October 8th - Richmond High
Today was my first time being back in a high school since I graduated over 6 years ago. Far to say I was a bit nervous coming back as a teacher candidate and not a student. I had never been to Richmond High before so I was impressed by how nice the building looked when I first arrived. As my only frame of reference was my old high school, which, in comparison, was very old, and rundown, Richmond High seemed so fancy.
The faculty advisor, Remi, was so welcoming and very chatty which helped with the first-day jitters. Once everyone arrived, the 12 TCs there were provided with the timetable for the day and given a tour of the campus. Remi made sure to stop by many different classrooms and even the superlab. As the campus was so new to me, I'm happy Remi took us around because I would have gotten so lost, especially when the hallway was full of kids. Once we were done he left us free to explore and sit in some classes. I was only there for half the day so I wanted to make the best use of my time as I could, especially exploring classes that were outside of my teachable.
The most impactful experience was in the first class I went into, a 9th-grade math class learning about proper and improper fractions. The teacher was so welcoming and introduced me to his class. I was so worried that I was interrupting the lesson but he took a moment to tell the students and me about his experience as a student teacher which helped ease any awkwardness that was present. When he returned to teaching I immediately noticed how calm and relaxed he made the classroom feel. Math anxiety is very much a real thing, yet none of the students seemed afraid when he asked them questions. I think the key was his teaching style/personality. He was very relaxed as he spoke and almost informal. Like having a friend teach you something rather than an imposing lecturer. However, it was obvious that he had set classroom rules and expectations at the beginning of the year as students seemed to respect his rules and him as a teacher. I feel like this relaxed atmosphere is what I want to have in my future classroom as well.
October 15th - Port Moody Secondary & Southpointe Academy
Wow, today was a lot of driving and a very early morning. Port Moody starts their IB classes at 7:30 am so I arrived at 7:00 am to check in and find the classrooms. The school was older than Richmond High but it still was nice. I suppose I arrived a little too early as the facility advisor Sean was not in the office yet nor was any of the other office staff, so I stood around until 7: 15 am. Sean was very straightforward and gave me a sticky note with two classes IB Physics 12 and Bioolgy 11 and walked me to the classrooms. I wasn't able to get a full tour of PMSS which was a little disappointing but it allowed me to show up at the IB Physics class early and talk to the teacher Ms.Greenwood.
Ms. Greenwood was amazing. She was so friendly and had a great sense of humour that she put into her teaching. She made a point to only teach for around 20 min and let students work after that on assignments and problem sets, reducing their homework load and letting them ask for help. She also used skeleton notes which I liked as students could learn the material rather than just copying stuff down. As she taught the lesson she would ask specific students thing and it became apparent that she had built a trusting and carring students. They felt comfortable enough to joke with her and show their unique personalitites. She also spent some time showing me her lessons and how she organizes her student website. It was intresting that she posts a video of her teaching the material online, I though students would skip class. However, she said that its the opposite students still come to class beacuse they can ask questions and get help. I really like the idea as students who are sick or leave to a diffrent country for a while can still keep up with the material.
The next class was Bio 11 and I helped leading a lab! This was such a cool experience! The teacher was actually relativly new having only taught four 4 years and this was his first year contract position. While I didnt get to ask him alot of questions, the time I got to actually interact and help students was invaluable. Students were learning about cell membranes and did the "BonBon" lab which can be accessed here:
https://static.nsta.org/extras/adi-lifescience/Lab3Handout-Osmosis.pdf
It became obvious that students need very detailed instructions in multiple ways as many students became confused and lost.
Later, I went to the independant IB school Southpointe Academy. The main campus was built very recently which shows, it is so nice. Initially, we were met by William Johnson the Deputy Head of School and given a introduction to the school, its values, and the IB program. He also made sure to leave some time for questions before leading us on the tour.
Overall, it was so suprising that Southpointe is a K - 12 school. Seeing a bunch of 7 year olds run to their classrooms while 12 year olds clean their lockers and 17 year olds work on their laptops is such a diffrent feeling. But it works so well. The students we passed were so polite and courteous to eachother and the teachers. The middle schoolers lockers, oh my gosh, they were practicaly immaculate. William told us how important it is to have community at the school and how they take the time to really build that relastionship with students and their families. Southpointe infact has a block were students go to a assigned teacher who acts as a trusted adult for them, checking up on them, how their doing, hows school going. This person follows the student the whole year and even onward building a safe place for them. This way no student is left behind which is fantasic. Teachers also run so many clubs and co-curriculars for the students. This sense of community throughout the entire school is something that I have never seen before. It was for this reason that I hope to participate in my CFE here.