EDUC+8Y24+–+Sec5+PLC+Reflections

8Y24 Lab 5: Monday 8-10AMPlace your cursor BELOW the three lines. Type in your Professional Learning Community Reflections below. Add your image. Then place a line under your entry to prepare a spot for the next student's reflection. **BE SURE TO ADD YOUR NAME!!**

 By: Liz MacAlpine  I recently attended the recruiting fair held at the Four Points hotel in St. Catherines. The topic highlighted was how to get a job with the Hamilton Catholic School Board. The information gained would help a prospective teacher get hired by that board. This topic interested me as this school board is close to where I live. One strategy the Hamilton Catholic School Board recommended for finding a job is to get qualified to teach in all sections from Primary to Senior. They stated this would move you up the list for an interview. They also recommended getting your religion level 1 AQ course. I would use the strategies that I learned at this recruiting fair as it would improve the chance of getting hired by this school board which is a goal of mine.

I recently had the pleasure of attending federation day at the Hamilton Campus. On federation day, representatives from ETFO and OTF came and spoke with us about the federation of teachers, the information was very useful. They gave us each a USB with tons of information about the federation, it was nice to learn about our rights and responsibilities as a teacher but also that we are a part of this huge community of teachers.zeena


 * Cassie Partridge****Project Wild- Oct 23 2010**[[image:projectwild2.jpg]]ndThe Project Wild conference was a one-day workshop that taught us about wildlife, nature and how to incorporate the teaching of them into our classrooms. The conference was led by Greg Belmore (pictured above) as well as Linda Borland a Brock professor from the St. Catharines campus. The Project Wild resource book pictured above includes over 200 activities and curriculum connections throughout the grades and subjects. The day included lessons taught by the teacher candidates using the resource book as well as activities that Linda and Greg lead us through on the cold Saturday morning. The day was a great learning experience and we all walked away with valuable posters, post cards and resource book that we are excited to use in our classrooms! **Rachel VanDooren****Arts Matters Conference, October 28-29**[[image:IMG_2440.JPG width="400" height="300"]]The Arts Matters Conference was a two day program that taught us how significant and effective the arts can be for teaching students the curriculum. We learned many great ways to integrate the arts within other subjects as well as creative ways to get the students to experience and express the material being taught. I really enjoyed the dance and drama part as I was introduced to how students can really express certain issues and events through dramatic presentations and tableaus (for example, issues of bullying through dance and the tragedy of war through tableaus). This is a photo from the first day with fellow Brock teacher candidates, Peter Vietgen and Doug Booth. This was after Doug's opening speech for the conference where he provided a humorous and entertaining introduction to why the arts matter.


 * Marsha Pritchard****TRIBES Training - October 8th & 9th, 2010**[[image:Talking_Sticks.jpg width="465" height="310" caption="Showing off our "talking sticks" from TRIBES training"]]On October 8th and 9th I began my 24 hour TRIBES training with Cohort F! The training was lead by Gail Philips, a certified TRIBES trainer, and coincidentally our Cohort F's advisor. The training was a great experience that not only taught us about the importance of creating community in the classroom, but also brought our cohort closer together. As a "student" on the receiving end of TRIBES strategies, the benefits of implementing them were evident. In the above picture, we are showing off the "talking sticks" that we created at the end of the two day training. We we're all so proud of our accomplishment (with both our "talking sticks" and relationship building)!!

Sarah RobsonArts Matter Conference  This photograph was take at the Arts Matter Conference held and the Brock Hamilton Campus. This is a group of wonderful girls who all enjoyed the professional development days! The man in the middle David Booth was a phenomenal speaker and was able to touch the hearts of everyone in the room with his inspiring stories. The activities were engaging and also very useful. I am so grateful to have participated in the first Arts Matter Conference that Brock has held! I encourage everyone to attend the next! 



Kathryn Haynes  Bellow is a picture of myself and Ashley with Dr. David Booth. Dr. Booth’s talk was about the importance of the Arts in education. It was an eye opener into how the Arts affects our students and the way we teach them. His talk was very inspirational and was at the beginning of a great two-day conference. At the conference I discovered how to use dance, art, drama and music in ways that I had neither experienced or thought of before. There was not any technology per se in the conference except at the end when the Dean of the Education Faculty came to talk to us. She used a PowerPoint presentation and did not just read off the slides, which was a nice experience. Ashley CarvalhoArts Matter Conference



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On October 28 and 29, Brock held its first Arts Matter Conference. The Conferences' focus was integrating the arts into all subjects. We opened our first day with a great key note speaker, Professor David Booth, from OISE. He was hilarious and really set the tone for the days ahead of us. Those who attended got to enjoy the fantastic activities taught to us by the great instructors, that will someday be useful in our classrooms. The second day of the Conference we enjoyed an amazing play by the Roseneath Theatre Company, "The Incredible Speediness of Jamie Cavanaugh." A play that I would recommend all to see! =====

I hope the Arts Conference is held again next year and that more teacher candidates take advantage of the great opportunity!
Melissa Purville - Federation DayLast Friday I had the opportunity to attend Federation Day at the Hamilton Campus. With only two and a half hours, the representatives of OTF and ETFO provided all teacher candidates with an abundance of information about a career that we all love. One thing that I thought was very thoughtful yet very "techy" was the usb filled with information provided by ETFO. What a great way to give teacher candidates information at their finger tips that we can read on our own time but also what a great way to store data if one does not own a portable storage device. Below is my picture with the President of OTF, Ryan McLaughlin. She was professional yet inspiring!



On Friday November 5 Federation Day was held at the Hamilton Campus. It was a great introduction to the federations and affiliates that we will one day become a part of! After attending the seminar, I am now able to recognize the enormous size of the teaching community in Ontario! The OTF and ETFO representatives provided us with tons of useful information that will definitely help me in the early years of my teaching career. I was able to have my picture taken with the President of OTF, Ryan McLaughlin!
 * Jennifer Glanfield- Federation Day **



Sandhya Kemkar - Federation Day  On 5th November 2010,I attended the federation day at Brock university Hamilton Campus .It was a great feeling to have a sense of belonging to such a huge teaching community in Ontario. I had a chance to get my picture taken with the keynote speaker President of OTF, Ryan Mclaughlin.  The seminar was loaded with information on rights and responsibilities as members of Ontario Teacher’s federation. I found the information on QECO to be very helpful because I now understand that I will have to get my international qualifications and experience approved with QECO certification systems in order to help me choose the right advance qualifications.

 These photographs were taken from the two day Arts Matter Conference held at the Hamilton Campus. I feel honoured to have my photograph taken with these extremely intelligent and inspirational individuals (reason why I had to post all of them!). This professional development day demonstrated the ways in which teachers can integrate the arts into the curriculum and into their classrooms by discussing unique ideas and providing participants with helpful resources. Surprisingly, this was the first year that Brock held an Arts conference and I encourage for another one to be held next year so that teacher candidates can become enlightened in the ways to integrate arts into the curriculum.
 * __ Kristina Bozzelli __-** //**The Arts Matter Conference**//[[image:IMG_0179.JPG width="299" height="397" align="left" caption="Fiona Blaikie, Dean Faculty of Education "]][[image:IMG_0177.JPG width="448" height="398" caption=""The Incredible Speediness of Jamie Cavanaugh"-cast back row, teacher candidates and self in front row"]][[image:IMG_0173.JPG width="305" height="426" align="left" caption="Professor David Booth "]][[image:IMG_0176.JPG width="450" height="417" caption="Dance instructors "]]

Jessica Garvey **The Arts Matter Conference**

The Arts Conference was an informative professional development day demonstrating how to integrate art into all areas of the curriculum. They provided tangible, practical, flexible and fun ideas for teachers to use in their class. There is a specific focus on the importance of integrating arts across the curriculum to enhance student engagement and activity. I chose this presentation because I can easily use these ideas in my future classroom to become a more dynamic, well rounded and engaging teacher. I also realize that personally and professionally I have a vested interest in enhancing my students' learning experiences with the arts and exploring my own understanding of the arts. __ TheProject WildSarah TownsendThe Project Wild professional development day provided teachers with resources to bring the environment into the classroom and also address ways to bring students out of the classroom to explore the environment and learn about animals and habitat. Project Wildlife provided us with an opportunity to practice our instructional strategies through environmental learning. Personally I feel being able to incorporate the environment in many lessons will provide students with opportunity and experiences that they might not get otherwise, we as teachers can make a difference in someone life and show them things they might not have seen. Working through some of the ideas that the Project Wildlife facilitators (Nicole and Greg) provided us with helps students think more critically and gain a deeper understanding about the environment and environmental stewartship. Although, the facilitators did not use technology during the presentation they shared a number of websites and online resources we could access after participating in the development day. I believe integrated these aspects into the classroom will help shape our future.

Sonya Sidorkewicz Project Wild, October 2nd, 2010 What a great time!!! :) I learned a lot about how to add the environment into Ontario's curriculum by use of educational field trips, songs and games. Project Wild is a great way to learn how to incorporate the environment to the classroom. Greg and Nicole were great inspirations! I'm so very glad I attended this program!

Maggie Mongeon Project Wild Professional Development Day

On October 16, 2010, I attended the Project Wild development day at Brock’s Hamilton campus. The main focus of this workshop was to supply student teachers with the resources and knowledge for us to be able to bring the environment into our classrooms. The instructors provided us with a great activity guide that outlinesdmany instructional activities for all grade levels and subjects, which will make it extremely easy for me to incorporate into my future classroom. The main reason I selected this presentation is because I want to create authentic learning experiences for my students so they can learn the importance of conserving our environment.

Andrew Giesbrecht - Arts Matters Conference: October 28 and 29, 2010 The topic in this specific workshop within the Arts Matters conference was music. The presenter started with the fundamental concepts of music and how teacher candidates could integrate these concepts for many subject areas using any song. As a classroom teacher there are many ways this could be implemented into a classroom and the presenter gave us many lesson plan templates to get us started. I chose this presentation because overall the concepts were not too difficult and it can be implemented cross curricular and directed towards any grade level and age group with some minor adjustments. There unfortunately was no technology used in the session that was fascinating to me from a personal viewpoint but I would include this for my instructional purposes by simply even recording it and maybe embedding it onto the class blog or into a movie that could be created to accompany it.

On October 8 and 9, I attended a Tribes training workshop with the entire Group F cohort. The training was facilitated by Gail Phillips. Tribes is a program used by many schools which aims to create a positive and inclusive learning environment for students and teachers alike. There are four central agreements to Tribes which are: right to participate/right to pass, attentive listening, mutual respect, and appreciations/no put-downs. I look forward to someday working in a Tribes school and implementing all these agreements into a classroom. Bullying continues to be a problem in schools but I believe that using a program such as Tribes can help create a better learning environment for everyone.


 * Rachel Telzer**



I too attended the same tribes training as Rachel and have the same picture! This is me and my group F cohort, with faculty advisor Gail Phillips, right beside me. Tribes training was a great PD day as we got to learn many strategies for creating a community in the classroom. As educators, we are so busy and focused on getting through the curriculum, that we often forget about important lessons such as sharing, collaboration, and community in the classroom. In the middle of this picture are community talking sticks. This is one of the tribes strategies for creating respect and sharing ideas. In a classroom with a sharing stick, only students with the stick can talk at that time. This stick also reinforces important diversity values, as the making of this stick stems from aborignial cultural. This is just one of the many strategies learned that day!


 * Lauren Saunders**

Josh Collett Tribes Training - October 8th & 9th <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The PLC I attended was training for Tribes, for which my cohort leader, Gail Phillips, was the trainer, and our whole cohort attended. Tribes focuses on building a community of engaged learners with a foundation of respect. I chose to use this not only because it was the only PLC I attended, but because I believe building that community is a vital aspect of education for which learning and success are an outcome of and dependent on. I will do my best to live by the principles outlined in Tribes, and create the kind of environment conducive to learning. I believe successful implementation of Tribes starts with the right attitude, positivity, modeling the kind of behaviour we expect in our students, and employing the principles of human relations, from the first day of school to the last. Building positive relationships in and out of the classroom will benefit students in all aspects of life, and can help make our world a better place. Sounds idealistic, but we have to start somewhere. As you can see with this picture, everyone is so happy, comfortable with each other, and respectful of each other and our sticks.

Jenn Graham Visual Arts field trip to the Art Gallery of Hamilton This photo was taken on the Visual Arts field trip to the Art Gallery of Hamilton. I found it interesting to visit the gallery while immersed in what was very much a teacher-centred experience. Laurie gave me concrete, practical ideas for integrating a visit to an art gallery into any Visual Arts curriculum. Being a teacher with little background knowledge of visual arts, it is relieving to know there are educators within the galleries. I feel I have developed a further appreciation for the value of field trips and learning experiences that are facilitated outside the walls of the classroom. In participating in a teacher-centred experience, I gained a better understanding of different strategies I might use to facilitate a similar learning experience for my students. The Art Gallery of Hamilton offers kits for teachers to borrow, which correlate to different exhibitions in the gallery. An excellent resource to share with our professional learning community!