Blog 10: Teaching Strategies

(completed after returning)

●     Share insights into the teaching strategies and methods you've developed during your time abroad.

●     Discuss any innovative approaches you've used to engage students and improve their learning outcomes.

While here at Howick College I have gotten to observe and work with many teachers and in turn learn each of their strategies. Leah and Cheryl are the two teachers I worked with the most. I also observed Andy, a learning support coordinator, the science, social studies, and English for the group I followed, and another math teacher. Leah and the other English teacher Andy Hancock were the classes that were the most enjoyable to be in. They were laid back and engaging while getting through the material needed. I enjoyed how often they incorporated games into their lessons. Next, I learned a few strategies to use to get to know students better from the Learning Support Coordinators. My favorite was when Andy Barrett completed a Learner Map with one of his students that was newly assigned to him. This is one of the first processes they go through with each of their clients. You start by having the student draw themself on the paper in the center. Andy and I did this with the student and served as models. Next, they pick five people who are in their lives and write them in a circle around their drawing. The next step is where we learn the most about their lives. They are to draw arrows between themself and the people they wrote based on their relationship. Andy modeled this with a thick straight arrow to his dad that was thicker on his end because his dad does more for him than he does for his dad and then the opposite for the arrow with his son. His relationship with his stepson involves a lot of fighting so this arrow was jagged to represent the turmoil. After the relationship arrows were drawn, we wrote in places we connect to and anything we thought could be important to add. At the bottom, we made a chart about short-term vs long-term happiness with examples. Here we learned about what the students enjoy to do. This was one of my favorite relationship-building activities I saw being done while over here.

I also attended their weekly learner support professional learning meetings where we discussed ordinary vs extraordinary teachers, the importance of learning intentions and success criteria, and how to work in a team. At the first meeting, we split into partners and wrote about what makes a teacher extraordinary and then shared with each other and circled our similar answers to see how much we agreed on as a whole group. From this, we were able to build more sessions on the learning intentions and working as a team. I enjoyed hearing about how they make sure students know what they are learning and most teachers have the students write the intention in their notebooks. I am not sure that I agree with this extent as it does take a lot of time but I do like the discussion I see at the beginning of the classes informing the students of the expectations.

I didn't see any innovative approaches while over here that differed from what I have learned at home. They had a few sessions that focused on UDL and differentiation. Cheryl frequently would say they were the same and UDL is just a way to ensure you are differentiating for all students. When I was preparing for my lessons I spoke to Leah and Cheryl about their classroom management and made sure I planned enough for the classes that students would be busy throughout. In Cheryl's math class specifically, they do better when they have more direct instruction and are kept busy throughout the class. Any free time at the end can become hectic quickly. Cheryl also has the students write, their learning intentions in their notebooks for each day. Students are used to using their laptops throughout the day and tend to be more engaged when they are allowed on their own devices, however, some students are easily distracted by the freedom of opening other tabs so it needs to be monitored. In most of my lessons, students used their laptops, but I was able to see how far along they were on the assignment directly. Leah's class responded well to Google Classroom and really enjoyed the YouTube song quiz when learning about language features. These two strategies of gamification and the use of digital tools are what I used and saw the most throughout my time at Howick.