I have really enjoyed building connections with educators and learners during my two months of observations at Victoria High Secondary School. Repeatedly observing the same classrooms has helped me to see how educators manage the classroom environment, as well as some of the tools and strategies that educators frequently employ. I have also had the opportunity to visit central middle school,talk with school counsellors, and spend a block with the school Librarian. These activities have helped me to form a more complete idea of what school as a whole can be for learners. 

I was very classroom-centric initially, ranking other aspects of the school as secondary features. I now feel like a school is like the human body; the whole of what a school offers is, in a way, more than the sum of its parts. The supportive, learning, and social aspects of the school environment come together to form something that can be like a second home to some learners, or a place of safety. 

I have found my time in learning strategies to be very valuable; the class is designed as a space to allow learners to develop learning strategies to help them in areas where they are struggling, or just need a little guidance. Observing in this space has allowed me to take the time to not only diagnose where the learner is having difficulty, but why the difficulty arose in the first place. The “open” aspect of the class has also allowed the learner and I to fully discuss a given concept, as well as real-life examples and applications. Providing context and making the topic less abstract can help with comprehension, understanding, and increase interest in the subject matter.

One of my first experiences in the class was helping a learner with a chemistry assignment. The learner said they felt lost and that they had trouble following their educator; they felt that the educator was “scattered” and didn’t preface concepts, they just kind of hopped right in. I initially approached this by diagnosing what they knew about chemistry, then by talking our way through the questions and asking what they recognized and they felt confused about. Turns out the learner just felt plain lost, so I decided that we should start by looking at the periodic table and talking about what we see, eventually building up to approaching the questions. By “starting with the basics” and framing the concepts with questions I was able to effectively bring the learner up to speed. After a bit of guidance through the concepts the learner was able to effectively apply those concepts to complete their assignment. The following week another peer was working with the same learner and later told me that the learner said I really helped with understanding the topic and that they were now up to speed in that class.

This interaction reminded that learners issues don’t necessarily involve their ability to learn, but more-so how the educator approaches the subject and frames the concepts. I feel that proper scaffolding can really make things easier to comprehend and apply to other concepts. It seems that it would be hard for true learning to occur if learners are unable to contextualize the subject matter. In my high school experience there were definitely times that I asked myself “why exactly are we learning this?”. When working with learners I am going to strive to introduce concepts in meaningful ways, and build different forms of assessment into class discussions and activities as a way to check-in with learners and make sure they aren’t feeling lost or confused.Â