For my 3rd and final practicum, I am at Cayoosh Elementary in Kristy Miskenack’s Kindergarten class, and Mr. Alans Before and After School Program. I have spent some time there before Halloween, however I am full on, five days a week for the month of January, and I couldn’t be more excited. I also am my most nervous I have been so far, I feel this is my big impact (in my eyes) for my whole experience.
So glad that you made the decision to wait till January to complete your final practicm!
Day 1
When I walked into the classroom, the first thing i seen was a bunch of stunned eyes and big smiles, paired with “MISS DEE YOU’RE BACK!” It was wonderful to feel so missed.
I’ve decided to regroup and observe the classroom for the first few days. We entertained the day with some “movement time”…
and some art .….
LEARNING…..I remember when I was at Cayoosh in October, and the connection I had with certain kids. But then I had left for a couple months and reappeared. I understand how confusing this must have been. So much so I felt like the connection I had earned had kind of disappeared in those couple of months. For instance, a couple of the students R & T, were distant and shy, and also had no interest in behaving when I tried to communicate with theme. They would crawl away and hide from me under the table. I felt challenged and committed. “I will reach them”. I had to back off a little with student R, but with student T, he agreed to sit with me while the other students did their thing on the carpet.
Good learning and reflection Dee!
Upon observation, I had spoken to Mr. Alan about student R & T about this behavior, and he had mentioned that he was a new student in October, (I remember this because my last day here in October, it was student R’s first day at the school). And while adjusting, student R was given a lot more freedom than the rest of the students, as to let him ease in and get more comfortable. Except I feel like this backfired a little, as the control was lost, and student R had more adjusted to the freedom, rather than take in and follow the rules. While this behavior was going on, it encouraged student T to follow not far behind, and therefore having 2 students misbehaving at the same time in very similar ways. As I mentioned before, I backed off a little from student R, and focused a little more with student T.
Building relationships is sometimes a challenge and we need to make sure we know the child’s story which will help to earn their trust.
Day 2 Improving and getting to know the children’s names.
The morning was started off with some carpet time, days of the week, months in the year and counting in St’at’imc. During recess and lunch, I was greeted with a lot of children asking where I have been, and if I am going to disappear again.
I have been getting to know the names of the K students gradually as time goes on. But learning the children in the school yard is an entirely different story, however, I will get there through experiences throughout the day where I will mentally remind myself “this is ‘so and so’, the child that…..”. My go to tactic to help me remember.
Interesting how the setting changes everything when we work in enviornments such as this!
Today we played Letter Bingo, which was a lot of fun. This was helping the children understanding what sounds a letter makes, and seeing if they can identify the letter on their card. It also tests their ability to pay attention while we call out the letters.
I helped the children practice writing their letters. Some I dotted the letters on for them to trace, or helped sound each word out so they can figure out which letter came out in a word. Students Em and Ev joined me on the carpet, and copied out a sentence that was written on the board.
My first week I am working the 10:30-5:30 shift, meaning not only am I in the kindergarten class, I am also in the Before and Afterschool Program (BAASP) as well. When school was dismissed I wandered over to the BAASP room. I was shown the attendance list, and how it works. For me this was very helpful as I am still learning the children’s names, especially outside of the kindergarten class. Great way to learn names of the children in the BAASP program
The children’s attendance was taken and all were accounted for, so they were all offered an after school snack, and each child is documented and what they had to eat. Afterwards we all suited up and headed on outside for some fresh air and fun in the snow. The children took advantage of the snowy hill and Mr. Alan was kind enough to bring two plastic sleds big enough to fit two kids on each of them.
Day 3
We brought the children downstairs to Mr. Johns St’at’imc class, where the children learned how to play red light/green light, but in the stat language. The energy this delivered was fantastic. It teaches the children vital controls, self-regulation, impulse control and listening skills by requiring them to instantly stop or move on command. It enhances motor skills like running and balance, boosts the ability to pay attention and filter out distractions (cognitive attention), and helps with understanding of rules and personal space.
Learning experience
After school was done, I went over to the BAASP, and after routine attendance and snacks, we went outside. eventually there was a vote to go into the gym, and I was handed over the reigns to come up with an idea for the kids to burn some energy. Unfortunately, I couldn’t feel more unprepared for the moment, so, eventually I went with Red Light/Green Light, the original English version. the kids did have fun, however, there was tension amongst the children as to who could be next up to be the caller. SO, I explained to the children that whoever is first to the caller, once everyone has made it, the first winner is always next. After that rule wore off, I allowed the caller to decide who can be next.
Hmm, important learning about being prepared and also about how you plan to handle turn taking!
Day 4
Today i focused a lot on student R. If you remember he is the student I had connection challenges with on my first day. however today, he has been opening up to me to the best of his ability as he is very limited with words and is still learning in that area. He has been hugging me every day that I’ve been in class and asks me to help him. This tells me that student R feels a strong and healthy attachment, he feels safe, secure and ready to learn. I feel this may lead to improved behavior, increased engagement, and a willingness to follow directions and share their feelings, thoughts, and experiences.
Great when we feel this connection to a child!
Day 5
So today’s learning was helping the children make faces. A lot of cutting, and it sort of gave the end result an opposite look, half of the face was drawn and cutting the pieces of the eyes, nose, mouth, ears and head shape and gluing it to the opposite side of the page for a completed look. I found this interesting because the children are learning hand-eye coordination, and developing essential fine motor strength. Some were quicker than other, but to see them each figure out how to maneuver their scissors to form shapes in different sizes was fascinating.
Unfortunately Mr. Alan fell ill and cut the day short to go home and rest, so I teamed up with Mrs. John from 1:30-5:30. This allowed me to take attendance, who gets on and off the bus, and keeping track of the kids on a constant as they gradually get picked up by their parents.
Day 6
So today I was solo again as Mr. Alan was still feeling unwell. So after a routine morning, I had some worksheets printed out for the kids to do. These sheets were trace the dotted letter, and then practice on their own the letter they traced. They also worked on what is called their story workshop. Today’s story workshop was a story about the Maori, singing a song called “Row Row Row the Waka”, (waka meaning canoe). After the children would go to their story spots and create the waka with materials such as small blocks, a type of wicker mesh, and rocks of different shapes, sizes and colors.
After school and after a routine attendance and snack, I got a visit from Deb Jarvis, as she was checking in to see how my first week went and how things were going overall.
I could see that you had made connections and relationships with some of the children and you look comfortable!
I am now looking to see if you have reached the goals of this practicum
- Demonstrate the ability to determine the development and interests of children through observation
- Demonstrate skills working with groups of children; maintaining children’s interest, promoting interaction and providing children with a choice about their involvement when appropriate
- Demonstrate an ability to plan, implement, revisit, extend, document and evaluate learning environments that are sensitive to, developmentally appropriate for young children and reflect current educational planning theory
- Demonstrate an ability to be an effective member of the educator team taking on assigned roles and assigning roles
- Demonstrate an ability to accept and act on constructive feedback
- Demonstrate an ability to engage in ongoing self-evaluation
- Engage in ongoing reflection of personal practice and to demonstrate the personal and Professional attributes related to conduct and professional communication as guided by the ECEBC Code of Ethics and the TRU ECE program
Day 7
So todays activity, i gave the kids an activity sheet to do that was titled “All About Me”, which obviously had the children tell me a little about themselves. So this helped me get to know them a little more.
Every day in the kindergarten class there is a star of the day. This student is chosen everyday, and is granted tasks such as a special chair to sit on throughout the day, turning the lights on and off if needed for projector time, front of the lineup, etc. They also get to lead the morning days of the week, months of the year, and near end of the day they get to have their own “Show and Tell”.
Todays star of the day was Student Ev. She brought in her baby teddy bear that crawled and wore a diaper. She was asked one question from 3 students selected by her and answered these questions to the best of her ability.
I am always questioning this activity and often feel there might be a better way to give children voice, to share their uniqueness ad not make it so “about materials and toys”.
Day 8
I joined the children in number recognition and counting with sheets and playdough. We would take the playdough and form them into our assigned numbers, and put that amount of dots of playdough onto our sheets as shown.
I really enjoyed doing this with the kids as we were having a lot of giggles and being silly.
The clean up at the end of the day, each child is assigned a chore to do. I watched the kids improvise and problem solve how to clean up and get the job done without touching the “yucky” stuff.
Great to see the children being included in keeping their classroom clean and tidy.
We did another art project of step-by-step drawing. Today the children did an owl. This method teaches spatial awareness, following directions, fine motor skills, and builds confidence in artistic ability, while fostering patience and focusing attention.
Day 9
With the Morning program, I have decided to do a weather board with the children entitled “Lillooet Weather”, and putting things related to Lillooet’s weather onto the board out on the cork board in the hallway. I am going to make a thermometer for the children so everyday they come in they can check the weather on an app and see what the weather is doing and adjust the thermometer. We are also going to gradually add certain things to the board such as clouds, lightening, rain, sunshine, etc. We will see how the kids take to my idea and if it sticks.
One of the students helped me come up with an idea on how to make the thermometer, i will take his ideas into heavy consideration tonight at home.
Really great that you picked up on something that was current, could be extended, built upon and encouraged the children daily to take part in learning more about the weather in Lillooet. Great choice of big idea.
Day 10
As the children came in, they had seen me doodling, and coloring. Majority of them asked what I was making and what I was doing, so I explained to them my idea on the weather board and how they can help. The children were very keen to help and so we got to work right away.
Meanwhile, when student B came in, I pulled out of my bag the homemade thermometer I had made at home. He was beyond excited, but, it was not as functional as we had thought it would be. So we put our heads together and recreated the thermometer with a lighter paper. it turned out perfectly.
Day 11
As we continue on with our weather board, we have added a weather card with the types of weather on it, that has an arrow in the middle that you can move to point to a choice of 8 different types of weather. however i need to add another arrow onto it so we can have two different arrows, as one student pointed out, sometimes the weather is doing more than one thing at once, so we will add another arrow to the weather square shown in the picture.
So much learning in this concept and truly could be something that they continue after you are gone.
Learning
Doing the weather board with the kids, it fosters problem solving skills, enhances creativity, and leads to greater self-awareness. I am trying to set them up for success as they progress through. It also teaches me how to come up with fresh, new ideas that allows me to connect with the children. To be able to work closely with the children it also helps them gain trust and feel safe with me.
As I’ve been working further into the week, and more days have been going by, we have had a substitute teacher, a new student, and and the opportunity to be able to have more responsibilities in the class.
Our new student (student Ru, is pictured with the headphones above), comes from a Punjabi family where there is almost no English spoken before she started kindergarten, so communication is quite difficult. I have been looking up some words in her native tongue to help connect with her, to help her adjust. However, the first few days have been challenging as Ru did not want to listen, participate or follow direction. She would shake her head no, and walk away and ignore all communication. She would even go so far as to laugh out loud and run away, and try to the best of her ability to avoid being caught.
It is always interesting to be part of enrolling a new child into the program or classroom. Good to be able to observe this situation and reflect on what was happening, what did the teachers do to support this child, and to observe daily as the child became more comfortable in the class.
At some point I felt verbal communication was not helping much, so with simple tasks such as washing hands, or saying no, or good job, I would hand signal these things while saying the words to help her better understand me. It seems to help a lot. Communication happens in many ways so using hand signals is a good strategy also drawing pic symbols for the various parts of the day to let the child know what was happening next.
Ru also does not like to sit still for more than a few minutes, (but what child does), however, with the help of the other children we have mentioned to the rest of the class “let us demonstrate to ‘student Ru’ good decisions and how things are done around here”. Nice to include the other children in the process!
We have also been creating a board game in groups in Mr. Johns class. the game had a series of shapes and colors, helping the children color coordinate, and assign a physical action to each shape if landed on it after rolling a 6 sided dice. the point of the game was to see who can reach the end first.
Rhyming and following direction
The children have been following direction. On my 14th day, it was dress as a teacher day and the children have been learning more and more about rhyming words, and identifying them. So they were given sheets and told to identify the rhyming words and follow it like a maze, beginning with a small picture in the corner. Here we have student L, who has completed a worksheet, and received a stamp for great efforts.
Day 15, Pro D day
So today is Pro D day. A day to work, reflect and think of my goals, future, and feedback. What more activities to come up with as i am closing up my last week of practicum. Time goes really fast near the end of practicum and often we don’t get everything accomplished that we set out to do. Important to focus on what needs to be done to meet your practicum goals!
I am also thinking up an idea to somehow treat the children as a special thank you for being so amazing. We will
My last couple of days.
Today, is my 16th day, and I started it off with greeting the children as they came in. The kids have been keeping up with their adjusting the weather and thermometer, and I have come to feel a tad sad that this is going to be my last couple of days with the children, with hopes that I will come back eventually.
So in the kindergarten class, the kids began their morning with some snack and breakfast from the breakfast program, and then Mr. C came in to pull the kids out for gym class. Mr. C has been gradually introducing the children to a sport that is called Goalball. Goal ball is a team sport designed specifically for athletes with a vision impairment. The purpose of introducing goal ball to kindergarten students is to promote inclusive physical literacy, develop sensory awareness, and foster empathy. Sounds like a really great game to promote inclusion!
So far with goal ball we have gotten as far as how to fall to the left and right, and learning how to block our faces. the ball is a hollow hard ball with bells inside.
Later after some routine activities, i enjoyed some Simon says, while Ms. Miskenack prepared an activity. The activity had two large chart papers with a letter on them on each table, while the kids must dance around the room, and when the music stopped, they had to draw on the paper something that started with that letter.
Here we have student R improvising how to draw something that started with the letter H.
He began to trace his hand, showing his problem solving skills. I praised him “THAT’S AMAZING, see you could do it!”
Great photo’s!
Student of the day was student C. He had brought in his two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that he says his father had owned when he was just a child. I really appreciated the effort he put into what he wanted to bring in. You could really feel the sentiment.
Amazing that his father kept them for so long and can now share with this son. Wow thats fantastic!
upon my final days, I went into the BAASP, and continued to work on the weather board. I had mentioned to the children that it was my last day. With a lot of disappointed reactions, it touched my heart to feel so loved and wanted in the school.
I also made an announcement that it was my last day and that i had hoped to see the children again very soon.
I made my way back to the school on that Friday with a card and key chain for each of the students, along with some TimBits for the children as a thank you, for being such amazing students. I had hoped to get a group picture, however, the timing wasn’t right, and the children were being dismissed.
- Final summary of learning for this practicum
- Examples of how you meet the objectives
- Connecting your reflections and the children’s learning to the ELF.
- Feedback from Alan
Deb, you will find all of my work by searching the pages of my WordPress.