February 21, 2023 (P2)

Observations

We had a dance class today. That was fun. There is a designated dance teacher, and the classroom teachers participate from the back of the room. A few classes got together for this and the students are going to have a performance soon. I joined in and another teacher complimented my dancing. I found that funny. I hadn’t really thought about it but I guess I did catch on to the hip-hop routine fairly quickly.

Back in the classroom, we did math. I noticed the mentor teacher has her desk open for students to come to receive help whenever they want it or when she calls them up if they seem to be stuck (or goofing off). Her desk is shaped like a big U with plenty of space for students.

Sometimes students do not listen to her instructions to the whole class but ask her what to do right after her telling everyone. The mentor teacher does not believe this is always honest confusion. She said some children feel entitled to having the teacher come to them and cater to them instead of listening when it is explained the first time.

I got to work with students on math this day and thought more about the attic analogy from my fourth reflection.

Today I went to pick something up off the floor and she told me not to. She said the students are responsible for cleaning up after themselves and if I help, they will learn to expect the teacher to clean up after them.

She also talked about teaching intrinsic motivation. She said it is good to let students win trivia (etc) games by “becoming a winner” instead of earning a prize. This shapes their identity and makes them desire to win for the sake of winning instead of the more temporary satisfaction of a prize.

For a social studies lesson, she got students to look at where their shirts were made. They were excited about this and checked many clothing items together and chattered about this for a while. She asked the class questions like “How many people have a shirt from Hong Kong?” It was interesting to see all the country names listed on the board–she represented every student’s clothing. She then proceeded to tell stories of her own experiences with her sister and confusion she had in other countries.

I also noticed her make eye contact with disruptive students, quietly looking until they stop talking. I think this can be effective in gaining attention, less embarrassing to the student, and less distracting than calling a student out.

Reflections

When she mentioned students being entitled when not listening to instructions, and wanting personal instructions, I was curious about that. I do not have her experience in the classroom so she likely knows what she is talking about. But I felt some empathy for those students and wondered if they are sometimes misunderstood. I know I personally struggle with verbal instructions and might forget what to do. And some simply get confused with where to find information on the board or at the top of the page, etc. But I suppose it is true that some are simply lazy or want to have the teacher specifically tell them. I guess I like to give people the benefit of the doubt.

When teaching math I am discovering that I like to ask children what they already know so they can work it out with the way their mind works best rather than just explaining in the way I best understand. I found it helpful to ask questions to understand what they already understood and lead them to answers. Asking questions also helped me answer their real confusion rather than telling them things they were not wondering about.

This class makes me want to review math so I feel more equipped to teach it in the future. It is not one of my teachables, but I could end up in a math classroom.

I find it interesting that I have always found word problems easy while my classmates complained about them. This relates to the house analogy. I think this means those students liked to solve math “in the attic” while I liked the practical tangible math in the basement. I found word problems easy because they made sense to me. I could visualize them. Maybe this knowledge can be helpful when working with students with math learning disabilities in the future like I learned in EDUC 303. I’m sure many of these students think similarly to me (with more struggle) and would find practical math (like having to physically organize chairs a certain way) easier than algebra.

I found her point on not cleaning up after students interesting. I think I want to implement this in my classroom. This tactic teaches students to be responsible for themselves and their own messes. It teaches healthy boundaries and the Indigenous teaching mindset of each person being responsible for their own learning and space. I am not their parent and I want them to develop a sense of ownership in the classroom where they are proud of the space and take care of it. This will take a major load off of me and allow me to do more productive things with my time than tidy the floor. It is also more mindful of janitors.

I like how she connected the history lesson to students’ stories and her own story. Their t-shirts got to be a part of their class lesson! A lesson has more meaning when it connects to yourself or people you know. This method helped the lesson be relevant and exciting. It aligned with the value of story-telling I learned about in Indigenous Education.