Journal-Third Field Experience

Week One
This week mainly consisted of organization, meetings and some wonderful issues with
technology. The first few days revolved around meetings with the staff and the English
department. We needed to be in attendance for these meetings as well as focused on getting the
classroom ready. These first few days made me realize how much work goes into the first few
days back regardless of the fact that there are no students around. Books needed to be organized,
curriculum topics needed to be discussed. Being a teacher revolves around many things, and it is
hard work. Technology was a big issue; this taught me about the importance of being organized
and setting things up ahead of time in order to be prepared for the school year.
The first day of school came around and it was very interesting to meet all the students. With two
resource groups, the students I have are very dynamic and there will need to be a focus on
differentiated learning here. I learnt that it is importance to establish a strong, yet inviting
presence in the classroom from day one. My CT did an excellent job with this.
Week Two
This week in class we introduced the course a bit further to students. We began with them writing
about themselves. This is an interesting way to get to know your students. Reading these helped
me identify students in a more personal way, and it helped me learn their names a bit faster. This
is something that I think I will be doing on my own as well. The students were introduced to the
topic of short stories; decisions. This was introduced with a worksheet that students filled out and
then had a class discussion about. It was the first time I led a full class discussion and it was a bit
challenging. I have to find a way to get students to listen to me without sounding too naggy. It is
important for me to walk around and ensure the class is in order. There were some short stories
that were introduced this week, one time it was without my CT, but with a substitute teacher. I
was nervous, but everything ran quite smoothly; my confidence really helped me through this
week.
Week Three
This week mainly consisted of an introduction to a writing activity followed by several writing
periods. From this week I learned one thing; students need structure. They need things visually
displayed for them in order for them to remember what I expect from them. It was shocking to
see how many people do not understand how to skip lines or follow guidelines. It is important for
me to go over each expectation step by step. Marking these papers took a lot of time, especially
when I was giving feedback. I learnt that on the first assignment it is important to outline what
you would like to see the students improve on, and perfect marks should rarely be given out on
the first assignment; students need to be encouraged to improve. Even with the guidelines

displayed on the board, students still failed to follow them. There is a routine that I need to
develop in order to get the students to understand the importance of this.
Week Four
This week was eventful. I had curriculum night filled with a week of planning and preparing
assignments. Safe to say it was busy, but I enjoyed it. My CT has let me teach classes alone; I
still struggle with talkative students who do not pay attention. MY CT has encouraged me and
given me the confidence to deal with the situations, but it still seems to be difficult for me. I hope
to learn management styles from my CT and in my seminar classes. This is one thing that I will
continue to work on until I can be comfortable teaching the class on my own all the time.
Curriculum night was a nice change. It was great to see my CT in action with parents for the first
time. It pays to have a welcoming and positive attitude and a sense of humour. This puts parents
at ease and they will not be afraid to ask questions. Parents want to see that their students are
being taken care of, and that was the attitude that my CT brought to the table. The parents really
care about their kids and one even came up to me and encouraged me to help her son write. This
is a wonderful attitude from a parent; it is nice to know that they are also encouraged at home.
Parents left the classroom looking happy with their childrens teacher and this was all thanks to
the way that my CT addressed them; it was something that I hope to bring to the table when I
meet parents.
Week Five
Since the last time I wrote in this log, I believe I have developed slowly. Students are
now listening to me more when I am speaking and I am getting to know them in a different light.
After teaching a full lesson on my own for a full day I feel as if I had learned a lot; I was
evaluated in these lessons as well. The feedback that I received from my CT throughout the past
few days has really helped me. He has encouraged me to be confident and connect with the
students in order to grasp their attention. I have learned a lot about classroom management
through my CT and my seminar classes. All of these resources I have are encouraging me to do
my very best in order to ensure that my students are getting the most they can from me.
Teaching my lesson, I started off with a little humorous anecdote. This transitioned easily
into the lesson, because I have their attention and they did not speak over me at all throughout
the whole lesson. My supervisor even said that you could hear a pin drop. Through the lesson I
provided good examples of what I expected of them at the end of class. Most students were able
to provide me with this, so I was glad to know that my presentation got to them. I am slowly
gaining confidence and beginning to connect with my students on a personal basis. These
practices are really helping me to manage my classes and get them to learn.
Week Six
Being absent for one day, I missed a full day of writing periods for short stories. This was
followed by us rewarding the students for their hard work by viewing a movie in class. This was

well-received and the students were able to be enthusiastic about coming to class and watching a
movie with their peers. It also reminded them that their hard work pays off, and is much
appreciated. I think that this is an incredibly effective method to incorporate into my class.
My CT and I worked on progress reports this week. It was an interesting thing to try and
fit a set a comments to every student, especially when they did not stand out. Here, I learned the
importance of getting to know students in the first few weeks of class, and collecting some
samples of their work in order to identify what their strengths and weaknesses are.
The week was cut short due to PED days. I attended one, which was filled with a lot of
interesting information about PLCs- a way that teachers meet in order to improve their learning
styles with the concern of the students in mind. It was interesting to know that there are
consistently people working on innovative ways to get teachers working as a community.
Week Seven
I see myself really improving, which is making this field experience feel worthwhile. My
CT and I have a great relationship, and that plays a big part in all of this. I was evaluated by my
supervisor and CT, and both went very well. My CT helped me improve my lesson plan, which I
learned a lot from. My lesson was taught to a resource group; a group of coded students. They all
have difficulty taking notes, and they need to learn visually on top of verbal instruction. With the
help of my CT, I was able to develop a lesson plan with differentiated learning. I had my slides
printed out for them so they were able to follow things on the board, and have the notes in front
of them to keep. I also printed out a note-taking sheet for them, and I indicated the important
things that they should be writing down and taking away from the lesson. This proved to work
very effectively, as students were attentive and able to ask and answer many questions. The
students also had to partake in a group activity in the middle of the class; this got them up and
moving, and they were able to focus all their energy into a fun but insightful learning experience.
I was really satisfied with the way that I could see these students benefitting from my attempts at
differentiating my lesson plans.
A new novel was introduced in class, and students were given a reading schedule. This is
a very crucial and effective way to keep students on top of reading, and to have parents monitor
any homework they have. I will be teaching most of this novel, which is a big job, but I am
excited to put a lot of effort into fun and engaging activities that help the students learn about the
novel.
After noticing that a lot of assignments werent being handed in from one of our groups,
my CT really buckled down on them. He gave the class a serious speech, which was a great way
to get their attention. He assured them that he cared about them and wanted them to do well. This
was followed by a few phone calls home as well as letters being sent home. One student seems to
be having more than just academic problems; his father refused to sign the letters. This will result
in a case conference with the principal and guidance counsellor, which I am interested in
witnessing.
As for my other groups, they received my lessons well. One class in particular did a
spectacular job, and I am so glad to see them improving. Another class is doing quite the
opposite; they are chatty, disruptive and academically weak. There is one girl in particular who

has a lot of attitude and even quite a few rude things to me. This was handled immediately in
class as well as with a phone call home from my CT. I hope to see this problem resolved, because
I want my students to learn and not have that privilege taken from them all because their fellow
students are misbehaving in class. There is a chance that this group will be approached a lot
differently with regards to the work that they will be doing in class. I hope my CT and I can work
hard to eliminate this problem.

Week Eight
As the novel was introduced by my CT and I, students were receiving it well. Themes of
grief and POV were discussed. I still had difficulties approaching one of my groups. From now
on they will not be doing the activities the way the other groups are. They are doing the same
work, but due to the fact that they cannot behave, they will be working individually; any notes
that they need will be copied by them off the board, and then they will be given writing
assignments to hand in every day. It is the only way that the students are able to work and keep
quiet.
We had a case conference with the parents of this troubled student mentioned before. It
was painful and difficult to see a student with so much potential have their academic life ruined
because of a problem at home. We discussed the problem with the mother and the guidance
counsellor and then the mother proceeded to meet with the counsellor to discuss options of social
services. I thought that this would help the student improve, but he is still not handing in work or
reading his novel. It is difficult to see him on the verge of failing the term, but I believe that this
is the only thing we can do for now. Someone needs to realize that this student is very much at
risk, and things need to be done.
Week Nine
Exams were given out this week. It was interesting to see how each group reacted very
differently to the exams. The resource groups needed their time to calm down and discuss the
exam. The anxiety and tension was high in the class, but it helped to go through the exam stepby-step and explain in question in different ways to get the students started. This also went for
the regular groups as well. The results were okay. Some groups did better than others, but this
may have been a result of giving them all different questions. I dont think it was only that; the
main problem I saw was that students were not supporting their arguments and not writing strong
essays. I think it is important that I go over with them how to write a strong essay before they
write their next exam.
My CT and I discussed giving the resource groups a re-evaluation. This required us to ask
them the same question that they received on their initial exam, but in a different way. We broke
the question down for them into five parts, making the exam more like a bunch of short answer
questions rather than one long essay question. When asked which exam was easier, the results
were 50-50, and when marking the tests there was evidence of this. The students will be
receiving the highest mark. Half the class did better on the first assessment, and half the class did
better on the second assessment.

Week Ten
I went over each exam with every group, handing their exams back and discussing with
students individually where they could improve. They received this very well and I think that
they realize that I care about them and I will help them improve for their next exam. This method
showed the students that I worked hard for them and I love to share my work with them.
My CT and I completed IEPs this week as well. It is interesting to see how students have
improved from last year. It was also interesting to see how difficult it is to pinpoint where the
student has difficulties and how we can improve them. It is mostly the same for every student,
but it is hard to think about all these things when each student is different and almost all your
students are on IEPs. I am glad I got to have this experience and I am glad that I had the
opportunity to explore the way that the school works to implement IEPs. I believe that there are
many improvements that need to be made, and my CT and resource teacher are working hard to
do so.
Halloween was this week and that was a new experience for me. It was chaos. Students
expected to do no work at all for us and it was difficult to teach a lesson. Some costumes were
questionable and some behaviour was out of hand. I have to really consider how to approach my
classroom on holidays like this where students will have no motivation to do any class work.
Week Eleven
As the first term was coming close to an end, it was time for us to complete all our marking and
ensure that all the marks were put into the system. My CT did a great job of preparing me for
this; he stressed the importance of having everything for the term finished two weeks before the
term ends. This helped us not to be too overwhelmed and we were able to enter marks with ease,
without feeling too rushed. This is a practice that I will continue to put into place for the rest of
my teaching years. We made sure that we had at least six items to mark the students on and that
everything was complete way before the term ended. This way we had time to calculate marks
and make sure that we had everything we needed before it was too late.
As I had a lot of classroom management issues with one particular class, my CT and I decided
we needed to take some serious action, as it was interfering with the way the students worked. As
a team, we decided that we needed to deal with the main group of boys that caused the most
problems. My CT decided that they would not be allowed into the class, and they would work
separately from the class. Before we did this, we made some phone calls home. I was initially
incredibly nervous for this. My CT wanted us to do this to ensure that parents were aware of the
issue and that their kids didnt come home and alter the story. My CT always stresses the
importance of communicating with parents in order to keep yourself safe from any
misunderstandings. These phone calls went very smoothly, they were all very grateful to hear
from me. It really helped when I ensured the parents that their child was a great student, but I
was genuinely concerned that their disruptive behaviour would cause their marks to drop. Every
parent was very kind and understanding. I hope this gets the message across to the group of boys,
and I hope that soon enough they will be back in the class and it will be running smoothly.

Week Twelve
This week, the students had their final novels for their exams. Before this, it was crucial for me
to review the novel with the students in a way that would get to them. I planned out a fun and
interactive activity that would get the students to review the whole novel. Despite a few
management issues, students reacted well to the activity and participated. As I begin to mark, I
hope I see these activities get through to the students.
Week Thirteen
This week, I spent a lot of time prepping and marking. It was important for me to make use of
my time while students were watching a movie. I learned quickly this week that students do not
like to write anything after watching a movie, despite the fact that they were told weeks before
that they would be doing so. While marking, it was very satisfying to see improvements from the
first exam. It is a very reassuring feeling to know that the lessons you plan for and teach end up
getting through to the students.
I had a fun adventure with the photocopy machine this week. As I was preparing to have all my
sheets photocopied ahead of time, I learned how to fix a jammed photocopier. It required me to
get through a lot of anger and frustration, but it is an essential part to being a teacher, since things
like this can happen all the time.
Week Fourteen
As my stage comes closely to the end, I realize how great my time has been here. I had
developed such great relationships with my students, which is a big factor that explains why I
have improved. I have become comfortable and confident approaching students and having
discussions with them. I can truly say that I will miss them.
This week ended with parent-teacher conferences. With all my resources with me, a reading
schedule and the students work, they ran very smoothly. The list of every students marks as
well as examples of their work really helped me justify their childs marks. It was a relief to see
that all parents were always on my side. They all were friendly, understanding and had genuine
interest in their childs marks. It was great to see my first set of parent-teacher interviews go so
well.