An Eventful Last Week

Co-Teaching Experience

My teacher and I co-taught a math lesson (Algebra) together. It was a wonderful opportunity to talk to the teacher and plan the lesson together (minds on, action, and consolidation). I was able to see what initial thoughts a teacher has before starting the planning stage such as the level of knowledge the students have on the topic, the activities and related lessons that have all been taught so far, and also the logistics (back up grouping of students in case someone is away). We solved the question together and found out that my teacher used a T-chart way to solve the question whereas I did it by using algebraic equations and substituting one equation in the other. This helped us think of various ways students will attempt to solve the problem. Hence we came up with a list of strategies (guess and checking, using manipulatives, equations, t-chart, variables etc). Also, we re-read the question a few times to come up with the possible errors that might happen (misreading the question, just using one part of the entire question to solve, etc). After this initial planning stage, Caroline came in and led the discussion in the staff room for about 20 other teachers in the school. This gave everyone an opportunity to understand the planning process and what will happen next.

Once we were in the classroom, my teacher led the minds-on activity consisted on touching base on prior knowledge (variables, expressions, and equations) which I had taught for the past few math lessons. Then for the Action part, I read the question and let the students solve them in their assigned pairs on chart paper using markers. For the first part of the consolidation component, my teacher selected three works to display the various strategies used and then asked various questions so that it would probe students to explain their thinking and help others to understand how to solve the question. I was pretty quiet during that period because I was a little nervous since everything was being recorded and there were so many teachers in the classroom. Hence I pointed to the parts the students were talking about and didn’t really contribute to asking questions. However the next day, the two of us completed the second part of consolidation by breaking down their work into variables and expression and making them equations. This really helped them see the full step by step process. It was a great learning experience because I understood how teachers ask questions to direct students thinking and also how works are selected in order to make the lesson effective for everyone to learn.

Scientists in School

The grade 6s were going to start a new science unit on Electricity. In order to initiate interest, the teacher had booked a scientist in school workshop, whereby a guest comes to introduce the topic to the class. It was fantastic because the man who came in had amazing resources and his lesson was really engaging. There were mini bulbs, batteries, motors, numerous wires and various other objects that the class could have a hands-on experience. They learned about static and current electricity as well as various types of circuits. It was a 2 hour lesson so the students had more than enough time to play around with the given objects and come up with hypotheses/predictions and learn about the basics of electricity. I found this resource really useful and wanted to provide the link: http://www.scientistsinschool.ca/index.php if you get the chance in teaching science to a class and want to incorporate this before starting a unit.

Epic Fail: Observing a Field trip

Last Thursday, three grade six classes went to the Aboriginal Festival at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). We all took the TTC (bus, subway, and a streetcar) in order to reach the destination. Hence, it was a great practice to observe how teachers manage transportation of student groups on field trips. Since, I’ve been a camp leader for several years and had to take kids around the city via TTC bus, it wasn’t much of a surprise to me. Obviously the trip to and fro was immensely noisy due to all the chattering, but still it was a joyous part of the day.

We reached CNE at the expected time and the classes were split into mini groups. Since they were 10-11 year old, they were given the freedom to explore the building with their assigned groups. (Also, since there was only one entrance/exit, the teachers felt the students would be responsible enough to stay within the boundaries of the building). During class at OISE, I had the impression that teachers need to be hovering around and taking note where all the groups where. However, in this area, there were a lot of other school groups, so it was impossible for teachers to keep an eye on all the groups even if they had tried running laps around the building. However, all the teachers walked around periodically and then stood at a prominent spot in the building hence the students were able to find them easily. So it worked out.

What really ruined the field trip was not the management or the transportation of the students, but rather what the place had to offer. The description of the event was a hands-on experience of soap-carving, Aboriginal music & dance, hair-braiding, and games such as snakes-&-ladders and tug-a-war. This had really excited the children when the teachers had told them about the field trip plan in class. But once we got there, the stations which they had advertised were really crowded that most of the students didn’t even get an opportunity to participate. As well, about 75% of the place was covered with stalls selling aboriginal arts, CDs, and souvenirs. I perceived it as an over-priced flee market. It was a pretty useless field trip, because I could see a lot of the students were simply tolerating the environment and weren’t enjoying (even though they were free to walk around with their friends). They learned absolutely nothing from this field trip because the activities were a fail and there wasn’t anyone explaining educational/valuable content about First Nations. I felt it was a misrepresentation of the First Nations. Many of the students were disappointed that they had not brought enough money to buy the (over-priced) souvenirs, which definitely wasn’t the aim of the field trip anyway. As well, when I asked several of the students how they felt, they simply shrugged their shoulders unsure what to say. I had the same reaction too.

Things to learn from observing a field trip:

o I now understand why OISE instructors suggests that teachers should actually visit or get a review from past-teachers about the place they will be visiting

o It is not sufficient to rely on the description provided by the event-coordinators/field trip providers because it might be ‘advertising’ more than they actually offer.

o Go to sites which are more commonly visited for field trip purposes or have educational resources

Grammar can be fun!

I remember when I was younger, grammar used to be one dreadful lesson. All it consisted of was worksheets to fill out verbs, adverbs, nouns, etc in the labelled blanks.

Since I did not want the kids in my class to have the same experience, I asked my associate teacher what I can do. She gave me a great suggestion to guide my lesson. She referred me to their Creation Myths they were writing for Social Studies and told me to teach grammar in a way that it would be applicable immediately.

Hence after I taught them about how to use (1) quotations and add in (2) adverbs and (3) adjectives, I advised them to go over and revise their myths so that they could include what they learned.

(1) For quotations, I read a story, “The Flight of a Hummingbird” to demonstrate how the author shows various characters speaking. [It’s a really interesting and motivating story that you can share with your class. Here’s a link for the story in case you don’t get a hold of the book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi5u7A9DRAc ]. They really liked the story because it was closely related to the theme of myths. Also, this story gave me the opportunity to teach them that you do not need to always start a quote with he/she said, but rather mix it up with other expressions such as yelled, whispered, chanted, told, replied, laughed, mumbled, etc.

(2) For adverbs, I first shared a video with the class with a really catchy song. I recommend you watch it; you might just be humming it yourself for the next few days! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWYmEICNgOQ&feature=related . It was really interesting to see that the students were still singing the song on Monday! Then, I gave examples of adverbs on the board by using sentences with names of students from the class so they would be more interested.

For example- An adverb can modify a verb: Nuriana was writing quickly. (How was she writing? Quickly)

(3) And lastly, for adjectives, I gave each table-group 1 object at a time for 5 minutes so that they could write down as many adjectives as possible in order to describe the object given. It worked well because the objects given were quite different from one another.

All in all, as I reflected back, I realized that grammar is quite essential to teach so that it enriches student’s writing. Grammar is a tough topic to engage students in; hence videos and short activities do help to get them interested. Also, most importantly, when students edit their own writing by using what they are taught [example: adverbs/adjectives/quotations] it becomes a much more authentic experience which will help them retain what they learned rather than in isolated cases which is often the structure in worksheets.

Hope you are doing well!

Great Experience in the First Week! A lot of Learning

The first week of practicum has been hectic, overwhelming, yet rewarding because I’ve learned so much in a short period of time and have made a wonderful rapport with the class. I’ve had the opportunity to teach several subjects: math, language, physical education, and social studies to a grade 6 class. The class is truly welcoming and warm. Here are two lessons I want to share:

(1) ABOUT ME: They were very excited when I presented my “About Me” assignment. If you recall, I had made a booklet/display about my brother and I. I made it into a power point presentation so that all the students could see the sections clearly while I was presenting. They got to know about my travelling experiences with my brother and family as well as the number of times I’ve moved (from Pune (India) to Toronto; Toronto to New York; New York to Kolhapur (India), and finally from Kolhapur to Toronto). I had made postcards so they enjoyed reading them out loud. I was able to talk about different currencies as well since I had a little bag with Canadian & American dollars as well as an Indian Rupee. The students shared with me the global currenciess they had heard of or used. Since my class was so multicultural, there was a lot of input of their experiences and great additions to the presentation. In order to relate it back to the curriculum, I had made it a language lesson. This involved them using a Q-Chart to come up with analytical and critical questions by using question structures such as ‘How would you...” “Why might you...” etc after listening to my presentation. The questions they asked were quite interesting and it showed that they were truly engaged in the lesson. However, I did feel that I could have allotted some time to explain which question structures help in getting a more fulfilling response to learn more about the person/topic. However, it went very well!

(2) YOGA: Just last Friday, I led a Yoga lesson for the physical education period for 4 classes that had combined together. It took a lot of preparation because I hand-drew the pictures of various yoga postures and wrote down instructions. I was a little unsure how yoga would turn out because I had overheard many students saying “Yoga sucks” and “Yoga is only for girls!” I ignored those comments because I knew not having exposure to Yoga of course can lead to misunderstandings or presumptions. As the students filed into the gym, I divided them into 6 groups to play Human Knot as a Minds-On Activity. This really helped the students get used to close physical contact and maneuvering their body around in different positions as they went over/under each other’s hands to untangle themselves. Next, I played very ambient and serene music to create a Yoga aura and split the class into 8 sections as there were 8 yoga postures posted around the gym. All the students got to try all the postures for 2-3 minutes each as they rotated around the stations. To wrap up the lesson, I told them sit down and listen to their breathing while they relaxed. I asked them to think about which muscles and parts of the body they stretched. Slowly as they got up in the end, I introduced them to the Tree-position as I demonstrated it to them and they followed. I saw the level of enthusiasm and thrill all the students had. I really enjoyed teaching this lesson and felt it was very successful! (I learned that the first reaction of someone can most definitely change. I also learned that it is definitely great for children to get exposed to and explore different topics (i.e. Yoga) just to let them get the opportunity to choose if it’s something they’d be interested to continue in the future!)