Only One More Day?!?!?!?

Only one more day of classes, and then practicum, wow this year has just flown by. Now, if only I can get all of my assignments done before then.

back to work,
Mr. F.

The Lion's Quest workshop was absolutely fantastic. It was incredible to see so many people from CG 7 show up and it definitely made the two days much more enjoyable. I found that the resources were awesome and I cannot wait until I get my hands on my own set. I am definitely considering taking the High School workshop as well. I found the model lessons that were created to be incredible and insightful showing different ways to implement the program in our classrooms. Finally, I was most surprised by the "What is a Lion's Quest Teacher" mini projects, all I can say is "WOW" in 20 minutes to come up with some of those ideas...it was just incredible. Congratulations to everyone who was there...and thanks to Rosemary for putting on such an incredible workshop.

Mr. F

Social Issues Day #2

The latest social issues day was a huge improvement over the first day. The morning began with two speakers. The first speaker gave some general information about the holocaust and an excellent package for teachers regarding the holocaust. The second speaker was wonderful. He was a holocaust survivor, and his story really brought the trauma to life. He gave the event that everyone has read about personality. It was by far the best presentation of the year to date. The afternoon was spent in mini workshops. The first workshop on mental issuses was very disappointing given that it focus on having the teacher candidates brainstorm what we knew and provided very little in terms of additional information. Fortunately, the afternoon turned around with the tribes seminar led by Mike Ford that was ver very good. He gave a few energizers that we can use in our future classroom as well as giving a quick overview of what tribes means. Overall, I think the day was a great success.

Till next time,
Mr F.

DSBN school board meeting

The School board meeting is private from 7:00-7:30, and then public from 7:30-10:00. We can discuss exactly when we will meet tomorrow.

Mr. F

Micro Teaching Reflection

The lesson started off very well, the studnets enjoyed the tribes energizer. The energizer would have been more effective if there was enough time to read through the entire activity. The lesson began quite well, the students were participating and answering the questions correctly. However, it soon became apparent that the subject matter was far too easy for the students and they began to get bored. Some students responded with sarcastice remarks to questions, others just began to tune me out. The students were able to fly through the work sheet in a matter of seconds. I have made some changes to 8.b. to correct some of the problems that I perceived in my lesson plan in conjunction with the feedback provided by Dan, Mary, Kari, Maxine and Sandy. Some of the more important changes are increasing the physical involvement of the students to help hold their attention. To do this instead of asking questions and using some many examples initially I would give several examples and then have the students participate by measuring specific objects in the classroom. This is important because it will help to illustrate WHY we must use different units of measure and it will introduce the concept much earlier in the lesson. In my lesson I left the introduction of the WHY to the end hoping that the students would come up with the question on their own as we were going through the examples. I have also introduced another worksheet. The first worksheet was completed very quickly, the second worksheet will force the students to make decisions on a specific unit of measure when an object or distance is being measured with a specific purpose in mind i.e. as a cartographer, tourist, construction worker, etc. I also have realized that I must be more firm when dealing with students who are constantly disruptive in order to prevent the behaviour from continuing and disrupting the class and so that I do not spend too much time with that student in particular. When it comes to questions that are outside of the scope of the lesson I can acknowledge the question, but inform the student that now is not the time to discuss it. I would also let them know that the question can be discussed later or if the student is particularly disruptive I can ask the student to prepare a short response for the next class to answer there question that I am certain many other students had as well. I think that with these changes the lesson will become more challenging and engaging for the students. I also think that I will be more prepared for disruption and other potential problems the next time around whether it is for this lesson or another one.

Assembly Time!

After well over a week, I was finally able to get back in the classroom. The previous week was congested with a PD day on the Wednesday and our MiniMicro teaching on the Friday which prevented me from being in the classroom with students. At my placement each month of the school year is given a theme. The theme for September is Respect. Today, the teachers and students celebrated select students from each classroom who for the past month had demonstrated this characteristic. After the presentation of their certificates of achievement the students were welcomed into the library for cake and coffee with their parents. The students seemed to have a good time and hopefully this will help to encourage more students to act in a similar manner. The theme for October will be Responsibility, and it will be very interesting to see how students try to demonstrate that they are responsible.

Thats all for now.
Mr. F.

My First Day!

I just finished my first day of Observations, and figured it would be a good time to make my first post. I have an incredible Grade 7 class, my associate teacher is full of wonderful ideas and talked with me for quite some time at the end of the school day. The school has several sports teams at the intermediate level, and I am thrilled that I will get a chance to help out with the one of the soccer teams. I also discovered that my associate teacher gets to teach 2 blocks of History (grade 7 and 8) which I am also very excited about. The school is small compared to what I am used to with only 300 or so students. Myself and the other 3 teacher candidates all arrived very early, and discovered that we came on picture day, which was a fun addition to the day. On a final note, until today I had never played soccer baseball in a suit, it was an interesting experience. I was quite anxious heading into the school this morning, but the staff and the students made it a pleasure and I hope to have many more days like this one.

Till next time,
Mr. F.