finsihed one block

Why, what do we know? I'm done my 2nd block of placement!! *wahoooooooooooo* Onto the third next week, then i'll be done.. totally!

Now, yesterday, was my last day, and it was so sad. I'm happy and excited that I'm done, but saying goodbye yesterday was so hard. Part of me regrets not saying goodbye as ... I'm not sure how do describe it, but i feel like i should have hugged each and everyone of them.

Anyways, I haven't blogged once about this placement yet. What should I say first? I had a blast. I taught gr 5 science, gr 4 social studies & math, and for both grades I taught language arts & art. I wasn't nervous at all when I taught, I felt so comfortable. I think I cannot stress this enough, that students need to be engaged.. hands on!... very concrete.. to learn concepts. However, yesterday, I taught my kids how to create an illusion of depth, but i didn't use concrete methods. My counselor from Brock had came in to mark me, and she pointed out how to teach illusion of depth properly-- she's an art major. Go figure. But indeed, I totally forgot about the concrete aspect for art, because some of the students did have trouble where to begin.

I enjoyed teaching science the most.. maybe it's because I enjoyed it so much in elementary and in high school. My kids said i was their best science teacher, which made me feel that I did teach them effectively.

I learned so much.. every single day. I made such a strong connection with my students, and I wish I was able to do the full 7 weeks there. In the beginning, my students were "expressionless" when i taught. They stared at me, and never smiled. But now, they are so different towards me, and it's such a good feeling. I not only made a bond with students from my class, but other students from different classes and different grades as well.

Lastly, I received excellent evaluations from both my associate and my counselor. I am satisfied to have done so well. Both of my friends that were with me, has had one bad experience at a placement block, and one of them said that my next one could be my "bad" one. I pray that it's not true, and that I'll continue to learn and do well successfully.

give me a break... =)

I think we should of had a Reading Week this month.

My sister is almost done her reading week. I have seen her maybe 10 minutes, and that was just now. She was getting ready to go out to a bday party. Life isn't fair.

Professional Development Day

I went to a Classroom management workshop. It was fabulous. All the tips and strategies that were given were PRACTICAL and USEFUL. Also, the speaker taught us when and how to use the variety of strategies. One thing I really liked was that everything was BROKEN DOWN step by step so that we were able to understand it much better.

The other workshop I went to was called "Life as a New Teacher". The speaker was wonderful as well, and she was fresh from brock also! She told us EVERYTHING she could about WHAT WE SHOULD KNOW AND DO. She said that it took her a long time to figure everything out, how to do things so that you don't waste too much time on, or rather, how to save time, and she was there telling us in ONE SESSION, important tips to make our lives easier when we do get our first classroom. She brought in many artifacts for us to look at, so that we get an idea and know how we can start off our day plan book, our portfolio, newsletters, cover letter/resume, etc. She also brought in items and ideas of how was can make our classroom look nice, and also showed us what she did for classroom management etc.

(What really bugged me was when she passed out ALL her artifacts from the other end of the class, and people took their sweet time looking at them + they would stop looking and would look up and listen to what the speaker was saying. There were many things being passed, and people have no respect for others. Basically, people at the end got the short end of the stick, like me. )

Overall, I had a good time =)

THINGS NEED TO BE USEFUL, RELEVANT AND PRACTICAL!!

Ministry Education Training

I thought that the workshop about communicating and involving parents was okay. I was a bit disappointed because I was expecting to receive practical tips on how to approach and converse with parents. Something that was emphasized was that parents don't have to be in the classroom to volunteer to help, they can volunteer outside of the school also. It was not engaging, thus, boring.

The second workshop I went to was Special Education. Something that I took in was the difference between accomodation and modification. In class, it wasn't made clear, but the workshop helped me to understand it more. Other than that, it was sort of a review for me because I am currently enrolled in the spec ed class. The last workshop I had was the Literacy one, but I had heard that it wasn't interesting so I went to one where everyone told me it was awesome.


The awesome workshop that everybody raved about was the MATHEMATICS. I, too, enjoyed it very much. Similar to math class, I was able to see the many different ways people think and how they come up with solutions that are quite different from mine. There was a lot of think pair share, and more sharing. I think the way the speaker presented the material was engaging itself because her tone of voice, her enthusiasm towards math made everyone sitting on their edge of their seats. It was wonderful.

I'm all about getting free stuff!! So i'm glad that we received the bag of resources.

Does anybody know when teachers get discounts at STAPLES??

End of 1st Block

Yesterday was my last day of placement. I enjoyed my time there but the time seemed to have flew by. I was able to connect with the students and they enjoyed my lessons *phew* Grade 1's are not hard to impress but they have very short attention spans. lol Something I enjoyed most was asking them questions during my lessons. I love oral discussions because students learn from another by listening to each other, and I get to direct them to think more by extending the questions. Something I least enjoyed was chatty students-- they never get any work done. lol I tell them to get started, after circling the classrooms and helping others, they still have not picked up their pencils. lol I think the parts of the school day where i get to care for them and have our little chitchats is recess time when I zip up their winter coats and closely working with some one on one. Something that I really needed to stress was for them to put up their hand before they speak during instruction time on the carpet. They are such eager beavers, all of them want to give their 2 cents.

Since it was my last day, I received cards with many "i love you's" and pictures of me and them. My associate was really nice also, she gave me Godiva chocolates and a giftcard to Winners. When I did OFIP with the students, we studied the book called "Lillie's Purple Plastic Purse" By: Kevin Henkes and she got me the hard cover book to remind me that the students and I studied it together.

By far, this was the best placement I've had in a classroom setting.

First Teaching Block

I know everyone is excited about their teaching block! We will do well and learn from many mistakes. We will go out there to make a difference and to build on our character to become teachers who inspires students. Be confident and Good luck everyone!