planned event with the purpose of displaying some of the things that the aboriginal enjoy doing when they are outdoors. There was many different activities for the students to engage in outside, with the ultimate goal of bringing them together. 

What does the learning environment look like?

The learning environment for the afternoon was the outdoors for my group. There was not enough spray bottles for every student, so they were forced to share in order to get the colours they wanted. To my surprise the afternoon went extremely smooth and there was next to no arguments. To me that shows how close the student body is and how everyone is being kind to one another. 

How does this space make you feel?In regard to inside the school, it is very different to the schooling I have experienced. The school is an “open concept” school meaning there are classrooms out in the open and some classrooms have make shift walls. This was very interesting to me when I first walked in but is now becoming more natural to me. 

Week Four & Five: Diversity and Difference

Wednesday, 11 March 2020, 12:08 PM

During my past two afternoons with grade 2 and 3 students I have had the opportunity to sit back and observe the kids and how the teachers speak and control themselves, but I have also had the chance to interact with the students and have conversations with them regarding the studies they are doing. 

During both week 4 and 5 I observed and noticed how the teachers in the classroom refer to the students as “grade 2’s and 3’s” instead of “boys and girls” or “you guys” in an effort to get their attention when they get off task. This is a way to address the group with out singling out a certain gender which I believe is a great stepping stone towards creating inclusiveness. 

Once I began to notice this in my classroom, I began to listen for it in the other classrooms as well. Since the school is an open concept, it is easy to hear the other teachers addressing their students. Upon walking by classrooms on the way to places like the library and the gym, I heard similar remarks to get the classes attention. Unless it was towards a certain individual, they always sue terms that do not seclude a certain race or gender. 

I believe addressing students in these ways at a young age is the key to creating equality within genders. If the students are brought up from a young age honouring equality for the other gender then they will or should continue to do that when they are older and begin to understand the term equality. This will have a positive effect on the community as they get older, because kids are the future and if the have positive influences in their lives then our communities will be receiving great people as they grow up.

One other thing I noticed when I was outside for recess was the amount of activity that was happening between all the students, no matter the race or gender. Every scenario I saw I noticed children being friendly towards one another and I was glad to see everyone getting along.