Ms. Prediger
Teaching Experience
Pre-Internship
During my third year (or pre-internship year), I am placed at Deshaye Catholic School in the Regina Catholic School Division. I am placed in a grade 6/7 split, and my co-operating teacher is Trevor Redler. For the first few months, my partner and I went to the school every Wednesday for an entire day. We would each teach one lesson per Wednesday. I chose to teach a grade 6 drama outcome for the 8 weeks we were in the classroom because it is something I wasn't as comfortable with teaching.
During my three-week block, I taught a cross-curricular unit on mindfulness. You can find this unit under the unit plans/lesson plans tab!
This unit was one that was very fun for students and had many hands-on experiences. Since I always taught after an hour of math, students were in need of a brain break every day. So, I was able to find many different and fun brain breaks for middle years students that I incorporated every day.
The students had experiences such as creating their own stress ball, doing mindfulness yoga, taking part in a mindfulness walk, creating happiness recipes, among so many others. They were very excited to take part in these activities, and their summative assessment was journal entries about their experiences.
My overall experience at pre-internship was a very positive one. I built great relationships with my students and other staff members at Deshaye Catholic School. This experience has really prepared me for my internship in the fall!
ECS 200 Placement: YWCA of Regina
In my second year, I was placed with the YWCA of Regina's GirlSpace program. This program consisted of myself and a partner facilitating an hour-long session once a week with about ten grade 5-8 students at St. Joan of Arc school. These sessions consisted of various activities, crafts and games that educated the girls about many issues young girls face today. The topics we covered included body image, healthy relationships, healthy eating, etc, The whole idea behind the program was to provide a safe space for the girls to talk about these issues without feeling scared or nervous. This was another great teaching experience because I was able to educate the girls about these issues, while seeing how these issues affect them in their lives. It also gave an opportunity to build relationships with the students because there were only ten or fewer per session. It also gave me a chance to work with students in the middle years, which is where I would like to teach one day.
ELNG 200 Placement
Through my ELNG 200 class, I was able to return to Marion Mcveety school for a second time. This time, I was placed in a grade 3/4 split class to help with English Language Learner students. I would take one student out of the classroom for an hour a day once per week to work on sight words or various level picture books. This was my first experience with ELL students. I worked with students that came from Ukraine and Syria. It was so rewarding to help these students. They taught me at the same time as I was teaching them. It was amazing to see the students' growth in speaking, reading and writing the English language from week to week. This experience was very valuable to my future teaching career.
Saskatchewan Safety Council Babysitting Course/Home Alone Preparation Course Instructor
Through my job at the YMCA, I have had a few opportunities to instruct babysitting courses and home alone preparation courses. The babysitting course runs for 6 hours, while the home alone preparation course runs for 4 hours. These courses each have different modules in manuals that I have to deliver through oral instruction, hands-on projects or visual resources. My groups have ranged from 5 to 28 students. Teaching these courses has given me a lot of teaching experience with ages 9 to 14.
Red Cross Swimming Instructor
I have taught children and adult swimming lessons at Marion Aquatics for several years. Prior to teaching lessons, I did two years of junior instructing. This was not a paid position, but it gave me teaching experience and put me ahead of many of the people who also took the Water Safety Instructor course with me.
My job entails preparing detailed lesson plans for every lesson. At Marion Aquatics, we do team teaching. Lessons last up to an hour and a half, depending on the level. Every half hour, the supervisor blows their whistle and the instructors switch to a new class. As an instructor, my lesson plans must have all of the levels that we teach that day. It also has to have every swimming skill and safety skill listed, usually explained in detail. Lesson plans are reviewed by my supervisor prior to each lesson.
A typical lesson begins with attendance-taking. I then get my students to walk to our lane in the pool and wait on the edge until I tell them it is okay to get in. I then go down the skills listed on my lesson plan. When explaining skills, I have to be clear about what I expect, but I can not explain in great detail since this would not be a good use of time. It is more useful to use the time to allow my students to practice their skills. The students show me their skills, and after the lessons, I have to fill out paperwork. If the student performs the skill to Red Cross standards, they get the skill "signed off". They must have all skills signed off to move on to the next level.
ECS 100 Fieldwork
In Semester 2 of my first year of University, I took Education Core Studies 100. This class had a fieldwork placement that allowed me to get into a classroom and do some observing and helping out in a kindergarten room. I was very glad I had this opportunity. My ideal teaching experience would be between grades 6-8, but I had some realizations while I was in the kindergarten room.
1) I hadn't actually been in a kindergarten classroom since I was in kindergarten (which was 13 years ago!). I also had forgotten a lot of what went on during the day of a kindergarten student.
2) Kids have the power to make you happy and proud. I found myself connecting with the kindergarten students when I was able to work with them one-on-one. It made me so happy when the children would open up to me and tell me little things about their day. It also amazed me and gave me a sense of accomplishment when a student understood the concept I was teaching them.
3) I would actually enjoy teaching younger students. When I applied to the Education program, I thought grade 6-8 would be where I would enjoy teaching the most due to experiences teaching swimming lessons. Having been in the kindergarten classroom, I realized I also enjoy working with younger children. They can really teach you while you're teaching them. Children also do not have a lot of filters on things they say, which can be entertaining at times.
