Jan 6&7/Jan 10-14

For the first week and a half at the 4-month placement, I tried to form a positive relationship with
the students. With the majority of the students having phones, they come to class quietly and
sleepy. To counter the grogginess I attempt to greet the students into the classroom, even when
they are late, I ask how they are doing and if they did anything exciting the previous night.
Sometimes this will spark a conversation and other times the students will respond with yes or
no.
With the lessons that I taught, I feel like the students are testing me to see what they can get
away with. A goal that my mentors and I discussed was about maintaining fair class management
for all students. Making sure, I am not unconsciously favouring students or being tougher on the
more behaved students. I am slowly understanding the attitudes of the students and they are
getting more comfortable with how I run the classroom.
Both my mentors have given me pointers and guidance towards starting a lesson where I need to
make sure all the materials are ready and the students are looking prepared. Particularly for the
students, making sure their binder is open and hoodies are down so I know they are paying
attention. Another aspect of teaching is making sure my timing is better. I would like to end the
lessons with a little review as I am finding it difficult to get the students to engage in a class
discussion. I think the review will be a good way to get more engagement as the students will
have access to the answers.

Jan 17-21
Had a couple of tough lessons where I caught myself rambling on topics that could have
confused the students. In future classes, I need to stop myself from rambling by taking a second
to collect my thoughts. I think it shows that I am not perfect and I am allowed to think about
what I am saying. With the instruction, if the students are struggling to understand what I am
saying, have those who understand explain to their friends what they are doing. This might allow
a different voice to be heard and help with the explanation and communication about projects or
tasks in the class.
Confidence is something I will have to work on in the future with my teaching. The confidence
to teach is something that takes time to develop and recognizing my lack is an important step in
my development as a teacher. I believe my confidence will grow when I get more exposure in
front of the classroom and experience different lessons.
The last thing is being comfortable with the silence in the classroom. When having the students
write out the notes in the class, especially to give them practice. I need to show patience,
restraint, and comfortability. Provides students with the opportunity to get the information down
before I ask the class a question or talk about the information. Some tips that my mentor offered,
would be to walk around and make sure everyone is getting the notes or grab some water which I
implemented later in the week.
Obvious things to improve for the week, but I hope to continually get better in future lessons and
help support the students as best I can.

Jan 24-28
Started the science unit this week and had my first project hand-out to the students. The first two
lessons for science helped humble me as teaching reminds me I do not know everything, which
is okay. I was incorrect about some of the information within Jeopardy but in the next class, I
made it clear that I was wrong and provided the correct information. I think this allowed the
students to see me as a human rather than just a teacher. It also helps the students know that it's
okay to be wrong and make the correction.
The project was good, I need to clarify with the students before they start the project whether it is
going to be for marks or not. So talking with my mentor about it, I am going to have the students
hand in the assignment but I will only write comments on the assignments. I keep bouncing back
and forth with marking the assignment but the students will have several bigger assignments to
come in the future.

Jan 31-Feb 4
The week started well with health and gym. Health, there is a sense that this is my class and that
we are going in a direction of media and how that influences body image and self-esteem. The
timing has been better and I have been trying to aim exactly where I want to finish the lesson.
This allows me to have more control and work on being prepared enough so I am confident in
where the class is going. With phys-Ed, I think both classes enjoyed the game. One class seems
to get more competitive and willing to play the games. In the other class, I need to split them into
partners or teams to encourage more involvement. Science was good, I felt confident explaining
the topic, and the labs went well with some confusion because of what I said. So during the lab, I
had to pause the lab so I could explain what the issue was. I am constantly trying to improve my
lesson either trying to think about how to connect to the students' lives or being more
knowledgeable of the information. I think the next goal is to try and extend the information
beyond the classroom and make it more interactive. The last gym class of the week was not
great, as one game went well while the other one did not. Half the class got involved while the
other students did not enjoy it.

Feb 7-11
This week was better, there is a clear indication that I am getting more comfortable in the class.
The students seem to be more familiar with me and are not afraid to tell me when they are
confused about a topic. This was clear when going over the formula for density, where I
attempted to explain how to get the volume formula and the entire class was confused. This was
a learning experience for me as I had to think about what was causing the confusion and try to
alleviate it in the next class. The convenience of being in a large middle school and teaching the
same content in multiple classes is learning from the mistakes that I made in the first class while
correcting those mistakes for the second class. Making changes in each class, made a difference
and it seemed to help the students understand. Many of the students, had the right formula even
before I explained it but asked how they got the formula so I could see if I could call on them to
answer some questions. The students and I compromised on using actual soccer balls for gym
and some teasing was occurring when I took a ball in the head.

Feb 14-18
The week went okay for teaching portions, with some minor problems that I need to eventually
deal with when I get more experience. The first was in health class, with a project like a
magazine project I need to make sure if students are gone I need to dedicate time to the students
to explain the project. The second thing in health is making sure students understand what
options they have after they have completed the assignment. This way, I am not repeating myself
multiple times when more students are finishing the class. For science, the students were
receiving their density worksheet to work on. Somewhere during the printing process, I did not
notice the cube was missing for question 5 and had to adapt to that so I made the students draw
the cube out. Another mistake was on the back of the page where students are supposed to match
densities based on the calculations had one question did not match. I had the students calculate
the density but not match, a minor problem. I believe these are learning opportunities for me as a
teacher because I need to develop adaptability and be resilient when something diverts from the
plan. Within PhysEd, I need to let the students play more by being less strict on the rules and not
always waiting for the students to play. Some students were pushing the limit so taking the
student out of a game and having them sit out would allow me an opportunity to talk with the
student. This would reinforce some of the expectations within the class and create an
understanding of where the boundary is. A positive that occurred during this week was my
mentor asked if I could be a chaperone on the bus for the ski trip and both my classes went
bowling. I think this was a great chance for the students to see me in a different light and
reinforce the relationships I have built so far with some the students.

Feb 28-March 4
At the start of the week, it was more challenging than the end of the week. With health, it seems
like it is always a battle to get the students involved or excited about health. I tried groups with
whiteboards but only a select number of students would be involved. I went back to direct
teaching as the students needed to be writing some notes down for a reference when they start
the project. There was more engagement near the end of class when we started talking about
different exercises and workout plans that are associated with the class. Before the class could
finish the lesson the bell went. Within science, some chaos occurred because the class was doing
a density lab that required two days. At the same time, the students have a density worksheet to
work on if they have finished early. The students seemed to enjoy the activity, however, select
students struggled with staying focused when the gummy bear was easily broken. The students
were permitted to cut the bear after they have finished their lab. Some of the students seemed to
enjoy however a couple abused that privilege and needed to be talked to. In phys-Ed, I was
struggling to get the students in a rhythm, and there was more chaos than what I am used to.
After, sitting down with my mentor, they suggested having an order for what the students do.
This includes stopping at a time to allow the students to play a game. After taking the
suggestions, I implemented the plan and to my delight, the plan worked.

March 7-11
This week will be short, the lessons went well. Health they were starting a project and the first
time doing this project I am not sure how long it would take the students so I am asking the
students how long they will need and it seems the majority of the students need more time than I
assumed. Science was a little bit slower pace than last week as we had a hands-on lab but this
time we had some notes to get through. Within the package of notes that I provide, the students
had a mistake that needed to be corrected but after the correction, some of the students
understood the material. I am getting more comfortable with the routine, but need to work on
being fair with management after a talk with my students. They were asking me a question about
my management and why I am keener on certain actions than others.

March 14-18 
This week started tough, I was struggling with class management and need advice from my
mentor about what I could do to help. She pointed out that I was focusing on standing behind my
desk when I should try to stand in front of the students to get their attention. This way, the class
knows I need their attention before I can begin the lesson. Another is using the proximity within
the class, instead of yelling across the class. Walk to the students and attempt to have a quiet
conversation about their behaviour. Overall, the lesson went well with an increase in my
confidence to stand in front of the class and the sequence.

March 21-25
This week there were a lot of positives and learning experiences. One of the positives is I am
figuring out the class management; I discovered a way to get the students' attention when they
are given the opportunity to get to their desks before the teacher speaks. They seem to respond
well and that helped limit the amount of class management within the class.

March 28-April 1st

This week was a project week where the students were mostly working on projects within their
classes. My mentors have been great, in helping me fine-tune the projects, they encourage me to
keep that open communication with other teachers when creating projects. I noticed the students
seemed very engaged in what they were working on. Each class would grab the computers and
worked till they were allowed to sit with someone. Minor things with classroom management
with multiple students wanting to sit beside each other. The issue I see going forward would be
getting the late assignments in before I finish my practicum.

April 4-7
This was a short week with my hockey provincials occurring early in the week so I will be
missing a Friday. I had one class where the information was not clear and this caused the
students to panic and caused some issues. I tried to elevate these issues by talking after but the
students were still bothered by it. I went over the questions with the students, but instead of
doing that I could have asked if the students had a question, they were struggling with and just
review that question quickly. What I find the tough part of teaching is getting students to get
their work in on time, so that it will get marked, and students do not miss out on activities.