Social Issues Day

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend Brock's Social Issues Day at the Hamilton Campus but I have had the experience working as an educational assistant in a high school in the York Region District School Board. Over the course of 8 professional development days, I attended many conferences and seminars dealing with sensitive social issues, including issues surrounding students identified with exceptionalities such as autism and psychosocial disorders. It was paradoxical in some respects to be employed by a board that stressed inclusion, religious and racial tolerance and diversity and equality for all students on the one hand, while the special education classes were hidden away in the far corner of the building and the principal and vice-principal made a grand total of one visit between the two to our classrooms that school year.
Inclusion must be far more than tolerance and acceptance of diversity; it must include a concerted effort on the part of educators to include the diverse in the everyday activities of the school while encouraging the mainstream, majority to explore and interact with minority populations within the school and board. We have a student with autism in our class. Grade five students can be very nurturing to their classmates and this is no exception in this class. As a teacher, I will do my best to encourage my students, whether they be in grade 1 or grade 6 to welcome diversity. I hope my effort will lead to students that continue to have this positive attitude into their high school years, unlike the high school I recently worked in.

Microteaching

A lot of my colleagues had the opportunity to teach lessons before their microteaching experience. I had not had this opportunity so while my colleagues, councillor and camera watching, I taught my first lesson; Features of Informational Texts; Magazine Articles. After some initial fiddling with the overhead projector (Note to self: practice working the overhead BEFORE your lesson), the lesson progressed with a few points worthy of mention. I used the term "you guys". Too familiar to instill much respect from my students. I made the mistake of asking "Would anyone like to answer this question?" followed by no volunteers. (lesson learned the hard way.) Finally, I would get into the habit of repeating my student's responses. It is now clear to me why this practice is not a good idea. 1) It takes up time. 2) It discourages students from paying attention to their peers. (why listen to them when the teacher will repeat what was said?) and 3) It does not encourage students to project their voices and speak up. I have made a good effort to eliminate this practice in my other lessons.
I honestly went into this lesson expecting to make lots of mistakes and learn a lot of "what not to dos" and believe me, there were a lot of them. I did not in the least feel disappointed with all my mistakes. I know how difficult it is to be a good teacher and so I am realistic how long it will take to become one but when I watched the tape of this lesson back at home, I felt really good. I saw a teacher that had good mannerisms, involved the students in the lesson and had good rapport with his class. I felt like a teacher for the first time. It was a good feeling!