Third Field Experience

Here are 5 interesting artifacts from my third field experience based on 8 professional competencies: competency 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 15.

Context : A 3 month long stage in a kindergarten (K5) French immersion classroom

This was also great for learners because it allowed them to think critically about what they liked and comprehend who they were!

01 Artifact - Daily Questions

Competency 1 and 8

For this artifact, I wanted to share about one of my favorite moments with my students during the week. Every day, I would ask my students questions like, " what is your favorite meal?", " what is your favorite holiday?", etc. This may sound very simple, however, it allowed us to have great conversation about different cultures. More than half of my class were immigrants from various countries; hence their answers brought a lot of interesting discussions! What I also really appreciated is that it It allowed us to learn about each other, whilst talking about how fun our differences are, and consequently talk about our culture!

An example of this is when I asked "what is your favorite meal?" One of my Greek scholars replied, “spanakopita and baklava”. Most of my students did not know what a "spanakopita" was, however many were excited because they loved baklavas! Therefore, I asked my student to describe what spanakopitas were, and baklavas. I showed pictures on the board and it allowed us to talk about popular greek food! Of course, this may sound silly. However, since we did this everyday, it allowed for my students to bond on different things and talk about their culture and others learned about new traditions, new food, new art,etc.

02 Artifact - Classroom management strategies

Competency 6

During my field experience, I have to admit, class management was difficult at first. In a classroom of 20 five-year-old students who had never been to school before was definitely a challenge. I tried to keep control of the class through various techniques I had seen online like clapping 3 times or putting your hands on your head. However, nothing was working.

Nonetheless, when I started using the chant, “1, 2, 3 je ne parle pas” everything changed! I would count out loud and the students would finish the chant and end with a gesture of their finger in front of their mouth. This would automatically indicate to everyone that it was time to be silent. This worked every time. This comes to show that as teachers, we need to find out the right techniques that are going to work for us. It may not work on the first try, but we need to persevere!

Therefore, with this call it allowed me to be able to conduct a positive learning atmosphere without having to raise my voice. I think as educators, competency 6 is a difficult one to master. Everyone has their own managing strategies for their students. For instance, my cooperating teacher had a more authoritative way of managing the class. She would use a loud and serious tone, with a mad face to address students when they needed to be quiet. However, I found out that this was not for me. I realized that for me, I would better operate and handle my homeroom through pausing, chants like the one mentioned, and when needed a stricter tone.

Welcome to Classroom Door Sign Poster.png

03 Artifact - Book "Awasis et la délicieuse bannique"

Competency 15

This is one of the books I have read to my students during the month of October. The author of the book is Dallas Hunt and he is a Cree member of Wapsewsipi. This amazing book displays indigenous culture through an adorable story and beautiful images. It also introduced my students to the Cree language. A language they had never heard of before. Throughout the book, the author uses a plethora of Cree words, therefore, I put the real pronunciation of the words on the interactive board. My scholars enjoyed hearing this new dialect!

From this book I created a small lesson that allowed my students and I to discuss about indigenous culture like animism, oral traditions, cultural foods, and the various indigenous languages! My students learned a lot from this book and appreciated seeing various indigenous traditions! Even though my learners were in kindergarten, I believe it is incredibly important to discuss with students about indigenous culture no matter the age because we have so much to learn from them! Maybe there is some information that they might not have fully grasped. However it still broaden their horizons to indigenous culture.

Of course, during the week of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we also talked about indigenous communities a bit more seriously. However, I think it is important to teach indigenous culture to children not only during that day. This is why I read the book above in October and in November we learned about dot painting. An indigenous art form!

04 Artifact - Lesson on Spatial Prepositions

Competency 2 & 3 & 12

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Spatial Preposition Lesson

The goal of this lesson was for my students to learn about spatial preposition whilst reinvesting their previous learnings on colours and vocabulary on the theme of Halloween. However, for this lesson, my goal was also for it to meet all the five kindergarten domains of the preschool curriculum. I am very proud of this lesson because it was extremely varied in terms of the activities, which allowed for various types of learners to absorb the new information.

In this plan, I began by a short 10 minutes introduction where I present all of the prepositions I desired for my students to learn : on , under, next to, in between... I taught them those using images of a mouse and a car.

After that, I displayed my use of competency 12 when I created my own PowerPoint game where students had to describe where in the images I had hidden the bat! My students truly enjoyed this activity, because it allowed them to interact with one another and help each other "beat" the game!

Followed by that, we did a game where I could assess my students understanding of the new vocabulary but also their gross motor skills. Students had to place themselves where I was telling them to using their chair. Example: "sit ON the chair", "go NEXT to the chair", "put your hands UNDER your chair", etc. This game also allowed them to move, practice their new knowledge but also to burn a bit of their extra energy. This is extremely important in kindergarten because students cannot sit for a 40 minutes long lesson!

Lastly, I handed my students a worksheet and colored stickers. I would tell them out loud what to do. For example, "at number 1, place the blue sticker NEXT to the cat". This reinvested the students knowledge of the prepositions, of colors, of Halloween vocabulary, and lastly work on their fine motor skills by manipulating the stickers.

Moreover, when writing my plan I made sure to take into account my students diversity, you can see it below.

To demonstrate that I'm very skilled with the written language of instruction, I've written my lesson plan in French. However, I can translate it into English without any problem.

Here's an excerpt from my lesson plan:

L'objectif de la leçon

L’objectif de cette leçon est d’initier les élèves aux prépositions d’orientation spatiale tout en réinvestissant des connaissances apprises pendant les semaines précédentes (les mots de vocabulaire de l’Halloween et les couleurs). À la fin de cette leçon, les élèves sauront différenciés les différentes prépositions spatiales. De plus, ils auront quelques activités ou ils pourront travailler sur leur motricité. Le tout à l’aide d’un jeu, d’autocollants et de crayons.

Domaine physique et moteur

Les élèves devront mimer et reproduire les différentes prépositions spatiales demandées par l’enseignant
Les élèves développent leur motricité fine en collant des autocollants.
Les élèves utilisent un crayon à la mine pour écrire son nom en haut de la fiche de travail.

Domaine langagier

Les élèves vont apprendre la signification et appliquer les prépositions spatiales.
Les élèves vont élargir et appliquer leur vocabulaire qui porte sur le thème de l’Halloween et même des couleurs lors de la fiche de travail.
Les élèves vont s’exprimer oralement avec l’enseignant lors de période de questions.
Les élèves vont pratiquer l’énonciation des nouvelles prépositions à l’aide de répétitions et un jeu guidé par l’enseignant.

Domaine social

Les élèves pourront développer leurs habiletés sociales en respectant les règles de la classe.
Les élèves devront interagir avec les autres élèves de façon respectueuse.
Les élèves devront attendre leur droit de parole lors des périodes de questionnement.
Les élèves devront participer à toutes les activités.

Domaine affectif

Les élèves devront adapter leurs comportements et leur attention à travers les diverses étapes de la leçon.
Les élèves pourront explorer leur autonomie lorsqu’ils devront coller les autocollants au bon endroit sans aide en se fiant uniquement à leur sens de l’écoute.
Les élèves seront posés des questions, ceux-ci devront répondre avec confiance.
Les élèves pourront demander de l’aide lorsque celui-ci le sent nécessaire.

Domaine cognitif

Les élèves sont initiés au français. Ils apprendront les prépositions et travailleront leur compréhension.
L’exercice d’autocollante demande aux élèves de se souvenir de détails de la leçon : L’activité permettra de réinvestir les acquis des élèves sur les couleurs, les chiffres de 1 à 5, le vocabulaire des mots d’Halloween et les prépositions.

Différenciation/attention à l’équité, la diversité et l’inclusion

Les élèves n’auront pas besoin de matériel autre qu’un crayon, les autocollants, la fiche de travail et autres leur seront offerts par l’enseignant.
Les différentes étapes de la leçon sont variées (PowerPoint, fiche de travail, jeu d’imitation, autocollant…), ce qui permettra d’intéressant le plus grand nombre d’apprenant et de garder les élèves attentifs.
L’enseignant guide la leçon et les activités oralement en tout temps.
L’enseignant reste disponible pendant toute la durée de la leçon pour aider et répondre à toutes les questions
L’enseignant fournit un support visuel en affichant des exemples au tableau et en faisant l’exercice avec les élèves

Click here for the complete lesson plan

05 Artifact - An effective Seating Chart

Competency 4 and 6

For privacy reasons, I have hidden my students names from the chart.

An effective seating chart

You might think, why is a seating chart related to competency 4? How does it help a teacher implement a lesson? Well, it is because it makes it so much easier for a teacher to enact a lesson since there are fewer distractions and therefore this helps students stay on track!

At the beginning of my stage, I found it was difficult to implement lessons because my students would not be listening. It was difficult to catch their attention for longer than 5 minutes. However, after discussing with my cooperating teacher, we came to the conclusion that a seating chart would be beneficial. Therefore, before creating the chart, I got to know my students. Who are they friends with? What interests them? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

After that, I made a plan of my class on Canva and I started placing students. I made sure to be careful who were going to be sitting next to each other. For instance, I tried to avoid placing any friends from daycare next to each other since they had a tendency to be chatty. After that, I tried to place “stronger” students next to ones that would benefit from some help. Since, in kindergarten, many students learn through observation and modelling. Like mentioned above, when I chose the seating arrangement, I also made sure that scholars that already knew each other would not be seated next to one another. Not only because it would help them stay on track but also because I wanted my learners to socialize with other kids that they would have not approached by themselves. Kindergarten is difficult for some because they are new to school, hence sometimes a small move from the teacher can help greatly. Moreover, this seating chart also allowed for a more harmonious classroom.

After I put in motion this seating chart, everything changed in my class. Leaners were more attentive, more patient, less distracted, etc. It made it a lot easier for me to teach and supervise the lesson! Learners were engaged, and there was less issues regarding arguments in the class. Also, at that point I knew what my students like and what they did not. Therefore, I made sure to take those into consideration and use them to my advantage in the class. They were way more engaged. The way I made sure they would stay that way for an entire lesson is by being active, by moving around, by constantly have different activities to present to the children, and more.