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Third Field Experience

Cycle 3, Level 2
French Immersion

Duration: Three Months

Fall 2015

For my third Field Experience, I decided to return to the same school where I completed my second field experience because I wanted to continue learning from the teacher I had been placed with. I really enjoyed my time at this school, but three weeks wasn't enough to fully immerse myself and experience all aspects of the school. Therefore, I taught Grade 6 again, but it was quite different from the year before because I had the chance to greet the students upon their arrival in September and to teach them from the very beginning of the school year. During my three months with these students, I genuinely developed the Professional Competencies in a big way because I engaged in all aspects of teaching:

 

  • Studied course material in order to be fully prepared to transfer and teach the knowledges students are expected to learn (PC 1)

  • Developed lesson plans with careful attention to subject specific competencies and the Progressions of Learning (PC 3)

  • Enacted lesson plans in the classroom with the goal of maximizing student learning and developing their competencies (PC 4)

  • Used technology as much as possible (where appropriate) as a way of engaging students and increasing enthusiasm (PC 8)

  • Engaged in professional discussions with other teachers about various teaching techniques and aspects (PC 10)

  • Managed student behaviour by employing various classroom management strategies (PC 6)

  • Employed evaluation and assessment strategies best suited to the teaching situation (PC 5)

  • Reflected upon my teaching practice and documented all successes and failures (PC 11)

Building Relationships with Students

Seeing as how this field experience lasted three months, I wanted to build good reationships with my students for the duration of this time. This was very important for me because I wanted to gain their trust in order to enrich learning experiences for both myself and them. In addition, my relationships allowed me to have meaningful conversations with my students when I greeted them in the morning and spent the entire day with them. Therefore, I often asked students questions about their interests, preferences, home life, etc. as a way of getting to know them better.

 

As another way to get to know the students, another student teacher and I started a weekly Art Club at lunchtime. During this time, some of our grade 6 students would have lunch with us and do creative art activities. Some of the activities we completed included: puppets, masks for Halloween, origami, drawing, beading (bracelets), bookmark making, etc. Below are the resulting ideas from students during our brainstorming period at the very beginning of art club, as well as some of the art the students created.

 

Halloween masks

Rememberance Day Poppies

Hand-made puppets

Collage

 I enjoyed have some casual time to chat with students and learn about their lives. Watching them outside of the "classroom" was also an interesting process. Students also enjoyed this weekly club because they had a chance to relax with their friends, have fun with art without being judged, and express their creativity!

Welcome Back 2015-2016!

I had other opportunities to get involved with my students and participate in activities with them, such as the Welcome Back day at the beginning of the school year. This was a really exciting day of activities planned by the Grade 6 students. All day long, they ran stations and booths for the younger grades to participate in.

 

I spent time at the various stations and watch my students as they took on a leadership role. This allowed me to get to know my students in a different way, which I really found to be fascinating. Spending time with my students outside of the classroom is a great way to build relationships because I think students start to see you as a more relatable and interesting person, instead of only the authoritative figure in the class.

Reflections and Evaluation

After this field experience, I wrote an Action Plan that outlined my strenghts, weaknesses, and strategies for improvement. I also detailed how I targeted all of the Professional Competencies (1 to 12). View my Action Plan here and my Professional Competencies Development here. 

 

As in my first 2 field experiences, I was evaluated on several different occasions by both a McGill supervisor and my cooperating teacher. These evaluations include 7 different lesson enactments, 2 interim reports, as well as a summative assessments from each evaluator (supervisor and cooperating teacher). View them below.

Giulia Lato

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