Summaries:

Portable 6

My A.T. made strong use of Peter Liljedah’s Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Grades K-12: 14 Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning, and among many strategies:

• employed 10 whiteboards where students assembled in small groups to work on assignments;
• assembled students in randomly generated groups regularly to build collaborative and teamwork skills;
• built on the discoveries of the class, to move forward in identifying solutions and alternative strategies to solving problems;
• among many other advantages.

A sizeable library of resources were available throughout the classroom in support of student work, including baskets of all imaginable tools (staplers, hole-punches, pencils, dry-erase markers, calculators, pens, paper, etc.) to support student work; as well as textbooks and age-appropriate literature, so students had all the tools to succeed at their fingertips.

In collaboration with another teacher, my T.A. was sharing some of the lesson planning for the Phy.Ed., mathematics and literacy lessons with an associate – for the purposes of sharing the workload, but also maintaining a consistency in lessons across the Intermediate grades.

From my perspective, as my T.A. was a coach for one of the sports teams, it was evident that student intramurals and some intermediate boys sports teams were engaged and eager to participate in volleyball, and anecdotally, it sounds like soccer and basketball were and are ways in which students are continuing to expand their experiences in the elementary system.

School Context

The school was a French Immersion Junior – Intermediate.

The intermediate grades were generally relegated to the portables while the junior grades were inside the core building. There was little space for gym, so much of the Phys.Ed. was instructed in the school yard – to great advantage. Direct access to the school yard for spontaneous Daily Physical Activity (DPA) is advantageously useful.

The school clearly demonstrates its expectations re: Indigenous teachings, equality and inclusion with signage in the front hallways, and through workshops.

While I wasn’t privy to all the intricacies, it was evident that a series of investigations or programmes were in place to develop the safety and inclusion of students in both their mental health, cultural awareness and academic success, on-going and with intermittent checkins.

Navigation / Table of Contents

Focus areas:

• Teacher Plan Book homepage (link)
• lesson planning (link)
• student observations (link)
• classroom and school context summaries (link)
• reflections for each lesson (link)
• weekly and overall reflections (link)
• reflections on the associate teacher’s classroom management, lesson implementation and assessment & evaluation (link)