Over my 2018 Spring Practicum with Chemainus Elementary Community School, I had the opportunity to not only work in one classroom; but three others as well (two for PE, one for French). The practicum class to which I was assigned to was a grade 6/7 combined class. Before starting my 5-week practicum, I was able to build successful and professional relationships with several staff at Chemainus Elementary. Through conversing with other staff, I shared my specialties - which include Physical Education and French. Besides my sponsor teacher, another teacher in the school who taught grade 4/5 was very impressed and excited that I was experienced with the language. She heard through my sponsor teacher that I had taught several successful French classes through my observation week, and thanks to my sponsor teacher, I was asked to join this grade 4/5 teacher and teach French in her class through my 5-week practicum. I had A LOT of fun teaching French in the grade 4/5 class! I taught a total of ten lessons to the students and found that each student had tremendous engagement through the lessons and units that we worked through together. As a class, we engaged in three different units which included the following: French Greetings, Numbers, and a Foods unit. Throughout each unit, we played games, worked through hands-on activities, and conversed with each other as much as possible. I found that each student was enjoying themselves more and more as the five weeks flew by! Part way through our final unit on Foods, I had a parent from the grade 4/5 class get in touch with me via email. This parent and I went back and forth with several emails regarding the French that I have been doing with the class - which included this parent's daughter. This parent was extremely pleased with what we had been doing in class, and as a former French teacher herself, she was ecstatic that her daughter was finding a passion for the language - mission accomplished! Being aware of the Foods unit that we had been working on at the time, this parent offered her services for the last day of our unit. As a cumulating activity, I had planned for each student to create their own menu which included some of their favourite French food vocabulary words that they had learned through this unit, and to my liking, this parent agreed that this was a great idea. My original plan was to have each student do an informal presentation of their menu with their classmates, sharing which foods they decided to include and why. However, this parent had an even better idea. She suggested doing a Café Français - which included a Crêpe Bar that involved the students placing their order at the Crêpe Bar one at a time, and using the vocabulary that we had learned throughout this unit - (Ex. Bonjour, Jaime manger...). Obviously, I was extremely excited about this idea! I felt that this would be the perfect way to finish the unit and conclude my final day with this grade 4/5 class that I had so much fun working with. This parent gathered all of the supplies for the day, and with my help, set up a beautiful Crêpe Bar that the kids enjoyed thoroughly! This parent went above and beyond in her involvement with this idea, as she actually went in front of the class and went over exactly what we would be doing, while working on the French pronunciation of the vocabulary words that they would be using while ordering their crêpes. As groups of the students went to the Crêpe Bar and went on to enjoy their tasty treats, I played French vocabulary games with the remainder of the students that waited ever so patiently. These games included competition activities such as the Flyswatter Game that tasked two students to find the French or English translation of a word that I instructed them to find on the whiteboard. I found that this game really motivated each student to be involved, and helped them with the learning of each vocabulary word that I introduced to the class hroughout the five weeks. The Crêpe Bar went over very well with all of the students. I was very thankful to have this parent be so eager to be involved in her daughter's learning, and I look forward to more moments like this throughout a career of teaching!
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AuthorHi there, my name is Tyler Armstrong. I am a Child & Youth Care Worker and I am studying at VIU to become an Elementary Teacher. Archives
September 2018
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