Facilitating Learning

Fall 2024, Year 3 

Goal:

My goal is to stay informed with curriculum changes and continue to be up-to-date with teaching strategies. (FL8)

Strategy: 

I will subscribe to at least two relevant educational journals, newsletters, or online forums to stay informed about new teaching strategies, resources, and educational trends.

Reflection:

While I did not subscribe to any specific educational forums, I did get the amazing opportunity to attend a meeting with the Alberta Teacher's Association regarding the new Social Studies curriculum some schools across Alberta are currently piloting. My mentor teacher is a part of piloting this curriculum so I got to learn a lot in this meeting about the benefits and drawbacks of the new curriculum and whether the current resources are helpful for the teachers. It was very interesting to learn how the teachers in rural areas do not have access to many online resources so they are having a lot more difficulty piloting the curriculum and require a physical textbook.    

Winter 2024, Year 2 

Goal:

My goal is to contribute technology to my lesson plan with purpose. A lot of the time it can be easy to incorporate technology that does not have a purpose but I want to make sure I use it for a reason. (FL3)

Strategy: 

To achieve this goal I am going to use the smart board when I teach my three-part lesson but show the students a photo of something they must write a story about. This will allow me to put a visual up that is big enough for everyone to see instead of using a printed piece of paper to show the image that could be hard to see and will waste paper.

Reflection:

In my three connected lessons I was able to incorporate technology in an effective and purposeful way. On the first and last day of my lesson I used the projector to pull up picture prompts for students to use to develop their observation and inference skills. I chose images that were interesting to them and allowed them to find many observations and develop them into inferences. The images I chose had just enough detail that it was easy for my students to write their first stories about. 

Next year I would like to learn how to create a video for my students that is interactive and allows them to stay focused and get involved. 

Fall 2023, Year 2

Goal:

I have many students in my fieldwork classroom who prefer using technology for assignments because of certain learning challenges. My goal is to create two lessons that allow students to use technology or a paper resource depending on what suits them best so every student has the opportunity to do well. (FL3)

Strategy: 

To achieve this goal I am going to do some research on possible lesson plans that could incorporate both and also brainstorm with my mentor teacher to see if she has any good resources.  

Reflection:

I have not yet had a chance to incorporate technology into any of my lessons but I have watched my mentor teacher use technology in her lessons to achieve optimal differentiation. One specific example was during an infographic project the students had to make based on Indigenous plants, the students with dyslexia got to use computers to type and then print out their writing to glue onto their infographic. This helped them get their thoughts out in a more organized way that was easier for them to succeed on the assignment.

Winter 2023, Year 1 

Goal:

My goal is to incorporate technology into a lesson I teach. By incorporating technology I will be broadening the students’ ways of learning which will help them get engaged in the lesson especially the ones who learn more visually and better in general with technology because of the generation they grew up in. I will achieve this by either taking a video or finding an activity that goes with my lesson to enhance the kid’s experiences.

Strategy:

I will try to achieve this goal by creating a lesson plan that is centered around some form of technology. I hope to achieve this by either incorporating the smartboard or the iPads that they have at school.

Reflection:

One week during my fieldwork I had a substitute teacher with me instead of my mentor teacher which gave me a great opportunity to take over many lessons throughout the morning. The students had been learning about the months of the year and how to represent them with different symbols which gave me a great opportunity to incorporate technology into the lesson. I was able to use the smartboard to draw out fun symbols that are significant in certain months of the year. This allowed the students to learn in a more creative format and we had lots of fun collaborating on which symbols represent each month.

Fall 2022, Year 1

Goal:

My goal is to gain at least five teaching strategies from my mentor teacher by the end of the semester that can broaden my knowledge of what it means to be an effective teacher. 

Strategy: 

The way I am going to meet this goal is by asking the teacher lots of questions and being fully engaged with them while they are teaching. I will also bring a notebook to my classroom every week to write down the important strategies I learn.

Reflection:

I was able to gain many teaching strategies from my mentor teacher and some insights on how I would like to do things differently. I believe I was successful in achieving this because I remembered to bring my notebook every day to my fieldwork and was able to write down many helpful strategies. Through this semester in my fieldwork, I have learned many ways to handle difficult classes where students are facing many challenges and need lots of assistance. I have learned the importance of staying calm in tough situations and remembering students are doing the best they can with the resources they have.