Welcome to my PLP! - Alyssa

Classroom

Environment

Practicum II

Goal: To meaningfully include and integrate Indigenous perspectives and resources into my teaching. As well as, to connect learning to Elder's knowledge and visits.

Elder Saa'kokoto came to visit twice during my time at Rainbow Creek! He has a partnership with the school. I had a back seat look at how these visits were conducted and how they got planned. My Mentor Teacher was the Indigenous team lead and we had several meetings with some other teachers about his visits. One of his visits he conducted the Blanket Excercise with us for a PD session and shared some of his stories. It was amazing to learn from him and work with him.

Signs in the school with the Blackfoot Language. Each sign has a QR code with a video linking to Elder Saa'kokoto explaining how to say the words. They were spread all around the school!

I have permission to use these! **

Metis art at Heritage Park after learning about how the Metis People lived and hearing from a Blackfoot knowledge keeper!

The students learned about influential figures in Albertas history. Two students researched Deerfoot Bad Meat and Tom Three Persons and gave presentations on their importance!

THE MOST EXCITING NEWS!

The MRU Education Tipi will be visiting Rainbow Creek on June 12 & 13th! I helped to arrange this so that Elder Saa'kokoto is able to share teachings about the solstice and help fundraise for RCE to create and build their own tipi to have at the school! I will be there on the 12 & 13th to celebrate and help out. I am hoping I will get to see their tipi one day as well!

Practicum I

Goal: The switch from working with sixth graders in my first year to being with grade ones this year was quite vast. I want to be able to perform various smooth and quick transitions for my students in order to optimize their learning and class time.

I learned a lot about classroom management while placed in my classroom! In my first full week with the students, my Mentor Teacher was out sick for four out of the five days. I took over teaching nearly 100% every day right off the bat. Due to this, I gained a lot of experience very quickly. At first, everything felt very hectic, my voice would ache from talking over the students, and I honestly felt overwhelmed. Throughout the five weeks, I began to learn how the students would respond to different stimuli and instructions. For example, I always made the Poem and went through it with the students every morning. Transitions were also important when going on pond walks off school grounds! The transition to the Poem and back to their desks took practice but eventually, I started to get the hang of it! Here are some of the methods for transition:

"Hands on top!" "That means stop!"

The students always responded to this. No matter how loud it was they knew to stop what they were doing immediately and look at their teacher. They did this when the phone rang or announcements came on without any prompting required! Occasionally students would need reminders that they need to wait until the teacher is done talking. The students' also sometimes needed reminders to look up. If a student was listening well they could get their name on the Medicine Wheel for using their hearts and listening!

Timers

The students had a timer by the phone that the teacher could move to any time between one minute to one hour. However, occasionally this timer would stop working and we would be late! Nearing the end of practicum I would put a timer on the Smartboard for activities, reading stamina, or cleaning up. The students love the visual reminder timers bring and they always loved picking the kind of timer! Their favourites were ones with dogs and Among Us video game characters!

"Alright everyone! it is time to pack up, let's meet in front of the P-O-E-M!" and the students would call back "POEM!"

This transition was always a good one as it works on students' ability to spell and recognize letters! The students also could spell "G-O" and "G-Y-M". Once I got the students' to sound out the word Pond Walk. I was amazed as the students sounded out each word and worked together to come to the correct conclusion! They are learning to spell without even realizing it!

"Can you pick a safe way to move? Touch two walls and head back to your desks as your creature! I will ask two people what they were when everyone's back!"

Grade One students are so creative! I always loved hearing how the students were moving in a quick and simple movement break! I loved when the students would connect their movements to something they were learning about! In week three, we read a poem called Snowflake! A great number of students moved as snowmen, snowflakes, and even animals that live in the snow like bison or bears!

"Lets keep our ideas in our brain pockets!"

If you gave them the chance, Grade Ones could come up with ideas and talk forever. Eventually, you have to cut them off to move forward. Instead of upsetting the students by saying no more ideas, we would ask the students to put their ideas in their brain pockets so they may share it later! This way nobody is left out.

Where Next...?

Transitions became very easy by the end of the semester, however, I am still struggling with ways to hold students' attention during lessons. I am still learning when to give students movement breaks, how to stop students from blurting out so much, and how to bring their attention back to me after a set of instructions or project. If I was trying to regain attention the students would start moving before I was done talking or they would struggle to end their conversations. Many times my Mentor Teacher would use the "Hands on top" strategy and they would listen, despite me doing the same thing. Also while I was teaching they would be talking or blurting out ideas, I would attempt to stop them and most times they would not until my Mentor Teacher stepped in. I want to learn and utilize these new methods so I do not have to rely on her and can do it independantly.

Year Two

Goals, Growth, Strategy

Growth: Not being in a physical classroom was the most challenging part of this semester. I still think back on my Grade Six class last year and how we said "see you next week" rather than "goodbye." The relationships between the students and I were something I still cherish. I think fondly about how inclusive and fun our environment was and how students were not afraid to get the answer wrong. I often wonder how one of the students who were below grade level, struggled socially, and disliked me at first is doing. By the time our last meeting came before COVID, she used to rush over and hug me each morning. The classroom environment is one of my most important aspects; all students have the right to feel safe, secure, and represented in the classroom. One way students can feel represented is by looking at literature and books. To the right is an Indigenous book log made by EDUC 2371 class. These books would be beneficial to show students on Orange Shirt Day or when talking about residential schools.

Goal: Discover and discuss how long it takes for students to fall into a sort of routine. In my grade six class, they knew to come in, put their bags away, and get ready for attendance. I wonder how long these routines take to establish and how effective they are in the learning environment.

Action Plan: I am planning to do some research through discussions with peers and other teachers. I imagine each class will differ based on the personalities and learning needs of students. I hope to make a list of what routines teachers use and how they find the most effective.

Copy of Indigenous Children's Literature Reading Log 2371-001

By researching and discussing literature I will be able to "[create] a respectful and ethical learning community that encourages learners to take risks, build trust, embrace diversity, increase self-confidence and show leadership " (IE 4)

Classroom Management Assignment.docx

Link to the discussed video:

https://youtu.be/wg83S9OoX4o

Meeting My Goals

This semester I had the pleasure of taking an educational psychology course, Education and Individual Development. One of the assignments we were assigned was to watch a video averaging around 30 minutes long and make notes on classroom management that the teacher displayed. In the video of a grade four science class, the students were looking at crickets and discussing bugs' anatomy. As a group, we were expected to look for and timestamp participation structures, transitions, and different forms of discipline.

While routines are attainable within classrooms, teachers must remember that students can forget their expectations. As teachers, there are many ways to remind our students of what they should be doing. Lessons very rarely go a planned; as humans, we must expect errors and mistakes. Teachers grow, build, and adapt on the spot to continue their work and to help students succeed..

The teacher in my video rarely verbally disciplined her students and instead made motions or comments that would not interrupt the learning of the other students. While many students understood the routine of group and seat work, there were a few times a student or group disrupted the lesson. Generally, the teacher reminded the students using open-ended prompts such as "Wait a minute you need to listen to all the instructions first. Are all eyes on me?" or by ignoring the disruptive behaviour completely. Only once did the teacher step in with a curt verbal reminder to some students who were not paying attention. There are many ways that a teacher can remind the class of the routine; however, the key we used in the assignment is pictured on the right.

In the future, I want to know how teachers deal with students who may be physical or extremely disruptive when it comes to their actions, how the teacher manages their emotions and gets them to calm down. At Taekwondo, I have a six-year-old who speaks out of turn and makes physical disruptions or screams often. He seems to benefit from having the behaviour ignored, but I wonder if there is a way teachers combat these behaviours before they occur and disrupt the lesson.

This assignment allowed me to witness and document some behaviors teachers can use to "create and manage effective classroom routines and procedures to ensure positive student behaviour" (TQS 4f). It is important that teachers learn tricks to keep the class on task and are able to quickly adapt to student behaviour in order to minimize disruptions.

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