Second Practicum Week 2

Monday, March 1st, 2021 to Friday, March 5th, 2021

My second week at Sahali was really nice. I got the opportunity to get to know some of the staff a little better. I also was able to observe more junior-level classes as planned. I think I have started to have a more well-rounded perspective on how to manage a class of that age group. I realized that the most effective way to manage a junior-level class is to match their energy while understanding your environment. A class in a gymnasium is going to have different expectations from a class in a portable. I realized that I need to be more forgiving of myself about the volume levels I experienced in my first lesson. Due to the smooth wall nature of the portable, it is very hard to manage volume. Even a moderately loud conversation between students can lead to unreasonable volume levels. I also learned that my teacher mentor runs into similar issues. Some solutions she has shared with me are making sound-absorbent panels to place in her classroom. If I ever end up teaching in a portable I will be sure to check in with her and see how it has turned out. Another thing I have tried to learn more about this week is heavily related to my action research proposal. My proposal deals with game based-learning which deals with the implementation of games as learning tools. A commonly used example of this is Kahoot. Many of the teachers I have observed have used this strategy, but a new idea I have been introduced to was gamification. Unlike game-based learning, gamification is dealt with the design of a course to fit a given theme with point systems to motivate students towards working harder. The one teacher I talked to gamified his history course with Harry Potter. The way he implemented it, the history class was still the center, but the Harry Potter aspect was the reason most of the students attended his class and worked so hard. In an already pretty stimulating science-driven environment students this may prove to be unnecessary but would be really interesting to consider implementing as a unit or small set of lessons.

Second Practicum Week 1

January, 22th 2020 to January, 26th 2020

My first week at Sahali Secondary was really nice. It is amazing how much you can learn in one short week. I am always surprised how similar yet different secondary schools can be. The largest difference between North Kamloops secondary and Sahali is the addition of grade 8 and 9s. I taught my first lesson in a grade 9 classroom this week and it was quite an eye-opener. In my previous practicum, I successfully taught a very challenging grade 10 workplace math class that had 7 IEP’s. The extremely well-behaved grade 9 class that I taught this week was more challenging. Although they were really well behaved and had minimal behavioral issues they are simply louder and energetic as a group. This has shifted my goals for next week as I realized how different managing junior classes is from managing the senior classes. In this coming week, when I am not teaching, I want to try to observe grade 9 students in as many classroom environments as possible. I want to take note of the classroom management strategies different teachers take to manage this energy and volume. I will be teaching my final lesson on Friday so I hope that by then I will have an improvement on my approach to teaching junior grades.

First Practicum Week 2

January, 11th 2020 to January, 15th 2020

My Second week at North Kamloops Secondary was mostly spent exploring nonacademic classes including hairdressing, business, and a foods class. I was happy to see how passionate the teachers were about their discipline, even when it was outside their area of expertise. Amanda the foods teacher made quite an impression on me. She has a kinesiology background and was perusing a position as a physical education teacher, but feel in love with teaching nutrition and kitchen safety to students. Even though the class is quite small, she still brings her ‘gym teacher energy’ to her classroom. She reminded me a lot of Gordon Ramsey as she told kids they were fired when they mess up. At first, I thought this was a harsh approach, but many of the kids enrolled in her class want to end up in a kitchen environment. Amanda understands that by being a bit harsh at times she is preparing her students for a fast paste kitchen environment. She is also aware of her classroom and the school demographics. In fact, I was surprised to learn that many of her students take foods as an elective just so they know that they will have at least 3 meals a week. She often has granola bars and other snacks available to her students as only 1 in 9 are eating breakfast in the morning. I can tell she is extremely well respected amongst the student body. The students quietly listen as she completes her demonstration and once they are set free they work independently and safely. I am happy to know that students who are uninterested in perusing an academic career are still supported by such compassionate teachers.

First Practicum Week 1

January, 4th 2020 to January, 8th 2020

I learned so much in my first week as a teacher candidate at North Kamloops Secondary. Time seemed to fly by as I connected with the lovely faculty, administrators, and students. The biggest thing I learned was that teaching and the classroom are dynamic environments. No two students, classes, or teachers are the same. There was no clearer example of this than the difference between my teacher mentor’s two classes: Calculus 12 and Workplace Math 10. The Calculus 12 students are extremely focused individuals. They are very motivated by learning and easily engaged. They will not hesitate however to call you out if you make a mistake. Bill Morgan, my teacher mentor, deals with this class very well and I tried my best to carry it forward into my lesson. I think I was successful in doing so for that specific class in that environment. Mr. Morgan’s Workplace 10 class on the other hand needs more reminders and tricks to encourage them to prioritize their learning. They also require a lot of additional support emotionally. Some of them would get visibly uncomfortable and frustrated when presented with worksheets. I really enjoyed seeing Bill’s method for easing the student’s anxiety by creating similar questions and giving the students a choice between two of them. I believe it gave them a sense of power over their learning.

In my time at North Kamloops Secondary I also visited many other classrooms and teachers. Similar to how different classes needed different strategies, each teacher had their own teaching style that fits well with their personality. Some of the softer spoken teachers controlled their classroom by being extremely likable. Students wanted to learn from them and you could tell they were well respected. It also emphasized their point anytime they did have to speak up to manage a class. Students would stop in their tracks in shock and know that the teacher is serious. The teachers that were naturally more commanding were able to use that to keep students engaged and participating. Overall, I felt like I learned so much in my first week of my practicum. I cannot wait to go back on Monday and explore more classrooms and ideas to engage students.