EDCI 336 Weekly Reflection
This week, we had a guest speaker, Brittany Johnson, who is a Grade 1 French Immersion teacher at Macaulay Elementary in Victoria, BC. She shared and discussed what it is like to work in her classroom and the strategies and classroom management tools she uses.
We first discussed routines and expectations, she mentioned how these are helpful to get everyone on the same page as the learners step into the classroom. This also allows for the teacher to have an understanding of where each of the students is at the beginning of the day so their individual needs can be met. She mentioned having a chart on the door with just colours that represent how they are feeling as they enter so no words are needed if they are not in the headspace to communicate.
We went into depth on online portfolios and how they are tools that can help share students’ work with parents and change how report cards are done. Throughout the term, she takes photos of students’ work, either an example of a specific competency such as reading, writing, or numeracy and displays their work online in this portfolio. She will then write notes regarding how the student performed and include the rubric they used to evaluate the work so they can have the chance to self-assess as well.
It was a very informative class, and I appreciated how much we learnt about her classroom and how she manages the class and is there for her students. It was really interesting to hear her real-world examples and strategies and how they have directly helped or impacted her teaching and her students.