"Your [sic] the best teacher!"

MISS
To feel or suffer from the lack of something or someone.


The science unit that I taught my students in my last practicum is, appropriately enough, about flight.

It was literally only a week before we flew to Thailand that my Year 4 practicum ended. In the following entries I will be referring to my last practicum quite frequently, so I feel it is best that I mention who they are now.

My Year 4 practicum was at John M. King Elementary, a school in the heart of the West End. It is a core inner city school, and has many characteristics that the inner city is known for -- poverty, low income, high immigrant population, high rate of single-parenthood, and the like. The school itself is largely Filipino and Aboriginal, a reflection of the population around the catchment area.

I taught Social Studies and Science to a multi-aged classroom, grades 4, 5, and 6. The school philosophy is rather very progressive -- the administration is responsible for administering many initiatives, projects, and programs, and the impact of these are clearly obvious in the school. One I took part in is a Literacy Assessment program that was initiated with the U of W, where Year 5 Education students participated in hands-on reading and writing assessment. I took part by default, as I was already a student teacher in the school. Other programs include CSI camp in the summer and Career Trek every Saturday.

The school focuses less on the knowledge-based student learning outcomes (SLOs) and more on value SLOs and, most importantly, skills SLOs. This means that knowledge is instead used as the vehicle for learning skills and values.

In the classroom, the TIC concept is the format of all lessons. TIC stands for Task, Intent and Criteria, and these are always laid out in the open for all students to see. Task is essentially what the job of the students are. Intent is the reasoning why that particular task is being done. Criteria is a checklist for student self-assessment (i.e. how they know they are successful in doing the task and learning the intent).

In each of the lessons I did, I was required to make the TIC clear to the students. It is thought that students have a right to know what they're being taught, the purpose of why they're being taught, and why they're being taught in that particular way.

I encountered a few bumps during my time at John M. King, which I have turned into lessons learned -- about classroom management, time management, and lesson planning, especially.

Before I left I had a mini party and was showered with homemade farewell and bon voyage cards. And many of the students went all out making them look pretty.

To: Mr. Toralba
Your the best science teacher
Your awesome
Your kind and nice
Your smart
Your great
I wish you like JMK [the school]
Your the best ever!
Thank you for helping me in anything.
Your the best!
I will miss you.
Fr: Nashy.

I miss my Grades 4, 5, and 6 students dearly. It's almost the end of the school year in Winnipeg. I bet they're getting pumped for summer now.

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"An educational system isn't worth a great deal if it teaches young people how to make a living but doesn't teach them how to make a life."

- Source unknown