Week 1: October 19, 2023
Today was my first day in the grade one classroom at Henry Braun elementary school, under the supervision of Miss Matechuk, and our PDP purpose for the week was “learning to relate”. I had a blast getting to meet all of the students, as well as Miss Matechuk and my two pre-internship partners Sam and Katelyn. As today was our first day, I mostly observed how the classroom was run, what the students are currently working on, and getting comfortable with my partners and our teacher. I was able to relate to my fellow pre-intern partners as this was all our first day in the classroom, and we are learning how to become teachers together. We discussed our anxieties of solo teaching in front of the class and other teachers, as well as our excitement and goals for the rest of our semester pre-interning. In preparation for our first day, Miss Matechuk asked us to come prepared with an introduction activity to help the students get to know us better. This activity in return helped me to learn more about my pre-intern partners (as we all filled one out), as well as the students, as they filled their own out throughout the day for us to see and learn from. Even from just one day in the classroom my partners and I already had a strong idea of certain student’s strengths, and where they may need help from us in future classes. A challenge I encountered that I didn’t anticipate, was helping students enunciate words when spelling, without accidentally telling them which letters to write down. Going forward I will pause and give students fifteen seconds to answer and work it out, before offering more help as a chance for them to work through it themselves. Overall I truly enjoyed my first day, and left feeling excited for the next week.
Week 2: October 25, 2023
Today was day two in the classroom, and our PDP focus was “classroom management”. My main focus today was to watch how Miss Matechuk keeps control of the classroom, and to insert myself when appropriate to support her in managing the classroom. There were a few things that I noticed that Miss Matechuk did both last week, and this week, to gain the students’s attention and quiet the room. First and foremost, when the students enter the classroom after being outside, their first steps are to undress from their outside clothes, put everything in their shared lockers, put their inside shoes on, and go directly to their assigned seats to await instructions. If it is too noisy in the room, Miss Matechuk will either say, “Waterfall!” to which the students reply, “Shhh”, or she will say, “Holy Moly..” and they reply back, “Guacamole!”. If students are taking too long getting to their seats or to the carpet for ‘carpet time’, then Miss Matechuk will count down from ten, sending a sense of urgency to those who are staggering behind. I didn’t give any of the verbal cues to the students today, as Miss Matechuk still had control over the room majority of the time, but instead walked around and quietly asked students to get back to work, sit in their desks nicely, and to keep their eyes on Miss Matechuk. A challenge I faced was trying to determine how much I should be inserting myself as an authority figure this early on, without crossing any boundaries, while still being active in the classroom. However, I think that my participation was appropriate, as next week we are taking over majority of the classroom management. I had lots of fun again with the students, and am excited to teach my first solo lesson plan next week!
Week 3: November 1, 2023
Today I taught my first solo lesson plans to the grade ones, on the subject of ‘initials’. Our PDP focus was “set, development, closure”, which aligns well with having to format and create your own lesson plan. I had created and provided my own work sheets, which were all personalized for each students’ initials, including example worksheets of my own initials for the students to reference for their work. As this was my first lesson plan I had to teach this semester, Miss Matechuk had quite a bit of feedback for me. At first I was a little discouraged by the amount of suggestions she provided, as I thought that meant my lesson plan wasn’t very good or that she didn’t like it. However, after some critical thinking I remembered that this constructive criticism is meant to be in depth, so that I can take it and apply it to my future lesson plans and improve my ways of teaching. After the students finished their work sheets I asked them to raise their hands, so that I could come over and check their work. Once their sheets were completed and checked, they got a Halloween sticker (as yesterday was Halloween, but I didn’t get to see them). At the end of the day each student got one Halloween candy on their way out of the door, from my leftover stash for handing out the night before.
Week 4: November 8, 2023
Today the school held their Remembrance Day service, and the grade one class performed “I’ve Got Peace in My Fingers” by Susan Salidor. It was a lovely and heartfelt service, and I thought that the grade one class did a pretty good job at sitting quietly on the floor while other grades performed and spoke. This weeks PDP focus was “giving directions”, which worked out nicely because my job in the classroom today was to run their end of day routine. I think that it went over well, with my only feedback being that when the students are sitting at the carpet doing “mountains and valleys” time, that they should talk in a clockwise order. I would usually assume this, however some of the little girls sitting beside me told me that it starts the other way, which I now realize is because they wanted to go first. Overall the end of day routine ran smoothly, and I was glad to see some improvement in my feedback from Miss Matechuk. I already feel more confident in my teaching, and we’re only still learning.
Week 5: November 15, 2023
Today our PDP focus was “awareness and responsiveness (with-it-ness)”. Again, a well matched focus to go with my lesson plan today, which was made for their gym class in the afternoon. In my experience students tend to be harder to manage in a physical education class, as the change in environment and the excitement of playing games makes them more reactive to one another. With this in mind, I tried to manage the class as much as I could, so that I could reign in some of the more chaotic energy in the room. We started off the class with a game of freeze tag, and switched half way through the class to crab soccer. It happened to be a rough day for the students to focus, so I felt that I had to manage the students more than usual, however Miss Matechuk wrote that some distraction is normal so to not over-manage the room. This makes sense, and I will keep that in mind for next time. Overall the kids really enjoyed the two games, and having to crab walk during a soccer game ended up being harder than I think the students thought it would be. I had more games prepped and ready to go if they needed a change of pace or stimulation, but with the thirty minutes I had for the lesson, these two games worked out perfectly. However, I will keep the other games in mind for my next gym lesson.
Week 6: November 22, 2023
This week our PDP focus was “with-it-ness”, or more specifically our attention and awareness in the classroom. Today I was in charge of running and managing the grade one’s morning routine. I was more nervous about teaching their morning routine than any of my other lesson plans or routines, because Miss Matechuk has established such a strong routine with the students, and I didn’t want to mess up the order of events or miss anything. In fact, the students know the routine so well that they will interrupt and correct you if you make any changes or stray from the routine in any way. In fact, I got called out by one of the students today for not calling a student’s name when I let her answer my question, even though I had pointed to her and replied “yes” when the student raised her hand, to let her know that I had chosen her. I admire how well Miss Matechuk has established routine in her classroom, and how well the students respond to their routines. This is definitely something that I am going to implement into my future classroom, and I’m glad that I got to witness and manage these routines first hand.
Week 7: November 29, 2023
This week I chose to focus on maintaining classroom engagement in my lesson. It was our last class with the grade ones this semester, and I taught a lesson plan on patterns. I had the grade ones colour in two “pattern snake” templates. The first one was for repeating colour patterns, and the second snake was for repeating objects patterns. Once they were done their patterns we cut out the snakes, and the students each had at least one (or two if they were very time efficient), spiral pattern snakes to take home with them. The students seemed to really enjoy this assignment, which made me very happy as it was my last lesson plan with them, and I wanted it to go well. I did manage the classroom pretty well despite all of the instructions and directions the students had to follow for their crafts, and I believe that a lot of their engagement was due to the fact that they liked the project so much. They were very invested in their colouring, and focused on re-creating their colourful patterns. I will really miss this class, and hope nothing but the best for my two pre-internship partners on their education journeys.