Observation #4 at Red Deer College Childcare

         This observation was the most fun and playful of all the observations. The day started out slow, but as the day moved on it became faster paced. We started the day off by playing. The room at the Red Deer College is from ages two to six. The kindergarten kids that go to childcare in the morning and then to actual kindergarten in the afternoon. There are two childcare rooms that mirror each other. There were four childcare workers in the center. At childcare they offer breakfast to the kids, but it is not mandatory. 

          After some of the children ate we played some more. It was a very fun observation because there was a lot of interaction with the children. After playing, it was time to practice the the children's poems and songs for when their families came to their Christmas concert. Afterwards it was time for the children to go outside. The instructor's used very effective methods in getting the children to listen and follow instructions. 

         To get the children's minds away from playing and to come to practice their own poems and songs the teachers banged on a drum three times and the children automatically began to pay attention and tidy up. Instead of making a huge fuss, the teachers would tell the students to do one thing at a time and then wait until everyone was ready for the next step. A great idea that the teachers had was to tell the children to set their snow stuff out around the room before they went outside and before it was time to rehearse their songs and poems. 

         I thought this was a great call on their part. The Red Deer College Childcare teachers children to be self sufficient through child play. It was an all around great morning. My favorite part of the day was when a boy from kindergarten remembered me from when I observed in that classroom. 

Classroom Observation #3 at Ecole Secondaire Notre Dame High School

           I had the privilege of spending my Friday afternoon last week at Ecole Secondaire Notre Dame High School. While at the high school Merel and I were placed into two different classrooms. The first classroom that we were in was a French Immersion Social 20-1 class.

 It was interesting to be put into a French class and observe the ways of the teacher in a different language. Miss Marie-Lynne Vienneau was our designated teacher.

The class that we were observing was writing a quiz, so there was not many teaching skills to be observed. However Miss Vienneau told us that her plan before a quiz is to get the students to make their own plan on the same sheet of paper that they will be writing on, of how they plan to conquer the quiz. She said that this may give them the extra confidence in themselves that they need in order to pass the quiz. French quizzes have a lot of matching of words to definitions, Miss Vinneau said because it is hard to understand when you are learning a second language, so she often tests their comprehension on these words.

During the quiz, Miss Vinneau was very helpful in providing Merel and I with almost everything to know about teaching in the future. It was neat to listen in on a French Immersion class and useful to learn new information about teaching from Miss Vinneau. 

           For the last class of the day, Merel and I were put in an English 10-1 class. This class was located in a portal. The teacher informed us that this class was full of many different learning styles, ranging from that of grade nine to grade eleven learning skills. This posed as a challenge for her. The class was just finishing up reading Act One of Romeo and Juliet. We finished reading it together and watched up to Act One of the newest movie of Romeo and Juliet. 

          A difficult area that we will have to deal with as teachers in the future, is the loss of a student's parent. Merel and I watched the class for a short while, while Mrs. Herron went to look for a student who had recently lost her father. It was a normal thing for the student to disappear from the class for a short period of time due to the grieving and as a teachers we will have to learn how to deal with this. It was a good life lesson. 

          Mrs. Herron was able to give us a short tour of her area of the school. Within their school, they also hold a sensory room, much similar to that of Barrie Wilson. It is nice to see sensory rooms being integrated into more schools. 

 

Classroom Observation #2 at Red Deer College Kindergarten

I had the privilege of spending my Friday afternoon in the kindergarten classroom at Red Deer College. The teacher of this classroom is Mrs. Joan Svenderus. She is an amazing woman and does so well with her students. 
The kindergarten at Red Deer College is an Early Childhood Services program. The classroom is based off of the interests of the children. 
We started the afternoon off by going over different letters of the alphabet that the students had been practicing printing. The letter of the day was "M". Joan does a mystery drawing activity where she draws in steps slowly revealing the mystery drawing that corresponds to the letter of the day. As Joan draws the steps on the board, the students follow along. The end result was a mouse. The saying that went along with the drawing was, "Mommy Mouse is Munching". 
Along with writing skills, the students were able to show math skills by counting and patterns. Joan used the smart board for this activity. Each day of the week had a pattern going up by green, blue and black, and the students were able to distinguish this pattern. Students also demonstrated math skills by counting out loud together the number of days that they had attended school for. 
I had the opportunity to help the students with projects. I was put in charge of painting hands and imprinting the students hands on paper. This was a very cool experience to be able to interact with the students. 

While at the Red Deer College Kindergarten I also got to attend snack time. Normally, in a kindergarten classroom students would bring their own snacks but here, students were given two bowls in the middle of the tables filled with nachos. This gives the students a sense of how to portion and resembles a sit down meal that some students may not experience at home. 
After snack I was able to read books with the students before home time. It was a great experience at Red Deer College Kindergarten. MY favorite part of the day was dancing and singing along to "Happy" by Pharrell Williams. This is a tradition every Friday in the Red Deer College Kindergarten classroom. I feel so privileged to be able to observe in this classroom and I learned a lot in my three hours there. 

Classroom Observation #1 at Ecole Barrie Wilson Elementary School

This elementary school is very student orientated. It is only two years old and very technological. 

I found that a cool idea for the school to have was that in order to increase the steps for the students the staff duct taped various hop scotch layouts on the floor. Students use these to increase the amount of steps they take in a day in a fun and creative way. The staff decided to do this for the students because many students are not getting enough steps in a day. To track the number of steps taken by students, they were given step trackers and found an increased number of steps after the hop scotch layouts were put down. I observed students walking down the hallways and constantly using the hopscotch layouts. 

At Barrie Wilson they have small rooms located next to the actual classrooms called "Breakout Rooms". These rooms are used for students to break up into a small group or individually and concentrate on a project. It is useful for collaboration. 

Barrie Wilson also has a very neat sensory room. A sensory room is a place for students to go when they are struggling. It includes light projections on the walls and stars on the ceiling. There is big lava lamp like figure and light up strings and bean bag chairs inside. Movies can also be played in this room. This room is designed for students that may not have come from a great home or for special needs students. The most common time for students to enter this room is the morning, when they can release all of their energy and get a good start to their day. 

The grade five students at Barrie Wilson are able to broadcast the school news just like any other news channel would. They have a room that is set up much like a TV station. Here they can record their news just as a news channel would do. The show is then able to be seen by all classrooms. I think this is a very cool way to do the morning announcements.

 

Some classrooms are split up between two teachers. I was put in the grade one classroom to observe. The grade one teachers at Barrie Wilson are Mr. Perry Mason and Mrs. Tawnee Kilpatrick. Their room is one that is split down the middle. There is a fine barrier between the two, but at the same time if the teachers wished to collaborate and do group work they are able to. 

I was able to attend the outdoor gym class with the grade ones. At Barrie Wilson they have a full time Phys. ed teacher, Mrs. Mckeage. She is a very good and patient with the kids during gym class. At Barrie Wilson each grade is able to attend gym class for half an hour each day. While I was observing the main focus of the gym class was hockey. Students were taught the different parts of a hockey stick and where to put your hands on the hockey stick. Students did drills around pylons stick handling first, then headed into shooting the balls and knocking down pylons and finally did the most complicated drill, playing against a partner and trying to get the ball away from each other. It was a very well planned lesson and the students enjoyed it and it was not too hard for any of them. 

The last half of my stay at Barrie Wilson was math class with Mrs. Kilpatrick. During math the students were learning about counting. The students were able to count using tens frames. Tens frames is a magnetic frame with ten placements for magnets. This way students are able to see the actual amount of numbers. 

It was a great day at Barrie Wilson and I was very impressed with the school. It a was a great opportunity.