Field Experience:
My third time going to Henry Braun school was on October 24th 2018. Every time I go I become more and more comfortable with the community and atmosphere. This week I was focused on Mrs. Carteri’s knowledge and ways of knowing. I am grateful to have the opportunity of working with Mrs. Carteri for the field experience. I found her very relatable, friendly, and welcoming. She didn’t intimidate me, and I felt comfortable asking her various questions about her practice before the students came in.
We talked about how she made up specific lessons plans and where exactly she got her knowledge from. Mrs. Carteri was a huge advocate for backwards planning, that was how she planned most of her lessons. She gave us an example of a health lesson that she was in the process of. First, she looked at the objectives that she wanted to teach the students, they were to learn about healthy relationships and positive self image. Next, she would look at different activities and lessons to find the most appropriate to incorporate into a learned experience. She ended up assigning the students into groups to make skits about healthy and unhealthy relationships.
One of the things that I particularly liked about Mrs. Carteri was how she paid attention to the individual needs of her students. She tried to plan her lessons so that it was not just reading and writing, it was activities where the students could get up and move. She tried to style her lessons so that those who were kinetic learners or visual learners could have as much of a chance as anyone else. When it was time to teach about ELA, Mrs. Carteri had the students do a Halloween craft and then make a story about the character. This gave them a mental break before they had to get into the “boring” writing. Mrs. Carteri advised me and my partner about the importance of different styles of learning as well as always having an adaptable attitude while in the classroom.
Another way that Mrs. Carteri and Henry Braun honoured different ways of learning was how the students wrote their information down. Four of the students in the classroom who needed extra help with their writing skills were given laptops to borrow over the school year. It makes it easier to spellcheck and rewrite information for the students, and easier to read the writing for the teacher. This was a school wide program, and a great idea to implement technology in a positive way to help students learn.
The great thing about honouring ways of knowing and learning is that it is a never-ending experience. One could always further educate themselves about the different ways that students can learn because there are always new theories and research and situations. What may work with one student might not work with another. This is why it is important to have an open-mind and be adaptive, different things work with different students. There is always an opportunity to be a better educator for your students,
P.S I also really appreciate how Henry Braun acknowledges its placement in Treaty Four territory during each morning announcements
Sequoia Abbott-Saulteaux 