MACKENZIE BOUCHARD

My philosophy for classroom management is that if you plan your lessons well and you foster positive relationships with students, classroom management will be less of a problem. I did this by having a full day of classroom surveys and 'get to know the student' activities. I also made the effort to memorize each of my 59 students' names by my third day of practicum. My third practicum was more of a challenge, but I learned 90 names by the end of week #1.

 

For my first practicum at NVSS, I was challenged to teach plant biology in February. I was able to do this effectively because of my well-executed planning. I used a lot of my UNBC resources to help me get access to pine seedlings so that the students had a physical example for a critical thinking activity that I wanted to do. I had the students look at different tree seedlings from the Pinaceae family. I provided their growth region, a seedling, and a written paragraph with a few bits of information about the different tree species. They were instructed to move around the room and to tell me an order in which the trees first evolved. This activity was very interesting because students used different strategies to rank the trees in the order in which they think they evolved. Some looked at tree age, others looked at regional distribution of the trees.

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For my second practicum at CHSS, I was teaching chemistry right around Halloween time. I taught a lot about the chemistry involved in Halloween-themed items for the week of Halloween. The kids really loved this because they felt it was relevant and interesting. Highlights of my activities were:

- Glow sticks: putting them in boiling, hot, room temperature, and ice water and showing the kids how the brightness of the glow stick changes

- Slime: we made slime on Halloween! The kids got to practice their lab skills while also getting a very fun and spooky product

- Dry Ice: I did a demonstration with dry ice to show the students how we use dry ice for halloween, and how dry ice demonstrates phase changes

 

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In regard to assessment and reporting, I kept a paper gradebook and executed student self assessments for practicum 1 and 2. I was able to add more to my gradebook for the second practicum, and was able to contribute to progress reports, work habits, and report card comments. Students were also given ongoing formative assessment so that there were no surprises when they received their formal marks. I worked on making a quiz that was accessible and relevant to what we learned in class, and did not make the quiz until I had finished teaching what I wanted to quiz the kids on. For my last practicum, I continued to develop my assessment practices and I worked on using learning intentions in my tests and quizzes. I continued to allow rewrites of quizzes and tests should students struggle writing the first time around. I found this method to be very effective and students really appreciated the second opportunity to turn their grade around and demonstrate that they have truly learned the material.

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