Practicum Week 10/13 (Recap)

November 09, 2012

Practicum Week 10/13 (Recap)

It's already week 10! I am so stoked. Why?

Because that means I am 3 weeks away from completing my teaching practicum and I have already planned out what I am teaching for the rest of the 3 weeks so I am just going to really enjoy this time and continue going with the flow of things.

This week we had a Walkathon Assembly where we raised quite a bit of $ for school. So awesome! We also had our Remembrance Day assembly and we performed a poem and the song 'Fix You' by Coldplay in acapella. They were so adorable and cute! It was so lovely and the parents loved it! I don't have any pictures as I was videotaping the whole time. Oh well! :)

I also did zumba with my a few of my colleagues! It was so much fun. It was my first time and we had many laughs together. Thanks to my support worker for bringing this to the school and making it happen!

We started our Peace mini-unit this week and I really wanted to emphasize being 'peacemakers' and I think they've got it. We started with learning about Remembrance Day and what poppies, a cross, and a peace sign meant. We talked about what war is and why it is a peacebreaker. Then we read a book about what peace is like and wrote about it in our secret treasure journals. After, we started to talk about what peacemakers and peacebreakers are and I related it to our school motto: Be safe, Be kind, and Be fair. I gave the children 9 choices they can make when encountering people who are peacebreakers. We also learned that as bucketfillers, we not only make other people happy but we instantly fill our own buckets and we are happy too! I made it into a book and will be sharing it with the class next week! Then finally we learned about what 'conflict resolution' is and we role-played some of the scenarios that can happen in a classroom: pushing in line, saying mean words, not sharing, etc...

I think it's important to teach children that they can be peacemakers and that they can have choices to make when they are in a conflict. Kindergarten students innately understand the concept of 'fair and unfair' and the feelings that may come from that: anger, sadness, or frustration. It's important to start giving them tools when they are young and to address or bring to light issues that they may encounter. It's a tough world out there and this week they learned that sometimes life isn't fair. We had a Walkathon assembly this week and the students had first hand experience of not winning a prize (prizes were drawn). I told them that life is not fair but we can still try to be peacemakers.

If we are ever to have real peace in this world we shall have to begin with the children." - Gandhi

Here are the pictures for the week:

I've taught for 44 days already. And the countdown begins!
I just finished my 80-100% portion and will be dwindling down starting next week for the next 3 weeks! I'm super excited. That means there are only more 13 more days of teaching left. :*(
Wow...

This is the park right in front of our school. It was foggy that morning.
I had to capture it because it was just so beautiful!

We read 'A poppy Is to Remember' by Heather Patterson.
A great book for primary children to help them understand about Remembrance Day.

We painted and cut out the poppies! Then we glued our poem onto our poppy!
We chanted this poem at our Remembrance Day Assembly!

Poppy, Poppy What Do You Say?

~By T'Prang

Poppy, poppy what do you say?

Wear me on Remembrance Day.

Poppy, poppy what do you tell?

Many soldiers in battle fell.

Poppy, poppy what should we know?

That peace on earth should

Grow, grow, grow!

We read 'What does peace feel like?' by Valdimir Radunsky

We read 'David Goes to School' by David Shannon to kick start our Peacemakers mini-unit!

We brainstormed ways we can be 'peacemakers' and 'peacebreakers.'

Our school motto is 'Be Safe, Be Kind, and Be Fair' and
we brainstormed how it looks like and sounds like.

We also talked about what we can do if someone is being a peacebreaker. I remind the students to
'be strong' when they say it with confidence!

I introduced 'conflict' and talked about people having disagreements which can lead to war.
We learned a few more ways to handle peacebreakers which can be used with our friends.
The students got a chance to role-play some of the peacebreaker scenarios and
got a chance to choose and practise choosing from the 9 steps!