My Musing

I had the opportunity to visit an elementary school on wednesday and spend the day with the children and the teachers. I found this was useful in helping me confirm or deny wanting to teach at the secondary level.

In the morning I was sitting in with a grade 5 class. I first thought was about how small they were! It really made me realize that I wasn’t at a high school anymore. All of the students had something to accomplish before the teacher began class. Whether it was a job, such as checking off who brought their homework book that day, or a problem to solve up on the overhead. It was nicely structured and helped to settle the students upon arrival and get the classroom behaviour started. The teacher thought that grade 5 was the perfect age to teach. The class isn’t about personal behaviour adjustments as it is with the younger grades. There is still behaviour models to conform to but the majority is educational learning of the common subjects such as math, english, socials studies, etc. The students understood enough of the english language that they understood sarcasm and words plays. They are beginning to think critically. The students came up will a wonderful variety of answers during the lessons that really showed that they were breaking down a problem and thinking of multiple solutions. The schedule for that morning was very hectic with a RCMP officer doing a 1 hour presentation on the D.A.R.E. program. This made the morning feel very rushed but that situation had to be faced at least once a week from what I understood. Overall I enjoyed spending time with the students and I believe that I wouldn’t mind teaching at this level.

My afternoon was spent with the grade 1’s. These children were much smaller yet. They were absolutely adorable and the classroom was dramatically different. The classroom was divided up into to parts that blended together. There was the rug area where they spent much of the day learning about calendars and days of the week, singing songs, reading, or just playing. The other area consisted of the desks and the chalkboard. This area seemed to be used to do writing exercises and arts or crafts. The first piece of advice the teacher had for me is to do and say exactly what I mean. The students appeared to be unable to interpret meanings or actions. Behaviour modelling was very important. I found it difficult to do and at times I don’t think the students had any idea about what I was talking about. The classroom radiated energy from the students and the teacher had to flow with it sometimes, or calm it down other times. I had a good time during that afternoon but I don’t think that I would be able to have as much energy as these students require. The teacher had to be very positive most of the time and neutral some of the time. Negative behaviour would be affect the students dramatically. If we as student secondary teachers feel that there are high expectations of us as role models, we haven’t compared ourselves to elementary teachers.

Overall I think that I made the right decision about going to the secondary level. I would have to give up the trades and technology specialty in an elementary and being in that specialty is a big part about why I am teaching. I also enjoy helping students learn when their knowledge base isn’t too far away from my own. It creates new ideas to help both of us grow. I respect and admire the elementary teachers but I am happy with the directions I have chosen.