I'm three days in to my practicum... and today is the hardest day of the week (the kiddos are with us all day long!). I love them and their funny senses of humour, their grossness (who thought sharing the same teal eyeshadow and brushes was a good idea? really! Or socks randomly in the middle of the classroom floor...), their hatred of writing notes, and their complete inability to be quiet!
That last one is like some cosmic 'ahahaha' getting back at me for years of just talking and talking. Yesterday I left my room at lunch seeking some quiet solace somewhere in the school. Somewhere. Anywhere. My ears where just ringing! I found it, found some delightful teacher company, and then half an hour later I was ready to go again.
My two biggest challenges are behavior management (I've yet to develop my 'take control teacher style') and the sheer amount of questions that I have! Other than those two peices that I'm sure will eventually just come, everything else has been just awesome. I've been cooking up some fun ideas for our learning- and a few are quite non traditional. I'm kind of worried that the lack of writing that I'm currently thinking in science is going to be hard on them. How terrible is it that I'm thinking of getting rid of a game so that I can get them to reflect on an experience (in a form that is longer than the question-reflection that I've decided to incorporate into our lessons).
Well, instead of proofing this, I've gotta go make some tea and head out to school.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Friday, November 19, 2010
Slow slow slow
My life keeps speeding up. I have a bunch of assignments due (11!) in the next two weeks, a practicum to prep for, the snow is currently falling outside my window, and I also need to maintain at least a minimal semblance of a social life (ha ha!) in order to maintain my sanity.
I realize that this is probably a good example as to what the rest of my life will be looking like, but I certainly hope the rest of my life also includes an income! Times like these also reinforce how essential it is for me to find stability, quietness and moments to come back down to earth. I usually end up making a cup of tea, or stress baking (a past time also demonstrated by many of my friends) and then forcing other people to eat my creations. It generally works out well so long as I haven't invented anything exceptionally crazy- such as the time I dyed the milk blue.
Tonight I was washing the dishes by hand and listening to the radio softly twittering away and I had a moment of calmness in the middle of the storm. I'm one of those people who never really knows the 'right' thing to say, but I really believe in just being. Being present, being witness, being there and listening and grounding for people who need that when their lives get carried away with one problem or difficulty. I found myself being present for myself. Which sounds strange, only really, I don't know if it is.
I intend to do this for my students. To give them a foundation to ground themselves so that they can do amazing things. To perform this role, I need to keep myself calm (or create a reasonable facade!) be organized and maintain a structured classroom. For students to be productive they need a tightly run ship, else many get lost in the chaos that is learning.
How do I keep myself in this place? By baking bread (something I just realized I missed tonight!), making tea in a teapot, crocheting the most hideous blankets you've ever seen, taking the time to interact positively with people in my daily travels, take pictures of things that make me happy, and to make time and talk to the people I love.
Tomorrow I have a lot of work that I need to accomplish. But tonight I'm going to go make another cup of tea, get caught up on my crafty blogs, and hope that I can find my wool slippers somewhere. Its cold out there!
Friday, November 5, 2010
Flitting around in my head
Before I begin, I want to give you a little bit of warning- I'm feeling all over the place today. I apologize in advance for the little bits and pieces I'm going to throw at you.
I feel like I've been in a strange educational bubble lately. I've been so entwined with learning theories, and creating sparkly art projects that I have forgotten that another world exists outside of Maclauren. I first realised it in my ELA class this morning, one of my colleagues was mentioning something that he had heard on the news. ... Wait. What?! Stuff is happening, and people are learning about it?! I'm so terribly out of touch these days. I get my news in snippets, usually much later than it has actually happened. I can tell you however, all about Piaget, scaffolding, and how there about forty quadrillion different lesson plan templates floating out there in the universe.
The one thing that I have kept up with is my love of Canadian independent music, and the only reason that happens is that I listen to it on my ipod via podcast on my morning trip into school.
I wonder if I will ever return to the media savvy, internet addicted person I once was. Only time will tell...
___________________________________________________________________________
Last week I had the most rewarding curriculum class assignment. We were listening to a story and then creating a poster of what we thought a certain section of the book was potraying. It was so freeing and soothing and fabulous. I got to play with glitter (a love of mine for certain. I know you are secretly cheering about it on the inside too) and work with some FANTASTIC people. Seriously. This group was a dreamteam. Completely supportive and creative and just upbeat fantastic.
I was feeling the love- there is no other way to put it!-
And because pictures or it didn't happen:
___________________________________________________________________________
Now I'm sending myself away for a few days, before I get thrown back into the giant pit of lessonplanningdoom adventures. It really isn't so bad, but the process itself is a little exhausting as I'm learning it. I come home most days feeling like I did when I was learning to drive at 16: twitching at the amount of thinking and focusing I had to do to keep control of everything. I know that it is going to click eventually and I am going to be capable and good at what I do, I just need to keep at it and it will eventually become an unconcious act. Eventually.
À la prochaine! I have some exploring to do!
K
I feel like I've been in a strange educational bubble lately. I've been so entwined with learning theories, and creating sparkly art projects that I have forgotten that another world exists outside of Maclauren. I first realised it in my ELA class this morning, one of my colleagues was mentioning something that he had heard on the news. ... Wait. What?! Stuff is happening, and people are learning about it?! I'm so terribly out of touch these days. I get my news in snippets, usually much later than it has actually happened. I can tell you however, all about Piaget, scaffolding, and how there about forty quadrillion different lesson plan templates floating out there in the universe.
The one thing that I have kept up with is my love of Canadian independent music, and the only reason that happens is that I listen to it on my ipod via podcast on my morning trip into school.
I wonder if I will ever return to the media savvy, internet addicted person I once was. Only time will tell...
___________________________________________________________________________
Last week I had the most rewarding curriculum class assignment. We were listening to a story and then creating a poster of what we thought a certain section of the book was potraying. It was so freeing and soothing and fabulous. I got to play with glitter (a love of mine for certain. I know you are secretly cheering about it on the inside too) and work with some FANTASTIC people. Seriously. This group was a dreamteam. Completely supportive and creative and just upbeat fantastic.
I was feeling the love- there is no other way to put it!-
And because pictures or it didn't happen:
___________________________________________________________________________
Now I'm sending myself away for a few days, before I get thrown back into the giant pit of lessonplanning
À la prochaine! I have some exploring to do!
K
Monday, October 18, 2010
Writing, Writing Classrooms
Today I asked my younger sister about the writing process. She looked at me and said: “ you grab a writing utensil. You use that writing utensil to make shapes on paper. And hope someone else can read those shapes. And then you proofread.”
While this seems a bit comical to those of us ‘later in the writing game,’ back when we were first learning it certainly didn't ever feel that way. We have gotten to the point where we can comfortably sit down and crank something out- depending on our content. Whether or not it is a good thing could be further questioned, but generally we are able to get something down on paper (or on the computer).
For someone who is learning to write, (or perhaps learning to write well) there are five stages to be considered. Call them what you will, it is the actual process involved that is important. The combined five are found within an activity that is found in schools sometimes titled “writers workshop” that encourages students to take the writing process one step at a time. With practice, I think some of the steps can be consolidated a little bit, but I feel the whole activity necessary for a strong finished product. Below I will go into detail about the general process, and reference the concepts from Sharon Creech’s Love That Dog and Mara Casey and Stephen Hemenway’s Structure and Freedom: Achieving a Balanced Writing Curriculum.
The Five Stages of the Writing Process
1. Pre-Writing The prewriting stage is the brainstorming stage. It is when the students think about their goals for their writing, and the ideas that they want to get down. Ideas can be organized at this stage, and an outline for what they want to write is developed. The purpose of the writing is also identified. In Love That Dog, the pre writing stage is when Jack (the author) is getting his initial thoughts down on paper, and is playing with (and fighting with) his teachers instructions.
2. Drafting. The processes where by students get their thoughts that they have created in the pre-writing stages into the beginnings of their published works. The focus on this stage is getting thoughts down on paper, rather than grammar. In Structure and Freedom, the author goes mentions that the students draft as well as revise, edit and conference with each other on how to improve their work, as one draft is not enough to produce quality work.
3. Revising. Revising can occur when students share their work with others, and then take this feedback into consideration. They may or may not choose to make changes to their work as a result of the feedback they have received, although between the first and last draft there should be several changes. In Structure and Freedom, it is discussed how students talked about their work, and then made changes to their work to improve upon the strengths of their work, as well as strengthen up the weaker areas.
4. Editing. Editing is when students proofread their own work for grammatical mistakes or other mechanical errors. This seems to be a big part of the writing process that is retained in the educational system. We have placed an emphasis on the ‘mechanical errors,’ such that students pay heavy attention to them. This is noted in Structure and freedom, that students recognize that their teachers pay heavy attention to this area, perhaps more than others such as the drafting process.
5. Publishing. Publishing is an important part of the writing process. It can happen in the classroom, the school community, or the community at large. It can be published by itself, sent to a newspaper or community group. In Love That Dog, Jack’s work is shared with the poet that inspired his work, as well as with the rest of the school community by having it put up on the board on coloured paper. By sharing work with others, it encourages students to do work well, and keeps it authentic.
To build off of the idea of the writing process, it is also necessary to think of the atmosphere of an engaging writing classroom. Students need to be in a location that facilitates a comfortable working environment that facilitates reading and writing. There are a variety of ways to do this, but I feel like it is important to highlight a few key examples.
Firstly, having a place to display published student work is important. This must be updated regularly, so that the work doesn’t become just part of the scenery but read by students and visitors to the classroom. In Love That Dog, Jack’s work is put up on the wall for the class and visitors for the class to read and think about.
Another method of creating an effectively engaging classroom is to have examples of well-written work for students to look at and think about. It can be posted on the wall, on the board, or given to students to think about. Miss Stretchberry (Jack’s teacher) gives Jack’s class examples of poetry that fit her lesson.
Lastly, having an opportunity or location for students to conference and peer review each other’s work comfortably can be very helpful for students. This might be a quiet area away from the main hubbub of the room such as a quiet corner with desks or special chairs. This can encourage students to take that extra moment to do a review, but also to feel comfortable and supported while they are doing it.
For myself as a pre-service teacher, I am going to keep a few things in mind when developing and maintaining an effective and balanced writing classroom. I need to make certain that I do not limit my activities to my zone of comfort, but instead weight all areas of writing equally. That is to say, if I have a preference for creative writing, I should not neglect more ‘technical writing’ and vice versa. Furthermore, I need to be cognizant of the needs and interests of my students and tailor my lessons to them. While not every activity is going to speak to all students, trying to find materials that engage as many students (and different students) as possible is something that I am going to strive towards. I want to create a classroom where students are able to try a large variety of things, and hopefully a good majority of them resonate.
While this seems a bit comical to those of us ‘later in the writing game,’ back when we were first learning it certainly didn't ever feel that way. We have gotten to the point where we can comfortably sit down and crank something out- depending on our content. Whether or not it is a good thing could be further questioned, but generally we are able to get something down on paper (or on the computer).
For someone who is learning to write, (or perhaps learning to write well) there are five stages to be considered. Call them what you will, it is the actual process involved that is important. The combined five are found within an activity that is found in schools sometimes titled “writers workshop” that encourages students to take the writing process one step at a time. With practice, I think some of the steps can be consolidated a little bit, but I feel the whole activity necessary for a strong finished product. Below I will go into detail about the general process, and reference the concepts from Sharon Creech’s Love That Dog and Mara Casey and Stephen Hemenway’s Structure and Freedom: Achieving a Balanced Writing Curriculum.
The Five Stages of the Writing Process
1. Pre-Writing The prewriting stage is the brainstorming stage. It is when the students think about their goals for their writing, and the ideas that they want to get down. Ideas can be organized at this stage, and an outline for what they want to write is developed. The purpose of the writing is also identified. In Love That Dog, the pre writing stage is when Jack (the author) is getting his initial thoughts down on paper, and is playing with (and fighting with) his teachers instructions.
2. Drafting. The processes where by students get their thoughts that they have created in the pre-writing stages into the beginnings of their published works. The focus on this stage is getting thoughts down on paper, rather than grammar. In Structure and Freedom, the author goes mentions that the students draft as well as revise, edit and conference with each other on how to improve their work, as one draft is not enough to produce quality work.
3. Revising. Revising can occur when students share their work with others, and then take this feedback into consideration. They may or may not choose to make changes to their work as a result of the feedback they have received, although between the first and last draft there should be several changes. In Structure and Freedom, it is discussed how students talked about their work, and then made changes to their work to improve upon the strengths of their work, as well as strengthen up the weaker areas.
4. Editing. Editing is when students proofread their own work for grammatical mistakes or other mechanical errors. This seems to be a big part of the writing process that is retained in the educational system. We have placed an emphasis on the ‘mechanical errors,’ such that students pay heavy attention to them. This is noted in Structure and freedom, that students recognize that their teachers pay heavy attention to this area, perhaps more than others such as the drafting process.
5. Publishing. Publishing is an important part of the writing process. It can happen in the classroom, the school community, or the community at large. It can be published by itself, sent to a newspaper or community group. In Love That Dog, Jack’s work is shared with the poet that inspired his work, as well as with the rest of the school community by having it put up on the board on coloured paper. By sharing work with others, it encourages students to do work well, and keeps it authentic.
To build off of the idea of the writing process, it is also necessary to think of the atmosphere of an engaging writing classroom. Students need to be in a location that facilitates a comfortable working environment that facilitates reading and writing. There are a variety of ways to do this, but I feel like it is important to highlight a few key examples.
Firstly, having a place to display published student work is important. This must be updated regularly, so that the work doesn’t become just part of the scenery but read by students and visitors to the classroom. In Love That Dog, Jack’s work is put up on the wall for the class and visitors for the class to read and think about.
Another method of creating an effectively engaging classroom is to have examples of well-written work for students to look at and think about. It can be posted on the wall, on the board, or given to students to think about. Miss Stretchberry (Jack’s teacher) gives Jack’s class examples of poetry that fit her lesson.
Lastly, having an opportunity or location for students to conference and peer review each other’s work comfortably can be very helpful for students. This might be a quiet area away from the main hubbub of the room such as a quiet corner with desks or special chairs. This can encourage students to take that extra moment to do a review, but also to feel comfortable and supported while they are doing it.
For myself as a pre-service teacher, I am going to keep a few things in mind when developing and maintaining an effective and balanced writing classroom. I need to make certain that I do not limit my activities to my zone of comfort, but instead weight all areas of writing equally. That is to say, if I have a preference for creative writing, I should not neglect more ‘technical writing’ and vice versa. Furthermore, I need to be cognizant of the needs and interests of my students and tailor my lessons to them. While not every activity is going to speak to all students, trying to find materials that engage as many students (and different students) as possible is something that I am going to strive towards. I want to create a classroom where students are able to try a large variety of things, and hopefully a good majority of them resonate.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Reflections from Grade 6
Looking back on my educational career, I have fond memories of my grade six teacher, and in particular one ELA unit. Up until that point, I had been included in the ‘read a novel, write something, move on’ club. Each chapter was read painfully going around the room, while my eyes glazed over, my head going elsewhere to deal with the monstrosity that was being committed within the classroom walls. Or at least, that is what I thought. It wasn’t that I didn’t like to read, per se, but rather had established that I was interested in a very particular genre (generally speaking WW2 historical fiction or autobiographies) and could navigate myself around the public library quite successfully.
We came in one day, and he announced to us that he was going to read to us. I was suspicious. Why was he reading to us? Was the book going to be terrible? Oh no. He was holding up a book with an animal on the front. I hated books with animals. I wanted to hear about people! I wanted to finish reading that Kit Pearson novel I had in my backpack! The last thing I wanted was to be bored out of my mind- yet again- by a novel that didn’t apply to me or interest me.
Instead of launching into (what I imagined would be) a long droning lesson on something boring, he simply opened up the book to the first chapter and started reading. I’m a visual person, but I love being read to. I always have. There is something so powerful about reading read a story, and being read a story well. In this case, my teacher paused after he had gotten us interested and handed out copies of the book so that we could follow along if we wanted to.
We were encouraged to listen. If listening to us meant to sit back and close our eyes, we were more than welcome to. The caveat however, was that we had to respond to chapters (usually this meant that we’d respond to 2-3 chapters at a time) in a journal. We were to write a response and to include a picture about what we were thinking about. Generally the practice seemed to stop us from falling asleep so I assumed that it was doing its job.
Quickly this became one of my favourite parts of the day. We talked about the characters, we wrote about the characters. We sat back and were able to enjoy what we were listening to. My classroom was taken away from its location on the military base, away from the idea of (most of our parents) away at sea, away from the kids on the playground, from the interschool rivalry between the kids in French immersion and us. I remember talking with other people in the classroom and feeling how strange it was that we ALL seemed to be enjoying this book. We coloured, and thought, and talked about how we were experiencing the book.
Taking our work and gluing it onto construction paper, making title pages, and comic strips explaining our favourite chapter or two of the book and including it in the book didn’t seem like work to me. We were able to explain our reasoning any way we wanted to, using poetry, written work, photographs and charts. I was having fun thinking about this book, because my opinions weren’t wrong, they were just different.
Taking my reflection a little bit further, I feel like the discussions were quite guided by my teacher, but still really open to the opinions of the class. Our book reports got put up on the board outside our classroom to share with the rest of the school. I remember being pretty proud of the ‘adult’ like work that we had produced- look how grown up we were! Writing proper reports!
The approach that I think my teacher took was more of an inquiry-based approach. We were guided to think about certain areas of chapters and encouraged to think about and reflect on themes, but ultimately it was up to us as individuals and as a class to get our own knowledge out of this book. At the same time, we were building off of our prior knowledge- thinking about what was being said, writing and drawing in our journals, and discussing with our classmates. We had opinions that we used to interpret the material and that was reflected in our journals.
Speaking for myself, I was in a place where I was exploring a new concept (animals in books! And they talked!) but I was doing so from a place I understood- bringing in emotions and my real life experiences. My understanding of Jean Piaget’s theory of learning (as from Language Arts: Content and Teaching Strategies 5th Edition) backs this up- we were learning new material, but using our previously gained knowledge to make it easier to accommodate the new material, and to include it into what we already knew or understood.
After a little bit of googling, I re-discovered the title of the book we read: The Incident at Hawks Hill. I sort of want to go back and re-read it, just to see how I interpret it now as an ‘adult.’ Thinking back about this activity really makes me realize what a good teacher he was. I’m really grateful for his calm insight, his patience in walking me through long division over and over and over again, and his book choice amongst other things. Not that he was perfect, but that we were able to try things outside of our own personal ‘worlds’. And for me, that is one of the signs of a good ELA teacher.
We came in one day, and he announced to us that he was going to read to us. I was suspicious. Why was he reading to us? Was the book going to be terrible? Oh no. He was holding up a book with an animal on the front. I hated books with animals. I wanted to hear about people! I wanted to finish reading that Kit Pearson novel I had in my backpack! The last thing I wanted was to be bored out of my mind- yet again- by a novel that didn’t apply to me or interest me.
Instead of launching into (what I imagined would be) a long droning lesson on something boring, he simply opened up the book to the first chapter and started reading. I’m a visual person, but I love being read to. I always have. There is something so powerful about reading read a story, and being read a story well. In this case, my teacher paused after he had gotten us interested and handed out copies of the book so that we could follow along if we wanted to.
We were encouraged to listen. If listening to us meant to sit back and close our eyes, we were more than welcome to. The caveat however, was that we had to respond to chapters (usually this meant that we’d respond to 2-3 chapters at a time) in a journal. We were to write a response and to include a picture about what we were thinking about. Generally the practice seemed to stop us from falling asleep so I assumed that it was doing its job.
Quickly this became one of my favourite parts of the day. We talked about the characters, we wrote about the characters. We sat back and were able to enjoy what we were listening to. My classroom was taken away from its location on the military base, away from the idea of (most of our parents) away at sea, away from the kids on the playground, from the interschool rivalry between the kids in French immersion and us. I remember talking with other people in the classroom and feeling how strange it was that we ALL seemed to be enjoying this book. We coloured, and thought, and talked about how we were experiencing the book.
Taking our work and gluing it onto construction paper, making title pages, and comic strips explaining our favourite chapter or two of the book and including it in the book didn’t seem like work to me. We were able to explain our reasoning any way we wanted to, using poetry, written work, photographs and charts. I was having fun thinking about this book, because my opinions weren’t wrong, they were just different.
Taking my reflection a little bit further, I feel like the discussions were quite guided by my teacher, but still really open to the opinions of the class. Our book reports got put up on the board outside our classroom to share with the rest of the school. I remember being pretty proud of the ‘adult’ like work that we had produced- look how grown up we were! Writing proper reports!
The approach that I think my teacher took was more of an inquiry-based approach. We were guided to think about certain areas of chapters and encouraged to think about and reflect on themes, but ultimately it was up to us as individuals and as a class to get our own knowledge out of this book. At the same time, we were building off of our prior knowledge- thinking about what was being said, writing and drawing in our journals, and discussing with our classmates. We had opinions that we used to interpret the material and that was reflected in our journals.
Speaking for myself, I was in a place where I was exploring a new concept (animals in books! And they talked!) but I was doing so from a place I understood- bringing in emotions and my real life experiences. My understanding of Jean Piaget’s theory of learning (as from Language Arts: Content and Teaching Strategies 5th Edition) backs this up- we were learning new material, but using our previously gained knowledge to make it easier to accommodate the new material, and to include it into what we already knew or understood.
After a little bit of googling, I re-discovered the title of the book we read: The Incident at Hawks Hill. I sort of want to go back and re-read it, just to see how I interpret it now as an ‘adult.’ Thinking back about this activity really makes me realize what a good teacher he was. I’m really grateful for his calm insight, his patience in walking me through long division over and over and over again, and his book choice amongst other things. Not that he was perfect, but that we were able to try things outside of our own personal ‘worlds’. And for me, that is one of the signs of a good ELA teacher.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
'No School Wednesday'
A neat thing about my program is that we have this thing my cohort likes to call 'No School Wednesday.' It is a day where our faculty offers workshops, and in November I will be attending my practicum school on Wednesdays.
I have a few workshops lined up in the upcoming weeks and I am particularly excited for them- you'll definitely get an update later on those!
Back to NSW's: I'm really working mine today with some serious multi-tasking. I know that I'm probably not going to be able to do this in my career, but I'm using mine to write up assignments and do readings to the sounds of the CBC and with a huge pot of tea. Its really nice to be able to focus on my school work and do my laundry at the same time!
The multi-tasking part I'm pretty sure will continue through my career. Earlier in the week, we were at a middle school where we were observing middle years classrooms. One teacher sticks out in my mind in particular, she was engaging, interactive and multi-tasking with the students. I remember looking around the classroom and looking at her and thinking: "this is what I want to be! I want to be ! A rockstar teacher!" She was working with a very active group of grade 7 students, mainly comprised of boys who were quite active. They were practicing the days of the week to music, and right before the last round she declared it the 'dance party round'. I'm a big fan of awesome things, and it certainly was: the room was full of dancing grade 7 students singing the days of the week- but the part that made me crack up the most was the can can line in the middle of the class comprised of a group of 6 or 7 boys. I love middle school!
I am going to be meeting up with a friend of mine in the Secondary Program later on today to go shopping for some more "cute teacher attire" (read: school appropriate attire of the sweater variety) and chat about her exciting next week. She is going to be doing her observation up island!
But until then I'm going to get back to my Art Education assignment, and relish in my NSW.
I have a few workshops lined up in the upcoming weeks and I am particularly excited for them- you'll definitely get an update later on those!
Back to NSW's: I'm really working mine today with some serious multi-tasking. I know that I'm probably not going to be able to do this in my career, but I'm using mine to write up assignments and do readings to the sounds of the CBC and with a huge pot of tea. Its really nice to be able to focus on my school work and do my laundry at the same time!
The multi-tasking part I'm pretty sure will continue through my career. Earlier in the week, we were at a middle school where we were observing middle years classrooms. One teacher sticks out in my mind in particular, she was engaging, interactive and multi-tasking with the students. I remember looking around the classroom and looking at her and thinking: "this is what I want to be! I want to be ! A rockstar teacher!" She was working with a very active group of grade 7 students, mainly comprised of boys who were quite active. They were practicing the days of the week to music, and right before the last round she declared it the 'dance party round'. I'm a big fan of awesome things, and it certainly was: the room was full of dancing grade 7 students singing the days of the week- but the part that made me crack up the most was the can can line in the middle of the class comprised of a group of 6 or 7 boys. I love middle school!
I am going to be meeting up with a friend of mine in the Secondary Program later on today to go shopping for some more "cute teacher attire" (read: school appropriate attire of the sweater variety) and chat about her exciting next week. She is going to be doing her observation up island!
But until then I'm going to get back to my Art Education assignment, and relish in my NSW.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Student Teacher Talk: BC's language arts curriculum
Growing up in the BC school system, I thought I was a pretty savvy learner. I found ways to work around assignments, ways to manipulate the work into doing something that I found interesting, and make the assignments work to my advantage. Little did I know of the copious amount of framework that had been put into place to help shape me into the learner that I am now. The curriculum packages in British Columbia are sizeable documents, covering everything from fine arts, to physical education and a smattering of other things inbetween.
Learning in British Columbia
In the British Columbian public schools, our curriculum is found in documents called Integrated Resource Packages (IRP's). These packages are the content standards for each grade and subject are that are "(c)learly stated and expressed in measurable and observable terms, prescribed learning outcomes set out the required attitudes, skills, and knowledge – what student are expected to know and be able to do – by the end of the specified subject and grade" (BC English Language Arts IRP 2006). By the time a BC student reaches grade 7, according to the Kindergarten to Grade 6 English Language Arts (ELA) IRP (Integrated Resource Package- the British Columbian curriculum package) they should be able to: reflect and respond to texts, analyse and evaluate ideas, acknowledge and evalate ideas and alternative viewpoints in text, write a variety of well developed texts amongst other things. The learner in the middle years is a sophisticated learner by this point, learning to balance new information such as vocabulary, with a pre-existing skillset gained from Kindergarten+. This learner comes from diverse backgrounds from all over British Columbia, Canada and the world. The variety of learning styles and preferences simply increases with every student in the classroom, as does the range cultural and personal backgrounds that can be found in British Columbia.
Challenges, Curricula and Moving Forward
The challenge with working within the BC curriculum as presented in the BC ELA IRP for K-7, is that the document is quite large. The size is true for its word count, but also for the range of professionals that it has been written for. It is written for both the newly qualified teacher and the department head who has been teaching for many years. It is written for the honours student, the student who has a learning disability, the student who is from out of province or was educated in a different language. The ELA IRP is written to include a huge variety of learners from a variety of backgrounds in a specifically non-specific document. This especially shows in this statement in the BC ELA IRP (2006) "British Columbia’s schools include young people of varied backgrounds, interests, and abilities. The
Kindergarten to Grade 12 school system focusses on meeting the needs of all students"
That alone is a terrifying thought for the student teacher or the the newly qualified teacher out in the feild for the first time. New teachers, in my experience, want to create supportive and engaging learning environments and the sheer enormity of the range of students in the classroom is overwhelming. It should also be mentioned that all students are not going be attentive or engaged all the time, and that using such finite and definite language can add to a level of uncertainty in the new professional.
However, a definite benefit of the ELA IRP is that once the basics are grasped, it is possible to build upon that foundational knowledge and grow in teaching. The document won't limit the teacher with rigid ideas of what should be taught- it is a flexible and fluid document.
What does this mean for me?
I want to be the sort of teacher that would have helped me learn as a student: someone engaging, dynamic, flexible, kind to differences and supportive to different ways of learning. As a pre-service teacher, I worry that I will get overwhelmed in the sheer size of the document, the language used within it, and not be able to be an effective and engaging teacher for my students. However the more I delve into the material, and am given more support for my understanding in how the document works, the more I realize that I will be capable to be an effective teacher for all kinds of students.
While I know that I am not going to be the sort of teacher that 100% of students need 100% of the time, I know that I am going to be able to grow with the document. I hope that the openness of the curriculum will allow me to teach in a way that meets the needs, challenges, and supports my future students to learn and engage with the subject material.
One thing I know from life that is true, is that the scariest things in life can often be the most rewarding- especially when you are in a supportive environment. Right now, I'm crusing up the 'scary part' of understanding, the part where you doubt yourself a little, but people keep encouraging you to continue on. I know that soon it will 'click,' and I will be able to comprehend and hopefully teach ELA for all sorts of learners in all sorts of learning environments.
If not, I can always fall back on my desired childhood profession: becoming the queen.
Learning in British Columbia
In the British Columbian public schools, our curriculum is found in documents called Integrated Resource Packages (IRP's). These packages are the content standards for each grade and subject are that are "(c)learly stated and expressed in measurable and observable terms, prescribed learning outcomes set out the required attitudes, skills, and knowledge – what student are expected to know and be able to do – by the end of the specified subject and grade" (BC English Language Arts IRP 2006). By the time a BC student reaches grade 7, according to the Kindergarten to Grade 6 English Language Arts (ELA) IRP (Integrated Resource Package- the British Columbian curriculum package) they should be able to: reflect and respond to texts, analyse and evaluate ideas, acknowledge and evalate ideas and alternative viewpoints in text, write a variety of well developed texts amongst other things. The learner in the middle years is a sophisticated learner by this point, learning to balance new information such as vocabulary, with a pre-existing skillset gained from Kindergarten+. This learner comes from diverse backgrounds from all over British Columbia, Canada and the world. The variety of learning styles and preferences simply increases with every student in the classroom, as does the range cultural and personal backgrounds that can be found in British Columbia.
Challenges, Curricula and Moving Forward
The challenge with working within the BC curriculum as presented in the BC ELA IRP for K-7, is that the document is quite large. The size is true for its word count, but also for the range of professionals that it has been written for. It is written for both the newly qualified teacher and the department head who has been teaching for many years. It is written for the honours student, the student who has a learning disability, the student who is from out of province or was educated in a different language. The ELA IRP is written to include a huge variety of learners from a variety of backgrounds in a specifically non-specific document. This especially shows in this statement in the BC ELA IRP (2006) "British Columbia’s schools include young people of varied backgrounds, interests, and abilities. The
Kindergarten to Grade 12 school system focusses on meeting the needs of all students"
That alone is a terrifying thought for the student teacher or the the newly qualified teacher out in the feild for the first time. New teachers, in my experience, want to create supportive and engaging learning environments and the sheer enormity of the range of students in the classroom is overwhelming. It should also be mentioned that all students are not going be attentive or engaged all the time, and that using such finite and definite language can add to a level of uncertainty in the new professional.
However, a definite benefit of the ELA IRP is that once the basics are grasped, it is possible to build upon that foundational knowledge and grow in teaching. The document won't limit the teacher with rigid ideas of what should be taught- it is a flexible and fluid document.
What does this mean for me?
I want to be the sort of teacher that would have helped me learn as a student: someone engaging, dynamic, flexible, kind to differences and supportive to different ways of learning. As a pre-service teacher, I worry that I will get overwhelmed in the sheer size of the document, the language used within it, and not be able to be an effective and engaging teacher for my students. However the more I delve into the material, and am given more support for my understanding in how the document works, the more I realize that I will be capable to be an effective teacher for all kinds of students.
While I know that I am not going to be the sort of teacher that 100% of students need 100% of the time, I know that I am going to be able to grow with the document. I hope that the openness of the curriculum will allow me to teach in a way that meets the needs, challenges, and supports my future students to learn and engage with the subject material.
One thing I know from life that is true, is that the scariest things in life can often be the most rewarding- especially when you are in a supportive environment. Right now, I'm crusing up the 'scary part' of understanding, the part where you doubt yourself a little, but people keep encouraging you to continue on. I know that soon it will 'click,' and I will be able to comprehend and hopefully teach ELA for all sorts of learners in all sorts of learning environments.
If not, I can always fall back on my desired childhood profession: becoming the queen.
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