Saturday 8 September 2012

Lesson's learned

I'm a tad bit taller...
It's been four months since my second teaching placement in a Grade 1/2 split class ended, and I thought it would be a good time to think back about the main things I learned - what stuck out in my mind.



Tableau during reading of
"3 Little Pigs" - the wolf
fell down
Lesson 1 - Have fun! I had so much fun teaching this young age group, and it was amazing how much the students could retain or learn when you made the class as exciting as possible. Whether it was through incorporating drama, art, a little theatre, technology, moving around, or singing/dancing - when the kids were laughing and moving they remembered what we were learning! One example was in dance we played "Show me how you get down!" where you go around a circle asking someone to essentially do a little dance, and then the class repeats that dance. It was so much fun, and the students loved it when I called on the classroom teacher and another teacher who entered the room to "get down".  I also really enjoyed making advertising posters during our Point of View TLCP on how the big scary shark would try sell a home in the ocean to unsuspecting fish. The ideas my students came up with were ingenious - such as a secret trap door on the other side of the advertisement for the shark to sneak in through. There are so many other examples, but I want to try keep this post 'relatively' short..

Lesson 2 - Technology captures their attention unbelievably well! I used clickers, SMART Board, camera's, document camera, and livescribe pens with my class. I remember the first week I used clicker's with my students, and a lot of people thought there was no way it would work with this age group - but it did, and very well! The students were very respectful of the clickers, partly due to my discussion on how we handle them beforehand I suspect. They thought it was a game, and got really excited seeing their responses pop up and the graph results of the class responses. I used Clickers during the first week of my TLCP as a diagnostic check on what they though Point of View meant, or from someone else's point of view how would the world look, or how would they feel, etc. I found it very informative, and was quick and easy. It was essentially an exit card, but digitalized. I kept the questions to 6-10 so it didn't take long, and by the end of the week the students were great using them I only had to bring them out and they knew exactly what to do.

I've used document camera's before and always love how they don't waste so much paper, but also add a little interest to it. Especially when the students come up to interact with manipulatives underneath it during math class.

The class absolutely loved it when I brought in camera's for them to use to take photos around the class from a different POV, such as a bee, or a giant, etc. The class was electric during this, and they were so independent in their groups. The next day I printed off some of the photos, stuck them to chart paper and we walked around graffitiing them up with ideas of whose point of view the photo was taken from. So much fun!

I've used the SMART Board many times before in my first practicum and during teacher's college, so it was natural to want to use it again. However, at my school there was only one which you had to book in advance. This made planning a little more difficult - and when you factor in walking down to it, setting up, and the walk back; your lesson time is reduced quickly. Regardless, I used it in Social Studies, and as I discovered before if you do not have the students interacting with it then you should limit how much you use it. With that said, once you get the students up and going they love dragging, dropping, revealing, etc with it. My favourite lesson I did with it was a Social Studies lesson on transportation where we did an amazing race as a dpa warmup going through the different modes of transport evolution from walking, jogging, biking, canoeing, driving, trains, planes, etc. It was great as I had the music going, a clock ticking down, and used a reveal to show what our next "transportation method" was. Got the students really energized before starting the lesson on comparing Canada to the World.

Lesson 3 - Don't sit back - get involved, interact, and participate in everything you are teaching. Every time I would jump into the game we were playing, become dramatic, act goofy or silly (within reason of course) the students level of excitement and learning increased. An easy class to spot this of course is Gym class. I loved teaching gym! Perhaps because I have always been very active, and it was my favourite class when I was younger. I always got involved in the games, acted silly, would crouch down and run with the students in invasion games. The reaction on the students faces when they saw I was playing was priceless, and they always wanted to tag me out, or the cries of "ahhh Mr. Iles is it!!" were hilarious! The other lesson was never think this they could not handle a lesson you want to teach - especially the younger age group. Trust yourself and your abilities to teach the lesson, and the students will rise to the occasion.

Math wall

Creating our Writing Success
Criteria as a class
Our Literacy wall with Learning Goals, Big Idea, and student work

Lesson 4 - Never undervalue being prepared. I cannot stress this enough. The amount of time you spend assessing and providing written feedback to students every week is overwhelming at times, or perhaps I was doing too much? But if you can have your all your lessons planned out two or three days in advance it is the most amazing feeling because you are so much more relaxed and ready, and have the time for all your marking. Not only that, but you then can make the small changes you want to without thinking "bugger I've got to change everything now!" The other maybe not so obvious reason is you can spend more time thinking about your timing, your materials, and your delivery.

Lesson 5 - Your delivery is so important! If you have a great lesson but cannot deliver, then it will fall flat. This is why you have to have some good routines to make sure you get enough sleep, eat well, and stay active. I learned in my first placement how important delivery was because I took what I feared to be a boring lesson and made it into one of my best taught. I remembered that everyday during my second placement and what a difference it made! The other amazing side benefit is a lot of classroom management issues tend to fade away too because they are interested in the lesson - they do not want to miss out.

Creating monsters using 2-D shapes
in Geometry
Our trip to the movies to see
The Lorax in 3-D
Paining butterflies learning
'colour value'
Lesson 6 - For new teachers especially - remember to always give yourself some "me time". Its easy to get wrapped up in how much prep and work there is. But if you're stressed out, tired, anxious, and not eating well - it does not matter how great of a lesson you planned it will flop. Take some time off every day to do whatever, just sometime other than think about your class. It's all about balance, and as tough as that is it will make you a better teacher.

Lesson 7 - As obvious as this may be for some, get to know your students. Know their interests, who their friends are and who they do not get along with. You do not want to make the mistake of pairing them up with someone they will fight with. One student of mine was having a bad day, and after speaking with them they divulged they were not sleeping well at all. So I asked them to let me know in the morning if they slept or not, so I would be aware if they would be a little cranky that day or not. Just gives you a heads up on their behaviour, so you can read them a bit better. The student was very good at keeping me informed, and the behaviour improved. They always talk about differentiated instruction for your students, and all the different learning styles - and for good reason because it's true. It's so important to vary your lessons, content, and themes so that every student finds something they enjoy.

Lesson 8 - Keep the lines of communication open with the parents and respond quickly to any queries. Even though you will not hear from most parents throughout the year, by constantly sending home student work with feedback, classroom letters, announcements, etc. When the parent-teacher night comes along it will pay dividends because that is when you will meet them and they will thank you for it. If a parent writes a note in the students agenda, respond quickly and professionally and the parents will be grateful.

I'm sure there's so much more to say, but for the time being I'll leave it at that =)

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