Last Day

After a fun day with the "Physical Activity Scavenger Hunt," and Pre-Intern Farewell Party, my time at this school is over. I want to take this opportunity to thank the school, my students and especially my cooperating teacher for teaching me so much. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here and everyone has taught me so much. I wanted to close with another reminder of how thoughtful and selfless the upcoming generation is with a quote from a student that reaffirms the value of this wonderful group:

"My low for the day is that Ms. Schebel is leaving, but my high for the day is that other students will be able to enjoy her."  ~ Deleah

In response to this love, I have found a quote that I feel summarizes the way I feel about this experience:


"If you want to live more, you must master the art of appreciating the little everyday blessings of life. This is not altogether a golden world, but there are countless gleams of gold to be discovered in it." -- Henry Alfred Porter


My students and cooperating teacher are these gleams of gold in my life. I am so blessed to have been a part of this school and been allowed to be a part of their life journey. In two words -- thank you.

Lesson Ten: Your Ideas of "What Learning Looks Like" Will Differ from Those of your Students

Thursday Afternoon
Noise Level: High
Task: Finish up rich performance task related to physical activity and nutrition (write song, write story, make healthy living advertisement or research physical activity opportunities in the community)


I am running around the classroom answering questions, keeping students on task and assessing at the same time. I notice over time a student constantly cruising around the classroom. Thinking that this student was not working, I walked over and asked to see their work. Surprisingly, he handed me an almost complete project. I realized that although this student appeared to be off task, he was really just self-regulating so that he could do his work with more efficiency. Over these past few weeks I have noticed more and more that my conceptions of "learning" and what it should look like do not align with the embodied experiences of my students. When I was in school, learning meant that you were sitting quietly in your desk, complying with the teacher's expectations. In the school I am in, beautifully enhanced with diversity in culture, learning styles, life experiences, etc. I have learned that in many cases, sitting quietly in a desk is not learning. The question is, do we want our children to be experts at following directions and complying with demands, or do we want them to be critical thinkers, questioning norms and having the skills to self-direct and make a difference? I would imagine that educators today would choose the latter. It is still important to have expectations, but we need to analyse our foundational ideas about school. Do I get caught up in the fact that my student is not sitting quietly in his desk, "working" (the way I imagine working to be) or do I celebrate the students ability to self-direct and demonstrate self-regulation, self-control and responsibility for learning? Well today I celebrated and it is my goal to do so in other environments as well. Whether a student is doodling, walking around, chewing on their pencil, or sitting, students self-regulate and enhance their learning in so many ways. The challenge is for us educators to recognize that and include it in our conceptions of learning. 

"The great end of education is to discipline rather than to furnish the mind; to train it to the use of its own powers rather than to fill it with the accumulation of others" -- Tyron Edwards

~ Let's change this.

Lesson Nine: Be Careful of what you are Assessing

I was lucky today to be a part of another student-led conference. I am always really excited to sit in on these because the idea of the student led parent teacher conferences is a new idea to me although it has been around for a long time. I like that the student is able to showcase the work that they are proud of as well as taking responsibility for their learning goals. However, as I was sharing with a student’s parents about his success with the nutrition content matter, his father shared with me that the student had already taken this content as a part of his scouts program. This immediately raised the question in my head, am I truly assessing what the student has learned, or the experiences their families are able to provide for them. I am not sure yet what this means for me as a teacher or how I can change my assessment designs, but it is definitely an important component to consider when designing assessments for your students.

Happy Moment

Today was a great day of student sharing and reflection of the past two weeks of our experiences with Nutrition and Physical Activity. At the end of the day, we gathered in a talking circle and shared what we had learned. I shared with the students about how much they had taught me over the past few weeks. I am so grateful that I was placed in this school as it has influenced my identity as a teacher and who I am fundamentally. All of the stories of my students inspire me and solidify my desire to teach. Although they all shared amazing understandings that they have come to, here are a few of my favourites:

I learned that you don’t need money or to go to the gym to exercise ~ Sandy

I learned that there are lots of things and people that can influence us so we need to be careful~ Aleah

I liked all of the funny jokes you brought every day. They made health funner. ~Reanne

I learned that our food gives our brains energy and I liked watching the food digest in the stomachs we made.... it was so.... gross. We need to balance what we eat with exercise, or the other way around, to make sure that the nutrients can get us healthy. ~ Melinda

Although everyone learned something different, I was impressed that their learnings seemed to either help them develop a deep understanding of a big idea or a positive attitude towards school. Hearing their stories was important to me because as teachers, we are supposed to teach our students the prescribed curriculum. In reality, they are all going to take away something different depending on their pre-disposition to the subject matter and their background knowledge. No matter what we teach it, they will align it with their personal experiences and I am glad that they were able to share these differences with me. 

Fun Brain Break Idea!

Plates: Have kids all put a paper plate on their head. Have them move about the room (this can be done to music). If their plate falls, they are frozen and someone else has to bend down without having their plate fall off their head and put it back on their classmates head. The object is to keep everyone in the game. Not only does this activity work on balance, it is cooperative too! This will help keep all students feeling included as well as build the classroom community. 


This and many more great ideas on:
Proteacher.net - Quick Brain Breaks

Lesson Eight: Have Faith in the Upcoming Generation

So often today we hear the statements, "kids these days are so spoiled, have it so easy, have no manners, etc" in combination with a "what is the world coming to?" There is truth to the fact that today's generation is much different than the generations of the past, but I have faith that these differences are positive. Here are some quotes from my students that have inspired and gained so much respect from me:


"If I caught a leprechaun, I would take the gold and give it to all of the poor people in the world. I just feel so bad for them, it's not fair." ~ *Kaitlyn, Grade 3


The students asked us, "If you had three wishes, what would you wish for?" I answered knowledge. My co-op said she would go to Hawaii. We both asked for three more wishes.


" I would wish for world peace, and an end to hunger, and an end to homelessness" ~ *Brayten, Grade 5


"I would wish for no more racism" ~ *Jacob, Grade 5


"I would wish for no more bullying I think, I mean its so mean." ~ *Jessica, Grade 4


* Names have been changed.


Boy, did we feel awesome after that. This upcoming generation has so much potential and are also demonstrating such empathy, consideration and kindness towards others. So, what is this world coming to? I think a more caring and equitable place. We seem to be in pretty good hands. 

Lesson Seven

Does this even need explanation?

Lesson Six: KISS (Keep it Short and Sweet) or in my case (Keep it Simple Stupid)

Success! I have finally planned an impromptu lesson in under an hour! Before entering this experience, we had our unit plans outlined and planned out. However, I have had to almost completely scrap my initial plan as my expectations were very different than my classroom reality. I have learned to keep it simple and allow your unit to be emergent (develop according to student interest). I have been told that this "is what real teachers do anyway." It is good to have a general idea of where you want to go, but it is unrealistic to have a unit completely planned down to the last detail.

Lesson Five: Go Outside of Your Comfort Zone

Although I am talking about this lesson within a classroom context, it is such an important lesson in life. I was once given advice from a professor in my second year, "Every chance you can, make yourself uncomfortable, there is no other way that you will learn about yourself faster." As teachers, it is very important to have this self awareness in a broad variety of situations. If anything, teaching is unpredictable, and for the sake of your students, it is important to be adaptable. Every time I have taken this advice to heart, I have learned in a deeper way than I ever could have imagined.


Today was very similar to my previous experiences. I am person who craves order and planning, so it was outside of my comfort zone for students to create their own groups and make a healthy food commercial. There was so much noise in the classroom, conflicts within the groups, and some students who simply could not self manage. However, in the end, the student products were amazing. The conflict ended sorting itself out and the students had a blast! The learning was rich and the positive attitude developed towards learning was so important.

Lesson Four: Have Fun

It just so happens that as soon as I decided to truly make this a learning experience, rather than trying to be perfect, I had a great day! My lesson went significantly better with the students when I was more relaxed and they were able to learn in their own way without me trying to control everything. In addition, the afternoon presented us with some free time. My teacher could have used it to catch up on work, or expand on a lesson. Instead we spent the last hour dancing, playing games and just chatting with the kids. Although we might not have gotten ahead in our planning, we built important relationships. These relationships are the foundation with which we do our teaching and they are so valuable!


When we educators get hung up with organizing every little detail (whether a lesson plan, unit or school system) we do well to remember that the world is effortlessly self-organizing in its own chaotic way.
~ Adapted from Gary Turner by David Gray

Lesson Three: Stop Trying to Be Perfect... You are Messing Everything Up!

So it was midnight, and based on my traumatizing experience yesterday with my out-of-control class, I was trying to make my lesson perfect. I had spent three hours looking for a video that they might like, as well as  finding visual props and re-arranging my lesson over and over. Finally my helpful, but tired and frustrated, boyfriend came up to me and yelled, "Stop trying to be perfect, you are messing everything up!" At this point, I would only get six hours of sleep, I was sick and I was not getting anything accomplished. The point of this experience is to learn -- in fact in education, teachers are learning all the time.


Take Chances, Make Mistakes and Get Messy! ~ Mrs. Frizzle

Lesson Two: Shut Up!

Today I had the students do a Canadian Food Guide Exploration. We started off by reviewing our ideas about influences by making an idea web. I had them talk about an influence in their life, then they grabbed onto an end  from a ball of yarn, and tossed the ball to someone else with an idea. Eventually we had a huge web going around the whole classroom! It was great. Afterwards, I introduced the Canadian Food Guide with a PowerPoint, which took about 20 minutes and then we did a serving size demonstration which also took about 20 minutes. Throughout the PowerPoint and the demonstration, the classroom energy was extremely high. The students were not following instructions and were extremely chatty. It was the last class of the day, and they could not focus on what I was trying to teach them. In addition to the regular end of the day excitement, I had a surprise visit from my faculty advisor at the University. This was an additional distracting component for the students. I felt like my head would explode and my cooperating teacher had to step in four times to help control the class. I was embarrassed that I could not control the class in front of my faculty advisor. 


After everything was said and done, I ended my lesson and tiredly made my way over to my things. I looked at my faculty advisor and he said, "well how did you think that went?" I just sighed and lifted my hands, shaking my head. This is when he asked me an important question. "How old are the students?" My class is composed of eight to eleven year old students. This means that for each year they are old, that is their average attention span. I had gone way too long with my PowerPoint, and also with my demonstration, despite the hands on nature and student involvement. Reflecting back on the lesson, I had talked for almost an hour! No wonder the students could not focus! My lesson of the day was to allow the students to formulate some knowledge for themselves, and allow them to be children! They need to share their ideas, explore and have fun.  If I would have shut up for a while to allow them to explore, my lesson might have gone a lot differently. 

Lesson One: Be Flexible

Ahhh, exhale! My first day is over. It was a very busy day and my focus was introducing the students to my topic, nutrition and physical activity. The junior 3, 4, and 5's started off by exploring influences in their lives that impacted their ideas or decisions about healthy living. The initial discussion and activity were a success. To expand on their ideas, I wanted the students to do a "speed interview" of one another (similar to speed dating) where they compared ideas about their influences. There were four steps: 1) Make two standing circles, 2) One circle of students stands around the first circle of students, 3) The inside circle and the outside circle face each other, 4) The outside circle stays in one spot while the inside circle takes (x) number of steps to the left or right to get a new partner every few minutes. However, what I thought was simple did not work for the students. After many puzzled looks, "I don't get this" comments, and numerous failed attempts, I said, "OK, everyone just sit down!" Afterwards, the students sat down, we had a group discussion and it was great!


I had to make the decision today to be flexible enough to abandon my planned activity and do something that was meaningful for the students. Instead of wasting time, trying to force learning, I had to step back and let the learning take place in a way that made sense to the them. It took me outside of my comfort zone, but it worked for my student and helped me in the long run. 

The Day Before

Hello all! This is my first blog post.... ever. I am a pre-intern and I am about to enter the school setting for three weeks. Prior to entering the school, I have my first week of lessons prepared.I am excited to begin this new part of my journey, but I am still very nervous at the same time. I worry that my students will not learn, or that they will be bored. Luckily I have the support of an amazing and supportive cooperating teacher, and I know I will be ok. I love my students as well as being in the classroom, and I will hold onto that love to get me through tomorrow!