Another week in the books! This week will be a memorable one for me for many different reasons. Firstly, my Associate Teacher had to get an operation done, meaning that yours truly is the full-time teacher for a two week period. While this came with some added apprehensions and stress, I feel like I transitioned well into the role and truly became a classroom teacher. And the best part is that the students have started to view and accept me in that role too!

Singing our hearts out, practicing for the Christmas play on December 15! 🎄🎤@OLMCOttawa @FontaineOLMC pic.twitter.com/uyLXsKcj53

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) November 25, 2016

This week, my Grade 5s have delved deeper in our patterning unit by identifying, extending, and predicting term patterns and numbers. I put together a patterning Kahoot that the students absolutely loved! Even with so much learning taking place, Kahoots always seem to bring out the fun and excitement in the lesson. The students are happy because they get to use technology and they also feel a sense of competition, which in my opinion furthers their overall performance.

The grade 5s had a blast with the patterning @GetKahoot I created for them! A fun way to review what we’ve learned thus far pic.twitter.com/3uQNLIpGe5

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) November 22, 2016

On Tuesday, Our Lady of Mount Carmel started their intramural program, which is something that the student teachers at our school are taking the lead on. For the Grade 4-6 students, we’ve created a Tchoukball league. Tchoukball is a team sport that involves balls and trampolines… In other words, the students have a blast! I am looking forward to continuing the intramurals throughout the rest of my practicum.

Great first day of intramurals at @OLMCOttawa! All of our grade 4, 5, and 6 students will be playing tchoukball. Loved the sportsmanship! pic.twitter.com/oy9MuBgKMl

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) November 22, 2016

In my health unit, our class has put together a lovely anchor chart that defines the key terms we have been working with. The students have had some really great input during our class discussions, which has furthered the learning in our unit.  An engaging lesson that I facilitated involved giving each student an effect and having them decide (with the help of their peers) whether the effect was a short-term or long-term effect of alcohol use. They did a great job differentiating between the two types of effects and together we created a lovely visual to refer back to. Next week, we will explore the concept of peer pressure, as it pertains to alcohol use.

In preparation for an assembly that my Grade 5s will be facilitating for the entire school, we explored the Catholic Graduate Expectation of being a “lifelong learner”. The topic of lifelong learning opened many opportunities for learning in our own classroom, including introducing “growth mindset” to the students. We watched some online cartoons, courtesy of Edmodo, that spoke about concepts like grit, the power of “yet”, and learning from your mistakes, all of which tie in wonderfully with lifelong learning. As a way to assess the students’ knowledge of the Catholic Graduate Expectation, I created a placemat activity that the students used to display their understanding. The results were impressive, so I had to take a few pictures to share:

“Lifelong learner” means to never give up, keep working towards your goals, and strive to achieve your God-given potential #GrowthMindset pic.twitter.com/qBvBxQGicd

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) November 25, 2016

Classroom and behaviour management is definitely something that I am getting a lot of exposure and experience to this practicum. For instance, there was a student in the hallway during class time that was clearly upset. He was walking from hook to hook, pulling off jackets and dumping the contents of backpacks on to the ground. Naturally, I stepped in, getting down on the student’s level and asking him what was going on. When the student didn’t respond, I asked him if the cartoon on his shirt was from Minecraft. Suddenly, the student’s eyes came back to life, and he explained that his shirt had superhero characters that were animated as if they were in Minecraft. Immediately, you could tell that the student felt remorse for the mess that he had made, but also knew that I was not going to get him in trouble or yell at him for what he had done. Together, we started to clean up the hallway and put things back where they belong. The principal and resource teacher, who were called to help out with the situation, saw that it had been deescalated and felt comfortable with me continuing to address the situation. This will definitely be a moment that I remember where I chose to first pay attention to the person before I made attention to the action.