Our cohort was at Harwin Elementary for six weeks in January and February. The first day of teaching a one hour lesson to our students and I can safely say that I felt a whirlwind of emotions. Once I was in the classroom, it felt so amazing being surrounded by the littles. My activity seemed to be a little chaotic as the board pieces were not working quite the way I imagined. So I pivoted on the spot and just had students roll and pick a card instead of going to the spots and staying at the cards which was not working. After the lessons, I felt proud as I reflected on my ability to manage the behaviours. I also learned some tips from the teacher in ways to manage the behaviours.
Planning my lesson, I knew I wanted it to be engaging, fun and focused on the learning intention which was to get to know my students interests and who they are. I planned a life-size boardgame on the carpet with squares that would ask the students questions of their favourite color, season, ice cream flavor etc.
I really enjoyed Mrs. Hapke’s energy, she had this positive and welcoming energy. She was supportive with our activities and helped us with the students as needed. Mrs. Hapke also provided positive and helpful feedback after each lesson.
Reflecting at the end of the day, I noticed that my group of students have high energy, want to talk all at once, are eager to share about themselves and benefit from breathing breaks to regulate their energy levels. I noticed some students I had paired together were not successful together as they seemed to bounce off each others energy so for the rest of the lessons, I strategically placed students who I thought would be successful to work together. It seemed to work out for the remainder of the lessons.
At the end of this first lesson, I reflected on things I could do going forward. One thing I noticed was that some students finished faster, so I made a note to plan more than two activities as the group seemed to benefit from quick transitions. My plan for next week is to have a variety of learning styles incorporated in my lesson which will be visual with my flashcards, verbal with me explaining the variety of careers/instructions, auditory with watching a video on careers, physical with body movements throughout the activity and kinesthetic by making career related items with playdoh.
I also enjoyed collaborating on lessons and doing a unit plan with my co-teacher candidate Chelsea. It was great to share ideas and work together to co-teach a three lessons on kindness to self, earth and others.
