Azza Kayal 0582436

Educ 4261 Curriculum and Instruction in I/S Chemistry

Instructor: Dr. Bartely
Due date: January 5, 2015

The practicum experience went well over all and I learned a lot. I was assigned to teach
chemistry grade 11 university preparation, the physics unit for a grade 10 applied and finally the
space unit for grade 9 academic preparation. It was a challenge to teach the physics, and the
space unit since I have chemistry background only and took physics first year university and we
have covered a little bit about space in this physics course. Overall, I found having visual aid will
help the students understand better.
If I had more time I would have done the planning for the lessons before hand, and prepared well
for the grade 11 Chemistry especially because the time was really tight therefore we did not have
a chance to do a dilution or a titration lab. Knowing that dilution and titration are critical
concepts to be covered and they will use it later on in university. For the grade 10 I would have
done lots of hands on activities to understand and see the difference between converging and
diverging mirror and lens. For grade 9 it was mostly student based because they did two projects
to cover the material.
I have tried to embed the taxonomy and the multi-intelligence theory into my teaching to reach a
vast number of students.
What worked well was the alternate use between the white board and the power point
presentation especially for the grade 11 chemistry university preparation. Using the power point
to explain the theories/lesson and then the white board to solve some examples, sometimes reexplain a notion that the students did not understand.
The N.O FeAr chemistry help centre encouraged the students to come for help. The help centre
ran in the mornings, lunch time, and after school. N.O FeAr helped students with their
homework, labs and re-explaining concepts they did not understand.
Attended professional development sessions that included; the aboriginal mentorship program
(AMP) for science, technology and business with the cooperation with lakeahead university.
Another workshop that I have attended is the perimeter institute of physics astronomy for grade 9
science teachers, where I have implemented the big bang theory. In addition to that I have
attended the first nations science workshop on content and cultural teachings for the grade 9 and
10 ecology unit. Thus, workshops help teachers to develop and bring the best to their students by
improving the context and subjects to be taught, in addition to that commitment to students and
student learning is a priority to the teacher.
As a teacher being knowledgeable of the subject matter/curriculum in subject matter is crucial.
My knowledge in chemistry enabled me to make thorough lessons/powerpoints that focus on the
main ideas in the unit on Quantities in Chemical Reactions, also in Solution and Solubility unit.
In the grade 10 Physics unit and grade 9 space units, I included learning goals in each and every
power point presentation, a weekly log of all assignments, laboratory reports, and project

Azza Kayal 0582436

Educ 4261 Curriculum and Instruction in I/S Chemistry
Instructor: Dr. Bartely
Due date: January 5, 2015

expectations. For the grade 11 chemistry I was successful in carrying out two laboratory
investigations that focus on percentage composition and hydrates.
Volunteering and being less involved in the community would have help me stay on track and
not fall behind regarding lesson planning, but I was always able to prepare the power point
presentations for each grade and each lesson. What I mean by my first statement is that being
less involved in the community would allow me to focus more on my lesson planning, since I
had been too focused on volunteering in the community, which what was meant to be a great
thing had affected my work.
From my point of view getting involved in the school community such as breakfast club, did not
have an impact on me or how to be a better teacher. What I have enjoyed the most was the PLCs
and workshops, I benefited from them and I have actually in some cases applied what I have
learned or even took information from those workshops. I implemented things such as the big
bang theory for grade 9, and the assessment for learning check list for grade 10.
On the other hand, I needed to understand and grasp the difference between assessment for, of
and as learning. In addition to that, the grade 10 applied students were troublemakers (i.e., I had
to tell them to put away their cell phone more than once in a period, even though they would not
listen or they would ignore me totally) thus, I needed to raise my voice and have more classroom
management.