I just finished my first week of practicum at Rosedale Elementary School and I worked with Grade 2 kids. The class size is managable with 25 students and they knew their daily routine very well. I could find that the two teachers were good teachers and they trained the students so well behaved all the time. I have two partner teachers who worked with me and they were both nice person. The Grade 2 class has a strong focus on Early Literacy. Some of the students have really advanced reading and writing skills at Junior High level. During the first week, I was helping in doing some read aloud activities with individual students and I was amazed that the students were all eager that I would pick them and read the book with him/her. They were all good reader and they read stories based on their reading skill levels and they got their own book box. I also checked students' writing and I was impressed by the students' written work and they were all very good at their age and some of them wrote pages and pages. I found that some of the students were very creative. I love to read their writing and I anticipate to be with them again tomorrow.
Another thing I would like to share is that we were very delighted that Darlene and Sharon came to our class and talked about Assessment for students learning and I felt that they provided excellent resources for all of us and their presentative were well planned and organized. I like the in-class activities and it provided hands-on experience for us. I liked the way how they engaged us in the learning process while they still took the responsibilties of instruction. They are experienced educators. I feel so lucky to have them in class and hope to have another opportunity to attend their worksop. Overall, I think this was a rewarding learning experience.
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Hi Maria,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you have such a good placement for your second practicum. You are now beginning to see the diversity of classes and students in Calgary - Grade 5 students who write at a Grade 2 level and Grade 2 students who can write at a Grade 5 level! This diversity is what can make teaching and planning for insturction challenging for teachers. I'm glad you're having the opportunity to see how to approach each type of student to meet their learning needs.
I hope that you are able to observe the strategies that your partner teachers use to maintain the positive behavior of their students and to create a classroom culture that promotes cooperation. I'm sure since they are such experienced teachers that they have many 'tricks' and tools that help students to know the expectations for their behavior in the classroom.
I also enjoyed the assessment workshops from Darlene and Sharon. I will look forward to see you implement some of the formative assessment strategies in your lesson plans this semester. Darlene and Sharon gave such good resources that I think in the future it will be easier for the TAC teachers to think about assessment as much more than quizzes and tests!
Maria I am really happy for you that you are enjoying and learning at your new practicum school this semester unlike the previous one. I am sure the whole TAC class will agree to this!!
ReplyDeleteThe TAC family wishes you well and looks forward to hearing more interesting experiences in the coming weeks.
Enjoy and make the BEST of IT!