2. My Team: AYJ Science Department
My
Associate
Teacher
Michelle
Neilipovitz
My “unofficial” Associate Teacher
Alexandra Timmins
3. Covid and Construction
School divided into coloured zones for
students to use washrooms. Lunch areas
designated for each grade.
Two science classrooms were
under construction during my
placement. The library and “the
pit” was also under construction
and fully updated!
5. Grade 12 University Chemistry Experiences
“This is actually kind of fun…”
- One of my grade 12 students reluctant to admit they like
organic chemistry
“Holy s***! I have to text my mom! She’s going
to be so proud of me!”
- One of my students on getting their unit
test back
Labs! Labs! Labs!
Developing scientific
literacy skills
Safety contracts Making mistakes
7. Grade 10 Applied Science Experiences
Meme Check-Ins
Handouts galore!
Understanding and
Implementing IEPS
“You better find and pick up that eyeball”
-Me to a group of students who threw a fish eyebal
across the classroom during dissections
Practicing lab
skills and using
equipment
I had the privilege of completing my practicum at A.Y Jackson Secondary School in Kanata. Last year for my placement I was with the Ottawa Catholic School Board so this year it was great to be able to experience the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board as well.
For my practicum I was assigned to work with Michelle Neilipovitz who teaches General Science at the Intermediate, Senior division. For the semester, I would be teaching alongside Ms. Neilipovitz in her two Grade 12 University Chemistry classes. Since Ms. N’s third class was a Grade 11 Functions class (and math is not one of my teachable subjects) I took the initiative to develop my teaching experiences. Since I had not yet had practicum experience working at the intermediate science level, I connected with Alexandra Timmins - a junior science teacher - and was able to shadow and teach in her Grade 10 Applied Science class. The department agreed it would be a beneficial experience as a student teacher since many of the students in Ms. Timmin’s class had IEPs, behaviour issues, anxiety disorders and/or mobility issues.
Since two of the science classrooms were under construction our chemistry class took place in a physics classroom. There was no fume hood, eyewash station or emergency shower that is in a chemistry classroom for safety. The construction team was informed and was able to put in a temporary eyewash station. My AT and I had to consider the absence of a fume hood when planning labs and had to implement enhanced safety measures for disposing of waste. In relation to covid procedures, all students had to sign in and out when leaving the classroom and were required to go to the designated washroom for our area. Unfortunately the library was closed so we were not able to make use of this space.
Link to questionnaire: https://forms.gle/WfU7Cv2nUMaTQcGcA
I created this form at the beginning of my placement to help me get to know my students during my observation days since I was only there on Wednesdays. I used their responses to help develop a class profile that I used to guide my planning and implementation of course content. At the beginning of the school year my teacher also had the students write introduction letters to help us get to know them as well.
On student progress - One of my favourite things about teaching is making connections with my students and watching how they progress throughout the semester. I love seeing them get excited about their learning and asking questions. I am always surprised by the amazing questions they are asking and am actually excited when I do not know the answer to their questions (my AT included). It gives us the opportunity to explore an ideas further and I would often have a student look into their question and come back with what they found on the topic to discuss with the class. During my placement I saw so many students that made leaps and bounds during their learning journey. One student was really struggling with some of the units and really pulled together and worked incredibly hard during the last two units. Her hard work paid off and she really showed improvement and meaningful engagement with the class. Even students who were shy at the beginning of the semester or were struggling silently started to come forward and ask questions or would even call me over during a work period. These “little steps” are so meaningful to me as an educator and I always praised my students for their progress.
During one my lessons I incorrectly explained a step on balancing redox reactions to my students. As my students were leaving class for the day I overheard a few students confused and one student say they thought I was incorrect. I took a look back at my slides and explanation and realized my written directions were correct but the way I explained the example was incorrect. I was VERY panicked by my mistake and my AT talked me through the process, reminding me that most students probably did not notice and I would be able to correct it with them the next day. I like to show my students it is okay to make mistakes and laugh at yourself so played a game of “Find the Teacher’s Mistake”. To my pleasant surprise many of my students had grouped together outside of class to discuss the lesson and correctly guided their peers away from my mistake. It was amazing to see how what I saw as a huge mistake as an opportunity for my students to work together and figure things out on their own using their peers as resources.
Working with this class has been by far my most fun and eye-opening teaching experience!
Meme check-ins - This check-in was done daily as we welcome all the students. We used their responses to gauge what activities we would start the class with. For example, if the majority of responses were low energy we would start the class with something more exciting like a lab
Handouts - every days there were multiple handouts for the students that were used as note taking sheets and fill in the blanks to follow along with the lessons. These handout were printed in advance and given to all the students. I talked to my AT about the benefit of providing physical copies of handouts to the students but also the organizational aspect that went along with it. We would often have to coach and follow-up with students to make sure they had their materials and kept their binders organized. As a teacher, I do not know if having so many handouts is beneficial for all classes. I noticed at times students would get confused with which handout we were working on and would regularly misplace them.
Lab skills - lab skills was a huge component to all of the labs and activities. Labs focused on how to use microscopes and these skills that were developed were used in future labs to examine cells and tissue types. Tools like ray boxes, mirrors and even glow sticks were used to explore properties of light. The glow sticks were a great introduction to light that got them excited!
Dissections - something many of my kids were dreading! This was surprising to me because most classes I have worked with were always super excited for dissections! Keeping students on task was the biggest challenge for the fish dissection. Many students were grossed out by the fish and had to be reminded to work safely with the scalpel and to put their safety goggles back on. My breakthrough in my relationship with a more challenging group of students occurred during this dissection when the group decided to remove and throw their fish “”Patrick’s” eyeball. While I was happy to see them engaged in the dissection, I was clear in that they needed to find and clean up the eyeball. They did not take me seriously at first but to my surprise with a few gentle reminders (and me finding the eyeball for them) they cleaned it up and reluctantly worked together as a group to clean up their mess. To a non-teacher I feel like this experience doesn’t seem like much of a success but for me working with these students their actions were a big milestone!
I had the opportunity to spend a few hours shadowing the resource teacher at the school. She shared her jobs and responsibilities and discussed and she coordinates action plans for students. The teacher works with admin, regular classroom teachers, students and families to ensure students needs are met so that can be success and also works with teachers to provide suggestions and resources for differentiation and inclusion within their own classrooms. I had the opportunity to speak with a few students regarding the projects designed for them and also was able to discuss with various Education Assistants.
In honour of the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation my grade 10 students watched the movie “Indian Horse” that follows the story of a Canadian First Nations boy survives in a residential school in the 1970s. Unfortunately I was not able to be in the school on this day (the day did not fall on a Wednesday) but I was told the students found the movie interesting and had a bit of a discussion both before and after viewing the movie. Thinking about truth and reconciliation and the idea of watching a relevant film can be engaging for students, but I do feel it is important to discuss and have students think critically about these more difficult topics throughout their education experience and not just on days that are deemed meaningful.
Teaching during covid has actually been a blessing in disguise at his has really helped me to develop my adaptability and technology skills. When we made the pivot to online learning my ATs and I coordinated a plan of action and shifted some topics around that we felt would not be as meaningful online; we saved these activities and labs for when we returned from online learning. Teaching during this time has introduced me to so many amazing online resources that help students remain engaged while online. Doing the meme check ins were super helpful especially when no one had their cameras on. I started doing these check-ins with my grade 12s who, to my surprise, absolutely loved them! I was worried they would think it was silly but they loved it and when we returned to in person learning they asked if we could continue to do them!
I was most worried about being online with my grade 12s because we were in the middle of they organic chemistry unit where drawing organic molecules was a big focus. Trying to teach how to do these drawings online and having students show me what they know online was challenging but I found Google Jamboard to be a great resource along with virtual drawing programs. They were able to use the jamboards to work collaboratively in breakout rooms and since I had gotten to know my students well I was able to group them accordingly.
A hot topic of discussion in the department was the government announcement to de-stream all grade 9 courses beginning in September of 2022. Discussions of how this would be
While excited for the change, I am nervous as a student teacher to begin my teaching career at the forefront of this change. I am glad I had the opportunity to make connections and gather information that will help me to prepare for this change.
Who said grade 12s can’t have fun?? Over the semester I was able to really get to know and make connections with my students and have loads of fun during the process! The students participated in various school activities such as the Staff Masked Singer, a door decorating contest, PJ day and more!
Link to student feedback form: https://forms.gle/yoFpgzzECK36yvPx7
I am a very self-aware individual and recognize that I do not accept constructive feedback well. By this I mean that when I receive constructive feedback I will internalize the feedback and dwell on my mistakes. Being aware of this, I am working on overcoming this weakness but doing what scares me the most - constantly asking for and receiving feedback. Throughout the semester I would always check in with my students, AT, and fellow teaching staff to get feedback on what went well and ways in which I can improve. It was through this constant feedback that I was able to move past dwelling on mistakes and focus on using the feedback to improve my practice!
