What Will My Classroom Look Like?
Ideally, I will be teaching in the I/S division, specificially high school. My teachables are Biology and
Chemistry, so I will most likely be teaching Grade 9/10 Science as well as Grade 11/12 Biology and
Chemistry, at least at first. One of the biggest things that I value is rapport with students. I try very hard
to quickly learn names so that I am more connected with my students. I try to engage in conversation
with them as much as I can (obviously without impeding learning). I make it a habit to ask my students
about their day, how their weekends were, etc. Things like that show that I care about them as
people, and not just as students. I believe that the best teacher is one that you can feel connected to,
I love talking about video games, basketball, and other interests of mine with students, when they
get to see that side of me I feel like they open up and are even more receptive to what I say, including
what I have to say about subject matter as well.
In terms of scheduling, when I am first starting out I will most likely do whatever is easier for me,
which will depend heavily on what course I am teaching. In my practicum, my Associate Teacher had
two grade 9 Science classes, and he let the students choose whatever unit they wanted to do first/next,
so he had both classes doing completely different units! I thought this was fascinating, and it also
makes the day less boring as you are never going to repeat two classes in the same day (unless both
classes pick the same unit). However, I believe that this would be a bit too much for me to handle at the
start of my career, but it is 100% my ideal in terms of scheduling.
Scheduling, organization, and communication with students all go hand-in-hand in my opinion. I will
most likely be using D2L Brightspace as my online platform of choice to communicate with my classes,
but I do want to try out Google Classroom and see which one I like better. During my practicum, my AT
used D2L, but he embedded Google Docs into the folders, so students could conveniently make a copy
of the Doc and then start typing away. I would like to have a unit plan for all of my classes, so my
students know what to expect, especially for Grades 11/12 Biology and Chemistry, as they will
most likely have more unit tests and summatives, so it is important to notify them early so they can
plan ahead. It also makes my life way easier if I already know the general idea of what I'll be teaching.
Instruction and assessment will largely depend on the grade level and the subject. For example, I may
incorporate a lot more student-led research projects in grade 9 science as it will be destreamed, while
the grade 11 Chemistry students may have a more lesson and test focused class. However, I think a
good mix of instruction, student-led and hands-on learning, as well as summative assessments is crucial
for students. When I was a student, I loved the classes where the teacher would give us a lesson for the
first half of the period, and then for the rest of the period we would have free time to work on assigned
questions. This way, I could knock out my "homework" all at school, and if I didn't finish, then I would
have to complete it at home. I think I would like to take this approach in my classroom as well.
At the end of the day, the biggest takeaway is that I want to create a positive classroom environment,
where the students enjoy being in my class, even if they don't neccessarily enjoy the subject matter. My
passion for teaching and inspiring will reach the students, in turn inspiring them to achieve their goals
and dreams, whatever and however that may be.
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