Education in Finland...

I read this interesting article today about the proposed changes to the education system in Finland. You can read the article here.

What does everyone think? Is teaching subject by subject the best way? Can you picture similar reforms happening in Canada?

What's next?

           As classes have drawn to a close, the B.Ed program is almost finished with only 5 weeks left of placement. I'm wondering: what is next for my blog? How can I continue to use this during my teaching career? I've really enjoyed writing my thoughts especially in the online format. I'm hoping to do the following things:

• Share any resources I find here in the future so that my fellow teachers can benefit 
• Describe my experiences supply teaching and moving up the ranks in the profession
• Develop lesson plans and share them on here for any other teachers
• Create a list of tips for new teachers that I wish I had
• Anything else that is of interest to me

          
           Overall, I am very pleased that I chose PED 3148 for my elective this semester. I've learned the benefits of teaching students how to write, and felt challenged to branch out in my own writing ability. I wish my fellow classmates the best of luck in the upcoming placements and hope everyone finds fulfilling work in the future. Thank you Linda for a great semester and organizing our sessions at Hawthorne!

Class 9- The Bittersweet End

           So today was our last day at Hawthorne Public School. Although the day started out on poorly (broken water main, traffic backed up for miles, and being the recipient of some unwarranted road rage), it was redeemed by our experience with our students. I'm sad that these 4 weeks of writing mentorship have ended, but I look forward to learning as much as I can in my upcoming placement.

           Since it was our last session, I wanted to provide the most help I could to Edward. He suggested that we work on his assignments for his "Harder Midsummer Night's Dream" project. So far, Edward had completed one scene summary, one commercial, and he also wanted help on the social web. By the end of the session, I felt we had made good progress and I hoped I left Edward with some tips how to finish his assignments, and in the grander scheme of things, how to pursue his interests in life and be happy.

           The first task we worked on was the scene summary. Edward had already shared his documents with me on Google, so I came prepared with some constructive criticism. I suggested to Edward that he introduce the reader of his summary to the scene by providing some context– that is, the setting, time within the play, and characters present. By including an introductory sentence containing that information, Edward would create a more informative summary.            

           Next, I helped Edward with his commercial ideas. His existing one involves a herb juice-removal system to combat Puck's prankster ways in the play. I read over his script for the commercial, but felt it lacked some of the manipulative methods used in advertising. I brought with me a handout explaining different strategies that advertisers use in marketing to try to sell a product. We went through the list together and I asked Edward to try to use some of those techniques on the spot in his advertisement. I will check back on the shared Google doc to see if he incorporates them. Here are the marketing techniques I brought:



           Lastly, I helped Edward plan his social web. I brought in a few examples of character webs, and explained how I would approach creating one. We decided to focus on one character who had the most social connections, and branch out from that person. Hermia seemed like a good choice to Edward, so we placed her in the center of our page and made connections moving outward from there. I also suggested he provides a brief character description under the character name, as well as providing a relationship description along the linking lines. After our session, I feel that Edward is very capable of creating a clear and organized character web and I look forward to seeing the finished product.      

          We finished our 4 week stay at Hawthorne with a very inspiring speech from John Harder himself– he spoke about our future careers in education and imparted some words of wisdom. First, we should only be so vested in our work. It's unhealthy to always take work home and dwell on those issues. He also told us to put up some armour– against colleagues, students, parents–  and keep people at a certain distance. Then he told us that this job can be vague since there isn't always assistance. You have permission to be yourself as a teacher. Along the same lines, with limited funding in the school system, we as teachers have to be the resource for students. We need to be creative to make lessons and activities that can stimulate the mind. Lastly, he advised that we go with the flow. Do this job because you love it, and you will have better luck not burning out if you embrace any challenges that come your way as learning opportunities. Teaching can be an extremely fulfilling career and he believed that everyday that you go to work, you become more you.

           On that note, he wished us success in our endeavours. His words really made me feel a lot better about the impact I have on students and was surprisingly motivational (especially after Edward rolled his eyes when he realized his teacher was about to give a speech).

           In the end, I felt like this experience presented me with a variety of challenges and new opportunities for growth. I wish we had more time with our students, but thankfully I have Edward's email and I encouraged him to send any assignments or questions my way! I am sad this experience is ending, but happy that it happened.

Class 8- Back to the Grind (Hawthorne Day 3)

           Today marked our third visit to Hawthorne Public School for our mentoring sessions. I was pleased to see that Edward was back and we got right into working on writing. I brought the same resources with me as I did last week since I made them with Edward in mind. He thoroughly enjoyed the English Pronunciation Poem! He read through it and I corrected him when he made a mistake the odd time. I prefaced this reading by saying it is purposely trying to trick the reader by showing the plethora of inconsistencies in the English language. If you want to check out this poem, read my previous blog post here. In the interest of saving time, I only chose one more activity of the five I had prepared, and that was the list of English Homophones. I figured they would be the most useful to review in an age where spell-check does most of the work for you. To my surprise, Edward knew them all! 

Is it bad to say I felt proud?

           Anyway, after we whizzed through these activities, we got straight into Midsummer Night's Dream. The main assignments that Edward predicted he would have difficulty with were: Product Commercials, Scene Summaries, and Social Web. We made an initial plan of him emailing me with his progress, then we decided on which activities to focus on first. Since he was struggling with a commercial idea, I probed his knowledge of the play by asking what goods or services he could remember. When we brainstormed a few ideas, he felt less worried about the assignment. Then we moved on to thinking of ideas for the Social Web. I suggested making a list of characters, then writing one linking character to each of them as a start. If he remembered more, great! if he needed some assistance, then I suggested re-reading the play and the dramatis personae. 

           By the end of the session, I felt like we had made some great progress even though we didn't do any actual writing! It feels so motivating and reassuring that I am actually capable of helping students... see below:

           Something that John Harder explained to us at the start of this session was that our influence during these sessions was important to student's development, regardless of what we actually accomplish. I was feeling worried that I wasn't helping these students enough in our short time together, and I wouldn't have a positive effect on their learning, writing, and knowledge if I wasn't editing their work. His sentiments made me feel extremely relieved that I was there for a reason and I was having a positive influence. Can't wait for next week!