Midpoint Reflection

Andrea Pederson
Description of the school and context of teaching
I have been very lucky to be placed at G.H Dawe School in Red
Deer, Alberta for my five-week practicum. The school holds
approximately 22 teachers and 350 students from grades K-8, however
it is evident that there is a line between the elementary side and
middle school side. Not only do middle school students play for recess
on the other side of the school, stand on different sets of bleachers
during choir, but middle school students also have different time tables
in school. Middle school is not quite elementary, and not quite high
school; middle school is its own individual school that focuses on the
needs of the middle years ages, therefore, I see that having this
imaginary line between the elementary school and middle school is a
positive thing! G.H Dawe has many programs to offer including the
following: breakfast program; counseling services; learning assistance
center; Spanish bilingual program; basketball, yoga, choir, as well as
many more extracurricular activities at lunch or after school. I have
dedicated my Thursday lunch hours working with the choir, even
travelling with the choir to performances such as the Festival of Trees
where I watched them perform to the city of Red Deer. I have
experience singing in a choir for nine years and a ten-year piano
background, so I was more than thrilled to be given the opportunity to
work with young children to develop their music skills. G.H Dawe also
provides foundation classes for grades 5-8; I was lucky enough to sit in
on a few of these classes with my mentor teacher Kim Tang. By sitting
in on these foundation classes I see the school in a different
perspective, one where I am able to connect with students who have
special needs in a more intimate setting because the class size is a lot
smaller than my homeroom class. My placement has put me in charge
of the grade six classroom that holds 36 students. There are a variety
of students in this class not only in race, but also in ability levels. There
are students who work very hard and ask a lot of questions, there are
also some students who need to be guided along, and there are also
students who need help from the teacher or EA with almost every
assignment. When the year started I found it very hard to connect; it
was very overwhelming coming into a new school and having to learn
36 new faces! However, it did not take me long to warm up and
learning the names to faces really helped develop relationships
between the class. I believe that forming these relationships is
absolutely crucial, especially with such an abnormally large class size.
By making sure I connect with each and every student every day it has
made a huge difference in managing my classroom. Students know

what is expected of them, and understand that I am here to teach and

they are here to learn.
Preparation, Planning, and Organizing
One word that seems to cause me anxiety through my practicum
is the word planning. I have not had much experience planning
lessons until this year, and some days I find myself planning a single
lesson for many, many hours! However, it is getting easier with each
lesson. I know what is expected of me and I am starting to realize that
my students probably wont get through everything I would like to
teach within the short 50 minute classes I am allotted. There is nothing
wrong with continuing the rest of the lesson next day, but what is
important is to not waste time in class. Handing out papers, grabbing
textbooks, as well as the side conversations that my students have
from time to time all take away from learning time, which is why I need
to plan to be proactive. The best way to be proactive is to plan
engaging lessons. I have found that by showing videos, or reading
short stories that students are very engaged in what they are learning
and ask many questions, and the learning is substantially increased in
comparison to taking notes and rote memorization. Creating a unit
plan was probably the smartest thing I could have done as it gives me
direction in what I want to teach and what the end result will be. After
my unit plan was finished, not only were lessons easier to plan, but I
was also confident that I was covering as many outcomes required as
possible. I printed off the outcomes for the ancient Athens unit and I
am not afraid to mark it with pen when I have covered the outcome.
This helps me make sure I am on track and teaching what is necessary.
Although planning may be getting easier, it is still no walk in the park. I
struggle with pronouncing words correctly, such as Greenwich or
Crete. For the next few weeks my goal is to make sure that these
words are pronounced correctly before I pronounce them in front of my
class. I also struggle with including more interactive activities as this
will engage my class and enhance learning. I have included interactive
webpages when teaching latitude and longitude that students were
excited to participate in, and I am planning a Jigsaw activity for
tomorrows class, and hoping to have students make their own social
hierarchy. However, it was only after constant feedback that I need
more interaction that I am slowly letting go of having kids sit through
lecture and fill in worksheets. I would love to have an interactive lesson
everyday except I feel that I am always short on ideas of how to make
it more interactive for kids. Perhaps having more one-on-one talks with
my mentor teachers or university facilitator will be beneficial as they
can provide me with ideas. My students take a great interest in
drawing, so I hope to incorporate more art or designing into my lesson
plans.

Teaching Skills and Strategies

Including technology into my lessons has got to be one of the
best strategies a teacher can use. I have used technology in presenting
powerpoints filled with pictures that describe the content, Youtube
videos that are following specific outcomes, as well as an interactive
webpage for learning latitude and longitude. Not only are students
more interested in learning by technology, but these students are also
growing up in a world surrounded by technology. Presentations are
more visually appealing, and I am able to reach more multiple
intelligences by incorporating a mixture of visual, auditory, and
kinesthetic learning styles. Perhaps in the weeks that follow I can find
away to incorporate cell phones or MP3 players for projects as an
option. I would like to create more flexibility in how students can
complete work. I had mentioned earlier that my students enjoy
drawing, so by incorporating artwork into their learning may be what
these students need in order to learn best. A comment that my
university facilitator had mentioned to me was to slow down when
talking. I found this to be great advice as not all 36 students are going
to be at the same pace as myself. It is going to require me to reflect
often on how my pace is, as I feel this is something that may take time
to establish. I see myself becoming more comfortable with my grade
six class, so perhaps as I continue to feel settled that I will loose any
nervousness in my stomach, and I will be able to talk at a pace that is
slow, yet comfortable. I feel at this point that I am a duck on the water;
on the surface I am cool and collected, yet underneath the surface I am
paddling like crazy!
Communication
When teaching a class of 36 students I have learned that
students need a cue that they all can understand. My grade six class
knows that when the teacher raises their thumb, that they all must
stop what they are doing, stop talking, and raise their thumb in the air
as well. This is good communication of how students are expected to
behave, without using words. Trying to yell at a noisy classroom to
settle down would be pointless because I would just be talked over,
this cue makes management a lot easier. I also find that when asking a
question, that students do not always have to answer with words. For
example, if I asked who can explain what a hierarchy is? it is just as
acceptable to have students either raise or lower their thumbs. After
teaching a lesson, I can also assess their learning by having them raise
their fingers. Five fingers means they understand completely, three
fingers means they sort of understand but need more explanation, and
one finger means they are lost. Communication skills that I need to
improve on is using more professional language as I often get used to
talking in a certain way at home that when I say things in class, I do
not even realize that it is inappropriate. In Drama class I was caught

saying, this is a game me and my friends play which is incorrect use

of grammar. If I expect my students to speak and write proper English,
I need to model this behavior as well. I was also unaware that I had
said to students to shut your mouths and throw away the key. I was
absolutely mortified when my teacher had explained in her comments
what I had said. However, I do feel confident in the way I talk in front of
the class. My university facilitator had provided positive feedback
regarding my voice projection, intonation, and reading skills in the
lesson that she observed. One thing that I have not established at this
point is much communication with parents. I have talked to one parent
to this date, and I saw this as a positive experience because not only
do I get a sense of my students home life, but the parent also gets a
sense of who the new social teacher is and what they are like. I feel
that because I am only here for five weeks that it is almost pointless to
get involved with all the parents, however I will probably be sending a
letter home to the parents in the future regarding Greece Day that I
am currently planning, and I could potentially have parents involved in
the activities for that day.
Assessment Strategies
Assessment is important for teachers so that they know where
students are at, they can then navigate the teaching in the direction
required. In my lessons I ask a lot of questions to students, one of the
strengths that my university facilitator had mentioned was that I had
good leading questions. However, my mentor teacher has suggested
from time to time that I need to increase my wait time for students to
answer. This makes sense because if I give students more time to
answer, I will see more hands in the air because I now realize that
some students need more time to process the question. She also
mentioned that I can acknowledge when people know the answer, for
example I can say, Oh, Jonas knows the answer, I see Natalie has her
hand up, and to make these comments to students who are beside
people with their hands down in order to encourage these passive
students more. I enjoyed making a rubric for the Map of the World
assignment, however I did not enjoy marking it. Not only did this take a
great deal of time, but it was also frustrating tracking down students
who had not handed them in. In the future, when students hand in
work for marks I need to see that everyone has that assignment on
their desk before asking a member in each tribe to collect it. My
mentor teacher discussed it is more efficient to have one person
collect work than having all the students run to my desk at the same
time to hand in work. That was also, if a student does not put their
name on the work, it is easier to figure out who it belongs to by seeing
which papers come along with it. I keep marks in an organized class list
chart, and I have established how to convert marks into letter grades.
In the future I plan to have a variety of assessment strategies and will

hopefully leave this practicum with quite a few on my tool belt. When I
marked the Map of the World assignment I marked them all the day
they were handed in, and had handed them back to students the next
day because I see timely feedback as important in order for students to
learn.
Management and Classroom Climate
Having good classroom management is what I am striving to
achieve by the end of this practicum, and it is not easy! Teaching 36
grade six students requires constant awareness of what is going on,
and the teacher needs to be consistent in dealing with any
misbehaviors. I found that classroom management became a lot easier
when I established good relationships with my students. I am now able
to call them by name and students feel more able to come up to me
and ask questions than before. My university facilitator had mentioned
that I have established a good relationship with these students and
that these students act appropriately most of the time because they
want me to succeed. I am very proud of how far I have come in
establishing this rapport with students, but feel I still have a ways to
go. There are many quiet students in my class who do not get the
same attention as other more vocal students. It is my responsibility to
make sure these students feel cared for and that I let them know they
can succeed. This can be difficult, as I have found that some students
are not always open to me when I try to communicate with them oneon-one. Sometimes I find myself purposefully not going over to help
them with work because I know they will not listen. This is not always
the case, but when I am tired I notice this happens. I need to say to
myself that every student should be treated equally, and not give
special privileges to any individual. This can be difficult, as I found one
day when a particular student wanted to take her map home to color
for homework so she could go on to the next project that involved
using a laptop. I had to be reminded that with every other student, the
expectation was to finish the map assignment completely before
moving on.
Understanding Students Needs
I have identified that my class is very diverse and all work at
different levels, which makes it hard to meet all their needs at once.
However, if I could plan lessons that have more hands-on learning, I
think this could be beneficial. For example, my mentor teacher Kim
Tang had an assignment that I thought was not only fun, but also
addressed many students needs. In this project, groups were to come
up with an advertisement for everlasting water as it fit with their novel
study Tuck Everlasting. Members of the group were assigned roles:
those who wrote the script, those who made the posters, and those

who acted. The students were able to acknowledge their strengths and
use them. In my observations I have noticed that students are always
drawing, and most of them are very good at it too. Perhaps, as
mentioned by my university facilitator, instead of having students write
out definitions from out of the textbook, I can give them the option of
drawing out the definition or even have them write a script using these
definitions as key words. It was also suggested by my mentor teacher
that they can make a tableau or freeze frame using these definitions. I
felt slightly embarrassed that I had chosen to have students write out
definitions for an activity, but in the end it only made me a better
teacher because I was able to gain better ideas in future units where
vocabulary is important.
Professional Qualities and Attributes
It is important to myself that everyday I come to school at least
half an hour before school starts as this allows me to feel prepared for
the school day and take the time to feel prepared for any lessons that I
teach; whether it incudes visualizing my lesson, photocopying sheets,
or even checking with my mentor teachers regarding my lesson plan. I
strive to make my appearance separate from those of my students by
dressing professionally. This includes wearing dress pants, nice
blouses, and hair that is brushed. Anything that does not include jeans,
hoodies, skater shoes, etc. will ensure that students see me as a
professional. I see this important, especially because I am a young
student teacher, that in order to gain respect from students I need to
dress for success. I am more than willing to help out my mentor
teachers as well as the EAs in the class because it is in my nature to
help. However, I need to get over my fear of asking for help from time
to time. Sometimes I feel that when I am unclear about instructions
that it is hard to go back to the teacher and ask what he/she just said
out of embarrassment, especially when my mentor teacher is very
busy. I am however proud that I have started taking initiative in asking
my mentor teacher for small tasks such as supervising in the morning.
I have taken on many responsibilities such as monitoring at lunch time,
working with the school choir, and even planning lessons for Drama in
the afternoon with only limited time to plan. Sometimes I can come up
with the best games when I have to think of ideas within a short time
span, an example being the chair ad game that students loved playing.
I have been given math assignments the day before and asked to
teach it to the class, which often involves me having to complete the
worksheet beforehand as I am relearning a lot of things I teach! When I
take on an assignment that my mentor teachers give me I am fully
committed to making sure I understand what I am teaching and to
teach it to the best of my ability. I have been known to be a bit of a
perfectionist, so it is frustrating when things do not go perfect. The
second week of my practicum I had a few tears after school in front of

my mentor teacher, but I know in my head that not everything is going

to be perfect. I hope to interact a little bit more with other staff
members in the next few weeks because I know this can only enrich
my practicum experience by listening to different viewpoints.
Reflection and Self-Evaluation
In this practicum I am striving to gain as much information as
possible so I can use it in the future based on reflections I have made. I
carry with me a notebook that I write in everyday that states what
happened in each class, and any teacher tips must be written down
immediately! I really appreciate that my university facilitator has us
write weekly professional reflections because it encourages me to
constantly seek any new realizations regarding the teaching profession
and any questions or concerns I have. My questions and concerns are
always answered to help me grow as a professional, and I am able to
keep these in a file on my computer for future reference when I am
teaching. My mentor teacher always finds time for us to talk after class
or after school about how I think my lesson turned out. We talk about
the strengths, and any weaknesses that I see as ways to grow. I print
off my lesson plans and after talking to my mentor teacher I write
down as many comments as possible so that when I refer to that
lesson plan I have all the comments written on the last page. I try and
take any feedback that I have and use it in the next lesson, for
example, my mentor teacher encouraged me to use more examples
related to the students lives, so I write down this tip and use it the next
class when talking about social hierarchies. For example, I will ask the
class what people in their own life have great power or authority and I
saw the students become more engaged. As long as I keep reflecting
on how everyday and every week goes and talk about my growth I can
only become a better teacher.