left I've attended many workshops that provides us with many tech-savy resources for us to use in the classroom, for example Edulastic's embedded questions into the videos, and gather.town which is an interactive classroom that I can create which simulates classroom interactions. As much as I am very interested and excited to create these new resources and classroom style, I don't want to take away from my AT's teaching style and introduce something new for these students who may have difficulties navigating the online learning environment. How I can introduce new and exciting ways to engage without it being too drastically different than what they are used to is the challenge.
In addition, the pre-watch videos with questions embedded are largely meant to be viewed in an asynchronous format. I think this is challenging to do for my class as my AT wants to limit the amount of asynchronous work that they do since they are online for most of the day. Thus, this limits the amount of content and independent work I can assign the students which means it's the added challenge of fitting all the things I want to teach them (learning skills, content, and communication skills amongst others) within a 2 or 3 hour block. However, although I don't think it is feasible to recreate the classroom for them entirely especially since I am only going to be full on teaching them for ~2 weeks, I can use these resources in a different creative way. For example, instead of using Edulastic's videos and questions as a pre-class asynchronous task, I can play a video in class on NearPod, then where there are questions to be asked during the video, I can stop the video, and ask the students to answer the questions on their own devices. I am thankful that NearPod has that live teaching option so I can play the video on my screen and the question pops up on their screen. In addition, I think instead of sending my students on a 20 minute break, I can introduce structured breaks in between the hours such as a Kahoot emoji quiz with music titles (since they all seem to enjoy music), and stretch breaks integrated with math content (eg. if the answer is A, then stand up and sit down 5 times). Additionally, I know that students eventually might need a washroom and/or snack break and thus need to be away from their cameras. For this, I will set up Classroom screen on my monitor projecting to the class the countdown so they will know how long they have in their break instead of keeping track of it themselves. This way, I can also hold my students accountable and everyone will be on the same page when we come back after the break.
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I'm about to begin my first ever "real" practicum with students. I'm very excited it's grade 11 Workplace Math as although I've been tutoring mathematics for 8 years, it mainly has been the advanced functions, and IB streams and working with a different group of students. Thus, I am appreciative of the diverse practicum experience I am able to experience this time around and will expand my repertoire of online teaching resources as I embark on this experience.
I've had 3 observation days until today and the biggest surprise is the lack of relationship building I see in the class. Not only do students not have their cameras on, but they are from all different home schools and they are working from the Virtual Secondary School (VSS) platforms. As such, although my associated teacher (AT) and I have been with these students for 3 classes already (technically 6 in a regular school semester due to the condensed quadmestered system), we've focused a lot on community building and taking the time to meet each student's needs. Many of the students have IEPs and it's frustrating that we are not being provided them yet as it makes it difficult to plan for accommodations and individual help sessions with the class of 16 (although only 10 show up on a regular basis). From what I have observed thus far, I really want to increase participation in the classroom and sometimes, the students log in to Brightspace and then leave because they do not respond when called upon or participate in breakout rooms. I can see my AT trying really hard to incorporate videos and examples that pertain to their interests. I only wish I can get to know them that much more so I can utilize it to my advantage when creating lessons. I love how my AT got everyone to create a "Oh Hey! It's Me" presentation on 10 traits that we should know about each student just to break down the walls between us and share some interests. One student just signed a contract with a recording studio and even played one of his songs for us during the break. I found that an incredible bonding experience as music is a common interest of many in the group and these students are so very talented. I look forward to a whole month with them, and hope I can convey the importance of essential math skills that the students would need in the real world. I hope to apply some of my financial literacy education here as well. |
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