Love the 4/5's!!

After only 2 observation days, I feel that I am going to really enjoy teaching in this 4/5 class. From observing some lessons, these students seem like an extremely creative bunch!! The quality and detail that went into some of their work was truly impressive. I am thrilled for the topics that I will be teaching, especially Grade 4 Medieval Times and a poetry unit for both grades. I am thoroughly impressed by the independence the Grade 5's demonstrate while the classroom teacher is working with the Grade 4's. This may make my job a little bit easier!
I love the small cozy atmosphere of the school and all the staff are very welcoming and helpful!
It is unfortunate that I will only be spending 4 weeks with this class, but I am looking forward to my teaching time with this class!

My New School!

I recently made a quick introductory visit to my new placement school. I am in a Grade 4/5 class at St. Joseph's School. As soon as I walked into the school, I knew that I would be comfortable and well-suited to this new environment. It is a very rural school, and I am used to this kind of atmosphere as I attended a rural elementary and secondary school. It school population is approximately 130, compared to the 450 students that attended my last placement school, St. Vincent de Paul. I had a chance to meet all of the teachers and I briefly spoke with the principal, Mrs. Condon, who was one of the principals that came in to talk to us about interviews. I am thrilled to be working with 2 associate teachers. They seem very energetic and eager to guide me through this process and they made me feel at home in my new classroom. I had some anxiety and nervousness about entering a split grade, but after my short visit with my associates and the students, I am ready to take on this challenge and I am looking forward to my 4 weeks of teaching there.

Interviews..... AHHHHHH!

With applications well in progress, it brings a HUGE awareness that there will hopefully be interviews for us in the near future. It is definately and eye opener to the fact that this year is quickly coming to an end. *TEAR (that's for you Antonia!!)
The interview process will be a stressful situation, but I am very thankful to have had the four principals come in and talk with us about the process and go over the sort of questions that will be asked. This was a great help and we were very fortunate for them to take time out of their busy schedules to give us some guidance! Additionally, I felt that asking questions to fellow classmates was really beneficial. I feel that it was a comfortable experience and we were able to give each other feedback and suggestions and discuss as a group how we would answer particular questions!
I feel that we will all do well when it comes time for interviews!!

Social Issues Day 2

I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop on Social Issues this past week. The plenary session about teaching the Holocaust was extremely moving and worthwhile. The information presented by Carson was insightful and the packaged that was provided will serve to be beneficial for teaching the Holocaust. Having Max speak on this personal experiences of surviving through the Holocaust was moving and demonstrated the importance of teaching this period in history to students. I had the opportunity to take the Catholic Morals and TRIBES workshops in the afternoon. The speaker at the Catholic Morals workshop was the same individual that we had speak at a retreat we attended for the Pre-Service Religion course. He was, once again, a great speaker and created a comfortable environment that allowed us to pose various questions regarding the Catholic faith and how to address questions and issues that may arise in the classroom in a way that demonstrates our Catholic faith.
I was thrilled to have had the opportunity to attend a workshop on TRIBES. I had heard of this program before, but was unfamiliar of the theory and practice of it. The speaker was excellent and gave us a good introduction on how to implement TRIBES into the classroom effectively. It is definately something that I hope to incorporate into my second block and in my future classroom.
Overall, it was an enjoyable and successful day!

We love Science & Parent Volunteers!!

Parent volunteers are such an inaugural aspect to the school community! People who are willing to give up their time during their busy lives and show such strong committment to their children and their children's school deserve the utmost respect.
My science centers would not have gone as well if it weren't for the 5 parent volunteers that has joined us for the whole morning! I had created 5 centers for our unit on Magnets. There was one parent at each station working and experimenting with the students. This gave me the opportunity to walk around to each center and see what was going on! I think the parents enjoyed it just as much as the students. It also gave me the opportunity to meet some of the parents and for them to meet me. I think it is extremely beneficial for parents to be involved with their child's school and having the volunteers with us for this Science activity made for an excellent morning!

Well... that didn't go so well!

I greatly appreciate my associate teacher giving me the opportunity to teach lessons during my internship days before I got into my block. It allowed me to see what teaching strategies work well with this particular group of Grade Three's. I became aware of what does not work well for this class! During my second language lesson, I was teaching Haiku poems and what the proper format is when writing these particular poems. The topic was to be about autumn and describe, through a Haiku poem, what they saw in various pictures of autumn that I had provided them with. I was standing in front of the class, going step by step of what needs to be in each line of a Haiku and the amounts of syllables for each line. We created a list of autumn words, and I read to them examples of a Haiku poem. They were then supposed to analyze the picture they had received, and describe what they see. Well...this did not go over very well!! While the students were working on their poems, I walked around to each seating group and realized that there were only a few students who were applying the proper format. My instructions must not have been clear enough or maybe I rushed, but for whatever reason, they just did not totally understand. My associate then asked how I felt it went, and I was very unsure of myself at that point. However, she said that it was very important for me to have experienced a lesson like this and to just realize that it didn't work, and say "oh well", and move on! So that's what I did! The next day in placement I had the chance to re-teach the same lesson. I used a different strategy and had them sit with me on the carpet and they created an example poem as a whole class. This seemed to work beautifully for this class and the lesson was a success! Even though it seemed very discouraging at the time, I really am grateful for my failed lesson!!

First Day

My first day at St.Vincent de Paul exceeded my expectations. The environment and community at that school is extremely welcoming. Many of the teachers commented that if we ever needed anything, then just ask. It is a great staff that would love to see us succeed. As for my classroom, I don't think I could have asked for anything better for a first block. My associate wants me to think of her classroom as also my classroom, so that made me feel extremely at ease. The students are very social and everyday they never cease to amaze me with their creativity and eagerness to learn. My associate has given me the opportunity to teach a few lessons before the block actually started and I am thankful for that. That allowed me to feel more comfortable and less nervous for when the block starts.
Any nervousness I had that first day was soon gone and I am looking forward to spending the next month at St.Vincent de Paul.