| Observations | Reflections |
| A student told me one thing she liked about the class I taught last week and one part she didn’t like after asking if I would be teaching again today. | This made me think about how student feedback can be just as important as mentor-teacher feedback. While I know that not all projects can be fun or exactly what the child would prefer to do, it is important to consider their opinion and the things they enjoy. It is their time and their education after all. I thought about the idea of adding fun to projects as well as adding meaning. Even if it’s not fun, students are more likely to understand why they have to do work if it’s relevant and meaningful to their lives. I want my classes to be relevant to children’s futures as well as to their current lives. I do not want to bore them or waste their time. |
Today the students were more chatty as the teacher was giving a lesson. In some situations, she allows them to talk more than at other times. | I want to decide the culture around volume that my future classroom has. I have to choose in advance what types of noise are acceptable engagement and which ones are too distracting to their peers. |
| Today she taught them the basics of note-taking. I saw this was challenging because many of them can hardly read and write, despite being in grade 4/5. I saw how she scaffolded and accommodated learning as I learned about in my psychology of education course. She did this by allowing students to write one to two words or draw a summary picture instead of taking well developed notes. | I had never thought about introducing note-taking before! Today I realized it is crucial to do this at a young age before they are in high school and expected to take detailed notes. I like my mentor teacher’s way of making the content available for all students of various learning levels. I want to be accommodating like that with students in my classroom. As she taught, I saw the value of teaching note-taking before it is necessary. They are in a transition stage between elementary and high school, so it is their teacher’s job to prepare them for upper-level classes. Even though some students struggle to write, it is important to learn note-taking now so that they know what’s happening and are not overwhelmed when they need to take notes. I saw how challenging this must be because some students are so behind in writing and spelling. The range of ability levels in the class is so broad. I think I would aim to be intentional about giving the struggling students as much time to practise writing as possible. |
| The teacher uses a bell and attention-grabbing games to get the class quiet before she speaks. They are fairly responsive and quickly quiet when she does that. I noticed they were louder today than usual during the videos and whispered while she was speaking. | This made me think about a classroom’s culture around noise. It can be okay for students to chat, but this has to be an intentional decision with thought behind it on the teacher’s part. Talking can be a positive sign of engagement and curiosity about the content when it is an exciting project, but it can also show that students are unengaged, distracting others, or not respecting the teacher. I need to think about the culture I want my class to have around noise and when it is appropriate for them to talk. I think having control over the class to be able to have them quiet when I need it is important even when I allow them to chatter in general. I can do this by implementing Harry and Rosemary Wong’s classroom management style of establishing strong routines and procedures in the classroom. That way, students can talk and laugh, but as soon as I need them quiet, I will have their attention. |
| They filled in a worksheet that could have been done at their desks, but the teacher instead incorporated movement. She did this by giving them a fill-in-the-blank worksheet and putting papers with the answers around the classroom. Students walked around the room to find the papers that matched the blanks they needed to fill. | I love this idea! It makes an otherwise monotonous activity fun, and it decreases restlessness, distractedness and disruptive behaviour. |
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