Jessica MacKinnon’s Weekly Reflection April 23-27

Monday April 23:

This morning the energy within the class was very low! By the end of the day
it had picked up but I found it difficult to push through the morning lessons. My first
lesson was poetry in which we explored poetry within songs. Last week I had asked
the students their favorite songs and then I chose four songs to dissect into poetic
devices. We listened to the songs and the students enjoyed it. By the end of the
lesson I played guess that song and the students were very involved in it.

Positives:
 Using the student’s favorite songs allowed them to be more engaged.
 I gave my students a cheat sheet full of the poetic devices they had to look
for.
 Playing the songs while the students worked in groups on dissecting allowed
them to work in a relaxed atmosphere.
Needs Improvement:
 I needed a longer block I felt slightly rushed because I needed to get to
science.
 Needed something to wake the students up because they were sleepy

My science lesson was cut short because I went long on the poetry lesson. My
science lesson was on global warming in which we looked at the causes. I put the
students into groups and each student looked at a different cause and on Monday
we will be coming together in the groups to share our findings.

Positives:
 Spreading the work out so that the students get more out of it by teaching
their peers.
 Going over the expectations and rules of the jigsaw style grouping helped the
students understand how it will look on Monday.
Need Improvement:
 I went over in the time in poetry therefore I didn’t have the opportunity to go
deeper into each of the four topics.

Math went really well and the students made great connections! I made a review
worksheet, which helped them, which helped show what I need to continue to work
on with them.

Positive:
 Creating a worksheet that made it clear what the expectation is of each
question. This also allowed for me to pick and choose what the students
needed to answer.
  I marked these myself ensuring I understood what the students did not
understand.

Needs Improvement:
 I always second-guess myself wondering if I have taught enough in math.
 I also always question what to do with the few children who are just not
getting the concept.

Overall today was a great day and I am thinking that week three will make a
difference in my presence in the classroom.

Tuesday April 24:

My first lesson of the day today was on cinquain poems. I started the lesson with
have two poems on the white board. The two poems represented the two types of
cinquain poems. I read the poems to the students and then we dissected it as a class
looking for any patterns. Once they found the pattern and we named the poetry type
the students wrote the definition and rules to the poem in their poem dictionary.
Once completed as a class we created our own cinquain poem practicing both types
of cinquain. The students brainstormed in a class discussion on what the topic
should be. The first poem was about Big Macs and the second was about water.

Positives:
 Reading it out loud to the students instead of them reading in their heads.
This allowed for them to see how poetry is read.
 Allowing the class to create a theme for our poems allowed it to be more fun
than me choosing a theme for them.
 By creating a poem all together instead of on their own took stress away for
some students who struggle with poetry.
Need Improvement:
 I made a mistake while discussing the pattern in the poem, none of the
students realized but I did after the lesson was over I need to remember to
remind them to change their definition and apologize for the mistake.

My second lesson of the day was math in which we did a scavenger hunt outside
looking for different angles and triangles around the school. This was such a great
lesson and all of the students really enjoyed being outside for math and learning in a
different way than using a math worksheet.

Positive:
 Changing math up and taking their learning outside! The students loved
being out there and working together to discover all of the different terms
they had learned within the school grounds.
 We had a great discussion on what shocked us about this lesson and one
student said that she was surprised how much geometry is actually in the
 world that you don’t notice. I thought this was great because this was my
learning outcome for the lesson.
 I chunked the areas of the school therefore we went to one side all together
and then shared where we found certain angles and shapes. Once we finished
we moved to another area of the school.
 I had managed the time so that the students would end up with 15 minutes to
play on the playground and they were so excited after our debrief to be able
to play. I thought this was great to see them all enjoy themselves after we had
a great lesson on geometry.
Need to Improve:
 I think that my worksheet needed to be a little longer and maybe spread
out more so that the students had more space to draw the location they
found the angle or shape.
 I needed to make the expectation of the worksheet more clear because I
had some students who were just drawing the angle or shape rather than
the location it was in.

In the afternoon I read our novel and asked the students to spend the time listing
character traits for the four main characters of the story.

Positives:
 Explaining what a character trait is went really well. I used myself as an
example and they responded well.
 My chunking of the chapter is getting better, I am pausing and asking
questions more, which I am ensuring that the students are listening and can
infer what might happen.
Need improvement:
 Being more aware of what students are doing while I read because I had one
student who at one point when I paused to ask a question was reading his
own book. When I asked him what he was doing he thought there was no
problem with him reading his own book. I believe reading and circulating
might be the best solution.
 Giving another activity because after one chapter most of the students were
completed the traits.

My last lesson of the day was a geographical description lesson for my student’s
country project. Overall this lesson went well and I believe the students reacted
quite well.

Positives:
 Using tourism videos to compare different provinces allowed students to see
two different geographical descriptions.
 Allowing students to work on any part of their country project they wanted
to. This allowed them to have the freedom of controlling their own pace.
  Circulation during this time was very effective because I had the opportunity
to see where each student is on his or her projects.

Need to Improve:
 I forgot to come back to the lists we had made on the board comparing the
two provinces.
 I needed to ask the student who said “terrain” for PEI’s description what type
of terrain they have.
 Ensuring all students made a connection to the topic because I allowed them
to work at their own pace not all students chose to work on geographical
description.

Overall today went great and I believe that this week is already showing that the
third week makes the largest jump to the students seeing me as the full time
teacher.

Wednesday April 25:

This morning my first lesson was an alliteration poem. This lesson I had
planned was very fun and I was excited to share it with the students. I started the
lesson by having three different alliteration poems I had created on the board. I
tried to get the students to say them as fast as possible which we all ended having a
good laugh about because everyone struggled to quickly say them. The activity itself
was that the students created alliteration with their row. Each student had a piece of
paper and was assigned a different letter on each of them. They then had to put one
word that started with that letter then pass the paper backwards and then add to
the next piece of paper.

Positives:
 The students loved this lesson they struggled not to giggle with the
alliterations that were being formed.
 They had the opportunity to practice speaking poems, although they were
laughing when saying them it went quite well!
Needs Improvement:
 I need to continue to focus on my closer because I needed more than the
students just sharing their alliterations. I wanted something more exciting
for the students to make a real connection.
My next lesson was a computer work block that my students had the opportunity to
work on their science or their social studies.

Positives:
 Students were in charge of their own pace of their learning. If they needed to
work on their science that was due they did so and if they were done they
worked on their country project.
  I had the opportunity to rotate to all students to see where they were with
their learning.
Need Improvement:
 The sending of their science on Google classroom did not work, therefore
I only had 13 students to hand in their work. I had helped at least six or
seven students send me their work but it did not work.

My math lesson was very successful and the students picked up on it very quickly. I
displayed the different triangles we were going to be looking at on the board. I then
had the students categorize them. The figured it out that one grouping was
dependent on the angles and the other was on the side lengths.

Positive:
 The categorizing worked quite well for my students who struggle to
understand they had a great visual on the board for their math
worksheet.
 The students picked up on it quickly and I did not have a lot of struggles
during this lesson with students who did not participate.
 Circulating throughout this lesson was very effective, I reached a lot of
the students who needed my help.
 I had students who were struggling to work in the classroom therefore I
allowed an adapted learning environment with a desk in the hallway. I
ensured that I circulated to the students in the hallway.

Needs Improvement:
 The two worksheets I had for them flew by and I did not have another
worksheet for them to do. I adapted and allowed them to work on any work
they had.

The afternoon was a prep block and then the students had a work block. It was a
great afternoon and the students were very well behaved! I find it interesting how
each day I am finding myself more and more in control of this classroom! I am
interested to see what happens in the days to come!

Thursday April 26:

This morning I introduced another type of poetry to the students, diamante. I

started the lesson by having a reading of diamante poems. The students then
identified the type of poem and we created our own. I also went over the
expectations of the final project again. I felt as if the students did not make a great
connection to this type of poetry.

Positive:
  Allowing them to have time to work on their final project rather than making
multiple poems of the same type allowed for them to further their projects
along.
 Being aware of the students and staying on track was well done today I did
not have a lot of students off task today which was a great feeling.
Need to Improve:
 I want to explore a new way of introducing a type of poetry. I am finding it
very repetitive however everything I think to explore I do not think it will
work out. A goal for next week is to improve it.

My math lesson was cut into half due to a track and field assembly. I switched this
lesson to another one, which was planned for next week. I taught all of my students
how to draw different angry birds in order to create a math project that we are
doing next week. The students loved this lesson and all did very well on creating
their angry birds!

Positives:
 The step-by-step videos allowed the students to understand the steps of
creating the characters.
 Using this short amount of time to adapt my lesson to one and a half math
blocks I believe will work better than squeezing it into one lesson.
Need to Improve:
 Because I had to pause the video in order for the students to be able to draw
the characters I could not circulate. I wish that I had found a way to do both.

The afternoon there was a fine arts performance in the gym therefore we watched
the circus act that came and all students were on their best behaviors.

Friday April 27:

Today was the track and field event all day! It was such a great day to be able
to interact with all students! I was in charge of marshaling all of the students into
their proper lanes. I was stressed to start off but by the second group of students I
felt confident! I got slightly sunburnt but overall it was a great experience to have as
a student teacher! When we returned to the school we had an hour left and I played
some games with the students that hadn’t got picked up at the track meet. We
played graveyard, silent ball toss, and hang man. This was a great time to connect to
the students in a more exciting way.