Hearing from Dean Shareski this week was... refreshing. I use the word refreshing because he reminded me of the opportunities we have as teachers to have fun in the classroom. In the rush of life as it is, we tend to forget how to have fun and enjoy ourselves and our everyday jobs. In terms of teaching as a job, we can incorporated games, technology, and communication exercises to make the classroom environment more enjoyable.
This entire presentation made me think of my first placement at Carberry Collegiate. I was able to work through my placement with two cooperating teachers. One, who was involved in ensuring students understood classroom concepts by checking in consistently throughout class and through thorough homework checks. The other, relied solely on homework and testing material to assess whether students understood the concepts or not. I did however, enjoy observing both teachers as they represented two separate identities to teaching.
I'm the last one who wants students to dread attending my classes. If there is a way I can keep students engaged and wanting to come to school, then I will do my best to keep the classroom environment fun and entertaining.
After searching around for a video on YouTube, I came across the video below that explains how to play "Hot Seat" in the classroom. It may or may not be curricular, but not everything needs to hit a specific-learning-outcome, as mentioned by Dean.
Thanks for a wonderful blog post! Interestingly enough my previous placement was at Carberry Collegiate, too, so I can kind of relate to your situation. Officially, I just had one CT, but I taught one of my ELA classes with a different teacher, and I also found it super interesting to be able to observe and get feedback from two teachers that had completely different personalities and teaching styles.
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