One of the responsibilities of Central Office is administering curriculum. When they administer the curriculum, they upload several document detailing the Common Core Standards (CCS) on a software called Atlas. The CCS is an educational initiative originating from the United States and determines what they believe each grade level should know regarding English and Math (Common Core Standards Initiative). The document includes three sections: big ideas, essential questions and goals, knowledge, skills. Once teachers have the opportunity to review the documents, administration arranges for a PD day called, “Gold Day” where students have a day off, while teachers use that day to figure out which lessons should be taught next trimester. From there, teachers break up into their SAT groups which include: Literacy (reading, writing and phonics), Mathematics, Social Studies and Science to discuss which topics they believe they can teach the children given the time and resources they have. My mentor was in the Literacy SAT group and I was able to observe the process they use to lesson plan for the next trimester based on past experience; they eliminated lessons they believed were unnecessary and irrelevant based on an early school wide test called, RAID. At the end of the day, all the SAT groups came together to present their suggestions through a session called, “Fireside Chat”.

Lesson Objectives

During my placement, I found out that teachers do not create their own lesson objectives. Instead, they were already given a myriad of options they can choose to pursue through CCS. The big ideas and essential questions were general statements and questions that guided the teachers; it could help teachers navigate their teaching, but it wasn’t an instruction manual for them to follow. The lesson objectives given by the CCS appeared in the form of subheadings underneath the standards that detailed actionable steps they can take to help them accomplish that standard. For example, in Writing, one of the topics were text types and purposes and underneath it was the lesson objective “write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provided some sense of closure”.

Teaching Strategies

Some of the teaching strategies my mentor uses in her teaching are: modelling and problem-based learning.

Modeling

One teaching strategy my mentor uses in the classroom is modelling. Modelling, in the classroom, is a teaching strategy where the teacher demonstrates a new lesson, and students learn by observing (Eggan & Kauchak, 2001). The type of modelling my mentor does is task and performance modelling, which is when she demonstrates a task and her students follow. During our phonics lessons, one of the students' assignment was to find rhyming words. First, she presented a word on the Elmo. Then, she proceeded to think out loud. Thinking aloud is one of the effective ways to carry out modelling in the classroom as it allows students to listen to the teacher's reasoning (Chiou & Yang, 2006). When students understand why something happens, they can begin to understanding the meaning of it. After my mentor thought aloud and found some rhyming words, she asked students to join in and offer her some words that rhymed. Seeing their teacher do this, the students then quickly raised their hands to participate since they were able to witness how to do it. Afterwards, she gave the student the opportunity to find their own rhyming words. Since, my mentors has already demonstrated how to do this assignment, the students had understood what they needed to do. There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to this way of teaching, but the advantages definitely outweighs the disadvantages, especially when the students are learning at home. In this case, when my mentor models, she clearly lists out her expectations for her students in a way that minimizes confusion, and since she is unable to be there in person to help them then this is suitable. Students also become more engaged and are encouraged to learn as they can visualize the activity they will need to do (Bandura, 1986)

Inquiry-Based Learning

Another teaching strategy my mentor uses is problem-based learning (PBL). PBL is a teaching strategy that gives the opportunity to increase their knowledge and skills over a period of time through investigation (Buck Institute for Education, 2020). Our first unit in Science is about plants. Students were given two types of seeds and some materials for them to plant the rye and alfalfa seeds and were asked to watch it grow over the next few days. While waiting for the plants to grow, my mentor would constantly ask them questions to stimulate their thinking. One day, my mentor asked the students to "mow their lawn". Students were asked to carefully cut a few inches off their plants, then my mentor asked them one simple question, "What will happen next?". Pandemonium occurred as students quickly rattled off their predictions about their plants.

PBL is great for students as it increases student engagement, creates a sense of purpose, as well as to develop critical thinking skills. Since each student has their own plant, they are each responsible for taking care of their plants, which helps develop their purpose in this activity (Buck Institute for Education, 2020) . It helps develop critical thinking skills because in this project, students are encouraged to use their prior knowledge to apply it to the lesson. Students will need to deeply thinking what will happen to their plant

Teaching Resources & Activities

Teachers use several teaching resources to make teaching easier on them as they have many different content to teach. Their teaching resources mainly originate from Columbia University’s graduate school, Teacher’s College. One of the resource in question was titled, “Units of Study in Phonics” by Lucy Calkins. In this resource I was able to see that it detailed all the lessons for phonics which included video lessons on how to conduct the lesson as well as teaching materials to help support the lesson. During our SAT meeting, they used resources from the college to help pace their lessons for writing, reading and phonics. As stated, this resource also included a video that displays how to teach the lesson, so along with teaching resources it provided some teaching strategies as well.

The school also provides other free teaching resources for students to use. All these resources are accessible to the students and are free to peruse at their own leisure. They range from a citation websites to typing lessons to free books.

Lesson Preparation

Lesson preparation is highly important. By lesson planning, you are ensuring that your teaching is structured, so your students are able to easily understand your lesson, as well as ensuring that the content your teaching is aligned to the objectives of the lesson (Jones, 2018). As a result, when it comes to measuring students' ability, they are able to perform well. Also, students learn better when learning materials are provided as it can serve as a learning resource for students to explore independently (MOE, 2020). By preparing your lesson, you can see whether or not your lesson is feasible. During my practicum, one of the things I noticed is that my mentor seems to never have enough time to teach the students their lessons. More often than not, she would go over the time designated for the students to learn independently. With proper lesson preparation, you can work out the kinks in your lesson, and begin to iron it out so you have a much more effective lesson.

One of my weakness is procrastination. During my placement, I learned that not only do you have to lesson plan for the week, but sometimes, you will need to lesson plan for the week after. I also learned that a lesson plan is constantly being worked on. Depending on what went well and what didn't, it can influence the lessons you had for the days ahead. In the future, I will need to make sure that I have my lesson plans written down, so that I can better manage the students learning. I also need to make my lesson plan detailed so that I can better transition substitute teachers into my classroom so I don't delay the students' learning

Lesson Delivery

In addition to lesson preparation, the delivery of the lesson is equally as important. If you're unable to convey the information your teaching to the students, then all the lesson preparation you've done previously would metaphorically go down the drain. My mentor is an excellent lesson planner, therefore, when she came down with a cold she already had the materials prepared for another teacher to step-in and teach her students. Although, my mentor had successfully planned, I noticed that the learning that would occur was completely different than the one my mentor would have in her classroom. One of the skills for reading was acting out the scenario, to better understand the character's emotion. The substitute teacher followed my mentor's instruction in carrying out the lesson, but it wasn't well-delivered. Looking around the classroom, I noticed that students were look at the substitute teacher, but they were looking very confused. I knew the purpose of the lesson; I was able to view my mentor's lesson plan, but I don't think the students understood the purpose of the lesson, or what they needed to do when they did independent work. This was evident when I asked the students which character they acted out, and they responded with, "I didn't act out, I just read". Therefore, sesson delivery is equally important as lesson preparation because when lessons are effectively delivered, then students can't master the learning objectives (Kean, 2016).

One of my biggest weakness is a lack of self-confidence, which plays a heavy role in teaching. When you're confident in yourself, you leave no room for errors as you are sure of yourself and are able to carry out the lesson. When you're not confident, it can affect the way you teach by often allowing yourself to second-guess every decision you make. In the future, I should definitely work on my confidence to ensure students also feel confident in learning from me.

It’s important to start off a lesson by figuring out what the students’ prior knowledge is. It can establish what you need to teach and from then on you can adjust your lesson. Students' bring in various knowledge depending on their exposure to certain content. This is because as humans, we are constantly learning and we are constantly adding on to what is being learned. As a result of this, students will use their prior knowledge as a basis to determine how to modify new information as they begin to have new experiences (Phillips, 1995).

Once you start the lesson, you need to make sure your students are paying attention. One reason students don't pay attention in class is because the lessons aren't stimulating as it does not match their learning style (Ndethiu, 2019). Some students have different learning styles, so you need to make sure when your teaching that you match their learning style. One way my mentor does this is by using puppets. Puppets can help to stimulate the students' attention as they feel caught up in the puppets excitement and can even help students to remember information (Williams, 2016). Another way my mentor captures the students' attention is by using their names in the classroom. During our math lessons, my teacher would often create number stories to practice addition with the students. When she creates the number stories, she would often ask students who wants to be in a number stories. Upon hearing this, students would immediately stop what they're doing and look right at their teacher in the hopes of being selected. I think a large part of why students pay attention then is because they want their teacher to see them.

There are many ways to conclude as lesson, but only a few are considered effective when it comes to teaching. Effetive conclusions don't just happen (unless your're extremely skilled); oftentimes it takes a lot of planning (Jones, 2018). Most of my mentor's lessons often run over the designated amount of time, but her conclusions always ensures that students can officially wrap up what they have just learned. Throughout all her conclusions, I noticed that she makes sure that they are short and highlights and restates the objectives of the lesson.

One of my biggest difficulties in conducting a lesson if effectively concluding it. When reaching the end of the lesson, I would often ramble on with no purpose. It feels very awkward and even I can tell that there was no conclusion. Looking back, I realized that this was because I wasn't able to practice my conclusions. I always just assumed that it would come naturally, but now I realized that it was because I hadn't practiced it. Therefore, along with my lesson preparation, I should always ensure that I include a way to conclude a lesson and thoroughly practice it.