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My Teaching LTO Experience

School Community I was placed at St.Mary's School as an LTO 1.0 for a Grade 4/5 split class during May 29th 2023- June 30th 2023. It was a great expereince to have to demonstrate my learnings from my placement for classroom management, CRRP, EDI and curriculum training. What was interesting about this school is that the staff had its own Google classroom for the administrator to share important updates and announcements. Weekly updates were always posted there for teachers to be aware. It was a great organizational tool to keep the community on track and functioning as a collective unit in harmony.
Spirit Week and important information was always showcased in the google classroom for the staff, office and through their twitter. We had engaged in many school wide initiatives to raise awareness for inclusion and diversity. Specifically the school was able to have a mural this year that showcases diversity and inclusion:
Another Community building/ Differentiate/ Equitable/Inclusion and CRRP strategy is through the morning annnoucements on Google meet. It incorporates themes of the month, birthday announcements, minds-on relflective days of the week and messages of positive affirmation:
Messages of Positivity and Inclusion are all over the school and during Wellness Wednesday, which is every Wednesday, the school joins in a google meet to undergo various activities after lunch for well-being, to uplift and build a sense of community :
Teacher Collaboration and School Involvement Throughout my time at St.Mary's I had collaboratively worked with SERC/SERT teachers and the CYW as I had many students in the class with varying needs that had to be modified or accomodated for. These educators and support had helped me engage with the IEP and behaviour plans in a meaningful and insightful way to keep the students safe and engaged for the last month of school. I had also assisted with the rosary club that was lead by a few teachers every Thursday at 11:35 - 11:55 am in the front foyer, which two decades would be resighted followed by a hymn. It was a great way to lift and encourage the student's spirits through prayer and faith. This extended to participating in the Grade 8 graduation Rosary as well with the chaplain from Cardinal Leger. Additionally, I was apart of the principal's farewell celebration -Tensy Kalaparambath, was moving on to another school in DPCDSB for the next school year. Each class performed a song/ dance/ poem. Our class collaborated with the other Grade 5 class for a dance to perform. Lastly, we had Guelph Grotto Climbing Club come to our school for a family night (that I had attended to meet my students family) and for each class to participate in the last week of school!
My Engagement within my Classroom: Due to the varying needs and backgrounds of the classroom and given the time of when I started the LTO in this classroom, I had to adjust and adapt and go back to September class talks of classroom expectations. I had a designated stretch corner for students who needed a movement break, goals were written and taped on desks for students who needed reminders, on chart paper displatyed in the room was; "Today I will" Talk was used every morning, classroom expectations and how we can make our class safe. It deemed very useful as it ensured catholicity and student code of conduct within the classroom. I had also changed their seating around to fit the needs of themselves. I had also a snack, bandaid, wet wipes and tissue corner for them to get what they need throughout the day and after lunch. Every day after lunch, we had a ten minute quiet break, which helped them manage and regulate their emotions to work independently and collaboratively. On the board we had a class point system to have a glass goal to work towards to for fun things based on the points. I had also displayed upcoming birthdays as we are a community and as such we need to acknowledge and celebrate everyone. I had also displayed the agenda every day and we had class jobs to keep students working as a class community and focussed.The agenda and use of the whiteboard is also a UDL strategy to ensure students who need visuals can follow along with the audio instructions from myself, in which I aldo took pictures of these visuals and posted on google classroom, for them to refer back. I also had a designated stretch corner in the classroom for students to go to if they needed a movement break or a space to work in other than their desk. Since I was in a portable, I had also engaged with students who needed it by allowing them run back and forth to the school doors and back to our portable with also engaging in jumping jacks or deep breathing outside, should they need the physical break and new environment. Additionally, I had engaged with the minds-on relflective days of the week with journal writing prompts and changing seating arrangements. All of these strategies uplifted the IEP's I had in my classroom. Apart of this LTO, I collaboratively worked on the Term 2 Report cards and distributed them. When filing for report cards, I had a great oppurtunity to learn about OSR's from the secretary and for specific school administration filing for permission forms. Additionally, I was able to learn the school norms for office visits for each child - a sheet was to filled by the teacher before sending a child to the office for efficiency and not bombarding the office.
School Community I was placed at St. Daniel Comboni as an LTO 0.2 for a Grade 2 class during September 5th, 2023 till June 28th, 2023.
Teacher Collaboration and School Involvement
My Engagement within my Classroom:
Professional Development and Qualifications