Week 4 reflections (Sept 20th to Sept 24th)

This week felt like it flew by. The students had a quiz, a unit exam and a PD day so it felt like I

didn’t really have much teaching to do. I felt lik this gave me a lot of time to catch up and think

about all of the feedback that Phil has given me up to this point. For my lesson on Thursday

about the water cycle, I made a specific point to practice drawing it out on the white board in the

morning before the lesson so that it would be nice and crisp for the students during the class. I

think it really made a huge difference – the diagram was much clearer, which I think was

especially good for the students sitting at the back. On Monday, I am going to have them practice

drawing it all out again, so I’ll see if this helped it stick any better. We also got into a great

discussion about climate change during the same lesson. I had the kids list a whole bunch of non-

carbon-based energy sources. I could tell this was a topic that really spoke to a lot of students –

there was definitely a high level of engagement throughout the discussion. One of the assistant

principals (Beverly) also came in to view one of the lessons. I always find it interesting hearing

the perspective of another individual on my teaching. Even though her and Phil both viewed the

lesson, they both noticed slightly different little details. The both noticed that the students

seemed engaged, but Beverly in particular noticed a student not wearing her mask properly.

Although I had never noticed this myself, once she pointed it out to me and I thought about it, I

realized that it was pretty consistent for her to wear her mask below the nose. Now that it has

been brought to my attention, it will definitely be something to watch out for just to ensure the

students are keeping each other safe.

On Friday, we had a PD Day where the focus was on kids with IPP’s and strategies in dealing

with them. I thought it was beneficial to hear different perspectives on what students act like
when they are in other classes. However, a kid may act differently around other teachers so

certain strategies that one teacher may employ might now work with others.