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One word that best describes you as an educator and why!

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One word that best describes you as an educator and why!

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A giant ham. I love to really engage my students and be theatrical and get them excited about their work. I love seeing them laugh and by the end of the day say..."No I don't want to go home can we stay and learn some more!" That is a great feeling. It means they are learning, having fun and feel comfortable.

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How you create a holistic learning environment (intellectual, social, emotional, physical, environmental, linguistic, cultural, spiritual and moral).

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How you create a holistic learning environment (intellectual, social, emotional, physical, environmental, linguistic, cultural, spiritual and moral).

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I believe I strive to create a holistic learning environment particularly based on the traditional 7 Grandfather teachings that our community and school highly values which are:
1. Humility is to know  that your are a sacred part of creation.
2. To face life with courage is to know bravery.
3. To walk through life with integrity is to know honesty.
4. To cherish knowledge is to know wisdom.
5.  To honour all creation is to have respect.
6.  To know love is to know peace.
7. Truth is to know all of these things. Speak your truth!

We recite these teachings everyday, I always reference them when it comes to class lessons and how we can show this through our work, our relationships and through the way to respect people and nature around us.

We focus on these Grandfather teachings but we also strive to teach students social skills and emotional intelligence. How to treat one another with respect? What does a healthy relationship look like? How can we protect and nurture our bodies and minds? How can we deal with stress? Things like that are something we talk about weekly.

I do so by creating a safe environment where students know I am there as their in loco parentis. When I make a mistake I make sure to tell my students I made a mistake, and is it the end of the world? No. I make sure to apologize, provide anecdotal stories etc. So that my students know that I am a person, that I too have been a child and that I am someone that is there for them. Someone that wants the very best for their future.

Cultural and spiritually wise I always promote the learning of their mother tongue and actively participate in cultural activities for the students (very often reaching out to organize ice-fishing, snowshoeing, trapping, skinning of animals for fur etc.) I make sure that I am present, see and heard during Native Language class. I try to learn as much as I can regarding the language so I can infuse it within my own teaching and classroom management. The students recognize this and they have begun to teach me more and more words too! It's amazing.

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What do you remember about teacher-based assessments when you were a student in elementary or secondary school? 

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What do you remember about teacher-based assessments when you were a student in elementary or secondary school? 

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I remember teacher-based assessments when I was a student in elementary and secondary school as being traditional. The curriculum was subject based and the assessments were mainly tests, short-answer questions and essays. I felt like it was all about memorization. However, as another student in our class pointed out, this was normal. I didn't think there was another way to learn!

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The supports were in place for this/these student(s).

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The supports were in place for this/these student(s).

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Currently the supports that are in place for this student are scribing and one on one instruction when available. I do not always have an extra adult in the classroom so it is very difficult to provide one on one attention.
Sometimes one of the SERTS (there are over 900 students at our school and only 3 SERTS) is able to come and pull him out of class and work one on one with him to build his vocabulary and learn to read.
I also have an iPad for him and another student that has interactive games that helps teach them how to read, recognize sight words etc. This has been a HUGE help!!

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The types of needs that the student(s) had/have and how you address them. How did UDL and DI play a role?

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The types of needs that the student(s) had/have and how you address them. How did UDL and DI play a role?

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I have had students in the past with various special education needs.
I have had gifted students with ODD, students with extremely low vision, Autism, FASD (which is something I have to keep in mind every single day), and mental health challenges.

UDL

Highlighted vocabulary

visual cueing during class (I use this for all my students who are ELLs)

Use of English and Ojibwe to explain words and concepts

pair or group work

sample tests

choice of topics to write about in their journals. I usually have students who have trouble writing draw out what they want to talk about first.

Providing examples of sentence structures

Multiple means of representation and expression

Flexible seating (some sit on the couches, bean bags, carpet, at their desks, in the hallway or at my desk with me)

Providing materials in advance for students that feel anxious about major assignments and/or tests.

Breaks! Walk around the school, send students to do errands, have students work on a personal journal or art when they are really having a bad mental health day.

DI

How it is taught: The majority of the instruction is student centred. I alternate between using stations, small group instruction when I have the additional support, whole class instruction, and cooperative groups. Every day is different and I go with the flow based on the mood of my students.

How it is done: Again I alternate between various ways for students to get things done. I don't shy away from the traditional methods either because I know that later in high school, college or university students will still have traditional based pencil/book, tests etc. so I want them to be exposed to all types work completion. I've used independent contracts, specific electronic programs for students that require more stimulation, manipulatives are HUGE, working with group tables, friends, pairs of two,

How to demonstrate the knowledge: Students are given various opportunities to showcase their products. Some will provide me with oral reports, written reports, written and artistic renditions, and some really like the traditional assessments. I do try my best to give my students different choices.

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Your favourite memory of teaching students with special needs.

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Your favourite memory of teaching students with special needs.

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My favourite member is a current one that is still on going and evolving. Just to provide some context. We have four grade 4 classes in our school. Each class has around 30 students. At the beginning of the year, one of my colleagues had two students that were just constantly fighting with one another. I mean punching each other in the face etc. One student has an IEP and has a huge problem with Authority (I can’t blame him for his coping mechanisms based on everything that he has gone through in his life). The other student was behavioural but also would never try to complete work. So we had a meeting with all the of the grade 4 teachers and the Prinicpal. The solution was that the student that was behavioural and had academic issues be moved to my classroom (there was no way I could take the other student because of the other boys in my class that would for sure try to instigate issues).

Long story short. The student was so mad that he was moved. He kept saying why wasn’t the other boy moved and I want to go back to that class etc. I made it clear that he wasn’t being punished but that it was something that would be better for both of the boys and that I promised he would like being in my class sooner rather than later.

This was about near the end of October, beginning of November.

It took a lot of time and effort to win over this particular student. He didn’t have his “best buds” in this class and it was in a completely different dynamic and classroom management style than the was used to. Needless to say, before the student arrived I had a talk with my students about the importance of inclusion, keeping our classroom a place where it feels like we are a big family and making sure the new student felt included.

Anyways, over-time I came to realize that this student was unable to read or write in English. He did not know his alphabet. I thought to myself, of course this is why he acts out! Luckily I have a Native Language Teacher in the classroom who is like my co-teacher and assists with helping students (similar to an EA) I would always make sure to go around to help other students and praise them for asking for help. I started to slowly approach this student (at first he did not want ANY help) and it felt like overnight that he changed. Everyday he’ll be like “MAGDA I need help. Will you help me??” and that just made my day. I always ask if anyone wants to sit with me on the carpet and go through the work after I teach the lesson and it’s a big hit. He just needed someone to recognize his frustration laid within the inability to read and write since English is his second language. I created a request for an IEP (our spec ed department is a little different) and I’m still waiting for the Spec Ed department to call for an IPRC meeting (which I have never been a part of) usually they just pull out the student do some testing and put in a tutor to sit and work with the student who has spec ed needs.

Now, this student who used to start fights, try to run away, slam door etc. Can be found pick up a broom and sweeping the classroom when he finishes his work, comes up and asks if he is doing is work right, politely asks if he can sit with me when I’m done teaching the lesson and does not start fights in class. He has become a very respectful young man. I think once he started to see that my other students always put their hands up for help or clarification and that asking for help was not a sign of weakness he understood that it is OK and should be normally to ask for guidance.