4ever Discovering
Another Unit Finished, and Another Holiday Celebrated!
Forget the curriculum, I heard Santa was coming to town!
Well, it’s that time of the year again. It’s time to put our Christmas trees away for another year and get back to the books. You can say we got a little distracted in class with all of the holiday spirit flowing around the school. Believe it or not, our school was big on decorating for the holidays! The front foyer had a life-size nativity scene, and every classroom was surrounded by Christmas decorations and flashing lights. I was pleasantly surprised to see how festive everyone could be! You would think with all of the holiday spirit, we would get a little vacation sooner or later. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for the latter.
With all of the festivities around the school, I found our next unit, My School, took a little longer than anticipated to work through. There was a lot of interruptions we faced weekly that took away from our teaching time. At first I started to feel a little flustered because we were falling behind in the curriculum, but then I realized this would happen back in Canada too around this time. December is always a hectic month with all of the Christmas concerts and days leading up to the holiday. It works the same over here; Emily and I even had to choreograph a dance routine for our Grade 2’s Christmas Concert. That really cut into our lessons, but was worth it to watch our students sing and dance to Frosty the Snowman!
The unit started off pretty fun! We had a ‘picnic’ day at the beginning of the month where all of the ESL teachers helped their classes a spend an afternoon at the local park. I went with my Grade 3’s to walk with them and eat lunch together. I was a little skeptical at first; I couldn’t imagine 42 students behaving well in the park, especially on a Friday afternoon. But to my surprise, the students were awesome! It helped that the Chinese homeroom teacher came and pretty much guided the students while I just tagged along. It was a great way for me the spend some time with my kids and not worry about their academic progress. It was so relaxing; I was able to sit and play games with some students, and ate lunch with others. Everyone seemed really excited to spend their class outside and see what Chinese words they could teach Miss Lehman!
After getting ourselves back on track, my class started to learn all about their school and what they could find in their classrooms. Because a lot of the students already new this vocabulary, I found this was a great subtopic for getting the students to practise their oral skills. They felt comfortable enough with the words, so they were able to try to speak more English with each other. One of my favourite activities was our ‘What’s in My Bag?’ lesson. Emily and I went to McDonald’s to get some brown paper bags and filled them up with different school supplies. Each group member had to guess what was in their bag, while the student with the bag had to tell them yes or no. I don’t think I have ever heard so much English being spoken in my classroom! It was a hit, and the students were very curious to know if I actually ate 5 hamburgers to get the bags. You’ll never know…
After we were finished with ‘Our Classroom’, we moved onto ‘My Teacher’. We took a different approach to this subtopic and convinced the students that their teachers were superheroes! We used the Avengers as a theme (tied in with Miss Frizzle from the Magic School Bus), and had the kids connect how all of those people were similar. To make a long story short, the students now believe their teachers save the school and possibly fly to work. I told my students I only fly at night time, so they can never see me! I think some of them still believe me! At the end of the week, I had my kids create their own superhero with their face. Each student had a picture of their head and had to draw around it to design their own avatar. The finished projects are pretty awesome! Some students were super creative with their drawings, while others were more like my brother’s work in grade 3 (not so good). But, at the end of the day, it’s the effort that counts, right?
We finished off our unit with a culminating comic book. Each student created their own comic about their ‘Day at School’. I just finished marking them all, and I was pleasantly surprised with most of them! This was the first time I didn’t give as much instruction, allowing them to be as creative as they wanted. The only expectation was to write about their school day and answer the 5 W-questions. Some students rode a helicopter to school, while others drove a boat; and some students even went to school with monsters and cats. It’s funny to see how creative the students can be. Sometimes I can forget how imaginative a 10 year old’s mind can be.
In the midst of all of our assignments and lessons, Emily and I had to take some time out of our busy schedule to practise our Frosty the Snowman dance with our Grade 2’s. Seeing how the two of us choreographed the dance ourselves, you can imagine how simple the dance moves are. All of the Grade 2 classes in the school perform a small Christmas concert for the parents and principal, so we were a tad nervous to see how our students would do. Thankfully, the homeroom teacher helped us out tremendously and had our students practising during her class time. She made the dance look more creative and had the students rotate to let everyone be in the front row at least once. The final concert was amazing! I was so proud of the kids and all of the work they put into rehearsing their song and dance. I know I don’t want to hear Frosty again for a long time. It was worse than walking around the mall in December, listening to all of the Christmas music! All of the parents were happy, which means we continue to stand in their good books (at least until the next set of report cards come out).
Another unit has passed, and yet again, I am continuing to see the growth and improvement from my students. I am in the midst of writing the second set of reports cards right now and can’t believe how far some students have come already. Although there are always the not-so-positive success stories as well, I told myself I am going to focus on the positive and praise all of their efforts. I know my students are working so hard; I told them it means so much to me to see them try so hard. It shows me they want to learn and appreciate learning English (I also told some I would move back to Canada if they don’t want to be here LOL). A little scare tactic never hurt anyone! After spending the holidays with my kids, I came to appreciate the little things that sometimes go unnoticed. I received one card from a parent thanking me for taking a chance on her son and always having the patience to let him improve. It helped remind me of the impact I am making on these students and how these moments might stay with them forever. I know I always remembered the good times I had in the classroom and the influence my teacher made on my learning. I just hope I can continue 2017 with the same positive attitude and not let the bad days defeat the good days. I’m coming into the new year with a clear head and open mind. We only have a few weeks left until Chinese New Year, and I want my students to enjoy their time leading up to the holiday. I think it will be well-deserved for them and for me!
