Week One / February 5th, 2020
My first day of my field placement was February 5th, 2020. For my partner and I field placement we are placed at a community school, in a grade one classroom. I have already learned so much. I have never been in or interacted with a community school and find it really cool how they hold their school days. The kids do not start school until 9:20 am, which is later than most schools. They start everyday with everyone coming together in the gym for assembly. I find this a good sense of creating a community. The day we attended was “day 5”, on every day 5 the principal gave away free stuff to kids who were listening well during the assembly. I found it really cool that when the Principal walked around giving stuff out she called everyone by name. I know that when I went to elementary school some of the principles that I had did not know everyone’s names. I found this reassured that sense of community. What I found really interesting was that the kids have no recess. Instead each teacher has a set time where they take their class out for a certain amount of time. The school also provides the whole school with a snack in the morning and they also provide lunch for the kids who need it.
During the time we were there they had different stations around the room and they had 10 minutes at each with every child getting to do each station. The stations were to help the kids learn skills, me and my partner got to walk around and help different kids at each station. The kids were working with their “ug” words. This was really fun for me. Since there was a teacher at each station I found this really gave the kids more one on one time education, which I really love how our teacher set this up, for I believe that children need more one on one time education to really excel in school.
The classroom we were in was very welcoming. The teacher we have is really amazing and made sure we had everything we needed and answered any question we had. The kids were all very welcoming and very chatty. They right away started talking to us and wanted to tell us their own life story. I felt a real connection with everyone in the classroom right away. They have an all female staff. All the teachers were very welcoming and showed interest in us right away. Anytime a child acted out or had behaviour issues, instead of the teachers getting mad, they would try to calm the child down and take them aside when they figured out why they were upset. If they could not help the teacher or the child was really upset then the principle is really good and she would help the best that she could to make sure the child was better. Overall I felt they created a real sense of community with anyone who walks into their school.
Week Two / February 12th, 2020
I was very excited to go back to the school. They create such an amazing welcoming feeling that pulls you back in, making you want to come back again and again. I can see myself teaching at a school like this one once I am done with my schooling. When myself and my partner first walked back into our school for our second week, we were welcomed right away and our teacher as soon as she heard our voices came out of her classroom right away and said good morning to us. She also does this with her students. By doing this I know this made me feel very welcomed and that she wanted us to be there, and I am sure the rest of the students feel the same way when they see her in the morning.
Similar to last week at the start of the school day the whole school gathers into the gym for an assembly. The principal starts off by acknowledging that we are on Treaty Four land. From doing this I feel that this creates a sense of diversity. At the school the children come from many different cultures, and ethnicities. So by starting off by saying how the land that we are on belongs to the Indigenous people this not only shows that the school is respecting other cultures but they are willing to accept the cultures too. Coming to a school in a country that has a different culture than yourself can be really scary but I feel that the school and our teacher is really good with building those relationships with the students to make sure that themselves and their culture are welcomed in a safe place.
During the week of our second field placement the school was working on random acts of kindness. The previous day before we came they had an elder come into the school and the elder talked to the school about what kindness is and how they can show it. What I found really cool about the school was that they are making an effort to actually enforce random acts of kindness and are not just talking about it. I talked about in my last post how the principal was giving away free items to the kids who were listening in the assembly. However this week the principal said that she was not going to give the kids their rewards because after the elder spoke to them yesterday about being kind she had several kids in her office that were not being kind, so this was why the kids did not get their prizes this week. She said that the kids had to show her that they were kind to their classmates before she was going to give out prizes again. I think by enforcing the kids to show kindness it is a great way for them to build those relationships in their school. So that the school can be stronger as a whole.
Altogether I feel that the school makes sure to create a safe, welcoming environment that accepts other cultures. Our teacher creates a relationship with her students, so that they know that they always have a safe place where they can turn to and express their feelings to. I can feel that the school is a very judgmental free zone, where the sense of community is very important to them, and they want to celebrate everyone and their culture.
Week Three / February 26th, 2020
Wednesday morning was my third time going to the school. When first walking into the school there are not a lot of signs of culture, however once I walk down the hallway there is Indigenous artwork. On one bulletin board there is a medicine wheel, and on another wall there are a bunch of feathers with different messages that the kids have written on which can also be seen as Indigenous artwork. The school also makes an effort to acknowledge that we are on treaty four land, for it is the first thing that is said each morning at assembly. The teachers at the school have also said they make an effort to teach the children about Indigenous culture and have brought in elders before, to help teach the kids. One of the days before myself and My partner came, the teachers mentioned how they brought in an elder the day before, and I wished that we could have been there to hear what the elder had to say. From what I have heard most of the kids speak English, and in the grade one classroom that we are in no one has spoken another language, and they have not had a class to learn another language. The Wednesday that we were there was Ash Wednesday, and myself and My partner were lucky enough to sit in their religion class and learn more about Ash Wednesday.
The classroom is pretty plain when it comes to artwork on the walls. There are no real signs of culture on the walls in the classroom, which is surprising since the classroom is such a diverse classroom. However there is one drawing on the whiteboard that looks like an artist has done it, that i believe to be Indigenous. My partner and I did see last week though , that the books that the teacher had were very diverse and that is where we saw the culture in the room. The school is very aware of Indigenous culture but I am surprised there is not artwork or other signs of different cultures, since the teachers at the school do embrace those cultures and make sure that everyone is accepting and feels welcome. I would think that since the school is so diverse that the schools would have something up on the wall to show how diverse they are. This way when outsiders like myself walk into the school they can already tell how diverse the school is without having to talk to someone about it.
Week Four / March 4th, 2020
Week four of my field placement was just as good as the early weeks. This past week My partner and I got to come up with our own lesson activity for one of the daily six that our teacher has. This was hard at first, coming up with a sight word game for the grade one students, as we were not sure how we were going to make it. However it was rewarding to see that the students enjoyed the game, and how even one boy asked if he could take it home and play with it there. We created another sight word game this week too, and I hope the students enjoy it just as much. It is cool to be able to create something and teach the students, to get that sense of what it is like to be a teacher.
Just as I mentioned in previous weeks, The school is a very diverse school. When walking into the school you start to see Catholic religious symbols on the wall such as crosses, Jesus, etc. This could throw people off at first if they had a bad experience with Christianity. However, most of the students there are Catholic for I believe there is a rule that to attend a Catholic school the student’s family must be Catholic unless the principal gives special permission. So for all the Catholics who attend the school the Christianity symbols would be very welcoming to them. I mentioned in my last post that when walking down the hallway of the school you can see Indigenous artwork on the walls such as a medicine wheel and indigenous feathers. Along with this they start off each day by saying that the school is on treaty four land. The teachers have also mentioned that they have brought elders to the school so that the elders can share their teachings with the students. These gestures would make an Indigenous student feel very welcome at the school. The school very much embraces indigenous culture. As I have mentioned, the school is very diverse and there are no signs on the wall of any other cultures. Which I find strange because the staff and the school are very welcoming to everyone and their cultures but it is not shown without talking to them. There are no signs of pride flags or symbols representing sexual and gender diversity, which I believe is because that diversity goes against their religious beliefs, which I do not agree with, but I can see why they do not have them.
When walking into the school on both entrances there are staircases to get to the rest of the school. There are no ramps or an elevator for people who are not able to use the stairs. The only place that is accessible to those who can not use the stairs is the gym as long as they come into the one entrance. I never noticed this before for it was not something I think about often. All the students and staff are fully accessible to use the stairs but I wonder what they would do if someone came to their school when they could not use the stairs.
Overall when talking to the staff and students they are all very accepting of everyone and their cultures. This is not really shown when just looking at the space around you. Which surprised me, from getting to know the school. I think if they did have those images, and symbols up it would be a better representative of who the school is as a community.
Week Five / March 11th, 2020
My partner and I have really started to create strong bonds with the kids. They always seem really excited when we come and are always sad when we have to leave at lunch to go to our own classes. This makes waking up early worth it. My partner and I got to experience what their recess was like this week, for they usually had their recess in the afternoons when we are not there. We got to play with them while we were out with them, which was really fun!
Around the school there are different kinds of signs that have different emotions on them, that are usually kept by the doors. As the kids walk by they hit the sign with what emotion they are feeling that moment. This is a way so that the teachers know how the child is feeling without having to actually talk to them if they do not want to.
This week I noticed that they only have a girl and boys bathroom located in the basement. The school is old so I understand why they would have the only two bathrooms, however that does not mean that they could have added another bathroom for gender neutral bathrooms or change a single use bathroom to a gender neutral bathroom. This way they would make people who’s pronouns are they or them feel more comfortable. Along with this our teacher has buttons on the wall the students hit and they light up when they have left to go to the washroom. Above the buttons they have labels one saying girls and the other boys. I do not agree with this because I believe that the students should not have to press a button, or use a bathroom that labels them based on what people assume their gender is based on how they look. However I believe this is a result of the fact that the school is a Catholic school and some Catholic schools are just not as open as others, which I would love to see change in the next years to come. My mom works in a public school and around her school I have noticed signs all around the school that welcome LGBTQ+, different cultures, camps, ect. I have talked about the culture situations in previous posts at our school, however there are no posters or flags that are shown to support LGBTQ+ or any GSA clubs held. I once again believe this is because this goes against their religion.
My partner and I got to experience what the schools do when a behaviour issue happens. A similar situation happened our first week at our field placement. The teachers right away knew what was going to happen before anything got bad and they isolated the child who had behaviour issues, and sent My partner and I to the library with the other kids so the child was not a threat to them. The teachers never got mad or yelled at the student instead they were calmed the whole time and got the child to calm down. I think this is really cool how the teachers at the school always know what steps to take and never lose their cool. I find this is one of the reasons why the teachers never take that long to get the child to calm down. We asked how they knew what to do, and they said that they just learned by teaching over the years, and now it just comes naturally for them. I have so much respect for them for being able to do this.