002252233 Richard Johnston 1

Fourth Classroom Visit Report

Today’s visit to an elementary school classroom was with a fourth-grade class, however,

it was also an important day in Canadian history. As it is November eleventh, or better known as

Remembrance Day, most of the visit was spent in a school assembly, celebrating the work of our

veterans, and their fallen comrades. Regardless, the focus on cross-curricular activities and

technological use in the classroom was observed in both the minimal time in the class and in the

assembly. For a teacher to effectively achieve the goals of cross-curricular lessons and

technological implementation, they would need to imply the third, fourth, and eighth teaching

competencies (Ministère de l'éducation, 2001b). This report will use these competencies to

understand the observations made during the visit, and on observations from previous visits that

are of importance to the topic.

The primary focus of the observation was focused on the use of technology in the

classroom environment, either in the classroom or at home. Technology is not introduced to a

classroom for the curriculum, it is added to the classroom to enhance the curriculum, connecting

teachers, students, and parents with the click of a button (Zakrajšek, 2016). In all four visits to

the school, the teachers used SMART boards, tablets, computers, and projectors to make

teaching and learning easier (Ministère de l'éducation, 2001b). The primary use of the SMART

board is to introduce class topics to the classroom and is mainly used by the teacher. A good

example of this is the teacher from the fourth observation and their use of the SMART board to

reintroduce the topic of the water cycle. Using a video of the topic, the children watched as the

water cycle was explained to them, using this information to complete the tasks that followed.

Technology was also important in the first and third classroom visits, as the use of technology

allowed the teacher to communicate with the parents of their students about the progress in the
002252233 Richard Johnston 2

classroom (Pushor, 2017). By using the technology, the teacher has a way to catering towards the

student’s needs, making learning available to the visual learners, the physical learners, and the

guided learners.

Past the technology, it is very important that the children learn the course material, and in

elementary schools it is very important that the children focus on their reading, writing, and

mathematics (Ministère de l'éducation, 2001a). This does not mean that courses will only focus

on this, as teachers are encouraged to introduce more things into the classroom to enrich learning

(Manouchehri, 2017). This was observed in this visit’s class time, where the kids were having

“science” but instead the primary focus is on English writing skills rather than learning the

information. This allows for a change from the material being learned, but a continuation of the

student’s progress in the English language (Manouchehri, 2017). The teacher did these multiple

times, where each assignment given in class was made to enrich multiple subjects, such as using

a mathematics worksheet where the answers correspond to letters, having the students then

uncover a secret code. The teacher is introducing topics relevant to the curriculum, but instead of

focusing on one sore subject they are addressing multiple, allowing for a more holistic view of

teaching, and a way of keeping material interesting (Ministère de l'éducation, 2001b).

A huge observation I have made over the last four visits is that the teacher’s methods of

teaching change drastically, regardless of it is with the same grade or not. The first and third

visits were with the same fifth grade class but with two different teachers, but they approached

the same class in completely different ways and got drastically different results. While the first

visit saw a calm, focused classroom, the third visit saw the same classroom in udder chaos. It

seems that approaches to teaching need to be adapted to the classroom, rather than adapting the

class to the teaching styles.

002252233 Richard Johnston 3

References

Manouchehri, E. (2017). Music as a cross-curricular teaching device in elementary school.

Canadian Music Educator, 58(2), 25+. Retrieved from https://link-gale-

com.proxy.ubishops.ca:2443/apps/doc/A490718283/CPI?u=crepuq_bishop&sid=CPI&xi

d=2116ab36

Ministère de l'éducation. (2001a). Québec education program: Preschool education, elementary

education. Québec: Ministère de l'éducation.

Ministère de l'éducation. (2001b). Teacher training: Orientations, Professional Competencies.

Québec: Ministère de l'éducation.

Pushor, D. (2017). Family centric schools. Education Canada, 57(4). Retrieved from

https://www.edcan.ca/articles/familycentric-schools/

Zakrajsek, S. (2016). the impact of modern technologies on elementary school organization and

teaching methods. Innovative Issues and Approaches in Social Sciences, 9(1), 60-76. doi:

10.12959/issn.1855-0541.IIASS-2016-no1-art04
002252233 Richard Johnston 4