Wow, I can’t believe how fast the time has passed, this is my final reflection for 336 this semester! This week we learned about incorporating gaming into the classroom. I really liked talking about gaming because I think that it is one of the best ways to engage students in content. I believe that work students to learn about things, it’s important to present information in ways that are familiar to them.
It’s safe to say that with the surge of online gaming surfacing over the past decade, gaming not only very popular with students but very accessible for teachers. Whether it’s playing a Kahoot like we did in class, exploring/creating new worlds in Minecraft, or practicing math skills in Prodigy, I would say that gaming definitely has a place in the classroom.
This week I had the honor of attending EdCamp 2021! I had a great time switching up my schedule and being able to have conversations with a variety of educators. I chose to spend my time in the “First Practicum Survival” breakout room, and I learned a lot about how I should prepare myself for my first practicum one day. Even though I am not able to have my first practicum this year because of the pandemic, I am grateful that I got the chance to get some advice to prepare myself for my future practicums. For this weeks reflection, I will be sharing the notes that I took during my experience learning from Sandra McAulay from SD54.
know the school, know the teacher, know the grade
have communication with your mentor teacher
keep an open mind, sometimes your mentor teacher might not have the same teaching style as you, try to adapt and discover the pros and cons of different teaching styles
work on building relationships with your students, start with something engaging (2 truths and a lie?)
try to find the balance between having good relationships while being a trusted adult
you aren’t going to be able to do everything you plan on doing
make good impressions!!! practicum is a 6-week long job interview
become a part of the school culture (coach something, volunteer for the play…)
keep a daybook
the practicum will be hard work! expect to stay up late nights
pick a big topic to explore throughout each practicum (classroom management, inclusion…)
ask to visit other classrooms
keep a collection of pictures and resources from this experience
have specific learning intentions
you are leading the learning, lead it!
be kind to yourself!!!!!
In all, I had a great time attending EdCamp this year and I hope to attend for years to come!
This week we had a really interesting class about coding in the classroom. I had never coded before in my life. I knew that coding was starting to be done in schools because of my little cousins, but I had never understood what it was about. After participating in class today I definitely have a better understanding. I chose to learn about Scratch.
I had a great time playing on the site and learning about the different things I can do with coding!
The link above is the game that I made using a tutorial.
This week in class we talked about Distributed Learning, which was quite interesting considering I have been experiencing distributed learning for about a year now. For my reflection, I will be sharing the list of the pros and cons of online learning that we discussed in class, as well as my one personal thoughts.
List from class:
Positives:
You can all type at once
No commute
More homework and personal time
Wearing pajamas and doing class in bed
Not taking the bus.
You can multi-task a lot more things on the go
Lectures can be recorded a lot easier, discussions are saved
Notes are accessible online
Ability to multitask during class.
Less gas money
More sleep
Don’t have to worry about forgetting things at home
We get to meet people’s pets!
Closed captioning on zoom calls
Being able to have people’s names and pronouns right there in case you forget
Negatives:
Tired bodies and eyes from too much screen time
Lack of ability to study with/connect with classmates
When the internet is down, no accessibility to class
Hurts looking at a screen all-day
I feel like I am way less active and do not get the fresh air I need
More home distractions
Hard to do homework after already sitting at the desk all-day
Tech can really be a pain and not always work when you need it/want it too
Get tired easily
Back pain
No resources for more hands-on classes (music, art, physical ed, tech, drama)
Online school definitely comes with some advantages and some challenges. When it comes to my opinion about online school, I find it really hard to disassociate my feelings about online school and my feelings about the COVID-19 pandemic. Personally, I am an outgoing and sociable person that cherishes the space for connection that can only be provided by in-person learning. I consider myself to be very lucky to be a part of a cohort with all the same classes as my peers. By seeing familiar faces every day, I have gotten the chance to create relationships and feel comfortable speaking up in classes. This is not always the case. I have a lot of friends from different faculties and different Universities who have had not as good experiences. I would say that for most, online school is uncomfortable, boring, and frustrating.
In all, I think that there is definitely a time and place for online learning. Post-pandemic, I think that this year will be seen as a time for adapting and growing. Though I would have never planned to have such an extensive online learning experience, it forced me to further my understanding of online learning and how I can use technology to enhance the learning experiences of my students in the future.
This week we were lucky enough to be visited by Tracy Humphreys from BCED Access. We discussed inclusion in education from the lens of a parent. Throughout her presentation, we went into breakout rooms and discussed some important prompts, for this reflection this week, I am going to share what I talked about in my breakout rooms.
How would you approach support for a classroom?
establish a questionnaire system about how to address students needs at the beginning of the year
meet with the students’ past teachers and discuss how they were supported in the past
documentation!! Make note of your students behaviour so that, if needed, external support can be justified
have an open mind, always be ready to get corrected
don’t assume you know how to teach
never host field trips that aren’t inclusive of all the students in your specific classroom
TALK TO THE STUDENTS
2. How can you find out what a student needs?
TALK TO THE STUDENT, they are the experts on themselves
student-teacher conferences?
we had a great conversation about how normalized parent-teacher conferences are, yet student-teacher conferences aren’t?
we suggest that maybe on the afternoon of whatever day parent-teacher conferences are, the class can have a work block to get caught up on assignments and during it, the teacher can go student-by-students conducting small student-teacher interviews where the teacher can ask the student how they are doing and talk about how they can be better supported in the classroom.
formative assessments
READ IEP’s!!!
Overall, it was a very insightful conversation that taught me a lot about how to welcome any learner into my classroom!
