I had the most amazing time pre-interning in a grade 2/3 class this semester. It truly is crazy how fast these past 8 weeks went by. The photo below is from my last day of pre-internship, until we head back into the field in March. I am going to miss all of the staff and students so much over the next few months, I met so many wonderful people! This back table is where I spent a lot of time working with small groups of students on identifying letters, word sounds, math, and so much more.
For ELA our class does a “daily 5” rotation. I personally love the idea of stations because it strays a way from the traditional “pencil and paper” ELA work. During the read to self and technology stations students are allowed to sit anywhere in the classroom. Some students sit on the carpet or in a quiet corner. Other students choose to remain at their desk. This allows students to get up and out of their desks and sit wherever is best for their learning needs. I also really love the use of technology with apps such as EPIC! and RazKids, which really helps students get excited about reading. Another thing that I really enjoy about the daily 5 stations are that it offers variety so that students aren’t sitting still doing one thing for so long. I believe that this helps with engagement as these students are very young with shorter attention spans. The students are grouped so that they are with other students of similar reading/writing levels. Grouping the students according to reading level really seems to help with guided reading during the read with teacher station. This way the teacher can pick a text that will be suitable for all 5 or 6 students in the group. I have covered up the names of the group members in the photo above for confidential reasons.
One of my favourite areas in this classroom is the library space pictured above. The carpet and posters make the area very inviting, and there is a wonderful variety of books for the students to chose from. The bulletin board was just in the process of being switched over, but it normally has a display of beautiful student art work on it. A classroom library area is definitely something I want to include in my own classroom one day. It gives the room a very warm and home-like feeling!
The students surprised me with so many handmade cards at the end of the day on my final week. I was so surprised and almost brought to tears. They wrote so many kind words inside of these cards and also drew some beautiful photos. Reading 20 of these cards just lit me up inside and made me feel so special. They wrote about their favourite memories with me, as well as what their favourite lesson or activity was. Some of them mentioned activities that we did way back in October and it was just a good reminder for me that the activities we complete with our students really do stick with them. Overall I had a great time with these students and I cannot wait for my 3 week block in March! I am so thankful for the students, my co-op, and this entire experience in general.
Some of my professional development goals over the past 8 weeks:
Giving clear, detailed instructions: I feel as though I tend to ramble at times, so learning how to give instructions that were short and to the point, yet easy for students to understand, was a big goal for me. I have learned that little people have a short attention span and can’t take in too much information at once. So it is important to give instructions in child-friendly wording that they will understand and be able to remember.
Time Management: Keeping an eye on the clock so that my instruction does not run over time was a big goal that I worked on. It is so important to make sure that we are allowing ample time for students to complete the activity/worksheet/etc. Ensuring that students have enough time to complete their work is crucial because I never want my students to feel rushed. I want to provide them with enough time to produce the best quality of work possible.
Smooth Transitions/Lesson Flow: I focused heavily on lesson flow and smooth transitions throughout this semester. Sometimes I would have students come to the carpet area for a story and then have them go back to their desks for the rest of my instruction. I would call rows of students to transition over to the carpet area a few people at a time in order to avoid chaos. Once students were back in their desks I would say “I am looking for quiet rows so that I know when you are ready for me to start teaching”. I also focused on making sure that my set, development, and closure flowed nicely and that my lessons would not be choppy.
Language Focus: Throughout my journey in education I have learned a lot about gender neutral terms and using proper pronouns. This is something that I really took into consideration when I stepped foot in the classroom for pre-internship. My goal was to use terms such as “okay everyone” instead of “okay you guys” when trying to get everyone’s attention. It truly is a bad habit and if I am being honest, it is a hard one to break. I have been growing as an educator and learning to use “their” instead of she/her/him/he in order to promote gender inclusiveness in the classroom.