Month: November 2019

This week was pretty good but was also very crazy. not sure why but it seemed that every student was getting hurt or having issues with each other. There wasn’t anything that got uncontrollable but was still a lot of work for Mrs. P and myself. during math and daily 5, I went around and helped the students, I really enjoy hearing them say Mr. K; it makes me feel like a real teacher and just makes my day.  But other than that it was a pretty standard day with lots of math and reading. 

I took a look around the school and peek into other classrooms to see how they use technology, from what I could tell the use of technology is pretty standard. some classes have tablets and some have computers. when I asked the teachers they said the computers are mainly used for academic purposes like online books, finding information, and doing research while also getting the higher grades to start writing essays. the younger grades mostly just read and do audiobooks.
In some cases the Tablets are used as rewards for kids when doing very well in class, they may get 20 minutes or more to play a game or watch some educational videos. I know in our class Mr.P uses a kind of digital projector, it has a camera and displays whatever the camera sees on the wall, she uses this to go over math problems and the pronunciation of words when reading stories

I asked Mrs. p about how technology is used in the student’s home, and from what she described its kinda disappointing and sad. she says many of the kids come from low-income homes where they are basically raised by things like computers, phones, and tablets. she said for many parents it is easier and cheaper to just give their kids a tablet then buy things like art supplies, board games, puzzles, activities, and physical games like basketballs, soccer balls, etc. 
When I asked the students what they normally do when they get home about 80% of them mentioned things like video games and tv while some others mentioned playing with pets and drawing. 
I then asked Mrs. P how she personly uses technology outside of what the kids see. She said all the teachers are connected through their own email links, she orders supplies and makes a request through the computer as well. she also said most of the contact she has with her students’ parents are through email or through text only a few parents meet face-to-face.

For the younger grades, Tech is not as big as a priority in the classroom but is still used every day in all the student’s lives, Cant wait for my Final day!! but don’t look forward to saying goodbye to all these students.

This week’s class time was definitely lots of fun. To start, we had a person come in from the Regina public school board teaching the kids about the effects of winter. more specifically on how animals change, adapt and live when it’s so cold out. He came with a large amount of Taxidermyed animals and went through them one at a time explaining things like hibernation, camouflage, and adaptations that the animals have made to survive. Of course, all that the kids wanted to do was to touch the animals. But from my own experience, I had an identical presentation when I was a kid. and many of the facts that I know today were because of that presentation so I feel the children did learn a lot even if they were a bit distracted

After the presentation, the class was also treated to another special surprise. Mrs. P the teacher I am shadowing as well as a few other teachers received a grant which allowed them to pick out new books for their classroom. there were roughly 100 new books for the children to read. One of which I read to a small group of students, the story was about a crayon which was labeled as “red” but was actually blue on the inside. a very nice book in clear resemblance to LGBTQ2+ people. 

This week we were to focus on “Curriculum & Instruction.” for my class, most of the things being taught are the basics such as reading, writing, and math. Writing is mostly taught in 2 ways in the class; Mrs P starts off with the new sound or letter that the kids will be focusing on (such as the sounds that “Th” “Ee” makes) she goes over this on a projector while all the students follow along as she goes through a song that makes use of the letter or sound they are learning. once that is finished they go to their tables and start practicing writing it in their books. the books are filled with simple activities that give different examples of when the letter/sound is used. 

Aside from letters and writing, there is math. most of the math is basic counting and patterns (such as 2,4,6- 5,10,15,20 etc) and also teaching them about the hundreds, tens and one’s place and how they work. Again just like writing Mrs. P goes through how to do everything they are covering for that class then lets the students attempt them in their book. Of course, many students don’t fully understand so that’s where myself and Mr.s P would focus in on the students who were struggling the most to try and help them
I feel like most of the children understand the importance of what they are learning especially when it comes to counting as I see many of them counting things when they are playing such as rocks and other kids that are playing a game.
It was an awesome week and can’t wait for the next  

This week was a lot better than the ones before. one student with ADHD seemed to have been very well behaved. he was very calm and quiet and did all of his assignments. It seemed like this was a rare occurrence but he is going to new medication so hopefully next time I see him things will be going good. 

So for this week I kept looking for other ways that the school in the classroom was diverse. One of the things that I noticed throughout all the classrooms was the inclusion of a gay pride flag it was a minor detail but one that really made me happy to see that being represented in the class. Apart from just the flags I also noticed many children’s books with same-gender parents one Dad one mom different ethnicities Etc. It is very important to have many different types of families displayed in these children’s stories to help solidify that not every family looks the same.

Diversity is very hard to spot unless you look at the small details. But one thing that I did notice is that most of the faculty seems to be Caucasian this isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it was something I noticed. The students, on the other hand, seem to be from many different places about 50% are from Regina while the others range from places like China and India

When I asked the teacher about how she shows diversity in the class she said is very important to have lots of books and lessons based on other ethnicities and to always look for opportunities such as grants that will give money in support of getting books and events that support ethnicity and sexual orientation. I think since the students are so young they don’t really realize this kind of idea of diversity it just is a normal everyday feeling for them but for me seeing everything really makes me happy and I hope my classroom will be just as diverse.

This week went good for the first half then was complete mayhem for the second half. We started with the daily routine then went onto the reading and writing skills as well as a little Halloween scavenger hunt that they could find in the classroom.

Then once it became french time, everything went crazy. I personally think that many of the children in the class are not aware of “different languages” and what that means. Even though the french was very of basic colors, it took nearly an hour for them to color in 1 picture of a witch. this is where I could definitely see their short attention spans take effect over them. There were children crawling on the floor, screaming, crying wondering around and just not listening to instructions. 

But for this week I was asked: “What are the different forms of diversity you observe within the classroom and school?” there are quite a lot of different ways I saw diversity. There are elders who come in to tell stories and inform about different indigenous practices and to do activities. the classroom got a “United way” sponsorship that gave them $1,200 for books about and from first nations authors as well as money to buy reading chairs and “safe spaces for children who like to work on their own or need quiet time. there was also a room dedicated to tobacco burning and other religious activities that people may want to utilize the room for. There were also different books in the classroom and on their tablets that show different types of families (caucasian, Indian, Chinese, Filipino, etc) something that may not be visible could be how teachers structure lesson plans to be more accommodating for all ways of knowing. I know some religions need to pray at certain times of the day; so teachers may let them peacefully leave the room and do their prayer. there are tons of ways schools can be diverse, everyone comes from different backgrounds and lifestyles and if the school has events and times of the year where families can show their diversity I feel that would be a big step forward for students to grow up with more respect and understanding towards each other