I observed the Gr.2's learning about measurements today. There are only 9 students in the class! Classroom management would be so easy! So much easier! Kids at this age seem to need a lot of repetition to ensure they understand and remember concepts. I liked that the teacher had similar but varied exercises for the students to practice on the Smartboard. I also finally realized that the big stick with a hand pointing is used for the Smartboard....I thought it was just a random prop but it actually has a purpose! When the Gr.2's left for gym class, I went and observed the Kindergartens who were also doing math. They were working with numbers up to 10, and grouping them into 5's, learning ways to count quickly. These kids did lots and lots of practice putting "fireflies" into their "jars" (little coloured chips onto a picture of a jar.) They are really adorable! :) Some students had trouble listening and following directions but the teacher made sure that each of them was successful.
I taught the Gr.5/6's after lunch. I wrote down my evaluation notes on the board and went over my expectations and how much each part was worth because I realized that printing out rubrics and giving them extra paper was pretty meaningless since they are prone to losing such papers. They will get 5 marks for brainstorming; 3 marks for a storyboard showing me their story's beginning, middle, and ending; and 7 marks for one completed page of comic (must be a full page, use straight lines and divide into sections and frames, have some speech bubbles, use anime style drawings) I emphasized that this one page does not have to be their whole comic. We don't have time for them to finish a multi-page work for me so I just want to see their first page and give them some useful feedback they can use to continue working on their own. I'll know the basic story from their storyboards. They'll have Thursday's class to finish and then I want to take them in for marking and feedback. We'll only have 3 more classes left after this!
I introduced the Gr.3/4's to the concept of one-point perspective today and for the most part they understood what was happening. There were a few individuals that I would like to work more with, and there wasn't enough time for everyone to finish their drawings and colour. Therefore, I'm extending the lesson another block to review the concepts and hopefully explain things better to ensure all students understand what's going on. I thought they might've learned about one-point perspective already so I thought I could just take one class and carry on with two-point perspective but I could see a few frustrated little faces. I'm considering taking out two-point perspective completely because I don't think I'll have time to fully teach the concept and make sure they understand. I may go directly to atmospheric perspective because they already understand that as things get farther away, they get smaller and you see less detail. I think at this level, spending some more time on one-point perspective would be a good idea to make sure they have a solid foundation to build upon when they do get to two-point perspective.
Today my TA asked me which class I like to teach most. I hadn't really thought about it and I didn't have a single answer because I like each class for different reasons. I'm more nervous when teaching junior high just because I haven't had as much experience working with that age group. That being said, I am becoming more comfortable with this group of students as I teach them and get to know them more. I love Kindergarten because they're really cute :)