Classroom Perspectives

As soon as I utter the words “writing assignment,” looks of panic appear on my students’ faces. Their hands shoot up like rockets and the questions immediately start.

When I first created the reading test, it was supposed to simply track student progress. But I quickly discovered that sharing the results of my personal tracking system with students has completely changed their engagement and motivation levels.

It began on a lovely spring afternoon in 2015, when a Grade 7 student came up to me during recess: Student: “Do you know Rick Mercer?” Me: “Yup.” Student: “Do you know about his Spread the Net?” Me: “Yup.” Student: “Could we do that?” And with that brief exchange, a seed was planted, one that would eventually grow into one of Macville Public School’s most powerful and positive experiences.

Certain buzz words and topics come and go in the arena of education. Currently, the word to know is STEM, the acronym for science, technology, engineering, and math.

I have gleaned three wise teachings from King Lear's fool and each one informs my practice in the classroom more and more each day.

Two years ago, my principal rolled an iPad cart into my classroom. I'd been challenged to design and implement a 1:1 iPad program that would enhance the highly structured academic curriculum already in place. I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as I set out on this technology adventure, but I quickly realized that trail-blazing wasn't all glitter and rainbows.

School is a part of every child’s life. During their academic years, students deal with so many different facets of growth and development—physical, cognitive, emotional, and social. Having a chronic illness on top of the regular day-to-day stressors of being a student can be an enormous burden and challenge.

I have lost count of the number of times I have been told that rules without relationships lead to rebellion. Yet today, relationships with students seem to be feared instead of embraced. Over the years, quite by accident, I have discovered that this precept from days gone by is critical to classroom rules and to learning itself. Relationships are an essential part of learning, especially relationships between teachers and students.