As I come to the final few weeks of my Bachelor of Education, I have been reflecting a lot on what I have learned over the last two years. In my classes, from my professors, during my practicums, within books/documents, and (of course) on Twitter, I have been exposed to a number of important educational practices and theories. As I enter into the period of my life wherein I am able to actualize my vocational journey and enter into the classroom as a full-fledged teacher, I knew I had to write down a few of my thoughts about my own practice.

Every child is a unique individual that requires a safe, supportive, and stimulating environment in which to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, physically, and socially. As an educator, I embrace the opportunity to create a learning environment in which students are able to flourish as learners and as people, developing into positive and active members of society. I think of myself as a ‘facilitator of learning,’ where I provide authentic learning opportunities for my students to inquire and discover as I continue to learn alongside them. Teacher facilitated, student-driven learning allows students to learn by doing, writing, designing, creating, making and solving, not just by listening.

I strongly believe that creating a positive, safe and supportive classroom environment is one of the most important aspects of teaching and learning. If students do not feel safe in my classroom, whether it is emotionally, physically, or socially, their defense mechanisms will go up and learning will be difficult. Students want to feel comfortable to express themselves freely, without the fear of rejection. This not only benefits their self-image, but allows them to take academic risks, which enhances overall learning. It is important to me that my students, as well as their parents, other teachers, administrators, and people in the community, see me as someone they can approach in any situation.

As I reflect on my beliefs regarding teaching and learning, I find that my mission as a teacher is threefold:

• to promote positive learning;
• to spark enthusiasm for learning;
• and to provide a strong foundation for lifelong learning.

The classroom and school environment should be a place of positivity, where students are celebrated for their accomplishments. In order to achieve positive learning, I welcome and embrace themes of inclusion, cultural diversity, and student voice. Students must be interested in what they are learning and see the relevance of that learning to their own life. Student-driven and inquiry-based opportunities not only allow students to take ownership of their learning, but it also incorporates differentiation instruction to meet the needs of all learners. This, in turn, ensures that students feel confident in their ability to succeed. Through these types of positive learning opportunities, I am able to provide authentic feedback to each student and prepare them for further learning extensions.

In my teaching, I try to make learning as fun and interactive as possible for my students. I find that this helps to spark enthusiasm for learning, which leads to an increase in attention, retention, and performance. I implement a variety of engaging teaching methods and approach topics in a number of ways. Tactile, hands-on learning catches the students’ attention and helps to solidify the concepts being explored. Movement throughout the classroom during learning, through gallery walks, group discussions, graffiti activities and other Embodied Learning instructional strategies, helps to stimulate the brain and concretize learning. As a Google Certified Educator, I am also a strong advocate for integrating technology during student learning. I believe that technology helps to spark students’ enthusiasm for learning and maximize the learning taking place.

I believe that in order to promote positive learning, students must first want to learn and feel comfortable doing so. I am a firm believer that in every mistake, there is a potential for growth. I try on a daily basis to instill a growth mindset in each and every student, as I believe that this mindset is the root of all academic achievement and excellence. By teaching my students to be resilient in every difficult situation, they will see that perseverance will lead them to great things. I recognize that my students are people first and I focus on developing positive self-images and enriching my students’ self-esteem through character building and positive interactions. More than anything, I hope that my students learn to be comfortable in their own skin, feel a sense of pride for all of their accomplishments, and develop a passion and love for learning.

It is my belief that a good education is the most important thing that we can provide the younger generation. It is a very rewarding experience empowering children to grasp the foundational knowledge and skills that they will use for the rest of their lives. As a lifelong learner myself, I hope to instill a love of learning in my students that will prepare them for successful and happy lives. I believe that teaching is my vocation and I am appreciative every day that I am able to fulfill my life’s purpose.

Reflecting on your teaching style is difficult. Choosing 5 specific practices to focus your reflection upon is even more difficult.

If you talk to any educator, they will tell you that self-reflecting is one of the most important aspects of education. It allows us to critically examine our self and our actions, determining what works well and what needs to change. I’ve only been formally teaching for a short while now, but I have complied a list of 5 practices that I have found to be successful in various aspects of day-to-day teaching! I hope that you find merit in learning more about these strategies and how I’ve implemented them into my teaching. As with any strategy, it is important to determine what works well with your students and to implement methods that lead to the success of all students.

As always, I am interested in learning from my peers and growing my PLN, so tweet me (@spencerburton) or leave a comment below outlining some of your successful instructional strategies and practices!

Choice Boards

A choice board is a graphic organizer that allows students to decide which method they will use to demonstrate their learning. Choice boards offer students a series of activities or tasks that the student can complete, focusing on their specific learning needs, interests, and abilities. Students decide which activity they are most comfortable or interested in completing, giving them ownership over their own learning. Choice boards are can be easily adapted for each subject and grade level, making it a reliable instructional strategy for all teachers to utilize.

Choice boards are a great assessment strategy to use, especially when designing a culminating task. The level of difficulty of the activities can vary or stay consistent, which makes it a great way to differentiate a project to meet the needs of all learners. There are also a number of ways that a teacher can facilitate a choice board: teachers can have students choose to complete only 1 square, complete 3 activities in a row (tic-tac-toe style), or complete all of the activities on the board. Another way to elevate the amount of choice available to the student is to leave one of the squares blank, allowing them to create and complete their own task that matches the difficulty level of the other activities.

I have found this to be an effective method of assessment in my own practice. The students that sometimes sit there “blankly” while they try to think of where to start are relieved to see the amount of activities they can choose from. This saves students a lot of time coming up with what to do and allows them to dive right into the work at hand, while still ensuring that their ability to choose is not negated. I have found that the final products are much more enjoyable to assess and provide feedback on, given that they are so varied and unique in their own ways.

Choice boards are truly an excellent way to increase student ownership of learning within the classroom. The Ministry of Education explains that “greater student involvement in their own learning and learning choices leads to greater student engagement and improved achievement” (Learning for All, 2013). The wide variety of student products ensure that the teacher is providing authentic feedback to each student, in that they must look at each unique piece of student work and critically examine it for what it is (rather than falling into the trap of comparing it to work from other students).

Brain Breakfast

Brain Breakfast is a strategy that I learned during my practicum experience at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Elementary school. This practice is a daily activation component of a Math or Language lesson (whichever occurs during the first period of the day). The theory behind the name is that we eat breakfast to energize our brains and to get our bodies activated for the day ahead. We this in mind, the Brain Breakfast activity gets the student’s brains thinking and ready to work for the school day.

Essentially, Brain Breakfast is a critical thinking warm-up activity. The activity is printed on a half-sheet of paper, glued into the students’ notebook, and completed by the student individually. The activity can take a number of different forms. In Language, the students could be provided with a quickwrite prompt that gets them focused on a new concept that will be introduced in the coming lesson or to review the material from the previous class. In Math, students could be provided with some computational questions (multiplication, division, etc.) to reinforce these concepts or a word problem that challenges them to use concepts from the previous class. In either subject area, EQAO questions could be used by removing the multiple choice answers, helping students to get used to the format and wording of these types of questions while also developing critical thinking skills.

The Ministry of Education encourages creating “an educational culture based on individual and collective ownership of the learning, achievement, and well-being of all students” (Learning for All, 2013). I believe the Brain Breakfast practice helps to achieve this culture in that it provides students with individual learning opportunities that teachers can easily collect, provide feedback, and use as assessment for learning. It also helps to protect the well-being for all students by giving students time to collect their thoughts and answer the question independently before the learning is consolidated as a class. Brain Breakfast not only activates the students minds, but it also provides them with a calm and consistent transition into the classroom at the beginning of each day.

Number Talks

In my opinion, number talks should be regular component of every Math classroom. Number talks are essentially a classroom conversation around a purposefully selected computation problem, lasting less than fifteen minutes. Students develop and use mental math strategies to solve their computation on their own before being asked to share with the class. When communicating their thinking to their classmates, the focus is less on the final answer and more on the strategy that the student used to reach that answer. When students present and justify solutions to the problem, it leads to the development of more accurate, efficient, and flexible strategies that their peers can use to solve future problems.

During most number talks, students gather close to a SMART Board or chart paper, on which the teacher presents the question. Students are given time to use mental math to come up with an answer and once they have, they display a thumbs up on their chest. This not only gives the teacher an idea of who has come up with an answer to the question, but it also provides some diagnostic information about the speed and efficiency to which students are able to come with an answer. Once a good amount of students have found an answer, they are encouraged to share their strategies with their class (as the teacher scribes) while also continuing to develop efficient strategies that others present.

I have found that number talks are an important way for teachers to learn about their students’ mental math strategies, which are not typically assessed in computational subjects such as Math. Mental math is crucial for being efficient when solving problems, ensuring that the students are not simply relying on memorized procedures and formulas. I also appreciate the model of number talks, in that it allows me to assume a different role in the classroom. A primary goal of number talks is to help students make sense of math concepts by building on mathematical relationships, which is accomplished by having them use their own strategies and building a repertoire of strategies from their peers. Therefore, the teacher’s role must shift from being the individual imparting information and confirming correct answers at the front of the classroom to assuming the roles of facilitator, questioner, listener, and learner.

A positive and respectful school community is essential for the academic and personal success of each student. This type of community is achieved when all students feel safe, included, and accepted and when teachers model and encourage positive behaviour. The Ministry’s resource Promoting a Positive School Climate states that the “principles of equity and inclusive education are embedded in the learning environment to support a positive school climate and a culture of mutual respect” (Promoting a Positive School Climate, 2013). Creating a cohesive classroom community is essential for facilitating an effective number talk, especially since we are asking students to take risks by sharing their thinking and strategies with their peers. Students should be comfortable in offering responses for discussion, questioning themselves and their peers, and investigating new strategies without the risk of failing or being ridiculed.

Circles

Circles are a simple and effective platform for students to learn while building positive relationships with their classmates and teacher. Rooted out of First Nation practices, circles have students sitting without desks in an arrangement that has them able to see and hear each of the people in the group. The use of circles within the classroom setting helps to support the holistic well-being of each student. Early on in the year, I have experienced circles that are used to outline what students need in order to be successful in their learning and how they can make those needs a reality. This essentially takes the place of a teacher outlining the rules and guidelines of the classroom, providing ownership to the students and asking for their voice and contributions. This works to ensure that each student is heard and that their environment is built upon the well-being of the student population.

Circles can also be used for those inevitable times when conflict occurs. The Ministry of Education promotes the use of circles during restorative justice/practice on the belief that humans are “more likely to make positive changes in their behaviour when those in positions of authority do things with them, rather than to them or for them” (Caring and Safe Schools in Ontario, 2010). By having students sit in a circle, they are placing themselves on an equal level with each other and the adults that are facilitating the circle. By allowing for each student’s voice to be heard, the students are able to reflection on the impact of their own behaviour on everyone else present. This helps to achieve the safe schools and positive mental health components of student well-being by providing the opportunity to develop empathy, mutual respect and shared accountability.

Students have many incredible ideas. By providing them with a safe and supportive learning environment to share these ideas, especially in the format of a circle, the class can learn to contribute ideas, build upon each other’s knowledge, encourage cooperation, and ultimately improve communication skills. If the students feel that a part of their well-being is not being met within the school environment, circles provide the class with an opportunity to not only voice this concern, but to collaborate and create solutions that directly impact their lives. In an overall sense, this encourages students to take greater responsibility for their learning and well-being.

In a lighter sense, circles can be used as a fun time to introduce new activities and games, which I have seen as a great tool to start off the week. The quickest way to form a positive community is through laughter, so providing an opportunity for students to engage in a fun activity that can make them laugh will definitely have a positive impact on their well-being. These activities and games will also help to develop positive social and emotional skills, self-esteem, and a positive self-image. By starting off the week with a circle that allows students to share what they did on their weekend and giving them an activity to work on together, a cohesive and respectful classroom community can be formed and strengthened.

Co-Created Success Criteria

Success criteria are an important and successful way of communicating the academic expectations for a given task to students. This concept has developed by engaging students in the process of defining the learning goals and outlining what success looks like. This idea of co-creating success criteria is a great way to encourage students to use assessment vocabulary while also making them more aware of identifying what is expected of them given any assessment description. It also encourages the concept of students taking ownership of their own learning and deciding what the focus of assessment should be on.

A specific example of how I have co-created success criteria with my students is during a descriptive writing unit with a Grade 5 class. After exploring what the various facets of descriptive writing, I asked my students to define what quality descriptive writing looks like. Using their feedback, I created an anchor chart for the classroom that the students could refer back to throughout their learning. We took the concepts on an anchor chart and developed a chart that was included on the students’ culminating writing task outline. Additionally, I was able to adapt these success criteria into a self-assessment chart that the students could utilize throughout their writing and editing process.

I have found that this process helped my students and I to reach a common understanding of the criteria that they would be assessed on. This helped to focus my own assessment while also ensuring that the students were completely aware of what they were being assessed on and why. Rubrics have value when it comes to assessment, but they are sometimes difficult for students to identify what is expected of them and they may be overwhelmed with the varying levels. Co-creating success criteria provides students with a sense of ownership over their learning and a comprehensive understanding what quality work looks like.

The Ministry of Education’s Growing Success is a strong advocate of including students in the creating of success criteria. The document explains that “teachers can ensure that students understand the success criteria by […] directly involving them in identifying, clarifying, and applying those criteria in their learning” (Growing Success, 2010). By including students in the process, the wording of the success criteria is clearly understood by students and they are able to develop an understanding of what quality means in their own work.

Just like that, the final week of my evaluated practicum has come to an end! It has been a long journey getting to this point, full of long nights of planning and marking, and many visits to the online world of education. I guess this is what being a teacher is all about!

Building robots and coding them to move! Some great student-direct inquiry on a #snowday pic.twitter.com/j72FDMt44E

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) December 12, 2016

The week started off with a bus cancellation… Welcome to Ottawa! We joined two classes together and worked on some language throughout the morning. The first thing the students did was read an article and answer some comprehension and inference questions using the website readworks.org. This is a very neat tool in that it lets you assign a specific article and the teacher gets to view the responses and success rate for each student.

Later in the morning, we gave each student a chromebook and had them begin writing a story about the Christmas/winter season. In 5 minute intervals, the students would write and then pass off the chromebook to someone else. That person would continue the story and so on and so forth until we’ve had about 5 students write on the same story. We wrapped up the activity by reading some of the final products and it was fun to see how the story took a different turn with each new contributor.

This week in particular was full of culminating tasks. I had the students work on a descriptive writing task that had them creating and describing their own robot, something which I had modeled for them a week or two earlier. Their creativity was definitely flowing and their robots turned out really well. I made my way around the classroom and allowed the students to read me their descriptive writing to see whether or not I could draw their robot, which proved to be a great way to enforce editing and revision in their work. Here is the task description and the success criteria that I provided to the students:

Another culminating task that we worked on in Science was a hands-on, inquiry-based experiment. We surprised the students by taking them out of the classroom and visiting the “secret science laboratory” in the school: the staff room! The students were so excited to enter into the staff’s territory and conduct their own messy experiment. I had step-by-step instructions, a P-O-E chart (predict, observe, explain), and materials set up in stations around the room and the students worked in groups of 3 to create Oobleck Slime. I found this task to be very intuitive for the students, since the slime is a solid when pressure is applied and a liquid when there is no pressure. THIS is what science is all about!

This week was filled with advent-related activities! I facilitated an advent lesson where students in groups of 4 read one of many advent stories from the bible together as a group. They discussed its meaning and at what point during advent it took place. As a group, the students created a placemat with 4 sections: re-tell the passage, God’s meaning, a Catholic Graduate Expectation that is present, and a picture of the scene.

Students also performed for their parents in a wonderful presentation of Once Upon a Starry Night. There were lights, costumes, actors, and a choir… It truly felt like we were at a theatre performance!

We also had a advent mass in our gymnasium, which was beautiful and set the mood for the advent season.

We celebrate Advent with Father Jessie#ocsb pic.twitter.com/8dRH5ZKr9i

— OLMC School (@OLMCOttawa) December 14, 2016

On the last day of my placement, I was given a wonderful gift from all of the students that I had taught throughout my placement: my morning grade 5s, my afternoon grade 5/6s, and my after school grade 4/5/6s! They gave me a copy of my all time favourite book “The Giving Tree”, which had lovely messages written inside from the students and my associate teachers.

Reflecting back on my final practicum and feeling thankful for all of the opportunities, relationships, and learning that I experienced! pic.twitter.com/p8hnl8fQyy

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) December 19, 2016

I am very thankful for every experience that I had at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Elementary School. There were some tough days and many good days. There were some moments where I felt down-and-out, and some moments where I felt incredible, like I was making a difference in the lives of others. There were some days where I experienced some tough situations of bullying, and some days where I laughed with all of my students. This is growing up. This is education. This is teaching.

To think that these next two weeks will be the last evaluated teaching experience I’ll have until I’m actually employed… I’ve come a long way as a teacher and have learned so much about education over the last year and a half. I’ve had my high points, where I have made a personal connection with a student or have seen a student exclaim, “ I GET THIS NOW!”. I’ve also had my fair share of lows, with periods of self-doubt, with phone calls home, and with personal prayer and reflection. Teaching is like a rollercoaster: the climb is nerve-wracking, the twists and turns will make you second guess your decision, but the thrill is something that you cannot find elsewhere.

At the After School Program, we had the Junior and Primary students team up again, but this time they were going to make festive decorations for the hallway. We gave them lots of paper, objects to trace, glue, and scissors, and they came up with some amazing creations. Now our hallway feels like a winter wonderland, complete with snowmen and reindeer.

The halls of @OLMCOttawa feel like a winter wonderland! Great work, After School Program ☃️ pic.twitter.com/FuEE0weKgT

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) December 10, 2016

We put a lot of emphasis on patterning this week so that we could wrap up that stand for now and move on to another concept. The students reviewed everything that we had learned in preparation for the assessment. On the morning of the test, we had a interactive activity that had students working in teams to identify a pattern rule and extend it as far as they could in a 2-minute period. After the 2 minutes were up, the timer rang and the students rotated to the next station and extended the previous team’s work. They had a blast collaborating and seeing how far they could extend each pattern.

Patterning took over our classroom today! The students rotated through stations and extended the patterns #ocsb_math pic.twitter.com/rSicuBVxUT

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) December 8, 2016

Later that morning, while the students were out for recess, a little elf (Mr. Burton) went around to each desk and left a little something for each student to calm their nerves before the test.

Gave my students some positive reinforcement before our math test today! A simple gesture that calmed their nerves 😊 @Nestle pic.twitter.com/ZpOOptM7u9

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) December 8, 2016

This week in Phys. Ed., I was exposed to a new game by my Associate Teacher. She spoke about this massive ball that the kids could throw around and immediately I was in. The game is called Kin-Ball and there are a number of different variations of what you could do with this (trust me, it came with an activity manual). To get the students used to the ball, we had them lay on their backs and pass the ball to the next person around the perimeter of the gym. There were some kinks with students getting to excited and throwing or kicking the ball, but that was all part of the process of getting them used to accomplishing a task with the ball.

Kin-Ball was a hit! We challenged Ss to pass it to each other while on their backs and move it across the gym using no hands @FontaineOLMC pic.twitter.com/HtVacX8prt

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) December 9, 2016

Next, we had the students work together in teams to move the ball from one side of the gym to the other without using their hands. There were some very interesting strategies, but nevertheless, the students had to work together to accomplish a goal which always makes for a beneficial Phys. Ed. and life lesson.

Challenge: Work together to move the Kin-Ball across the gym without using your hands.

Our boys had a very interesting strategy… 😆 pic.twitter.com/XbzBbxxSxE

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) December 9, 2016

In Science, I wrapped our lessons on matter and its changes by demonstrating some chemical and physical changes. I started with the typical baking soda and vinegar experiment, but I put a balloon on the top of the bottle to show the students that a chemical change did occur, since a gas was created and inflated the balloon. Next, I did a demonstration of elephants toothpaste, which had the students very intrigued. I made sure that my ingredients were a little calmer than called for in the recipe so that I wouldn’t have to mop up the classroom, but then I showed them the video of what it could look like:

The next class, we discussed physical changes and how they differed from chemical changes. We talked about crumpling up paper and cutting it into pieces and how this depicts a physical change, since the paper is still paper. Next week, we will move into a culminating task where the students will conduct an experiment on their own. I can’t wait to see the student-directed, inquiry-based learning that takes place!

I still cannot believe that next week will be my last 5 days of practicum… I am thankful for these experiences and the practical learning I’ve been exposed to. Seeing other teachers thrive in their element is inspiring and I cannot wait to be in their shoes one day.

This week was busy, busy, busy! Let me jump right in to my weekly reflection…

The Primary and Junior students in our After School Program teamed up to decorate for the winter season. The room that we run this program out of is used by a number of different programs and clubs, so we wanted to make sure that it was nice a festive, especially leading up to the Christmas holidays. All of the students did a wonderful job creating intricate snowflakes that we hung around the classroom to make it look like it was snowing inside. Such a simple project with such wonderful results!

Thanks to the After School Program, our Breakfast Club room is looking festive! ❄️🌨@OLMCOttawa pic.twitter.com/HlFpmQ7dop

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) November 28, 2016

A week or two ago, our staff had a professional development session about coding, courtesy of Dr. Flinn from the Ottawa Catholic School Board. This week, she spent her days instructing our students on how to use the various coding equipment that we have available to us. And let me tell you… THEY LOVED IT! I’ve never seen a library so energetic and vibrant in my life! Our students rotated through stations and as a team, they worked together to code Spheros, build robots, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks. I am really looking forward to seeing how far their learning will go with the use of coding.

The grade 5/6s are loving the coding stations! Thanks @MrsJFlinn for showing our students how fun learning can be! @FontaineOLMC pic.twitter.com/Ikm3GSkLD0

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) November 28, 2016

Our alcohol unit is coming along nicely. The students have learned the important vocabulary and have sorted through the various short-term and long-term effects of alcohol. This week, we explored to topic of peer pressure and how it related to alcohol. The students knew what peer pressure was, but have never really thought of how it could influence someone to make a bad decision and drink underage or irresponsibly. I gave each student a piece of paper that read, “Have a drink!” and then gave a different reason, such as, “Everyone else is doing it!” or “No one is going to find out!”. The students paired up, and for 2 minutes, tried to pressure their partner into drinking alcohol. The other partner had to listen to the arguments and respond to them so that they could get out of the situation. After two minutes, the roles reversed. The discussion afterwards was rich and a lot of deep learning took place.

Teaching students about healthy living and alcohol awareness! We’ve explored the important vocabulary and the short- and long-term effects. pic.twitter.com/KxLmGvYd6K

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) December 1, 2016

For the first time this year, I got to watch my Grade 5/6 students read with their reading buddies in Grade 2. They were enthusiastic about the opportunity and I was impressed at the bond the pairings made. Every student engaged in some great literacy development, especially when the older students encouraged the younger students to read on their own. It was an all-around great experience.

Supporting literacy through reading buddies! The grade 5/6s love reading with the grade 2s and watching their improvement week after week 📚📖 pic.twitter.com/1Sd8FfYVje

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) December 2, 2016

For our descriptive writing unit, I created a slideshow presentation of my student’s writing from a task they completed last week. I kept the students’ work anonymous and typed it up so that they all looked uniform. We read each of the descriptions, which was of the same scenic picture, and discussed how each piece of writing could be improved. We correlated this information with our hamburger rubric that we used when discussing the difference between a Level 1, 2, 3, and 4. This exercise produced some valuable learning for the students, especially since it was personal for them (being their own work).

I followed up the evaluative portion of my descriptive writing lesson with an interactive component. I had created a descriptive paragraph of a robot I found online. I read the description out loud to my students and, without showing them the image of the robot, had them draw it based on my writing. Afterwards, I revealed the image and we critiqued my descriptive writing based on how similar the robots looked. The students LOVED this activity – they got to draw AND critique the teacher’s work! Hopefully they keep their critiques in mind as they continue to work on their own descriptive writing.

The highlight of my week was our Friday assembly. Our class had the task of creating and delivering an assembly to the entire school introducing our Catholic Graduate Expectation that we will be focusing on in December. The difficult part about this was that, unfortunately, my Associate Teacher was absent for a lot of the planning, due to an illness. That meant the supply teacher and I would accept the task with open arms and do the best that we could.

I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I was really happy with the way that the assembly turned out! Our students had scripture reading about lifelong learning, having trust in God, and fulfilling our potential. We also had students sharing their own goals and aspirations, showing that you are never too young or old to want to accomplish something. We taught the school about adopting a growth mindset and welcoming the power of “yet” into our lives. The big finale was a video that our students recorded and put together! They went around the school and asked students and staff about something they would like to learn one day and something that they have learned recently. This truly made the assembly feel like a school community, shining light on everyone’s goals and dreams.

Another week in the books! This week will be a memorable one for me for many different reasons. Firstly, my Associate Teacher had to get an operation done, meaning that yours truly is the full-time teacher for a two week period. While this came with some added apprehensions and stress, I feel like I transitioned well into the role and truly became a classroom teacher. And the best part is that the students have started to view and accept me in that role too!

Singing our hearts out, practicing for the Christmas play on December 15! 🎄🎤@OLMCOttawa @FontaineOLMC pic.twitter.com/uyLXsKcj53

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) November 25, 2016

This week, my Grade 5s have delved deeper in our patterning unit by identifying, extending, and predicting term patterns and numbers. I put together a patterning Kahoot that the students absolutely loved! Even with so much learning taking place, Kahoots always seem to bring out the fun and excitement in the lesson. The students are happy because they get to use technology and they also feel a sense of competition, which in my opinion furthers their overall performance.

The grade 5s had a blast with the patterning @GetKahoot I created for them! A fun way to review what we’ve learned thus far pic.twitter.com/3uQNLIpGe5

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) November 22, 2016

On Tuesday, Our Lady of Mount Carmel started their intramural program, which is something that the student teachers at our school are taking the lead on. For the Grade 4-6 students, we’ve created a Tchoukball league. Tchoukball is a team sport that involves balls and trampolines… In other words, the students have a blast! I am looking forward to continuing the intramurals throughout the rest of my practicum.

Great first day of intramurals at @OLMCOttawa! All of our grade 4, 5, and 6 students will be playing tchoukball. Loved the sportsmanship! pic.twitter.com/oy9MuBgKMl

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) November 22, 2016

In my health unit, our class has put together a lovely anchor chart that defines the key terms we have been working with. The students have had some really great input during our class discussions, which has furthered the learning in our unit.  An engaging lesson that I facilitated involved giving each student an effect and having them decide (with the help of their peers) whether the effect was a short-term or long-term effect of alcohol use. They did a great job differentiating between the two types of effects and together we created a lovely visual to refer back to. Next week, we will explore the concept of peer pressure, as it pertains to alcohol use.

In preparation for an assembly that my Grade 5s will be facilitating for the entire school, we explored the Catholic Graduate Expectation of being a “lifelong learner”. The topic of lifelong learning opened many opportunities for learning in our own classroom, including introducing “growth mindset” to the students. We watched some online cartoons, courtesy of Edmodo, that spoke about concepts like grit, the power of “yet”, and learning from your mistakes, all of which tie in wonderfully with lifelong learning. As a way to assess the students’ knowledge of the Catholic Graduate Expectation, I created a placemat activity that the students used to display their understanding. The results were impressive, so I had to take a few pictures to share:

“Lifelong learner” means to never give up, keep working towards your goals, and strive to achieve your God-given potential #GrowthMindset pic.twitter.com/qBvBxQGicd

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) November 25, 2016

Classroom and behaviour management is definitely something that I am getting a lot of exposure and experience to this practicum. For instance, there was a student in the hallway during class time that was clearly upset. He was walking from hook to hook, pulling off jackets and dumping the contents of backpacks on to the ground. Naturally, I stepped in, getting down on the student’s level and asking him what was going on. When the student didn’t respond, I asked him if the cartoon on his shirt was from Minecraft. Suddenly, the student’s eyes came back to life, and he explained that his shirt had superhero characters that were animated as if they were in Minecraft. Immediately, you could tell that the student felt remorse for the mess that he had made, but also knew that I was not going to get him in trouble or yell at him for what he had done. Together, we started to clean up the hallway and put things back where they belong. The principal and resource teacher, who were called to help out with the situation, saw that it had been deescalated and felt comfortable with me continuing to address the situation. This will definitely be a moment that I remember where I chose to first pay attention to the person before I made attention to the action.

Here we are again… How is it that weekends take so long to come, yet seem to be over before you know it? However, Sundays are for more than just rest and relaxation. Sundays are a time to reflect on the week you’ve had and prepare (mentally and spiritually) for the week that is to come.

I am officially at the halfway point of my practicum at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic School. The teaching staff is incredible, welcoming, and compassionate. The learning occurring within and outside the classroom walls is top-notch. The students are unique, energetic, and provide the spark that fuels the entire school. This school community truly is a wonderful place.

The community extends far outside of our immediate school as well. Our Lady of Mount Carmel is an urban school and has some needs that other schools may not necessarily have. For example, as I am sitting here writing this post, it is snowing like crazy outside (can someone please tell the weather that it is still November…). For some students, snow creates a sense of excitement – something they look forward to playing with. For others students, snow causes stress. When your family is unable to provide you with a new winter jacket because your current zipper broke off… When you have to choose between buying a winter jacket and snow pants because you are unable to afford both… When your boots and clothes from the day before remain wet and cold because you have no drier to dry them…

This is where the community plays a large role. This past week, the local Knights of Columbus donated a large number of winter jackets to our school. These jackets were brand new and of varying sizes, a gift that will provide comfort beyond belief to our students this winter. I still get goose bumps when I think back to the moment when these jackets were delivered to our school. In a world where we hear more bad news stories than good, its kind and generous gestures like these that shine light on the loving and compassionate people that truly care for others.

Now that I’ve opened up my heart, let’s talk about curriculum! This week, I launched a few units that seem to be off to a great start. Firstly, we started patterning in Math and the students truly caught on fast. At first I wasn’t sure if my class had all-of-the-sudden become a group of child protégées, but after speaking with their teachers from last year, I quickly learned that they had lots of practice before coming into my class. We’ve explored letter patterns, number patters and shape patterns, identified pattern rules, extended patterns by 5 or more terms, filled in the missing terms in a number pattern, created and solve problems using a t-chart, and even solved word problems… all in a week’s time! I am hoping to do another day or two of patterning next week and then administer a short quiz to use in addition to their culminating task.

In Science, I launched our unit on changes and properties of matter. Despite having to do some classroom management, the lesson when over fairly well. The students jotted down things that came to mind when they heard the term “matter”, watched a video introducing them to the topic, provided examples of solids, liquids, and gases found within our classroom (written on sticky notes and posted on chart paper), and completed a K-W-L chart about “matter”. The K-W-L chart in particular brought to my attention some misconceptions about what matter is and what constitutes a solid, liquid, and gas. I’m glad I started with this activity as a form of formative assessment so that I am able to clearly assess where their learning is at and how I should proceed with my unit.

@FontaineOLMC A student in our afternoon class came up to me today and said, “Look! A solid (ice), liquid (water), and gas (air)!” pic.twitter.com/95FxhoqLlm

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) November 17, 2016

Even in a school that has a great sense of community, bullying will always seem to surface. This week, we had a situation of bullying that involved a large number of my students. After dealing with the situation and having the students talk it through with the principal, my Associate Teacher showed the class this incredible spoken word poetry video that led to a great discussion. The opportunities for discussion are endless and, truly, the video speaks for itself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChyEIqWNl8k

On Friday, we had an in-school Professional Development day that was jam packed. We had a staff meeting, delved deeper in to the Mathematics curriculum, and explore the areas of Math that should be deep- and light-study for each of our grades. While all of this was a great learning experience, I had THE MOST FUN learning about coding and using some robots! Check out my twitter explosion about these cool gadgets:

Learning all about coding at @OLMCOttawa. Lots of fun and so many connections to the Math and Science curriculums! pic.twitter.com/mMV3T8AXSl

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) November 18, 2016

Who knew coding could make art?! The textured covers for the @Sphero make awesome patterns when you roll over paint #coding #art pic.twitter.com/WX8SzRJa0v

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) November 18, 2016

#Coding the @Sphero to knock over some bowling pins! Too much fun! #PlayBasedLearning pic.twitter.com/Yu501Td5OR

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) November 18, 2016

And here’s me almost getting a Sphero to do long jump!

This is fun! #ocsb pic.twitter.com/HAeuv4quIT

— OLMC School (@OLMCOttawa) November 18, 2016