This year (2021-22), it was significantly easier to document my practicum, having been in person.  I was in a grade 1/2 split class where we had established that our students were advanced enough together that we could mostly focus on grade 2 curriculum content and adjust accordingly using differentiated instruction.

 

In early fall 2021, I read the story Nibi’s Water Song by Sunshine Tenasco and students then got to write/draw a story reflecting on what they learned from Nibi’s Water Song.  One student used images to tell a story about how many Indigenous peoples still do not have clean drinking water, and representing in water bottles how many glasses of water we need in a day.

I organized some indoor and outdoor mathematics lessons as well as a read aloud and activity each week in early fall.  This was great practice for classroom management and teaching outdoors. We created a concrete graph with materials from our classroom and proceeded to use manipulatives to create our own graphs in pairs, we coded a map in pairs outside and then acted them out, we create number lines on the pavement with sidewalk chalk and worked on our addition and subtraction and we collected sticks and worked on estimations and counting in groupings.

 

In December, we learned about our families and different winter celebrations around the world, including Winter Solstice, Yalda Night, Hanukkah, Diwali, Lunar New Year, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and more. We learned about what needs are (shelter, health care, comfort and care etc.), as with the holiday season, it is important to be grateful for what we have and provide support and care to those in need.

We did this exercise, where we created our own “I Wish You More” statements after reading the book by the same name by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Students then took these statements and created holiday cards that we then gave to a local shelter.

In January, we went through a full fractions unit together. It began entirely virtually, which was an interesting challenge of having students grab snacks for the purpose of showing equal pieces, having students go to their kitchen to find us a 1/4 cup measure and a 1/4 tsp measure when discussing different quarters we use in our every day lives; we use fractions in sharing with our friends,  in baking and budgets, in construction and engineering, in bulk ordering and so much more. When we came back to in person learning, we were really able to maximize our classroom and space.

We had so much fun learning about fractions together and this being their first introduction to fractions, I could see the progression in understanding in my students (everyone at different levels). This was important, as it influenced how I would approach the lessons that week, and who I would organize with my AT to receive a little one-to-one support

As we all have experienced, especially when we are new to teaching, I had a few lessons throughout the year that did not take off the way I had hoped, and others that kept my students busy learning for longer than I expected. This keeps me on my toes and motivated to bring more interesting and active learning materials to my classroom. I had an opportunity to understand better and implement Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction for my students to better their learning, and my own.