Pictures of my Experience 

As my time as a volunteer and as a teacher candidate, I have built up a collection of objects that are important to me. These artifacts remind me of my successes as a person and an educator. They remind me why I indeed want to become a teacher working with children. Teaching is by no means an easy profession, but it is without a doubt a rewarding one. Your hard work and determination pay off with the success and development of your students. The photos above are all different but they all reflect aspects of my time in education. From acts of application to teacher survival bags, each item in these photos holds special memories in which I will never forget. As I continue teaching, I hope to build upon my collection with positive memories yet to come.

 

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Reflection Of EDPR 3100

During my lessons, I was surprised at how well the students were engaged. Students were listening and actively participating in my activities. During my story reading, the students also remained focused. During the drawing activities, that is where the noise began to pick up. I encouraged collaboration and discussion, but the extent of the noise lingered within my head. When discussing with my teacher mentor, she believed that the room noise level was appropriate for the activity they were doing. That being said, the noise level is still something that I am reflecting upon. Maybe setting activity expectations before the activity has begun would benefit the classroom management and help with future noise levels. Overall, I was happy with how lessons went. With my practicum at an end, I feel as though I have learnt a lot during my time at Westmount. My practicum has been quite the learning experience. Entering this practicum, my greatest fear was losing control of the students within the classroom. I was happy that during this practicum, I personally developed my classroom management skills. I give thanks to this development to both Allison and our psychology class at TRU. My classroom management strategies have developed during this practicum, adding a range of new tactics to my management skills. My second improvement would probably be my personal development in my lesson planning skills. Coming to the practicum with a well-thought-out and constructed lesson plan benefited what I was teaching within the classroom. One wish that I will develop as I practice more is the lecture aspects of my lesson plans. I need to better articulate my ideas and the lesson to the students for there to be a future success in the classroom. That being said, I know that I am improving. I am excited to see where this program will take me. 

 

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My Volunteer Work

McCammon

McCammon was the first-ever school that I volunteered at. I wanted to know if teaching was something that I would actually enjoy doing for the rest of my life. I needed to know, so I put myself in the field of education. I quickly realized how much I loved every aspect of education, now knowing that a teacher was something I wanted to become. I volunteered at McCammon during many years of my UFV education, building experience and time.

McCammon Baseball

Many children shared an interest in learning how to play baseball, the problem was that there were no volunteers will to step up in creating a school team. Knowing that there was an interest in playing and learning baseball, I volunteered to be the adult teaching the children how to play ball. I spent many of my lunches and after-hours playing and teaching children how to play baseball. Our teams were inclusive which encouraged many students to try baseball for their first time. Overall, my baseball volunteer work was a great success.

Holiday Concerts

John Corbett was in charge of the holiday concerts even before I was even born. The year after he retired, others needed to try and fill his role in making the holiday concert a success. This role was approached by a team of teachers and volunteers, myself being one of them. From creating the set and props to finding the right music and practising with the students, I did my best to help fill John’s role during this transition.

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Teacher resume:

Brien Frail 46706 Fairwood Drive, Chilliwack, V2P3S8 · 604-792-1638 Brienfrail@outlook.com        Student ID: T00636013

Experience

January 2017 – June 2017 Grade 1 – Renee Besse, Mccammon Elementary: 150 Hours ·Worked with beginning readers in small groups and individually. Led guided reading lessons with four to five children. Would help students read unknown words using various strategies, such as decoding, reading cues, and thinking of words that make sense. Helped with comprehension work. · Assisted students struggling with attention during classroom instruction and individual work time. Identified students who were distracted, helped them refocus on the lesson and their work. ·Supervised students during field trips and safety drills. Walking to the public library, assisted with road safety, kept the children safe and ensured they did not fall behind. Assisted with the classroom bus evacuation drills, providing a clear understanding of the drill at hand. ·During McCammon’s primary sports day, I was put in charge of a group of children. My responsibility was to keep the children safe and to make sure everyone was participating and having fun. ·Administered spelling tests and help students prepare for tests. On occasion, would work with students who needed additional support. ·Worked with students during activities requiring writing, assisting them with sounding out unknown words. ·Assisted students with anxiety, supervising them during their calm-down routine.

January 2017 – June 2017 Grade 5/6 –John Corbett, Mccammon Elementary: 20 Hours ·Worked with students individually and in small groups. A primary focus within John Corbett’s classroom was re-examining difficult problems, teaching the students to understand problems in alternative ways. My job working with individual students and groups was not to simply provide the answers to questions but to provide them with the tools to reach the answer themselves. The use of visualization is a perfect example of examining a question in an alternative approach. The transformation of a written question into a visual problem provides not only a different approach to learning but can also provide a connection to the student. ·Teaching Mathematical concepts one-on-one with struggling students. By working one-on-one with students, it gave them the opportunity to have the time needed to learn or strengthen the concepts being learned. One-on-one work also gave the students the opportunity to explore problems in alternative methods, such as taking advantage of visualization approaches. ·Worked with students to assist them with critical thinking for student debates. Would discuss with student’s alternative viewpoints and questioned the long-term effects of their viewpoints. ·Taught art projects to students related to historic dates or the class subject matter. The holiday of Easter was during this period of volunteering; therefore, the students were given the task of putting their own artistic envision upon an egg. The use of pastels and shading was introduced to the students. ·Provided tests individually to students struggling to complete the test with the rest of the class. ·Supervised students within the classroom with and without staff present. I was given the opportunity to be placed into a teacher’s role, needing to maintain control, yet provide the environment needed to encourage learning.   September 2017 – Present Grade 3/4 – Reid Clark, Mccammon Elementary: 100 hours   ·Utilized instructional strategies for students with Autism, English as a Second language, ADHD, and other exceptionalities. Both time and alternative methods of teaching were key to assisting students who struggled with comprehension. ·Worked with Syrian refugees who are new to the English language in all subjects. Reinforced lessons at a slower pace, utilized different teaching methods when necessary, and often provided the context behind the subject matter. ·Assisted with a student with autism when the educational assistant was on break. Helped to keep him focused on the seatwork he is doing using a visual schedule and picture symbol cards. ·Taught and assessed small reading groups (literacy circles). Took reading groups while the teacher worked with other groups, followed the direction of the teacher.  The reading level of the groups varied. ·Assisted with children struggling with Mathematics. Worked with individual students, reteaching areas in which they were struggling, utilizing alternative teaching methods and strategies such as using visualization, real-life problems, manipulatives. ·Assisted with creative and non-creative writing.  Helped students think of ideas to write about and provided support with putting their ideas into their written work. ·Helped produce the set display for the annual Christmas play. ·Assisted students under physical and emotional distress, spoke to them in a calming manner, reminding them of their ‘calm down’ strategies such as deep breathing and going to their ‘calm down’ spot.

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Conferences, Workshops, and Seminars

During my time at TRU, I have attended a few conferences, workshops, and seminars. All of these events have been beneficial to my development as an educator. The first workshop that I went to was Play is the Way. Play is the Way is a program aiming to teacher children how to learn behaviour through the act of play and games. This workshop stressed the importance of being proactive educators, rather than reactive educators. Reacting to issues do not solves problems, whereas being proactive about issues and behaviour before it occurs helps lead to success. The next workshop that I attended was the equity meeting, which involved the three cohorts. There had been some concerns between the cohorts and this meeting as a method in which to address these concerns. A lot was said regarding the difference between equality and equity, and the unique situation the different cohorts are in. Overall, the equity meeting was insightful and eye-opening. The final conference that I attended would be Westcast, which was hosted in Vancouver. Westcast is a conference for educators in which different aspects of teaching and learning was addressed. I attended multiple lectures regarding my future role as an educator.

 

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Certificates

Play is the Way Certificate

Play is the Way was a valuable workshop that opened my eyes to different aspects of education. I was made to question my own held beliefs, which is always a positive sign of growth and development. It was at this workshop that learned that I wanted to be a proactive educator, rather than a reactive teacher. I also learned that day that school is more than just teaching students information, it is also a place in which we teach children to become better versions of themselves. We teach children how to be good people who will be positive members of society.

Standard First Aid & CPR Certificate

My first aid training was not related to my goals of becoming an educator, but I am happy I have it. If something goes wrong not only in the classroom but anywhere, I am able to act with confidence to aid a fellow human. Although this certificate will expire before I finish my education, it would be a workshop that I would take again.

 

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TRU Reflection

My time at TRU has been short, but intense to say the least. That being said, I do enjoy the feeling of beating a difficult challenge when faced with one. If anything, the experience here at TRU is better preparing me for my role as a teacher. So much of my time at the University of the Fraser Valley was dedicated to writing papers and completing assignments. Here at TRU, I feel as though the learning process is more “hands-on”. I have been provided with the opportunity to take my own learning into my own hands in which I can grow as an individual and educator. I have made countless friends here in both Kamloops and the program with hopefully more to come as time continues. The professors have been both insightful and friendly, I could have not asked for better educators myself. As my education continues, I hope to gain even more experience in the field of teaching. I wish to apply everything I have learned here at TRU to use it within the classroom, demonstrating my skill as a powerful teacher.