This week, our cohort went to an Insitu at Gordon Terrace Elementary. First we got an introduction to the school’s maker-space and discussed different advantages and disadvantages of technology in schools with GT’s current principal. Then we spent an hour with two grade 1/2 classes showing them an online library called epicbooks. Each UVIC student was paired with two or three GT students and we helped them log on to a computer to explore the website.
I really enjoyed the experience at Gordon Terrace. I was excited to be in a classroom again and working with kids in a way that was engaging and fun for them. A lot of this year has been overwhelming, particularly learning to lesson plan, so just being in a classroom and able to focus on connecting with kids helped to remind me why I entered the program in the first place.
I feel the students were engaged the whole time, they were excited to choose new books and listen to the stories or try to read them themselves – and they were making connections the whole time. They especially loved doing the quizzes and earning badges, so that’s a nice feature on epic. The students I worked with were also great at taking turns and communicating with each other even though they were at different reading levels and had different interests. This challenge was manageable because there was only two students so only two different reading levels, if there had been more students and fewer adults they would have had a much harder time collaborating. Another challenge was how loud it was in the classroom. Lots of extra adults and we were all reading stories and trying to discuss things with the kids – more challenging but not impossible.
It easily could have been worse, with such a busy environment and so many distractions, I think it just shows how engaged the kids were with the website and the possibilities for epic books in classrooms. Kids are drawn to technology so it’s a natural fit for a lot of them, plus the ability to click on a word and have it pronounce it for the student if they are struggling is great for extra reading practice.
Overall it was a great experience and I feel like I will try and incorporate epic books in my future teaching practice. Maybe as a free choice option for when students are on laptops or a centre during centre time.
