2 weeks down - 3 to go

I think this internship is going by faster than either of my practicums.  It's just whizzing by!  I can't believe that after 3 weeks, I'll be DONE!!!  Is it possible?  [Although, because I'm also taking an AQ, I'll actually still be taking that course for another 2 weeks - but at least I will be able to sleep in :)]  It's been everything I was hoping it would.  I wanted to make connections with another alternative school that I had heard about and was very interested in and I wanted to see how a holistic school was working in the context of the TDSB.  It is great - and the added bonus is there is a big outdoor education focus at this school.  And I feel really fortunate because I'm helping to organize their curriculum binders for each grade - which has a lot of the resources they've been using for the 3 years since the school opened.  I pretty much finished the grade 2 curriculum binder today - stories of sages and trickster stories - from around the world.  Next week we'll work on grade 1 and kindergarten.  I'm making a sage and trickster unit on the Islamic prophet Mohamed and trickster tales about Goha - a well known character in the Middle East.  I'm also going to include songs from the region and art activities.  I'll start presenting it to the grade 1/2 class on Monday.

Internship - Week 1 - Equinox Holistic School

I just finished my first week at Equinox Holistic School and I feel like I'm already getting so many ideas for when I have my own classroom.  One thing I didn't realize was how much emphasis they put on outdoor education here.  In my very first week, I spent almost 2 full days outside with kids.  These kids are in great shape - I'm with primary grades, and I didn't hear a single one of them complaining about how much walking we were doing (I am going to be in really good shape by the end of this internship).  First of all - most of the class spend the first half hour outdoors doing their morning circle, doing Tai Chi, singing songs, and telling stories.  It is so nice to see so many classes outside :)  They are also involved with an organization called "The Pine Project" - and each class gets to go on a PINE field trip at least once per month - where they go out into hidden natural areas in downtown Toronto and learn about things like different flowers you can use to make tea or recognizing Mustard Garlic plants and using them to make an omelette on the open fire (we also made violet flower tea; and candied violets).  

The other place they are going to for a project that the Equinox Teachers are facilitating with 2 outside people that they have hired - is a project at the Brickworks called "The Pond Project".  They take each class there every 2 weeks; and there are usually 3 stations where the children doing "nature journals" at one station where they draw birds and plants that they see and they notice the changes since the last time they were were; another station - they will hear stories and make more observations (when I went with them, they were shown a picture book with no words, and the children came up with what was going on and gave their ideas); and in another station, they might conduct some experiments (when I went, we compared the clay that we found in the ponds with the soil that we found and talked about why it might be good to have clay at the bottom of the pond.  They spend the whole day there and it's really nice (and makes you sleep very well) to spend the whole day outside.

One of the things I offered to the school as their intern, was to share music with them - so I started by doing my "All About Me" for the class that I am with.  It was a really good way to connect with the kids -  and I have taught them a song that I learned when I was in primary (Yellow Bird); and I promised to teach them an Arabic song while I am there.  In fact, they have been doing stories about sages from around the world - and one of my other tasks is to create a Sage Unit about the Islamic Prophet Mohamed (and try to include some nice activities that they can do and songs that they can learn).  They've given me the units for their other sages so that I'll know what kind of a format they want me to follow.  They also want me to organize all of the units into one master binder; and make 2 copies of each unit in small binders that teachers can use when they are doing that particular unit.  The school has only been open for 3 years now, so they are really excited about having their curriculum content organized in a way that if a new teacher came to the school, they would have a good idea of what to do (it's an alternative school with a holistic focus).

I also just want to mention that I love the fact that the grade 1/2/3 classes are doing a performance of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - with costumes, music and all.  It is REALLY impressive!  And the teachers meet every week to touch base with each other, which is also amazing - I feel like they have a strong teacher community.

I love that I don't feel totally stressed out for this like I did with the practicums - because #1 - I'm not being assessed; and #2 - I chose something myself that I'm really interested in learning about and I'm excited to be making connections here.  It doesn't mean I have a stress free month, though - I'm doing an online AQ at the same time for primary - so every night, I am online working on that and it feels like a lot of work already, and I know we haven't even really gotten started.  But it's worth it - as of June 14th (unless I fail) I will be qualified for P/J/I - which is perfect for what I hope to do as a teacher.

I'll check in again next week and let you know how things are going.

Blogs I commented on

I kept better track this time (learning from the last time ;)

Week 1 - Steven Buchanan

                 Carolyn Johnson

        Effie

Week 2 - Lauren Wells

                 Jasmine Toews

                 Niki Popper

      Jen Waddell

      Effie

Week 3 - Laura M. (on her week 1 blog)

                 Lauren

        Melissa

        Caroline

Week 4 - Lauren

                 Laura M.

      Catharine (on her week 3 blog)

      Winzie (on her week 3 blog)

      Zoe

Week 4 is done!!! Whoot Whoot Whoot!!! We did it!

It's kind of hard to believe it's all over - maybe a little anti-climactic.  It has been a very busy week, lots of late nights, not enough sleep - but I got it all done - finished all my assessments for, as and of learning - even squeezed in a community circle with each of my 5 classes.

So much has happened this week, I don't know where to start or end :)

We started off this week using the questions the students put up on the learning wall as our starting point.  They worked in small groups each with one of the questions and putting down whatever they knew about it (and of course I researched all of the questions and made sure I had found whatever I could to add to the discussion, if needed).  I am really impressed I have to say with how mature these kids are.  The books that we had dramatized the week before had a lot of heavy issues - substance abuse, aboriginal issues, racism, Rwanda, post traumatic stress disorder, ...

I also wanted to introduce the students to the four directions website (and also get my hands on some technology for once); and a website for an organization called "mindfulness without borders" that my friend, Gary Diggins, does work for - and through that goes to several African countries to work with youth who have experienced trauma and violence through war - Rwanda, Uganda, ...  They collaborate with another organization called "teachers without borders" and usually work with students.

In my grade 7/8 and grade 8 English classes, my friend - Gary - came to talk to them about his work in Rwanda.  We finished reading the book (sort of - they dramatized parts of the book for each other, so that together as a class, we "watched" the whole book) - "Shattered" by Eric Walters, that talks a lot about Rwanda.  For many of them, they had no idea about what happened there.  We had a pretty awesome community circle with him.  The kids were so into it.  Gary is a musician as well. and he infuses his music in this work.  He played a really cool instrument for the students called a "Hung" - and it's beautiful and relaxing and he led us through a meditation similar to what he does with high school students in Rwanda.  The students loved it, and he also played some African percussion and got me to improvise.  We passed around a beautiful rock from rwanda and talked about where we were at in that moment and then he told us stories of Rwanda, the history, what it is like now, and how the current president has created a very inclusive government with Hutus and Tutsis, and how it has the highest percentage women in government in the world.  It was truly inspiring.  I'm so glad that worked.

The other classes I have (my core 4/5 and 5/6 french classes) were preparing all week to do a performance for each other on Friday (today).  I barely talked to the principal until now, and I'm quite shy (believe it or not) so I wasn't sure how to approach her or how to see if she might come and watch me teach - and then I came up with a brilliant idea which worked perfectly, if I do say so myself.  The kids have these main lesson books where we wrote the poem that I have been teaching them (a winter poem - it was kind of crazy considering it got so warm for a while there - in hindsight, I would have picked a spring poem - but hindsight is 20/20, right?) and we write out the verbs we're working on, and we draw pictures that are related to whatever we wrote.  Anyway, as with any class, there are those kids who finish early, and those kids who take a very very long time to finish.  I wanted to make sure that everyone was able to finish by the end of practicum - so I didn't assign any more for the book at the end of last week - and I brought in some nice paper to get the kids who were already done everything to make posters for our plays that they learned; our poems; and our songs.  I also always had beautiful crayons and coloured pencils that the kids LOVED to use.  Anyway, my brilliant plan was to get some of my students to make an official invitation for the principal and vice principal inviting them to our show.  Some of the kids are incredibly artistic and they made very beautiful invitations.  Then I got the kids to hand deliver the invitations.  It worked - both the principal and vice principal came to the show.  I also put up all the beautiful posters that the kids had made.  We already had the costumes all planned out for both plays (grade 4/5 did "Le soleil et le vent - une fable d'Aesop" - and I fingerknitted their costumes - just cute little crowns for them to wear to identify which character they were - yellow for the suns, purply/blue for the wind, light blue for the people (and they also had scarves); and dark blue for the narrators).  They got to keep the fingerknitting as a gift from me after the play.  The grade 5/6 did a story about 3 little boys & 2 sorcerers (a boy and a girl) and several other characters including 3 dogs, 2 zebras, 2 sticks, 3 people playing fire and 3 people playing water - the play was called "Salem, Giancarlo, Nazarino et les sorciers".  All the kids had the poems, their lines and the songs memorized.  I have to say, it looked pretty impressive and I finally made some kind of a connection with the principal (yay!).

I'm so happy to be home now - just watched a movie with my kids - maybe I'll put another one on, make some popcorn, cuddle with my babies & evenutally fall asleep.

Hope whoever might read this had an AWESOME practicum.  Pat yourselves on the back for having finished!  Look forward to seeing y'all and catching up.

p.s. forgot to add that I stole Steven's m cubed sheet (actually he sent it to me) and got the kids to write the most memorable moment - and explained I wanted feedback from them on things I could improve as a teacher, or things I did well.  I haven't looked at any yet.  Maybe I'll do that tonight to unwind.  Oh and I gave all my kids a CD - they were really cute and happy that I did that - and they lined up to get me to autograph them.  Cuties!

Week 3 - English unit has begun

So I'm halfway through my English unit plan and so far so good.  I accomplished what I was hoping to accomplish and I started my learning wall.  I had no idea how that was going to go.  I asked the children to put up a post it note with a question about their novels, or vocabulary from their novel, or answer a question that they found on the board.  I was really impressed with some of the questions that they had, as well as with some of the answers they were able to answer.  I don't know the answers to all of the questions, which is pretty cool because we'll all be learning something together.  I think I will use the learning wall as a way to get into the issues that have come up from the book, because it is a way of responding to what the students are interested in, is directly related to the novels that we are reading, that will make them more engaged/interested in what we are learning.

I'm pretty exhausted from teaching 100% of the classes this last week.  All I could do on Friday when I got home was to eat dinner, put on a movie for my kids, and sleep until Saturday.  I have to teach 100%, for one more week, and I just feel so very wiped.  I don't know how teachers do it for the whole year.  I am really looking forward to a special guest that I have arranged to come and talk to my class on Thursday.  One of the novels we are reading is called "Shattered" by Eric Walters, and it talks a lot about what happened in Rwanda.  I have a friend who does work there, and he will come in to talk to the kids about what it's like in Rwanda and what is happening now.  I think it'll be really interesting for the kids, and great to get to talk to someone who has been there.  They have a lot of questions about why the genocide happened, and the history.

I've already done the first assessment for the English unit - an oral assessment of dramatic presentations the kids gave in groups for specific chapters in the book.  They didn't know what happened before their chapters or what happened after.  Each group went in order, so that over 2 days, the kids knew the complete story of the book.  While the class watched the presentation, my AT suggested I give the kids a handout to take notes about what was happening, to keep them engaged while watching by giving them something to do; and to make sure that they finished the 2 days knowing the whole story.  We used "Freytag's Triangle" for our handouts - Freytag is someone who said that every narrative has 5 parts: The exposition (introduction), rising action, climax, denouement (falling action), and conclusion.

My next assessment piece is a reflection journal that the children will submit based on what they thought about the story.  There are 6 sections - general response, asking questions, making inferences, making connections, making predictions, and determining importance.  I went through each section with them, and I modeled both of those activities before I had the children do them.  To model the dramatic presentatino, I did a monologue of 2 of the characters to introduce chapter 1 of each book (the grade 7's had one book and the grade 8's had another book.)  I realize in hindsight I didn't do a great job of modeling what I wanted.  I should have either improvised my monologue, making sure I knew the important points I wanted to get across; or I should have memorized my monologues.  Instead, I read them (with as much drama and acting and feeling as I could - but I was still stuck to the page).  I did tell the groups that I didn't want them to be reading but wanted a dramatic interpretation, and some of the groups really delivered, but others did basically read a script, and I do feel my modeling of it was probably a big part of why they did it that way.  And to model the reflection journals, I filled one out and then typed it out so that the students could see what kinds of things I put down for each category, if they were unsure of what to do.

Next week, the last assignment that will be do will be to write a personal opinion paper about one of the issues we discuss from the novels (on Monday we'll talk about poverty and on Tuesday we'll talk about racism).  I am going to give them Wednesday in class to write their papers and to give them a chance to show me their work before Thursday morning when it is due - so that they can get some feedback before I am actually marking it for a mark.  Thursday, as I mentioned, my friend will come in to talk to the grade 8's about Rwanda, and the grade 7's will have a free class because one of the younger grades needs an "older class" to interview, and my AT offered our grade 7's.  Friday, I will give everyone back their work, and anyone who had to miss the dramatic demonstration will present their personal opinion papers orally, as an alternate oral assessment.

One more week.  Hope I survive it!  Look forward to getting back to OISE.

Week 2 is done and March Break is here - yay!!

So even though I haven't started my unit plan in English which is what I'm most worried about, I found week 2 very stressful trying to get ready for it.  There was another student teacher in my class for our 1st 2 weeks of practicum and she was teaching the english classes (which gave me a chance to watch her, and also get ready for my 2 week unit plan which begins after March Break).  My teacher wanted me to have a package ready for my English students before March Break so that we wouldn't waste any time when we all returned.  For those of you who did TRIBES training, I took one of the activities and decided that would be the focus of my first week with them - "novel in an hour".  But instead of doing that, I am doing it over the first week.  I picked 2 novels - one for my grade 7's and one for my grade 8's - I put them in groups of 3 to 5 students, and assigned each group a few chapters to ready (anywhere from 2 to 6 chapters).  They will not know what happens before their specific chapters, and they won't know what happens after, either.  I assigned Chapter 1 to myself (of each book) so I can demonstrate on Monday what I expect them to do - which is to figure out how they can dramatize/present their chapters to the class.  Then they will have Tuesday and Wednesday  to work on it in their groups.  And on Thursday and Friday, the groups will each present their respective chapters in the correct order, so that we can "watch" the book and know the whole story.  And I will be giving them an oral assessment based on those presentations.  I have also made little reflection journals for them, so that as they are watching the groups, if they have a response, or a connection to something, they can make reflections.  They can also write up their reflections after the fact.  Their reflection journals will be due on Monday (of my 2nd week of the novel study).

Then on week 2, on Monday, we will do an overview of each novel to sum it all up, and then the next 3 days we will look at various issues from the novels, having class discussions and activities (it's a bit vague now because I haven't actually made the lesson plans yet, but it is one of the many things I plan to accomplish over march break - as well as make the rubrics, and my dramatizations of the chapter 1's; work on my math performance, and catch up with my life at home ;).  The novel I am doing with the Grade 8's is called "Shattered" and it deals with issues of poverty, substance abuse, racism, Canadian History (one of the main characters is a homeless man who was in a Canadian Peacekeeper in Rwanda and who witnessed the genocide).  I am having a guest speaker come in on Thursday of that week - he is  a friend, but he also does work in Rwanda to try to help people heal from what happened there during the genocide.  The last assessment I'll be doing with the kids is a personal opinion paper where they can write a personal response either to the novel that they "watched" or to one or more of the issues that we looked at in the 2nd week.  And if anyone had to miss the oral presentation, they will present their personal opinion paper orally in the last couple of days.

It took me literally all of this past week to get their packages together (photocopying the chapters for each group; photocopying and collating the reflection journals; organizing who went in what group; getting the packages to all of the students before they left for March Break; finding out in the last day or 2 that some people would miss part of the unit and having to figure out alternate assignments for them; missing some kids who left early for march break, etc etc etc.  It was really a race against time and I found it very stressful.

My French classes, on the other hand, which I started teaching during the step days, are feeling really good and I really feel like I'm in my element.  I've assigned the parts for the plays that we are going to perform in week 4; and the students are pretty excited about it.  I'm going to work on costumes over march break (oh yeah, one other thing I plan to do over march break); and I'm also going to make a trip to staples to get my supplies for the learning wall (which will be on the 2 week novel study I'll be doing with the kids).  I just want to survive the 2 weeks after march break!!  God help me :)

I'll keep you posted, of course!

Practicum 2, Week 1

Week 1 went pretty well, considering my youngest little guy at home (Janos) got some kind of stomach flu and was vomiting for the last 3 days.  I think he is getting through it, though and hopefully he'll keep getting better and better.  I taught the grade 4/5, and 5/6 core French classes in the afternoons.  In the last 2 STEP days, I already started teaching them, and used that opportunity to do my Art Lesson Assignment - of course I chose to do finger knitting - which they loved.  Now whenever they see me, they ask if they get to do fingerknitting - but we have many other things to work on.  I decided that for both classes, I would work on a story, a round (a song), and a winter poem that they would be able to perform by week 4.  My AT has been really good at helping me figure out how I'm going to asses them.  I'm also learning how to finally make rubrics (I have to admit, I've been avoiding them all year.)  First I tried using rubric builder dot com - but my AT told me it's for high school - and it should be much more simple so the students understand it.  But it put me in the right direction.  I decided to give them a quiz once per week where we would focus on one verb they are supposed to know.  I started with the verb "avoir" - I reviewed it every single day with the kids - both on the board - so they could see it written; and I got them to write it out, and we said it out loud.  But still 7 of the 21 or 22 kids in each class got none of the answers correct - where others got more than 100% (because I gave a couple of bonus questions).  I made a note of the students who got 0, so that I can make sure to work with them more closely.  One suggestion my AT had, was to put "avoir" on the next quiz, as well as the next verb, and make sure that I work with those students to make sure they get it.  I thought about it, though, and I think what I will do is make the quizzes not worth very much.  There is another written assessment I'll be doing, which is a beautiful main lesson book.  I made the book for them (stapled together about 10 pages of the cheap photocopy paper), and I drew lines on every other page, and left the alternate pages blank for illustrations.  In the main lesson book, I get them to write out things we are working on (we started with the winter poem) and then illustrate it.  I brought in my beautiful coloured pencils and crayons and the kids LOVE using them (I told them they can also use their own).  I think I'll make that worth 80% of their written assessment, and the quizzes will be a total of 20% (there will be 3 in total).  And for their oral assessment, Serge gave me a good idea, when he came to supervise my teaching last week - to keep a checklist so that I can see who is answering all the questions, and that way, I balance it because I see on my list, who isn't talking at all (and so I don't necessarily know if they are getting what we are talking about).  The other part of the oral mark will be their performance of the poem, story and song in week 4. I decided that the way I will assess it, is that in my week 4, We will spend the whole week getting ready for the performance (no quizzes that week), so I will try to run through the performance once or twice each class on Mon, Tues. Wed. and Thurs.  If I focus on 3 to 5 kids each time we run it, I will have an assessment for all of them before Friday, when we perform it for an audience.  I'm assigning the parts on Monday or Tuesday of next week - and they already have the song and the winter poem pretty much memorized because we've been doing it every day last week.  They are pretty excited about the idea of performing, and in the story, they don't actually have too many lines - so I told them I want them to have it memorized by week 3 (they will have march break to review).  I'll let you know how it goes.

I won't be starting my learning wall until week 3, because I'm doing it with my grade 7 & 8 English Classes (and I won't start teaching them until week 3).  I'm most nervous about that - but I'm planning to get all of the planning for that finished this weekend, so that I can let the kids know what is expected of them before they go to March Break.  That way, the Monday after March break, we can hit the ground running :)

Until next week ...

People I commented on

Here are the blogs I posted on (I didn't keep track so I'm sorry if I forgot any).  I know - what the ....?  Why was I commenting on all of these blogs when I should have been prepping?  It's called procrastination - not to mention, sometimes I was just moved to comment.  I have to say thank you for all of your blogs - they kept me company in the wee hours of the night as I sat prepping for my classes and everyone else in the house was asleep.  It made me feel less alone when I felt like I was going to have a nervous breakdown from lack of sleep.  Can't wait to see you all and catch up in person tomorrow at OISE.  I sure love midtown :)

Lance Dixon

Laura G.

Vivian (week 1)

Yilin (week 2)

Khushbu (week 1)

Gabrielle (week 3 & week 1)

Effie 

Andrei (week 2)

Justin (week 3)

Lauren (week 2 - I think)

Laura M (Last post)

Irina (week 1)

Lindsay (day 3)

Jen (week 2)

Jason (week 3 & 4)

One More Day!

So here I sit preparing for my last day at school.  All in all it has been pretty freakin awesome :)
We will do our French performance tomorrow for about 35 grade 3's & 2's.  The kids are pretty excited about it.  I was surprised that they all love their tee shirts so much that they would like to keep them.  I wasn't expecting that.  The principal came to watch me do my French class today.  She was very very complimentary afterwards and said I don't have to go back to OISE, I'm ready and I should just go get a job now.  Woo wee :)  You know who I'll be asking for a letter of reference from :)  And my AT said they are all going to miss me so much.  They really are a lovely class.

Tomorrow I'm also going to do another art project.  We are going to deorate white candles with coloured beeswax.  It's really fun and they make very nice presents.  And to update you on the finger knitting craze - it has caught on like wildfire.  Kids (boys and girls) just don't want to stop doing it.  If they could they would do it all day every day.  I started meeting a few kids at lunch recess to do finger knitting in the library - kids I knew from my class.  Well they told 2 friends, and they told 2 friends, and so on and so on (are any of you old enough to remember that commercial about a shampoo - I think it was called "Gee, your hair smells terrific!".  Any way - stay on task maryem! - there are now many many many kids who come and meet me every lunch pretty much to knit in the library.  I don't even know most of their names because they are from all grade (from grade 1 or 2 all the way to grade 6) and word of mouth really really spread.  So much, that another teacher (grade 2/3) asked me to come in to her class today to teach them officially how to finger knit (some of her students had started coming to meet me at lunch).  I brought in 4 of my finger knitting experts from my grade 4 class to help me teach them (2 boys, 2 girls).  It was so fun.  And the kids are getting really creative with what they are doing with it - changing colours, doing 2, 3, and 4 finger knitting patterns, combining strings to make other patterns.  One boy has the longest multi-coloured finger knitting chain going that I have ever seen - and he's not done!  Some kids say they are going to use their knitting as decorations on their Christmas trees, others are going to turn it into a hat for one of their parents, others use them as bracelets, necklaces or decorations for their backpacks, bookmarks - it's endless (and so lovely).

I'm having a blast!  But I am exhausted and look forward to being back at OISE.  Not to mention I miss all of you Midtowners!  See you all next week.

3 down, 1 to go

     Only one more week and then we're all back at OISE.  I felt pretty tired this week.  I stayed up one night until 4 a.m. putting different solids in freezer bags (enough for 12 small groups) for a science experiment on sound conductors and insulators.  I put various items such as sand, cotton balls, pennies, wooden popsicle sticks, etc. etc. (I kind of went overboard) - I also brought in some liquids (coke, oil, milk and we used water from the water fountain).  The kids put the freezer bag against their ear, then they put a ticking clock on the other side of the freezer bag - they had to observe how it affected the sound of the ticking clock - did it muffle it? did it make it sound louder.  I learned from one of our previous science classes that I had to carefully monitor and accompany any liquid they were using - or else it would end up on their desks, or their work or the floor (or on them).  So I asked the AT to help me, and we each accompanied a freezer bag full of one of the liquids to each student to try out (and in the meantime, I had put many other things on their desk to try out - including a bag of air).  So that worked out really well.  No major accidents, other than the fact that the freezer bags I got were really cheap, from a dollar store, so all of them did break - but I always managed to get to the staff room sink before they ended up on the floor (except for some of the coke which did make a little mess on the class room floor).  The kids were so intrigued by all the freezer bags full of stuff, that they couldn't wait to get to science to do the experiment.  (We did it after recess, but I made them come and do a community circle first because we've been doing them once a week - and I wanted to take the opportunity while I had their full attention to remind them of appropriate behaviour when doing science experiments).  It was certainly very experiential and the kids couldn't wait to get to it.  The results were kind of all over the place - but they mainly found out what I was hoping they would find out - that the best conductors of sound are solids, then comes the liquids, and gases last (the bag of air is what we used to test that out).  We did a survey of what everyone found, and that was how we determined (based statistically on how many people found solids to be the best conductors, versus liquids and gases).  We also talked about how our sample was pretty small and that a scientist would want to test it out on many more people than we did, to get a more accurate result.
     I feel bittersweet about next week being the last week.  The children are very sweet and I will miss them - but I will also feel relieved - I'm so tired.  I am feeling stressed about the fact that I have all these OISE assignments hanging over my head that I haven't submitted yet!
     For the last week of school, in French, we are going to do a performance of an autumn poem, a song (a round) and a story that we have been working on since I got there.  It is kind of ambitious - we are going to perform it for a primary class.  So far we've been working in a circle, and it is easier to maintain control of my 36 French students because I can pretty much see all of them in the circle.  But on Friday, I started to stage the story, and it was much harder to maintain the "attentive listening" of the children.  It was also hard for me to differentiate between the different characters.  So today, I went to chinatown and bough 10 yellow tee shirts (for my "sun" characters); 10 blue tee shirts (for my "wind" characters); 10 purple tee shirts (for my narraters); and 10 green tee shirts (for my "people" characters).  The story is Aesop's fable "The Wind and the Sun" (but in French).  I also bought 10 big scarves for the "people" characters to wear when they are "cold" and to take off when they are "hot".  (The story is basically a competition between the wind and the sun about who can get the people to take off their coats.)
     I'm hoping that will help me visually see my different groups (and it will help the audience too).  We'll see how it goes.  I asked my students to try to learn their lines (I have no idea if they will.  They aren't very used to having to do homework in grade 4 - and I wouldn't be surprised if many of the kids left their scripts at school).
     I'll keep you posted on if it works or not.  It'll be fun trying, anyway :)  I'm looking forward to going to the math workshop on Monday afternoon and seeing some of you OISE folks.  (It was also very nice to hang out with some of you at Daiva's lovely concert on Friday).
     Hope you all have a lovely last week!

Week 2 - Halfway There

So I am feeling pretty good after my first 2 weeks of practicum.  I've been teaching French since the first week to all of the grade 4 students in the school (38 of them, in the library).  I was worried at first about this class, but I would say, it is probably my best class and that I feel the most confident about it.  My AT has been really nice and letting me do things that are totally different than how he normally teaches French.  I told him that we could do some of the things he normally does, as well, but he said he preferred to let me continue what I was doing because he was learning a lot.  Talk about making a person feel good!  I've also been teaching science, some language arts, and most recently Art.  On Friday I taught the children how to finger knit.  I found a connection with social studies and "medieval times" when I did some research on the history of knitting, which apparently began in the Middle East, and got to Europe through the Islamic Empire, when they were in Andalusia for 600 years during the Middle Ages.  I also included a little music, teaching them a song so they would remember the technique.  As I expected, based on my experience teaching kids to finger knit, they became kind of obsessed with it, and I'm sure some of the students will want to do it day in day out (several students asked to take some different coloured pieces of yarn so that they could do it at recess and after school and over the weekend.    Finger knitting is something you can teach very young children, and it also improves hand-eye coordination.  If there is enough interest, I may have a knitting club 1 or 2 lunches per week, and open it up to any of the students at the school, not just the ones in my class.  


I did learn that I when I first teach it to the children, I should prepare the first knot (the disappearing knot) in advance, because it is actually harder to do than the actual knitting - and when I taught it to my class, the children who couldn't do it right a way (the majority of them) were feeling like they just couldn't do it.  I will also limit it to one colour of yarn at first, until they get the hang of it, because it took up a lot of time cutting the colours of yarn that the children wanted to work with, and then making the disappearing knot for them.  If I did it all over again, I'd pick one colour, make enough disappearing knots for the whole class - and then after demonstrating how to finger knit, give them each their piece of string, and work on the actual finger knitting together.  Once they successfully knit that first piece of string, then they could come up and ask for another one, in a different colour (it would minimize the mob of children all approaching at once, talking at once, wanting their string 5 minutes ago ;)


Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable art lesson and all the children seemed to be pretty happy/proud of what they were able to make.  


Next week, I'll be doing my first Media studies class (on Monday).  I'm going to start lesson planning now.  Until the next time,  Have a great week.

French Class - Week 1

I observed my AT teaching French to 38 students (all the grade 4's) in the library because no classroom was big enough.  I was not sure how it was going to work out for me.  My AT used a video called "Telefrancais" which the kids seemed to enjoy - but it seemed like a lot of time was spent on making sure some kids weren't get distracted by other kids and I was worried because although I knew the names of all the kids in my grade 4 class, I knew very few names of the other grade 4 class.  I started my first day of teaching French on Thursday and I'll be taking over the French class until the end of practicum.  The first thing I did was move all the tables & chairs in the library so we could form a big circle and I did "Tribes" kind of things at the beginning - rainstick for quiet - go around the circle introducing the child next to you (en francais, of course).  Then I started trying the oral (with songs and poems) and physically active way that I have been teaching French in the last couple of years at my daughter's school.  One realization I came to was that I'm pretty good at it - those 2 years really helped me build up a confidence that I actually know what I'm doing (even though I went from a class of 13 - to my present class of 38).  The children and my AT seemed to enjoy it quite a bit, too.  I came up with a plan on how I'm going to continue for the rest of the practicum.  I have some ritual songs and poems that we do at the beginning and end of each class - and then in the middle, we work on whatever I feel would be good to work on that day - whether it's moving and counting in French; singing some songs that we will eventually do in rounds; learning a poem about the Autumn leaves, etc. etc.  The, next week, I will introduce a story - one of Aesop's Fables - a story about the Wind and the Sun and a contest they have.  Once the children are familiar with the story, I intend to teach it to them, so that they can tell me in French, and eventually I will get them to act it out (where several of them will take the narrator role, several will be the sun, several will be the wind, and several will be the people.  I suggested to my AT, that towards the end of practicum, we have a soiree francaise, where we invite the parents, have French cheeses (that's for you Lauren), praise the Lord! and croissants, and the children can sing one or 2 beautiful French songs, say their poem about autumn (I thought we could do some artwork to go with that) and perform the Fable.  I also started teaching science - we are studying sound (grade 4) and doing experiments.  I think it is going well so far - again, the AT said we can work on the "Sound" unit the whole time I'm there, and of course I'll bring in my assortment of musical instruments as well as do many scientific investigations (we did our first one on Friday.  It was quite fun - we put saran wrap on little yogurt containers, and secured it with an elastic.  We then sprinkled salt on it, and then hit a tuning fork on our foot.  We observed to see what would happen when we put the tuning fork close to the salt & saran wrap, without touching it.  And then we observed to see what would happen when we touched it.  The children were delighted when the salt jumped right off (for some of them) from the vibrations of the sound from the tuning forks.  This coming week, we'll do a similar experiment where we fill the yogurt containers with water to see what happens.  And then move on to other things.

I'll also be presenting my all about me on Monday morning - I will tie it in with Medieval History (a grade 4 thing) but not from the perspective of the European Dark Ages (which is the general perspective that is taken) but from the perspective of the Golden Age of Islam in Andalusia where all kinds of wonderful art forms (literary & musical) were being created and scientific inventions and knowledge were being investigated.  I'll also tie it in with things they are familiar with such as the 1001 Nights - which the story of Aladdin comes from.  I will tie it in with science as well, because I will bring in some instruments which I'll play for them, and we can discuss how it relates to "Sound" and how what we have learned so far relates to how my instruments make sounds and how we hear/perceive them.

I'm enjoying my class a lot, I have to say - but I am also a little worried because I've been sick since practicum started (I started with no voice which is slowly but surely returning - PHEW! - but I know the workload is going to continue to increase - so I'm crossing my fingers I don't have a total burnout.  I'll keep you posted!

First day teaching - Wednesday, November 2

So I observed for the first 2 days of my practicum (which was great because I also got sick the night before Halloween and lost my voice - so it is slowly returning).  Today, I taught my first class - grade 4 science - focussing on "sound".  I started with a community circle which I think worked out really well and the children seemed to really like it.  I told them we'd be having one each week while I was with them.  I taught them the 4 tribes agreements and we definitely have to work on "Attentive Listening" :)  I love the class and I'm getting to know the kids better and better with each day.  When I started the science lesson, I played a game with them - I recorded many sounds (some at their school and in their classroom; some at my home) and they had to guess what they were.  Many of the sounds were unusual instruments that we have in our home - and lots of them are from the Middle East, India.  One girl in the class (from Yemen) seemed very excited about this because she was one of the few students (maybe the only one) who had actually heard and recognized many of these instruments and was proudly telling everyone about them.  I'll be doing my "All about me" on Monday, where I'll bring a lot of the instruments in so they can see what they look like and sound like - and I'll tie it in the medieval times (which they study in grade for) and the Golden Age of Islam in Andalusia (between the 8 and 14th century) - and the connection between that and Medieval Europe.

I also figured out a plan of how I'm going to teach my 38 grade 4 French students for the next month.  I am going to teach them an autumn poem, a lovely song (a round), and I'm going to work on one of Aesop's Fables with them in French (The Wind and the Sun) which I will get them to eventually act out. I'm hoping that towards the end of my practicum we can have a soiree francaise and invite the parents and eat croissants and cheese (maybe we can do a performance for some of the classes in the school, as well).

I'm enjoying the practicum so far, but I do look forward to the weekend so that I can hopefully get my voice back in full working order :)

How to upload a photo

I'm just trying to figure out how to upload a photo and it looks like it worked :)  This photo is from a gig I did in the summer at Harbourfront Centre.

Pre Practicum

I'm going to start my first day of practicum in 4 days.  I wouldn't say I'm feeling nervous, but I guess there is a low level anxiety feeling about what will be expected of me.  I would say my associate teacher is very nice and easy going and I am sure it will all be fine - but I didn't really teach anything during the step days and I feel worried about that fact, when my other friends in Midtown seem to have taught lessons already.  I am also hoping I'll be capable of teaching a subject that I may not be very familiar with (like sound in science).  Fingers crossed!