The second week of Practicum has come and gone.  I can't believe we're already almost halfway through our 6.5 weeks of teaching.  I'm continuously altering my lessons and unit plans because I realize there's way too much info I want to share.  I can't wait to experience teaching for a full semester because it will be an even bigger challenge, but it will also give me a lot more time.  This week started off with a Division wide Professional Development day in Taber.  It was interesting to hear teachers' discussions on work loads and stressors.  I also got a chance to observe a group of junior high Language Arts teachers' group planning session. 

On Tuesday my stomach was feeling a little upset and I didn't have lots of energy, but it was still a good day.  I added a second lesson to follow up on Lesson 2: Gesture Drawing, and taught the Grade 5/6's an alternative way to draw the human figure by examining where the joints of the body were.  It was a little difficult to maintain the class's attention and my UC pointed out that there were 2 boys in particular who I should keep an eye on.  She gave me lots of useful time management and classroom management suggestions which I tried in subsequent lessons throughout the week and things seem to be going a lot smoother.  Another comment was about focusing exit slip questions to relate more to SLO's and possibly take them in for marks.  I really liked the suggestion to introduce the concept of effort/work habit ratings and get students to mark themselves out of 5 in terms of how well they listened and stayed on task that lesson.  I have to think about this a little bit more to see if I want to add that to a lesson in the next little while. She also gave me suggestions for a follow up lesson that talks more about movement and how the body can form dynamic poses.  I had intended to move on to Lesson 3 with the 5/6's in the next class, trying to move ahead in my unit but this feedback made a lot of sense and it would have been a big jump to just move on so I added another lesson (I'll explain this lesson below.)  In the second lesson of the day I taught the grade 3/4's and asked some more focused questions to assess their understanding of what was learned in the previous lesson.  My TA commented that it was really positive I took my UC's comments and adapted it right away.  Because I still don't have a good grasp of everyone's names, she suggested that I take some time to do attendance at the beginning of each class.  The lesson was on Gesture Drawing and she said it was good that my final 5 second poses pushed them beyond their limits a little bit. 

Wednesday was my first day teaching 3 lessons in a row in the afternoon, and I had to teach Lesson 1 of my comic unit to the Gr.1/2's and then the two junior high classes (Grade 8/9 split, followed by Grade 7/8/9 split.)  I was a bit nervous about teaching the junior high students because I've always been teaching younger students, but it actually went really well and I was pleased that they were all engaged and liked learning about drawing comics and anime.  As my TA suggested the previous day, I spent some time at the beginning of the Gr.1/2 class to take attendance and create a cheatsheet for myself by drawing the tables and writing their names where they sit.  I'm not entirely sure why I hadn't thought of that before because it would be such an easy thing for the first lesson.  I know the junior high students' names because I observe my TA teaching them every morning.  The computer in the classroom decided to stop working and has to be replaced so I couldn't project my powerpoint onto the Smartboard so I had to adapt my lesson and take a bit more time to get the students to gather around my laptop.  Luckily my new laptop has a pretty big screen and I made sure all students could see from where they were sitting or standing.  I decided to show the students more of my own artwork as an introduction because one comment from the very first lesson I taught was I should share more about myself since the students are always interested in seeing you're a real person with interests and talents.  My TA commented that I'm very flexible and adaptive, which is a necessary skill in teaching.  Technology malfunctions happen quite often and it's good to be able to go with the flow and have a back up plan.  She also suggested that having students gather their work in the middle of their tables might be a good clean-up routine, which I adapted in my lessons on Thursday.  For the junior high students, I was pleased that they really liked the unit and a lot of them have seen various anime cartoons.  They asked some really good questions and gave me some good answers to my questions as well.  It was really interesting to see the differences and similarities between drawings of anime faces from grade 1 to 9!

On Thursday I taught 3 lessons in a row again, and it was my first day with the Kindergartens as well!  So far, I feel like Thursday has been my best day.  I started off each lesson by taking attendance and making my cheatsheets, and because the classroom computer still wasn't replaced, my TA needed the information as well.  I taught the 5/6's their 3rd lesson on figure drawing, building upon the lesson on Tuesday.  As suggested by my UC, I asked the boys with their backs to me to turn around while I was talking.  I thanked them for doing so promptly and they seemed to turn around more automatically afterwards.  I decided to print off pictures of all the series of Power Rangers/Super Sentai and gave one to each student so they could identify all the joints, and connect the joints with lines representing bones.  Because Power Rangers tend to make epic hero poses, I though they'd be a great example.  The students loved the Power Rangers and found it really interesting how they all got different ones, and I was pleased that I could use one of my favourite groups of super heroes growing up in my lessons.  Everyone successfully identified and drew the joints and lines on the pictures, and I made a new discovery.  I initially asked students to draw on them in pencil, but some students pointed out it was hard to see and asked if they could use pen. Some of the pictures were darker than others.  As I was walking around I noticed one student used highlighter to draw on top of the pictures and it made the joints and lines stand out so clearly I thought I should get the next classes to use markers/highlighters as well.  The foreseeable problem is that not all students may have highlighters or thin enough markers, but even the black pen or a contrasting coloured pencil crayon may be better.  The pencil works too, and if you really didn't have any other drawing tool, you could hold up the picture with your pencil marks to the light and depending on the angle you'll see the reflection from the pencil marks.  In the second part of the lesson I asked students to choose their favourite pose from the picture they studied, and draw an enlarged version that fits their sheet of 8.5x11 paper.  Instead of drawing the Power Rangers, I asked them to draw an anime face and give their person an outfit or costume.  I was really impressed with their work!  One thing I found is that the class size is quite large and the lesson time short, making it difficult for me to spend enough time with each student.  I noted a few students who may need more help and guidance, although they ended up doing a good job anyway. 

I loved teaching the Kindergartens.  I told them to call me Miss K, something they could easily remember and started off by taking attendance and then asked them to tell me their favourite shapes.  I told them we would draw some people today using shapes and handed out paper, realizing they didn't have any drawing tools with them.  Luckily there was a bucket of crayons so each table got a bowl of different colours to use.  I started off asking them to draw a circle on their papers and drew one on the board.  I noticed that a lot of them were drawing small circles so I took a piece of paper and drew one so they could see what size I wanted them to be.  All the students did really well and they even experimented on their own.  I finished my lesson way ahead of time so I asked students to fill their pages with other stick people so their first drawing wouldn't be lonely.  Then I thought it was about time to clean up but they were so quick, there was still time to fill before the bell rang for recess!  I asked them to tell me some of the things they learned today.  There was still time after this, so I asked them if they wanted to see my panda.  I drew Panda on the board and we talked about the shapes, then I drew Dino and a student commented that dinosaurs were his favourite so I asked the students their favourite animals.  One student told me they liked penguins so I said Dino & Panda has a good friend named Penguinnie and drew him on the board as well.  Then I realized most of the shapes I use were circles and I hadn't drawn any squares, so I asked the Kindergartners if they thought I could draw a square penguin.  Some said no, so I said I would try anyway and they really liked it and thought it was funny.  Finally the bell rang and my TA said I did well in filling up the time because she finds she always has to have sponge activities for this age group because they finish earlier than expected.  She said she usually has a short 2-5 minute video to show them or a quick activity ready.  I wouldn't have been able to show a video because the computer wasn't working, but there were only 13 kids so I could have showed them one on my laptop if necessary.  I hadn't even thought about the need for extra sponge activities though. Now I know! Kindergartners need more sponge activities!

The last lesson of the day was taught to the grade 3/4's who seemed more talkative than the 5/6's.  Most of the students understood where the joints were and how to draw them in a static figure. There was just one student who had trouble understanding the abstract image of a joints-and-lines figure representing a real person.  I'll go over it again next class and ask her to tell me how many joints are in each arm.  I talked to her one-on-one about it, so hopefully she remembers.  I think after the next lesson (drawing joints and lines on the Power Ranger pictures), she will be able to understand the concept a little better.  The students didn't have quite enough time to finish their drawings so I asked them to complete them and bring it to me next class.  I'm not sure if this will work very well because they will probably forget over the weekend...A lot of the students tell me they go home and practice drawing on their own even though I hadn't assigned it though, so I have some faith that most of them will bring me back work on Tuesday. 

I also decided that I can probably combine the 2nd and 3rd parts of the Gesture Drawing lesson for the Junior High students because they will grasp the concepts faster.  They're also easier to refocus so lessons can go a lot quicker.  I was feeling nervous about how the junior high students would react to my teaching but they are all really respectful and engaged in my lesson.  They also show interest in my work and converse with me a bit more after my first lesson with them, so I feel more calm about their next lessons. 

When I have a bit more time, I'll add a slideshow of my students' drawings so far in a blog post, but for now, there's more work to be done!

Practicum is off to a good start!  I taught the onion song to the students after recess. When they came back, I had "I LOVE ONIONS!" on the smartboard, which really confused them but it grabbed their attention! Plus, I was sitting at the front holding my ukulele.  A few students were excited that I was going to sing and play the ukulele for them, but even more excited when I said we'd be singing together. 

Some strategies I used to get their attention included:
"If you can hear me touch your nose."
"If you're finished writing put your hand on your head."
"Eyes on me!"
"Show me you understand with a thumbs up."

Each student had a chance to sing a call & response type part with me by way of an introduction and I was glad that they were all willing to participate.  There was one boy who was a little nervous but he was a good sport anyway!  They had a blast answering "hmmm...do you like onions?" with YES! or NO! and variations of those words. It became a contest somehow between whether there are more people who like onions or more people who don't like onions.  That was something I hadn't thought of. Luckily, it didn't get out of hand and everyone had fun. :)

A few things I need to think about are how to position myself so that I can see all the students all, or most, of the time.  As I was going through each row of students, I had my back turned to the first row while going through the middle row. My TA informed me that 3 of the boys were goofing off a little bit behind me! It's inevitable to have my back turned to some students while in the middle row, but I could have moved around for the back row so they turn around to answer me. 

Another thing is finding an acceptable volume.  I tend to be on the quiet side, but I need to figure out what is an effective volume to speak in while addressing the whole class so that all students can hear. 

A third thing is figuring out how to deal with students who will try to challenge me.  There were 2 students during my mini lesson today who I had to stop and wait for.  One was really excited and wouldn't sit down even though I asked him to, but after I said "have a seat," "please sit down"and stared at him for a few seconds he sat down.  The other was stabbing his empty juice box with a pencil.  I asked him to stop and put it away, and he did after stabbing it a few more times while I waited for him before continuing.  His classmates helped a bit by telling him to stop because they wanted to keep singing.  I wonder if it's helpful when his classmates tell him to stop certain behaviours...

Another big lesson I learned from observing my TA today was the use of google documents for a whole class collaboration effort.  He introduced Google docs and explained that he wanted the class to come up with questions he will use for their science quiz on plants.  I helped demonstrate that 2 or more people can type and contribute to the document at the same time.  Because everyone has the power to type and delete text, he emphasized that students need to be respectful of other peoples' work and don't delete work that isn't their own.  The students seemed to understand at the time, but after the break when they got into the document, things went a little crazy and a bunch of the information my TA had written got deleted.  He told them that since they weren't listening to his instructions, they will write quiz questions on paper and maybe try Google docs again at a later time.  After some silent work, he gave them another chance and it was less chaotic.  In conversation with my TA after class, he shared his self-assessment/reflection about one thing he could have done to minimize the chaos.  Next time, he will provide numbers 1-20 (for each student of the class) under each heading so that there will be no confusion of where they are supposed to type.  It can be quite confusing with so many people typing at once! Having a number and spot to start at is definitely helpful. 

My TA also showed me all the different places in the school that have art supplies and I'm quite excited to think up fun projects for the students to do! There are so many supplies...so much more than I had for my art camps this summer!  Tomorrow will be my first art lesson (I'm using my micro-teach drawing lesson plan) and I'm looking forward to doing winter themed crafts and christmas crafts.  I told my TA that I'm hoping I can put together some sort of mini-exhibit with the class at the end of my practicum and he was supportive.  So much work to do! So little time! 

I just read this article which really interested me because I am an artist, and therefore, I tend to draw while I sit in lecture or study.  This article gave me ideas on how I could use the drawing skills I have in the classroom setting. Actually, you don't even really have to be good at drawing for this to work (to a certain extent...)

Here is the link before I start gushing about how much I love this concept:

VISUAL NOTE-TAKING IN THE CLASSROOM

I love the term Sketchnoting! As I was reading through the article, many concepts and ideas we have been studying in classes for the past few weeks came together and everything made so much sense.  I feel like a mega nerd feeling all excited about learning, but that's just another awesome teacher quality we have, right?

The article talked about how we could have sketches and diagrams prepared before class and just use them as visuals, but there are many benefits to drawing the pictures in front of the class.  Drawing illustrations while discussing a topic helps engage a different part of the brain, not to mention, students will love the goofy looking pictures you come up with! Personally, I have experienced moments when I pull out a blank piece of paper and start drawing, and all the students want to come watch.  They were always so attentive and interested in the story I was making up right there on the spot!

I appreciate that not everyone is confident with their drawing skills, but I still stand by my belief that even stick people can be used effectively! I really think we need to challenge ourselves continually so if you've mastered stick people, time to take it up a notch!

The teacher in the article discovered that while she was doing all this sketchnoting, she was learning more than the students! As beneficial as it is for her, the same can benefit her students.  In order to encourage students to take the risk and draw pictures even if they feel they "aren't good," she suggested giving a time limit of a minute so they can quickly sketch down their ideas in a more reflexive way. 

At the end of the article, she listed 5 main reasons why sketchnoting works:
1. It exercises student's kinesthetic, auditory, linguistic, and verbal skills,
2. Visuals can be a formative assessment teachers can interpret immediately and build upon knowledge,
3. It can generate a dopamine surge and lower stress,
4. Visuals help the brain make connections, and
5. It's a lot of fun and can give the brain a "break" while still reviewing what was learned.

Obviously there will be times when sketchnoting is not the best method for teaching, and it certainly shouldn't be the only method used.  As we've learned in Evaluation and Assessment class, we need a variety of teaching methods and formative assessments to make sure students are learning what we need them to learn.  I'm excited to try and use this strategy in a classroom setting.  I think I will try this with one of the projects/presentations which are due very soon....

As an aside, I've noticed recently that when I procrastinate, I'm reading more education related articles. :P  

Today in Communication Technology class we learned a bit about how powerful a tool Smartboards can be.  I had a chance to use one briefly while I was working this summer as an Activity Assistant/Tour guide/teacher for a few groups of visiting Chinese students.  I remember one of the lessons I had to teach before leading them to the Victoria Bug Zoo was an introduction to the names of different kinds of bugs, as well as a quiz game. 

On the screen there were many pictures of bugs, and their names were hidden behind shapes that could be moved.  When I moved the first few shapes to reveal the answers, the students were ooh-ing and ahh-ing enthusiastically as they marveled at the technology.  I admit I thought it was pretty cool but I didn't know there were so many more possibilities of interactive lessons besides simply hiding and revealing answers until today's class.

While quickly looking through some examples of Smartboard lessons, I noticed one that had a colourful keyboard for a music lesson and I mentally took note to investigate further when I'm not drowning in a sea of homework and projects. 

I'm pretty excited for my group's presentation on Pointillism next week! We have a few ideas on how we can incorporate the Smartboard into a Gr.5 art lesson.