Happy Halloween, Día de Muertos, and All Saints’ Day! ¡Feliz Halloween, Día de Muertos, y Día de Todos los Santos! Whichever side of the Atlantic you’re on, may all souls have a great day of tricks and treats. In the spirit of the season, I wanted to write one final reflection upon my time and experience in the TAB program, living, studying, and collaborating with amazing colleagues in Madrid, Spain. As I prepare for my first day of Field Experience III Practicum on Monday, November 2nd, I am organizing my lesson plans and preparing to take these first, new steps in my learning journey, I hope to share more of the lessons I’ve learned while at SEK El Castillo as I collaborated with my partner-teacher, Mako.
These lessons bring together the cultural and pedagogical experiences I had while at SEK El Castillo, that with the benefit of new contexts and insights, make for tools or practices that I hope to bring into my Field III classroom. As I believe my intercultural knowledge and firsthand experience, have the potential to positively impact the teaching I do and the learning done by my Field III students. Though I haven’t had the opportunity to meet them yet, Monday will be the day I do so, I am excited to get to know them and my partner-teacher more; over the course of the next six weeks.
So, in no particular order, here are a few of the lessons I’ve learned, that I hope to utilize or work upon in Field III:
- Routines and Schedules – Swimming and Thriving: Since my time at SEK El Castillo began, keeping a good routine and schedule is one of the keys to unlocking future success, for yourself and for your students. In acclimatizing to the routines and schedules of my partner-teacher, classes, and school, I initially felt the waves of uncertainty overwhelm me. However, in remembering how to swim, despite the flood of all that was new and unfamiliar to me at that time, I broke through the surface and staggered back onto my feet to walk the short once more. In preparing for Field III, I know I’ll be diving back into that sea once again, but this time I will be wearing a wet suit, googles and snorkle at the ready, to ensure I can adapt and thrive no matter the strength of the tides.
- Lesson Planning – Big Needs to Small Wants: From my first week to my last week at SEK El Castillo, Mako always demonstrated how vital it was to ensure that the lesson you plan, design, and teach to your students (no matter what the subject may be) that it begins with the ‘big needs’ and if time permits, includes the ‘small wants’. By ‘big needs’ I am talking about the curriculum criteria, concepts, and other necessary academic requirements, to lay a good foundation and build upon it to create the lesson. Whereas, ‘small wants’ are the secondary concepts, interests-based areas of focus, or supplementary information that can be integrated into the lesson, after those ‘big needs’ are already met. It may seem like an odd form to construct a lesson from, but in practice, it can utilize the time in a given planning period to best understand where you (as a teacher) and your students (as learners) are presently at within the subject. Adjusting accordingly to see that everyone meets the necessary curriculum criteria, and maintain engagement through whole class interests-based investigations/research into a subject-specific topic; allows a teacher to truly comprehend the scope of knowledge taught and the scale of learning: what has been accomplished and what remains to be explored and discussed.
- Classroom & School Culture(s) – Similar Differences: In your classroom and school, there are several similarities between the two cultures created within community, but similar does not mean same and as a teacher, knowing what these are and where differences may be; can be instructive for how to approach the creation of classroom rules, etiquette, and community values/beliefs. Once you notice these similar differences, it becomes easier to understand how and why certain norms, standards, and practices seem to function or cause an effect in ways that you never fully considered beforehand. Whether it’s how discussions are structured, conflicts are resolved between peers, or even why lessons are conducted with student voice/input, noticing and acting upon these similar differences within your classroom can be crucial for classroom management and the greater teaching and learning done over the course of one period. These cultural subtleties and the interplay between the classroom and the school can be great sources of inspiration and information: helping you to channel the energy of a conversation into a learning activity, providing direction for the designing and teaching the lesson plans you create.
- Faces & Names – Overcoming a Cross-wired Memory: In having three rotating classes of Grade 6 students, I admit that I struggled with keeping the faces and names of all students in order and sometimes, felt that my own memory was cross-wired. It was by no means easy, but by the end of my time in TAB, I felt that this difficulty in my own memory had been somewhat-though-not-entirely resolved. Despite this perpetual struggle in ensuring that names and faces do not get cross-wired in future, the importance of correctly connecting faces and names remains. Heading into Field III, setting reminders for myself to run a mental recall list of my students’ names and faces will be one way I intend to overcome this challenge, mitigating the mistakes that may come up in such recall. It may appear insignificant on the surface, but to me, the meaning matters and I won’t stop striving to understand and get it right.
- People – Experiences First and Centred: At the end of the day, it’s the people that make the difference and are at the heart of all that you do as a teacher. These people are everyone in your school community: students, custodians, administration, education assistants, parents, volunteers, and colleagues; each brings a multitude of knowledges, beliefs, values, principles, experiences, memories, and more to all that they accomplish and achieve at school or for students’ benefit. To remember to put them first and at the centre of what you decide to do, makes a positive difference in how you teach and what everyone learns. Classrooms thrive in community, when individuals are united and making progress, one step forward at a time.
To my upcoming Field Experience III Practicum school and classroom communities, and to all my fellow peers (future colleagues), have an awesome Field III! A truly transformative experience awaits and I look forward to all that Field III has in store, which I’m sure will be much and more than I could ever imagine it to be.