My second experience this week was very different from the first one. Me and my partner finally met the teacher we are going to be working with since she is now back in town. However, I have to say she was not as nice as the substitute we worked with the first week and made the experience in the classroom a little bit awkward for me and my partner because she did not include us in the activities as we expected. Anyway, regardless of that, the kids seemed to be more comfortable with us and allowed us to feel comfortable around the classroom too. They are really sweet and already building great relationships with us.
Differently from last week, this week we stayed in the classroom and were able to observe some interactions the teacher had with the students there. I could see the teacher honouring different ways of knowing incorporating different ways of learning. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the opportunity to talk to her about this but I did make some important observations. I see how the kids have a medicine wheel matt at a corner in their kindergarten class, and we also had an elder coming to teach us how to make moss babies with coloured papers, so I think indigenous ways of knowing has a big influence in this class learning. Another activity that the teacher did with the student was learning the letter U, she played a song that they sang along, and she showed them pictures as they said aloud with what letter those words started with. I think memorization is another way of learning they apply in this classroom, like remembering songs and how some letters’ shape looks like. The last activity the class did was cutting and pasting some images in three different columns, one column said fly, the other one said wind and the last one said wheel. The kids memorized what each column said and had to place their images on the appropriate one.
Regarding the sense of community, the teacher helps student to build positive attitudes and good relationships with peers, with people that visit them like the Elder we had this week, and with the teacher. Moreover, students are always involved in different activities, they have different subjects every day and also “centre times” as they call it, which are a type of break where they are able to choose to do the activity they want in the classroom. While some students “read” books, others do painting or trimming papers, some play with dolls and kitchen and others build tower with cups. Something I could see in the classroom is that they are always sharing this type of activities with peers, they are continuously interacting and sharing nice moments together. During this time, the teacher ensures they are all involved in something and that everyone has the same opportunities and plays safely. Another thing that caught my attention and thought it was a great way to build a sense of community was the goals and expected behaviours that are set in different posters on the walls, with drawings that make it easier for the kids to understand. They also have posters all around the classroom with the class plan set with times for each activity and “centre time”. At some point on Tuesday, a student was not listening to the teacher so she took him to a corner and showed him one of the posters that said what the students should and shouldn’t do in the classroom. The kid knew what each image meant as he explained when the teacher asked and ended up having a good response towards the correction the teacher made. This is something I would really like to implement in my future classrooms.
As for building relationships with the students, I saw that interacting and creating connections with students is a really important factor for the teacher. Talking to them, asking about their lives outside school, basically knowing each other, knowing their struggles and always supporting them is essential to build great relationships between teacher and students. Also, being able to talk whenever there is something that they are not expected to do, as the example I gave before with the posters of the behaviours. I consider really important for the students to know what is like to be a good student, how they should behave and the things they are not expected to do at school to create a safe, respectful and comfortable environment for everybody.
My cooperative teacher as far as I could see she keeps building her professional knowledge interacting with helpers she has in the classroom and other fellow teachers from the school, as well as with the principal. Also bringing members of the community to the class to teach new things I feel is another way of keep learning and building knowledge. I attached some pictures of my classroom and the posters on the wall I talked about in my post.
