I though that the lesson went really great! I was really happy with all of my groups  involvement and I think we all had really good ideas to contribute. The part of the lesson that Josh and I taught was really simple to teach but I felt like it would be a perfect activity for grade 1 or 2 students. The whole class seemed to enjoy it and I really appreciated all of their feedback. Im glad that we video taped the lesson because as much as I hate watching and listening to myself on a recording, it was helpful to see what i actually looked like while teaching. I have never actually seen myself teach so it was really interesting to hear and see what my tendencies were. I didn’t realize how much I used my hands while talking, that was one of the biggest things I noticed. One thing I know I can definitely work on is being more direct in the word choice I use while I teach. I know I said that that was my goal on the lesson plan but I noticed that I still didn’t do a very good job of it on Tuesday. I will just have to work really hard next semester and at home to improve my word choice in order to polish it for the Spring practicum.

One thing I can truly say I enjoyed was how engaged our class was for these music lessons. I can definitely see how someone could just not want to participate in a grade 2 themed lesson but for every single lesson that was taught, not just my groups, the whole class was involved and fully engaged. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that that made it so much easier to stay professional up at the front and continue the lesson. This just speaks volumes about how much our cohort has grown over the course of this semester and there’s another one to go!

FPPL

  • Learning involves patience and time 
  • Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors 
  • Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place) 

Taken all together, these principles are very important to keep in mind as a teacher. The 1st one is detrimental to be mindful of or else you will always be frustrated in yourself and start to question your teaching skills. This is especially important in the younger grades when everything they are learning is brand new. The second principle speaks for itself. As teachers we hold the power to teach the people of the future so we must always give our all and that will ultimately create benefits for us as well. As for the third principle, we really tried to focus on making our lesson holistic, experiential and relational and I feel like we did a good job of that.