I could not be more happy with my experience in the field. I think this was an amazing opportunity to dip your toes into the profession while in your first year of university to decide if it’s really something you want to do or not. I loved that the school I went to let us experience different grades and rooms to see a new perspective every time we visited. I have learned that at a community school, relationships and health are high priority. I was so happy to get to know each student I had a chance to work with and see the smile on their face when they got something right.

I knew a teaching career wasn’t easy. It was confirmed on this field experience that there will be tough times and frustrating outbursts in every classroom. You have to lead a large group of students with several different personalities. And each lesson won’t be received the same way by each student. You must be quick on your feet with questions that you will never be able to predict and prepare for. You have to be able to adapt your day to fit the needs and abilities of your students.

The only thing that surprised me was the use of computers. A lot of their lessons were from different teacher resources, which is great, but also gives the opportunity for distraction and lack of ability to be innovative and creative. Not every student is familiar with computers, not every student can read at the same speed or level as the next. This was used in the older grades that I was part of, so I think that it’s more acceptable but also I still found a lot of them were doing other things than the task at hand on the laptops.

I know that if you fail to plan, you will plan to fail. Lesson plans are so important and having several ways to teach them will be beneficial. In the end, I know this is the career for me!

Every classroom that I have visited at Seven Stones school does an amazing job or showing that it is a safe space for all. They have a poster in every classroom that shows that Regina Public Schools are committed to ensuring schools are safe and inclusive. When it came to teaching actual lessons, I didn’t see any direct inclusive practices towards gender or identity. However, they did a great job of making lessons available for diverse learners to be included how they needed. During reading time, I helped student A read a book that was at his reading level instead of asking him to struggle alone.

I didn’t see many lessons needing to be directly towards EAL learners. But I did see a lot of Indigenous words around the school and classrooms. I enjoyed seeing that this was taught and honoured.

Again, I didn’t actively see any sexual diverse activities/events. But in the last classroom I was in, there was a couple posters on the wall LBGT novels so kids can get them to read. We also got to participate and learn about smudging before we started our afternoon. It was amazing to hear about the history and reasoning for smudging from the principal. Very grateful we got to do this.

The entire Seven Stones Community School does an amazing job of honouring the Indigenous land and history. In the middle of the main area that connects all the classrooms, there is a white board that shares information about Truth and Reconciliation and Every Child Matters. As mentioned, it’s in the middle of the room, you can’t miss it and you wouldn’t want to. There are powerful words and orange shoes cut out with information on where unmarked graves were found.

In the classroom I was in this time, I actually found that it was the first class that didn’t have many Indigenous teachings on the walls. I will share photos from the week prior that had lots that I loved to see. However, one thing that really stuck out to me when focusing on Truth and Reconciliation this week was my conversation with a young boy while I was helping him with an activity. I had asked what his favourite fruit is and he said “I like raspberries right from Mother Earth!”. It was beautiful that he mentioned Mother Earth without any pre-conversation about it. You can tell that this is a normal word and concept for him whether that be from his home or the school.

In the second half of the afternoon, me and my classmate got to spend it in their Developmental Centre (DC) at the school. It was such an amazing experience. The program is a huge part of their school and I’m so glad to have been part of it. There were six children there that all have different developmental disabilities, but they are treated with so much love and care with focus on their education and happiness. As mentioned, their health is of course top priority, but they still have a schedule for the day for cognitive lessons as well. We got to paint with one of the boys while the other napped and got to play with stimulating toys and watched their faces light up.

While we spent our afternoon in DC, the classroom we were in originally actually worked on an assignment that was Indigenous focused. The teacher felt bad that we weren’t part of it since I mentioned that was our focus this week, but I was thankful for letting us be a part of their day anyway and let her know it’s no worries, I got lots of other examples. I did ask what the assignment was, but unfortunately, my memory has escaped me and I can’t remember exactly what they did, but I was happy to hear that they still took time to learn more about our history regardless.

The principal mentioned that they smudge every morning and to remind him the next time we are in so we can learn more and be part of it in some way.

The entire school is such a beautiful, fresh space. The flow from area to area makes sense and keeps the age groups in their own sections. There are so many windows that allow the beautiful natural light to pour in. The only negative of this, with the nature of the area and the reality of this modern day, lockdowns can happen. One EA shared she wishes they didn’t have as many windows or just higher windows to help with privacy and safety in a lockdown situation. While I love the light, I do see her point. And not even just the area, this can happen anywhere and anytime.

The outside of the building is colourful and clean. The admin assistant is right beside the front door and not behind a door. She’s open concept and ready to welcome whenever comes in. In the main corridor, there is an adorable book vending machine. I meant to ask if you needed to use real money to work it or if there was another way. The library/media centre is also attached to the corridor and is such an open concept and inviting space.

On the walls in the hallways and in the classrooms, there is so much positivity to read and internalize. The classroom I was in today was so organized and welcoming. It was the ⅚ split. The teacher had the days schedule written on the board. This was awesome for the kids to know what was coming next and if they had questions about what they were supposed to be doing it was right on the board for them to be independent.

The classroom had a wonderful area at the back where they had a puzzle set up and shelves full of books. It was colourful and cozy. The rest of the room was in two U shapes. I found the desk layout to be great to allow group work and community building as well as a nice path for the teacher to walk around the check on everyone. Most of the students faced the teacher directly. This teacher was strong in her instructions and clear on her tasks. This created a great authoritative model for the students to follow. She also had a great sense of humour and you could tell the students loved it.

For a portion of the afternoon, a different teacher came into the classroom and took the students to Cultural Arts. You could sense her positive energy as soon as she came in the room and the students showed genuine excitement for her as well. We took a walk to the Arts room all together. Around the room was so much creativity from guitars on the shelf, a big colouring area, pictures on the wall, games in the buckets, Cree language translations on the walls, and quotes of positivity. I was just as excited as the kids. We all sat in a circle and the teacher led a quiet and quick stretch. I believe this set the tone of the next activity very well and it calmed everyone down. We started with a listening circle and the students shared the rules of the circle with me and my classmate. They were very respectful of these rules and we’re eager to share, that “if you don’t have the rock, you don’t get to  talk”. So we all listened, some students shared just a word, or something silly, their plans for the night, or something they are proud of. After that, it was explore time and the students could choose what activity they wanted to participate in. I enjoyed the freedom they got to have and play together. This gave them a brain break from active learning and instead learning how to work together in games or focus on the art of colouring or building.  The teacher had to gently remind them to keep the tone to an inside voice sometimes but they were very responsive to her and listened right away.

The entire day was filled with positivity and encouragement from words on the walls or word from the teachers. The teacher would ask questions and challenge the students to answer it first. She let them work through the question, reflect on what they learned, and elaborated on their ideas. When we first got there, one of the students was throwing around some things and seemed to be upset. He was asked to leave and the teacher took him out do the classroom. The EA did a wonderful job of bringing order back to the classroom and reminding them to try and not give him attention as that won’t help the situation when it happens.

My first venture into the field was so exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. I spent the afternoon at Seven Stone Community School. I won’t lie, I had some presumptions and worries about what I was stepping into. The school is located in the heart of North Central and I haven’t heard many good stories of the area. This was actually one of the first things that the principal discussed with myself and my cohort when we had our first meeting in the staff room. He wanted to ensure us that it’s normal to have those presumptions but he’s happy to tell us that inside these walls, the school is nothing like that and very inviting and safe. The first staff member that greeted me was when I was walking up to the school. She was outside, I’m assuming being their safety/security during lunch break. She was so excited to invite me in and welcome her to her school. I loved the pride she showed for her school. The outside of the school is very colourful and inviting and the inside is even more welcoming. In the staff room, they had a flow chart that the staff created of all their thoughts on what Seven Stones means to them and the students. It was beautiful to read such things as “Every child feels valued and appreciated”. You could tell this rings true as we started our tour and every child was excited to see us and the staff knew their names and greeted them.

As mentioned, we took a tour around the school. The principal explained that the school is split up in three cohorts of grade 1-2, 3-5, and 6-8. The staff we passed were so friendly to us and you could tell they had genuine love for their position in the school and love for the students calling them by first name when in passing. In fact, there was a young boy out for a walk in his assisted walker, the principal addressed him by first name and hyped him up for how good he was doing. The boy had such a big smile on his face as soon as he heard the principal. We also visited the school’s nutrition centre. I think this was an incredible system in their school, it appeared the students helped out with some of the cooking and clean up and they celebrated and cooked foods of different cultures. This particular day was bannock and a special soup and they had an Elder working in the kitchen which I also loved to see. She offered us some bannock to take home when we were done for the day. I couldn’t even wait to get home, I ate is as soon as I got to my car and it was so delicious.

Once we got settled and split into groups, I got to experience a ½ split with my classmate Olivia. The classroom we were assigned to was actually being led by a substitute teacher that day. If I’m being completely honest, it was hard to gauge her hospitality or connection with the students as she didn’t know them herself. With keeping this in mind, I was sure to focus on the environment, resources in the classroom, how the students were interacting, etc. We asked the teacher to let us know how we can help her and she said “you can just walk around and help whoever”. I also don’t think she was informed that some ECS students would be joining her that day so she didn’t really have a plan or tell the students who/why we were there. The students were so excited to see us so we had to help calm them down and say we are just here to learn and listen just like them. Seeing how the students reacted to new people coming in the classroom with no introduction, when I have my own classroom, I will be sure to let my visitors introduce themselves and either explain why they are there or let them to do that themselves. I think this will keep the students a little more focused and also feel safe in their space that they know what’s going on.

The class was in the middle of a math lesson. Some students had iPads to use, some had duotangs full of problems, and some were taking turns with the teacher/EA. I noticed one boy was crying, one boy was setting an alarm on the iPad instead of math and another was colouring in their duotang. You could tell some needed help, some were in the zone, and some were helping each other. If I continue to be honest, there didn’t seem to be much organization or structure to who was doing what. I can’t judge this assumption as we didn’t see how the lesson started and what the instructions were. After that, we moved on to reading and writing. Again, the instructions weren’t exceptionally clear on what the goal of the lesson was. There was lack of participation from the students when asked. When it came to the activity, the teacher didn’t like some of the answers the students shared and moved on to the next student who had their hand up. I found that she kept calling on the same students with their hands up instead of challenging some others or letting a student try again. She wrote some examples on the board and then asked the students to write out their own. My classroom will be inclusive and room to share all ideas and imagination.

A lot of the students were actually helping each other out a lot, some didn’t want us to help, some really wanted us to engage with them, and some could complete the task quickly by themselves. It was fun to see each of their personalities and how they changed throughout the afternoon. It didn’t take long for some of them to open up and get attached to us an enjoy our help. But also, I didn’t want to push some of the kids out of their comfort zone and respect their space if they didn’t want help. I sat with a little girl who the teacher pointed out “needs lots of help”. She was so sweet and we had lots of laughs. From there, you could see she just needed more support and repeated examples. You could see the other students loosen up when they saw this student enjoy her time with her help. They slowly came over and asked for help. I made sure the respect the teacher’s space and not let her students lose focus. For example, there was lots of times students came to me to ask if they could go to the washroom so I let them know they need to ask the teacher to respect the rules of the classroom.

At the end of the day, I had one student constantly hugging me, one girl tell me I am her new best friend, and two boys were drawing me pictures to take home. The EA of the room has lots of experience in the school and you can tell the students trust her and gravitate towards her. Even other students from other classrooms came to hug her as she said she was switched ot this classroom a week ago as they needed more help. In the end, I loved the experience and learned lots of things I want to include, or make sure I don’t include, in my own future classroom. I really understand the importance of clear instructions, organized activities, and taking time to hear the student’s ideas. I believe it is so important for children to feel valued and appreciated. At this community school, you can see and feel how the principal, teachers and all staff work hard to create a safe space where everyone’s story matters, everyone belongs.