Just when I thought the tears would stop!!!

@ 10:32am I received an email in my inbox, it was titled "I MISS YOU". And just as I thought the tears ended yesterday at 3:30pm creeped around the clock, but of course it just never does!!

Because I set up a blog where I would post their homework and had them create their own blog, somehow she sneaked my email and sent me this...

Hey, Miss D!

So, I won't tell you when or how, BUT I got my hands on your email!!! I was so sad yesterday when that bell rang and really wished it was just the first week that you were starting! I miss you already!!!!!!!!!! Just so you know, you were the best student teacher that we have ever had! It won't be the same without you.

OOOH! And can you tell me my mark for my blog? I am dying to know! AND make sure that you visit! AND AND you're good at soccer.... sorrry already told you that...

Btw... my aunt's b-day is a day after yours...so I will be sure to remember yours WHICH MEANSSSS you'll get a warm birthday wish from me =)

OH AND don't think I didn't see you kick the ball and make it hit Alex... but I forgive you!

~Kassia (the one who loves you most)


YES THE WATER WORKS CAME ON.....AT WORKKKKKK!!!!

And to top it all off, one of my other students emailed me, and he wrote..."So, I knew Kassia had your email so I got it from her, it's important I promise!! I've been working on this for a few weeks now, and it's finally finished. Yes, you've seen the working progress but YOU haven't seen the finished product. This is my goodbye gift to you from me. You are an amazing teacher and it is amazing that you still make the time to tutor and help students who need extra help after school with such a busy life. You are amazing at what you do and I am so jealous that other students will have a chance to have you....why can't we just keep you =( I think I am going to email your professors and tell them that your too good to leave, or I will have the school petition to give you a job here so we can spend the next two years with you everyday, even if your not our teacher you'll still be in the school, anyway it wasn't published before, but it is now ANDDD I hope you like it!!!!!"

A grade 6 student created a website for me, for my tutoring services because I had told them that my dream was not only to be a teacher, but to open my own tutoring company to ensure that all students are being provided the equal chance of a bright future and he remembered this and in turn made me this.....

http://www.brainaidtutoring.co.cc/ or if this doesn't work www.wix.com/mdionisio16/brainaidtutoring

Technology Rocks!!

So coming to the end of practicum I have come to find out how important technology is to this generation! Because the school I am in has some limitation to resources - more smartboards than projectors - it makes it quite difficult to always provide the technology for the students. But nonetheless I try what I can to make learning fun and engaging!!

The second that smartboard turns on, you can see an imediate glow on their faces. They are so into what's going on and want to be involved. When I use the smartboard for math I see a huge change in the participation of the students. Everyone seems to be so into what's happening and and want to all be involved. Everyone all of a sudden participates, regardless of whether or not they have the right answer, they want to be involved and wanted to learn. They even don't worry about being wrong, they are okay with being wrong and are okay with getting the support and assistance of their classmates.

I also see the use of the smartboard creating an amazing feeling of togetherness, in the sense that when a student volunteers to come up they all help each other. Again showing how engaging the use of technology can be with the learning of students. Plus it's always good to know that since ive been teaching math with the smartboard, how much students are liking and enjoying "my math". It's nothing like a great interview experience then to hear a parent tell you that their son/daughter really likes me and is now very excited about math and lives to do math now.

In conclusion.....TECHNOLOGY ROCKS!!!

Don't Worry, Be Happy!!

Sorry, I thought I published this post but it seems like it was just saved!! This is supposed to be for the third week!! !

Monday, November 14th, 2011
Starting on the first day of my third week, I realized something small. I realized how much students appreciate when a teacher admits they made a mistake! As I was teaching my math lesson, I had realized that I made a mistake on something I explained to them on the Friday. As I starting taking up some of the answers in class, I had a few students with their hands up, only to realize that they had all noticed a small mistake when I was explaining something which had them making errors on the final answers.

At first I did seem a bit embarassed. I quickly appologized for this mistake and went back to clarify what had to be done with NO mistakes. At the end of the day, it's important to note that, even teachers make mistakes. Feeling a little off about it because I still felt a little embarassed, I nervously went about my next lesson in the afternoon. I guess the students noted my nervousness, to them me being nervous = odd, crazy, WHERE'S MISS D types of feelings I guess because one at a time the started telling me that it's okay to make mistakes because it shows I'm human and puts them at ease to know that everyone makes mistakes and that no one is perfect. Indeed this is true, and I guess at times as an adult hoping to become a teacher, at times you may lose sight of this and try to be perfect, but in fact it is very important that we all make mistakes because it is the only way we learn!!

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011.
The night before, I had prepared a great religion lesson for the kids. Filled with activities and a lot of discussion. Of course, things don't always go as planned. I had a lesson about the Ten Commandments and as we discussed the first three, we started having a conversation about what it meant to believe only in one God.

Now, remember these are grade 6 students...as debates were being had back and forth about different religions, one student asked, "What about if we have parents with different religions, does it mean we are not being faithful to our God even though we consider ourselves Catholic?". As I smiled, ready to explain, another student quickly responded, "Listen, I don't think what the commandment is saying is to not believe in more than one thing, I mean in many situations if we have parents with different religions then you cannot betray the other commandment that you have to honour your mother and father which means if they want you to equally celebrate both religions then you must. And it also doesn't mean that you cannot just believe more strongly in one then the other because it also depends on what your parents want for you as a child, BUT as you grow up although you shouldn't turn your back on your faith, if you feel more strongly connected to one over the other then maybe that was your calling from God. Now, as for the commandment, I truly think what God is saying, is that we should not worship fake God's like money and material things like cars, big houses, luxury, nice clothes, etc because those things are not God's they are not real, they are just things we may attain based on status...."

My jaw dropped and at that moment I sat back blown away from the words that came from this students mouth! I couldn't believe how well she explained that, I think better than me!! From there more conversation broke out and it was the best teaching moments for me because I saw how things can turn out for the best sometimes with no lesson plan needed. At this point I also saw how many times kids are underestimated based on their ability to comprehend and really, they know more than we think!!!

Teacher's Rule!

I want to start off with a little quote I thought of after all the laughs, tears and everything in between from this week:

"The greatest gifts in life, are the small things that aren't selfish or complicated, it is the simplest of things that may at times be complicated, simple, frustrating or joyful"

The final week has finally arrived, and how emotional it all was. The past four weeks at St. Monica's Catholic School has been a blessing and the greatest experience of my life. I had taken for granted at first the opportunity at hand, and yesterday Friday, November 25th, 2011 was when I really sat down and saw how much I have learned and also taught in just four weeks.

I have learned what it means to be part of a great community where teachers, custodians, secretaries, other staff, and mostly the students share one relationship; the relationship of a family for the 6 hours a day. I thought my placement was going to be able going in every morning and leaving everyday at 3:30pm, but it wasn't, it was more than that. I was privileged to feel like one of the family, I was provided the opportunity to meet many kind and wonderful faces - my AT, other teachers, the principal, governor generals, community police woman, retiring policeman, students of all ages. This experience has got to be one of the best I have ever in my life experienced.

All of these experiences and relationships that have been made, hit me during the short gathering the principal had for us during first reccess - yes there was coffee and cake, but this wasn't the best part. The kind words the principal spoke about our presence and the mark we have left the staff and students with truly left me speechless. When it came time for us to leave some kind words, I barely knew what to say...I left my last words with a few tears and allowing the staff that they have taught me so much, especially what it means to be part of a community, but the biggest lesson I was taught and the most experience I had learned was from the students themselves. Every lesson I taught there was a lesson learned, every laugh I shared there was one more mark engraved in my heart from these kids and I would change anything in the world, BUT I will NEVER EXCHANGE ANYTHING FOR THE EXPERIENCE AND OPPORTUNITY THESE STUDENTS HAVE PROVIDED ME WITH.

In short, like my teacher and students said on their last day "Miss D Rocks". My weeks will never be the same, and I will forever miss every single student as each of them has left me with an amazing memory to keep forever. As I have said in the past:

"Each person brings something to the world, a talent, an ability, an inability, a strength and a weakness. It is up to us educators to make vivid what each person is capable of and can achieve"


I tried to be strong, I tried not to cry but it was the one student who hugged me for at least a half a minute that made me cry like a baby, and soon enough the entire class was in tears!!!

Math Isn't that Scary!!

Going into my third week of teaching/lesson planning, I am seeing how much easier it has been for me to create lesson plans for Math.

Walking into my placement, knowing it was a core class, I was super scared about teaching Math and soon to come to teach Science. After my last two solid Math weeks, I realized that Math is actually very fun to teach and something that allows for many different possibilities when it comes to activities or games. The chapter that I have been focusing on for the past two weeks was Adding and Subtracting Whole Numbers and Decimal Numbers.

Although I don't feel like every lesson needs to be super fun or filled with activities, I have put some interesting and fun activities together for the kids to enjoy with a subject that is many times scary for a lot of kids. I have become very fond of teaching math and am really enjoying it!!! And according to the kids, I make math fun and they really enjoy it because I "have all these cool activities all the time", even though its only about once or twice a week....

What a little seems like for one, may be A LOT for someone else; this is just what I think and feel about my experience thus far teaching math to my Grade 6 students.



This was an activity I did for Adding Decimal Numbers; I thought of a very cool way of integrating History and Geography into the lesson...it was quite useful and a lot of fun, the kids really enjoyed it!!

The Powerful Words of Students...

As I approached the front of the class, I nearly broke out into a sweat. I quickly started to glow in bright shades of pink and red. "Can I do this? Am I explaining this correctly? Will they understand? Oh man, I sure hope I don't make a mistake, but no, I hope they will enjoy my lesson!!!" These were just some of the thoughts that were bouncing around simultaneously from hemisphere to hemisphere....

"Okay, okay their raising their hands to answer...GREAT!, alright they seem to be answering everything correctly....AWESOME" As I paced around the class, answering questions, checking answers, these were the thoughts that were calming down my doubts....I guess I really had nothing to worry about! This was the initial feeling I had to make me realize that I actually didn't do so badly, it made me feel more comfortable, adding some points to the "Confidence" column.

After the lesson was done and it was time for recess, a few students came up to me, hugged me and said, "Miss D. that was an amazing lesson, can you teach us Math everyday!! You make it really easy for us to understand what to do" - a sudden burst of excitement flowed through my body! Shortly after one of my ESL students who has only been in Canada for a year approached me in broken English and said...."Miss, I love Math, BUT I love your Math so much!" and he scurried away with his snacks. At this very moment, it felt like fireworks went off, bells were ringing and I had an ENORMOUS smile from one side of my face to the other like Ronald McDonald.

It wasn't until this moment that my confidence points had been maximized. This student really enjoyed MY MATH, he liked my lesson, he understood my lesson; these were the most powerful words that I had ever been told. No matter which teacher has ever said "you'll be a great teacher", it wasn't until this very moment, on this day, that I actually felt confident in my teaching and in the ideas I was coming up with for my lessons to ensure each student learned equally. I now see the importance of building a community in the class where students and teachers alike express their feelings, give opinions and communicate about their learning experiences to help create a better one that is inclusive for all.

"Miss D. your the best Student Teacher in the entire world, can you stay all year?"