Teacher Extraordinaire - Portfolio of a Teacher and Lifelong Learner

In my first practicum, I created a book based on  Don't Need Friends by Carolyn Crimi. Since it was the first I'd ever created, I feel I learned a lot from it. Creating a unit involves flexibility, time management, organization and an ability to interpret what your students need to be successful. While going through the unit, I found that I frequently had to adjust to students and different situations arising. Since one of my peers was doing a unit based on the same book, we shared a lot of ideas. Our approach sometimes overlapped, however we designed our lessons with our teaching styles, and students in mind. In remaining responsive to students, I was best able meet their needs and teach to those.

At my Grade 1 practicum, I taught several lessons that were a part of a drama, art and language unit for the book Don't Need Friends by Carolyn Crimi. This book took place in a junk yard, so at the beginning of the unit I asked students to start collecting their garbage wrappers. As the culminating task was to perform a puppet show, three art lessons took place over the course of my practicum. Students made paper bag puppets, while exploring different textures. Next they drew their reactions to garbage and art made out of garbage. Those reactions were then pasted onto a three sided piece of cardboard, which they then got to make into their personal garbage dumps. The garbage dumps were used as their stages (or what they hid behind) for their puppet show. The lesson I am going to discuss, is the one that surprised me the most. During the art lesson where students drew their reaction to garbage dumps and garbage art, students surprised me with their knowledge about the environment,...

For my March 2012 practicum, I was in a grade 5 classroom, at a school in North York. A large portion of my practicum was spent teaching a Social Studies, Ancient Civilizations inquiry unit. The unit began with a read aloud, followed by a class on defining what an ancient civilization is. We then completed toy theatre (with a compare and contrast). Mapping lessons and research methods lessons followed, before finally "selling" the students different civilizations they could study. This led to a research paper and their culminating task. Essentially, I trekked to two different public libraries and tried to determine which civilizations contained enough resources for students to be able to effectively research in class (as computer time was limited). The civilizations they could choose from included: Inca, Maya, Aztec, Mesopotamian, Ancient India/Indus Valley, Ancient China, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt. When 'selling' the civilizations, I pitched th...