The most exhausting day of my life

When I decided that I wanted to try my hand at teaching, I had a feeling it was going to be hard. I knew that it would be a mentally challenging profession, which would lead to a series of late nights preparing lessons, and marking papers. However, I never would have thought about how physically demanding it can be.

This past week was my first week of teaching as a pre-intern. For the first two days, I did not teach. Instead, I had a series of meetings and opportunities to observe professional teachers in their element. Then, on Wednesday, I thought my first lesson of this three-week block. It was a Creative Writing 20 class, and overall I believe it went pretty well. Since this was an elective class, the students want to be there, and have a genuine interest in creative writing. In that way it was different from teaching a core English class, which students have to take in order to graduate. I was also assisted by team-teaching this class with my partner. I must say, I am blessed to have a fantastic partner who has a great interest in the field of writing. So, all in all, I believe the Creative Writing classes have went well for the first couple of day, and I look forward to what the next two weeks will bring.

However, my week took a turn on Thursday. It was on this day that I picked up my co-operating teachers ELA 9 class. This class came right after the Creative Writing 20 class, so that means, for the first time in my experience as an Education student, I have to teach back-to-back classes. In my mind, this did not sound like a big problem. I don’t believe it would be controversial to say that many, if not all, teachers have to teach many class in a row. So, how hard could it really be? Well, I can now say, it is really difficult. This is especially true of my first day teaching two classes.

On my first day teaching ELA 9, I made one major mistake. I forgot to being water. When I was leaving home that morning, for some reason, I did not want to bring a water bottle with me. It would just take my extra room, and I would probably look like a bigger dork than I already do if I was carrying a water bottle with me. So, I go to school with no water, and two classes about to be taught. I started the day with Creative Writing, and I believe it went pretty well. The students were working on re-imagined versions of fairy tales, and I think I was able to give the kids a good amount of advice on how they can progress their ideas. However, things took a bit of turn as the second period came around. As I got halfway through the period, my throat began to get very dry. I was finding it difficult to talk and I was rushing through what I wanted to say. I believe some of these problems may have come from not having anything to drink all morning.

By the end of that second period, I was exhausted. For the rest of the day, all I wanted to do was sit and try to recover. I was pretty happy by the time third period started. Then I was able to take time to observe my partner and reflect on what I did in my lesson. It is far to say, I have never thought of teaching as a physical act, but it really is. My weariness was not helped by the fact that when I got home I was not really able to relax. My time had to be spent planning the next lessons. However, I have not a such a good sleep in a long time.

Reflecting on the idea of assessment

At the beginning of this course, I don’t think I really knew anything about assessment. I remember when I first got into the Faculty of Ed,  I heard that assessment had to be a part of every class and thought that was crazy. How could it be possible to be graded in every class  you have during a semester? How could a teacher possibly do that? Wouldn’t it be cruel to students to do something like that to them? However, now that I have become a more seasoned student of the practice of education I have a more nuanced idea of what assessment is. Through courses, such as ECS 410, I can now see the role assessment plays in education for both students and teachers. As well, assessment is not exactly the big scary thing that it can be made out to be.

On Thursday at the end of class we were given a sheet titled “8 Takes on Thoughtful Assessment.” As I am sure one can gather, the sheet provided 8 different quotes teachers gave about what thoughtful assessment went to them. Of these quotes, a few of them stand out to me and I believe reflect what I think good assessment looks like. The first of these quotes comes from Carol Ann Tomlinson, who states “Great teachers are habitual students of their students. They assess continually to understand the human beings that they teach.” This quote reflects one of the key skills of a teacher- the ability to observe our students. As we talked about a couple of weeks ago, observation is one of the angles of assessment that can be used in the classroom. As well, it is through observation that a teacher can see what assessments work for students and which don’t. We can tell when a student struggled with an assessment, and when they didn’t. It is then our job to take this data and change our assessments to best improve our students learning. This also reflects how teaching is a progressive profession. Teachers are continually taking in data and trying to make changes to best improve their students’ learning.

The next quote that stands out to me is “when we give students the impression that we value the right answer more than critical thinking, we may drive them to take shortcuts and cheat.” The quote speaks to what we should be trying to get out of our students, and what assessment can easily become. As we know, one of the broad areas of learning in the Saskatchewan curriculum is to have students become lifelong learners. To me, a lifelong learner is not someone who just seeks out the “right answer” (whatever that is), but is a person who thinks critically, and seeks out knowledge. As well, in the description of a lifelong learner the curriculum states that students will “explore and construct knowledge.” I think that to construct knowledge means to go beyond just seeking out that right answer, and to get a certain score on a test. Those types of end goals can be satisfying, but they are also finite. Students who are engaged in inquiry lead instruction may be able to become interested in a subject that could change their entire lives.

The last two quotes that I really liked, I believe, play hand in hand. Those quotes are “the more time that elapses between a student response and teacher feedback, the less meta-cognitive reflection takes place”, and “grading too soon can lead students to the damaging inference that if you have to try, you aren’t smart in the subject.” These quotes have a certain importance to me as a prospective English teacher, but they have obvious applications to people in other fields of study. When it comes to grading, I have come to see that giving a student an actual grade on an assignment should be saved until closer to the end of a semester, as more of a summative assessment. This is because we give students the opportunity to actually learn something, and for the teacher to see what the students have learned to one degree or another, before we actually assess a student on that skill. What we should be doing before giving a grade is what is reflected in the first quote. We should be giving our students as much feedback as possible from the beginning of a course so they can improve. Students need to see what they have done wrong, and see ways that they can improve. This should be a major goal for every teacher no matter what the subject, making sure that every student improves. It shouldn’t matter whether a student comes in with proficiency in a subject, or they have no knowledge of it, it should be our job to make sure that every student improves in some way. And, the best way to have a student improve is to give them constructed, informed feedback.

Now that I am at the end of ECS 410, I think I am beginning to see what I believe is important for assessment. First, assessment should be a tool for teachers to improve their instruction to students. This is done through forms such as diagnostic and formative assessments.  Next, students should not merely want their students to give them the “right answers”, but they should hope their assessments inspire students toward lifelong learning. This can be done by using inquiry style assignments in any class. Finally, feedback should be the main thing we hope to give our students and not grades. Grades may not inspire students to improve. A grade does not tell a student how to get better at a skill. However, good feedback does both of these things. It should be our goal as teachers to have our students improve, no matter what level they come into our class, and providing good feedback will do this.

“Using Assessments Thoughtfully.” (2014). Educational Leadership, 71(6).

Saskatchewan Ministry of Education. (2010). Broad Areas of Learning. Retrieved from the Saskatchewan Curriculum website: https://www.edonline.sk.ca/bbcswebdav/library/curricula/English/Broad_Areas_of_Learning_2010.pdf

So the first day of school is the most important thing ever

This week in ECS 350, the class was focused on classroom management. It should be easy to assume why. Management is key for a teacher to actually teach students. Obviously, it would probably be difficult to learn in a classroom where students never stay on topic, or where students are constantly talking and never do any work that is assigned. That is why teachers need to utilize strategies to properly manage their classroom. As well, for these classroom management strategies to take hold they need to be apparent in the classroom from day one. For this reason, a lot of literature makes the case that the first day of school is key for a successful semester.

From the perspective of a student, I can never remember the first day of school being very, well, memorable. The opening day, during my time in high school, would always follow basically the same format : we would be separated into our homerooms for the morning where the school standards would be set and we would hear a talk from the principle; then, in the afternoon, we would have a half-day version of our schedule. In this schedule, we would go to class, our teacher would hand out the class syllabus and talk about what we would be doing that semester.

For me, the first day of school was simply a sign that summer was over and it was time to get back to work. This idea stayed with me as I entered university. One reason for this may be because, for the most part, every first class in university follows a similar format to what I experienced in high school (minus the going to homeroom to hear a speech from the school principal). However, my thinking on the subject has changed since I entered into the Faculty of Eduction (actually, my thinking on a lot of things about school has changed since coming into this faculty). There have been a few times where I have heard that the first day of school is key for the entire semester. Basically, I have  heard that if “you lose the students on the first day, you cannot get them back.” I disagree with this idea, I could see any good teacher being able to overcome a bad first day and still having a successful semester, but I do think there is some merit to it. As teachers, we are in the business of building relationships with our students; and, as the old saying goes, you can never get a second first impression. If we leave a bad first impression on a student, it may take us a long time to have come around to trusting us to teach them, and the student suffers because of that.

To try and learn a little bit more about first days of school I turned to the most reliable research tool of my generation, Google. To my surprise there are a lot of articles on this topic. To save myself some time, I clicked on the article “7 Keys to the First Day of School”  by Michael Linsin. As I am sure you can assume, the article provides a basic outline of what a teacher should do on that first day of school to make it the best it can be. These keys balance the relationship building I touched on earlier, with the hard routines we also talked about in class. In the article, Linsin talks about how teachers should smile, and tell their students funny anecdotes about their life, but also set the routines and practices that will be present throughout the semester. These are ideas that I agree with. The first day of school should be characterized, in my opinion, by talking to students about what they want from the class. What are their expectations, and what do they think they are going to learn? Also, I think telling stories about yourself way be kind of weird for some of us, but this is a way for us to model this skill to our students. How can we expect our students to share their stories with us if we don’t do the same for them?

While if a teacher may not have a complete failure of a semester if their first day of school is bad and a good first day does not mean an automatic success, it still has a great deal of importance. This is where standards are set, practices are put in, and the relationships we want to build with students begin. I just hope the first days of school when I am a teacher is not the beginning of the end of my students’ learning.

Inquiry 2- Actually meeting an EAL support teacher

On Friday, I had the pleasure of going to Sheldon-Williams Collegiate to meet with Kyla McIntyre. McIntyre is the teacher in charge of that school’s English as an Additional Language Program, which means she is Sheldon’s teacher who is responsible for both EAL students in  a tutorial setting and for being a support for teachers to know how they can help EAL students. Meeting with Kyla was a very eye-opening experience for me, as when I was in high school there was no such thing as an EAL support program in high schools. However, I have learned that know almost every high school in Regina (Scott is the only school without an EAL support program) has a teacher who specializes in EAL to be a support for both students and teachers.

The first thing I noticed was the set up of the classroom. There were no desks, instead there were only tables. I was told the class was set in this way so that students have to speak to one another, and they are not just put into their own worlds. For anyone to learn a language, they have to be able to speak to other people in that language. I can kind of relate this to my experience taking German classes earlier in my university career. In that class we sat at tables and would do speaking exercises with the other people at our tables. At the time I didn’t think about how sitting at tables can allow for people to better practice a new language, but McIntyre made a good case for why to use this method.

As for resources to use to get EAL students engaged, once again it appeared that the changes you would make for EAL students would be beneficial for all students. McIntyre told me about how many teachers use parallel text editions when studying Shakespeare. These are versions of the Bard’s plays that feature both modern English and the original text. This allows students, both EAL and native speakers, to see both the language of Shakespeare’s time and language the students are familiar with. As well, McIntyre explained to me how many classes are using graphic novels and more visual texts so that students can clearly see what is going on in a text without being lost in words they may or may not understand.

Although learning about the resources was very good, the biggest thing I took away from meeting with McIntyre was how important these EAL support programs are. The biggest thing these programs provide for students is a community of people who are in similar circumstances to them. EAL students come from as wide a variety of circumstances as mainstream students. Some are here on homestay programs and had their parents pay for them to go to school in Canada. Others had parents decide to come to this country, and the student may not want to be here at all. Others may be refugees and may have no prior experience with a formal education. However, with the help of a good EAL support program students are able to build a community around them of people who are going through similar experiences to them. And if there is one thing I have taken from this semester of university, it is that good teaching cannot happen unless there is a sense of community in a classroom and good relationships between students and educators.