Week One: Students and the Learning Environment
My first day in Miss Baudu’s grade six classroom at St. Bernadette elementary school was extremely successful and encouraging to myself as a future educator. Being in the class completely shifted my view around which age group I would enjoy teaching the most. I initially believed that I wanted to teach grades three to five, not really wanting to go any higher than that, but after meeting the students’ for just one day and experiencing the environment of a grade six room, I can definitely see myself teaching that age. The students’ were extremely engaged and interactive in all class activities and the immense respect they have for Miss Baudu was immediately seen. The students look to Miss Baudu for guidance and reassurance about their success in the classroom and remain positive and interested throughout the day. The students remind me of my year in grade six in a sense, but it is amazing seeing how much times have changed. More mature, better dressed, and technologically advanced are some of the differences when compared to my time as a grade six student. I believe that my biggest shock while getting to know the class on the first day was the dynamics of the teacher student relationship. As I mentioned above, the students have incredible respect for Miss Baudu and Miss Baudu returns that respect back on the students. Along with respect, there is an amazing “openness” between the students and Miss Baudu. There is a mutual understanding in knowing how others want and should be treated. Miss Baudu and her students are also able to joke around with each other and to relate on different levels which is made especially easily when the teacher takes the time to find mutual interests and dislikes with one’s students. Being a guest in the classroom on the first day made the students be a little standoffish in the interactions between us, but half way through our first afternoon, Miss Baudu incorporated a “brain break” where a couple students directly asked myself and the other ECS student to join them. This ice breaker was a great way for the students to realize that we are there not only as observers, but also as engageable and approachable teacher figures.
The classroom setting is a little cramped for the number of grade six students in the class (16 boys and 9 girls) however the space is used very efficiently. Miss Baudu has utilized the space and works well around all the desks in the room. There are many storage units around the classroom which reduce a lot of space and the desks are in four rows so that they are not too spread out. The classroom is very bright and is decorated in a earthy/homelike feel. The classroom and the entire school itself reminds me of my elementary school in the closest way possible. The hallways, gym, library, office, and outdoor spaces are like the structure of my school. Both schools are both catholic which provides a lot of similarities in itself. The space makes me feel welcomed, encouraged, positive, and excited to be there. I think the décor and personal touches done by Miss Baudu allow for the students to feel comfortable and wanted in the learning space. The classroom is warm and feels like a second home.
Week Two: School and Community
The people in St. Bernadette are extremely welcoming, positive, and encouraging of our presence in the school. St. Bernadette has welcomed a large group of ECS students into their school which is a huge privilege to us. The school is very clean, inviting, and engaging. The school has had to add extra classrooms in order to accommodate to the high number of students wanting to attend. The staff of the school is made up of predominantly female teachers. Only four of the staff are males, one of them being the Vice-Principal, and another one of them being the custodian. One thing I noticed about the people in the school is that the staff is fairly young. There seems to be a lot of fresh teachers new to the system, which is encouraging as a future educator straight out of university. The staff is very welcoming and polite and interested in hearing about how we are enjoying our time in the education program as well as at the school. The students also like the engage in the hallway either by waving, saying hi, or asking who I am. The students are also easy to approach and are helpful and willing to answer questions or to engage in a brief conversation.
The surrounding community is very nice and well kept. It appears to be a middle class blue collared centered community with no run down or non looked after houses. The community is extremely residential and is nice and quiet even though it is just off Ring Road. The community I also only a short drive to the Rochdale area which has all the shopping needs. Three churches surround the school; one Roman Catholic, one Lutheran, and one Baptist. There is also two other elementary schools in the same area, one being directly beside St. Bernadette. Many walking paths and family friendly parks are also in the area. When discussing the community with Miss Baudu, she mentioned that there is very few First Nations families in the area.
I believe that the teachers do a good job creating a link between the school and community because of the reason that the location is very much residential. The community is made up of the school families and St. Bernadette is so central in the area that there is a lot of passing traffic. The teachers engage actively with parents during drop offs and pickups and are very open to guest speakers. I attended a presentation done by a safety leader who was a guest to the school. The staff seems to engage actively by bringing in speakers from the community. Being located in such a safe and inviting neighborhood also makes it easy for teachers to take their students for walks to the park or surrounding buildings in order to be more involved in the community. The school website is very informative in communicating with parents and students and ensuring that the community may also be involved. Anyone is allowed to attend their masses through the school as well. Miss Baudu is a great example of creating a link between her classroom and the community of the families because of her blog website. Miss Baudu posts on her blog every single day which gives parents the opportunity to see what their children are getting up to every day. The students themselves are a main reason for the link to the community because of their presence in the area. They bring youth and life and excitement to the residential area simply by being themselves. As I have been outside for recess, or even just driving past the school when finding a place to park, there are always students who are standing at the fence waving at every person who goes by. I believe that the school community is an essential part of the residential city community as a whole because of all the young and excited families it has brought to the area.
Week Three: Teachers and Knowledge
Miss Baudu seems entirely open to different ways of knowing and she honours that belief by incorporating many different understandings and opinions into the discussions. As Miss Baudu is teaching she is constantly asking the students how they feel, what they are thinking and what they believe. Miss Baudu is open to discussions around new topics being taught and is even encouraged when her students may get off topic into a meaningful and successful discussion or debate. Miss Baudu has also embraced questions about new understandings and she does a great job at explaining concepts that may be difficult to understand. I was a little discouraged to see that talks or references to First Nations or other groups are not really approached in the classroom. This may be because there are no students who identify as First Nations, but it is interesting to see considering how loaded each education class is with topics around treaty education. I think the all the teachers honour different ways of knowing by entering each other’s classrooms in order to teach different subjects and to embrace teaching a classroom of new students every so often and picking up on new ideas around topics.
The promotion of knowledge in Miss Baudu’s classroom is immaculate. Not only subject or book learning, but also life and social learning. Miss Baudu has bell work for the student’s to do after every recess break and has created the structure in the classroom that everyone is to read if they have nothing else to do. Every student has a novel or two on their desk which they read throughout the day. Reading is extremely encouraged and most importantly enjoyed by the students in the classroom which is nice to see. My experience working with children from ages six to twelve had made me feel discouraged about the levels of reading in the schools today because my kids always told me that they hated reading. However, Miss Baudu has positive influenced her students to love reading. Miss Baudu has even set out a reward for her class when they are having a good day which involves her reading a novel out loud to the class. A reading focused teacher also comes into the classroom once a week in order to work on creative writing and word manipulation. When you look around the classroom you can see many resources available to the students as a means of encouraging learning in other forms. White boards, smart screens, laptops, craft supplies, and diverse seating is offered to the students which help with the learning process. The teachers have also eliminated the process of students having to ask every single time they need to get out of their seat, which I think is extremely beneficial in trying to keep the focus on the learning, instead of on the measly battles that do not need to be won. My favorite form of promoting knowledge in the classroom done by Miss Baudu is not subject based, but social skill based. Miss Baudu ends every day with compliments. She begins by complimenting a student on something they did that day that she noticed and then the student she complimented then passes on a compliment to someone else. I was in awe the first time I saw the class go through this process because the positive effects were so obvious. All the students left with a smile on their face and a high five from their teacher. Knowledge is the focus of the classroom in not only the obvious and curriculum based ways, but also in the hidden and meaningful ways.
I think the key supports that Miss Baudu relies on is her smart board, reward system, and the teachers pay teachers resource site. Miss Baudu is very reliant on her engaging and visual representations of her lessons by using the white board and projector screen. Students these days are primarily visual learners and are more interested in the hands on activities. Miss Baudu never leaves her students sitting too long and captures their attention through on screen activities, videos, or pictures. Miss Baudu has also created a visual rewards system based on the World of Warcraft video game. The rewards system appears on the white board and displays the points awarded to each student. Additional points are offered to students who successfully complete tasks laid out by Miss Baudu and add extra incentive for a job well done. Miss Baudu also uses her reading reward, extra gym classes, or candy as reward systems. The last key support that Miss Baudu relies heavily on is the website called teachers pay teachers. Miss Baudu retrieves many ideas for lesson plans from the website and recommended that we as future educators take advantage of the teacher community by engaging in the give and take sharing done by teachers around the world.
Teachers build their professional knowledge every single day just by making it through. So many lessons, inquiries, mistakes, and successes are experienced everyday by teachers and each of these have a substantial effect on the professional knowledge gained. Engaging with new students, other teachers, parents, and the school community allows for teachers to incorporate new ideas around what it takes to be a teacher in order to develop more professional knowledge. Many teachers also ask for formal or oral evaluations to be complete about their teaching skills as a means of better developing themselves in a professional manner.
Week Four: Inclusive Education – Diversity and Difference
The different forms of diversity that I observe in the classroom and school are fairly hard to find in this particular case. The school is dominantly a white middle class community and there is not much diversity physically present. There are a few Philippine students in the school as well as a few African American. I have not observed any First Nations students which I find very intriguing. I believe the community has a lot to do with the lack of diversity because of the blue collar middle class. Miss Baudu’s room itself does not have much diversity in the ethnic sense. I find the diversity in gender to be the most interesting because of how dominant the males are amongst the students. There seems to be way more males than there is females when looking at the student body. Whereas in contrast, there is a ratio of 30:4 when looking at female staff to male.
When looking at forms of diversity that are not visible, the case may be entirely different. Invisible forms of diversity include religious beliefs, home life, gender identification and learning barriers. These differences are not things that are physically seen just through observation. Engaging in meaningful discussions would be an invitation for these diversities to be discovered and discussed. Even though these diversities are not visible throughout the average day, it is very important to be aware of the differences that may be stopping students from engaging with each other or their teachers as well. Being aware of these invisible diversities and being cautious of the things that are said in relation to being different is extremely important when contributing to the development of a young person.
Even though I am halfway through my field study, I am finding it difficult to answer to the question about inclusive practices. Although I do not feel like my observations have brought forth anything negative or discouraged about the inclusive practices done by the teachers in the school and classrooms, I am unable to acquire any specific actions that have been embodied either. Of course, this means that teachers are in fact doing things right, it is difficult to see these practices of diversity acceptance when there really isn’t much visual diversity to be seen. I do believe that teachers take a strong initiative in the invisible form of diversity surrounding learning capabilities. I know that Miss Baudu is facing a situation where she has had to recommend special courses for one of her students who is behind in his knowledge development. This is a visible inclusive practice being carried out by Miss Baudu because she is doing what she can to help progress the learning done by this student in order to avoid the need for programs that are delayed on the learning spectrum for an average sixth grader. I believe that the school is very accepting of diversity and that the community encourages diversity as best it can considering the families in the area.
Week Five: Inclusive Education – Diversity and Difference
Diversity and difference in my grade six classroom is becoming more apparent to myself as I continue to experience the school as a whole. I have had the opportunity to walk through the hallways, attend school assemblies or presentations in order to observe the physically seen differences that are represented. I see now that there is more diversity in the school than I had initially given the school credit for. Even Miss Baudu seemed to exaggerate on the lack of diversity in the school, possibly because she so strongly sees the school community as being very blue collar white middle class. I have seen different ethnicities being represented throughout the school body, even though the numbers of which may be very few and far between. On a positive note, I have not seen any prejudice, isolation, neglect, or rejection being acutely inflicted on any of the students belonging to a diversity other than Caucasian. There is no physical and evident divide between the treatment of the students across any realms. Even in the sense of invisible differences such as diversity in learning or gender identification there is no negative treatment or evident special cases. When my fellow ECS colleague and I had the discussion about diversity with Miss Baudu, she claimed that the school does not have any students who have come out to identify as a different gender nor any students who appear to be extra flamboyant. It was reassuring when discussing this topic with Miss Baudu that she seemed to be extremely understanding, supportive, and encouraging of all possibilities in which she could possibly be presented with. I believe it is important for all teachers in a school to be educated, and understanding of different identities in order to be a strong support system for students who are struggling with identifying as their true selves. St. Bernadette has proven to be a very cohesive and accepting support system when it comes to acknowledging differences and diversities amongst the students, staff, and community bodies.
Week Six: Curriculum and Instruction
Each day in the grade six class is laid out in subject courses that are displayed with sticky tabs on the white board which are changed every day by Miss Baudu. The days always begin with bell work before and after morning prayer and O Canada. After every recess break the students are also they are expected to do bell work again until everyone is settled and Miss Baudu is ready to begin teaching. Bell work includes language arts paragraphs, math questions, reading, or inquiry questions asked by Miss Baudu which are to be handed in. I have seen many different subjects being taught in the classroom during my time in field including science, language arts, math, French, health, religion, and an alternative reading course. Being able to attend the field for two Tuesday mornings in order to make up for missed Thursday afternoons have allowed myself to see Miss Baudu lead her language arts stations that happen most mornings. The language arts stations are student led activities which enable the class to work in groups independently in order to complete a comprehensive handout. This assignment is a relatively new idea being presented by Miss Baudu this year and she is very impressed with how they are working out. I myself was very impressed with the way in which the students confidently fulfilled the tasks. The students are learning on their own as well as in group work including times when the entire class has discussions with Miss Baudu encouraging questions. The students are also able to lead their own learning and are independent in knowing the structure of the day. I absolutely feel like the students are seeing the meaning and relevance in what they are learning because there has been many situations where they are bringing up old topics and relating them to something new that they are learning. The students are able to make meaningful connections and always seem excited and willing to learn all the new concepts. The stories of curriculum to me seem to be pretty loaded and heavy in the quantities of what the students are expected to learn in a year. After having many discussions with Miss Baudu she has expressed the struggles she has encountered in not feeling like she will be able to cover all of the necessary topics before the years end. Miss Baudu does an excellent job however in using time as productively as possible without laying to much on the children at once. The brain breaks that Kaela incorporates into the day are extremely beneficial to the productivity of the day. The stories of learning that I have been able to witness in this classroom over the weeks have been subtle but meaningful. I think that the days we have been fortunate enough to attend have all had some sort of interruption from the school that has put a damper on the teaching possibilities and plans that Kaela had for the afternoon/morning. I definitely have been able to see the ways in which Kaela’s teaching habits have resonated positively in her students. One example that really stands out to me happened on the very first day I attended my placement. Miss Baudu was teaching a science lesson about high and low air pressure. Since her class is mostly boys, Miss Baudu related the lesson to the forces imposed on a baseball during a pitch. I truly saw many “a-ha” moments amongst the students, especially when Miss Baudu had some kids stand in front of the class and physical represent the motions and forces of the baseball. I knew that the kids had truly grasped the concept when two weeks later I had the opportunity to mark the student’s science tests on the unit. The marks were remarkable and I have continued to see those results when marking other subjects as well. Everything taught by Miss Baudu is meaningful, insightful, engaging, and to the point. I truly believe that the students have lucked out with such a young and innovative teacher, which is exactly what I hope people say about myself as a teacher in the future.
Week Seven: The Role of Technology
Technology in my grade six classroom is used so insightfully and beneficially that it never seems like a distraction of any type. The students are allowed to have their cell phones on them and to listen to music during work periods and to use them during recess and lunch breaks. I honestly thought that this would cause for problems in the attention spans of the students, but they all respect the rules and do in fact focus on their work. I was most surprised by the fact that there is no Smart Board in the classroom. I had figured that by this time, all schools would have interactive boards. I think this is definitely a result of budget because the school is overflow with students. The school has even had to build on portable classrooms (which is what Kaela’s room is) in order to accommodate all of their students. Even though there is not a Smart Board, the projector reflects on a white board which enables whatever Miss Baudu writes on the board to be semi-interactive with the showings of the screen. There is a system called “Mimeo” that is an attachment on the white board that makes it interactive just like a Smart Board. Kaela has not used it any time that I have been in the classroom, but have had a discussion with her about when she uses it. The best use of it is to highlight along with reading comprehension, but other than that she does not use it much because only one person can write with it at a time. Kaela also uses a points reward system that she runs off of her phone and can display the results on the white board. The interaction of the reward system encourages good behaviour from the student’s and is also a resource for Kaela to engage in the best possible learnings from her class. Miss Baudu also has tablets at the back of the room in which the students are allowed to use during break periods to either look things up, read, or practice typing. It is interesting to note that cell phone use is not only lead by students, but also by the teachers. Miss Baudu always has her cell phone either in her pocket or within reach on her desk. All the other teachers who I have seen around the school have all also been carrying their phones everywhere they go. Even though technology is very present in the classroom, Kaela has found a great balance in incorporating both technological advances as well as including reading resources and interactive activities in person.
Week Eight: Overall Reflection – Looking at the Big Picture: Interconnectedness of
Knowledge, Schooling & Society
Attending my field placement over the past eight weeks has refreshed as well as rejuvenated my ideas and beliefs about what elementary schools are like in a modern society. I really enjoyed my years as an elementary student and have very fond memories of my experiences. I also remembered clearly what school was like back in the early to mid 2000’s as well as had a clear idea of what a positive and negative influential teacher meant to me. After being a member of the grade six class at St. Bernadette, my eyes have been opened and my views have been changed surrounding what classroom dynamic and teacher/student relationships are like in this day and age. I have noticed the changes around what is appropriate or not in relation to actions or words carried about by the students in the classroom as well as the shift in dynamics involving the relationship between teacher and student. I cannot praise Kaela Baudu enough for the amazing job she has done in organizing and leading such a meaningful learning experience for her grade six class. I truly believe that Miss Baudu will remain to be many of the students’ favorite teacher throughout their years of schooling. The classroom is extremely welcoming and advanced in the new trends of teaching while remaining true to teaching basics that work, such as the importance of reading, writing, group and independent work. My time at St. Bernadette has ignited an even stronger flame inside of myself to succeed in university in order to reach the stage that Kaela is at. I aspire to be a teacher who can also be her student’s friend and role model when support systems are lacking in a student’s life. St. Bernadette is definitely a good representation of where I would like to end up teaching once I finish my degree. It reminds me so much of the elementary school I attended as well as the school that I hope my future kids will also attend. As a member of the Catholic faith, I appreciate the teachings of St. Bernadette as well as Miss Baudu personally in her grade six class as a way of keeping the faith alive in a positive and loving way. As I reflect on this experience in terms of my student-teacher identity, I can confidently say that there could not have been anymore meaningful or beneficial results when encouraging myself to continue the path of education. I am very relieved that this field experience has encouraged me to continue my journey instead of turning me off from becoming an educator. I can only look forward to the next time in which I will be placed in a classroom and I am excited to compare the similarities and differences in comparison to Miss Baudu’s amazing class.
