Hi there! My name is Larissa Beatty and I am a first-year teacher candidate! I was born in Trail BC and after a small detour and stop-off in Fort St. John, I got to grow up in Kamloops. Ever since I was a little girl I have wanted to be a teacher and have always loved school, I loved learning and the social aspect of school. As I got older I also realized that I loved working with kids and getting to share things that I had learned. I got serious about wanting to be a teacher early in twelfth grade when I was a TA for a grade eight art class. At the time I wanted to teach high school and more specifically art. That led me to get my Bachelor of Fine Arts which I completed at TRU along with my Certificate of Studio Arts and Visual Arts Diploma. My time being fully involved in the fine arts department showed me so much about the value of hands-on learning. While doing that program I started my volunteer hours and met a fantastic kindergarten teacher who let me come into her classroom. Originally I was a little scared of kindergarten and teaching younger grades but getting to be in the classroom and seeing how excited all the students were just to be at school made me completely change my mind. There were so many things that were fantastic about the learning that was happening in the classroom, some of which I did not even realize until I started learning about teaching in this program. Some examples are the way that subjects happened simultaneously, the students got to have experiences to enhance learning and had the opportunity to guide the learning. Everything that I saw and experienced in this classroom was so different than anything I remembered about my education. To be fair I do not remember a lot about my schooling back in younger grades but what I do remember does not really line up with this. What I saw was so much closer to the hands-on learning that I loved about art class and fine arts, and I saw how this could be integrated into other subjects. This drew me into wanting to teach kindergarten and facilitate spaces where this type of learning was able to occur. I went on and volunteer with a kindergarten class for another two and a half years until COVID kicked me out. During this time I also got to see a third-grade class and spend some time working with another high school art teacher. Both made me want to back to the younger grades so I could help get this type of learning started at younger grades so students develop a strong love for learning so they want to continue and find out what the love and want to learn more about.
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While volunteering the teacher I was working with suggested I plan a small art activity for students, and at the time they were learning about the community. I pulled things I knew about, architecture, and art, which led to this activity where they made their own structure. I also found how handing them a new art tool, in this case, oil pastels was so exciting to them.
Video credit to Teach With Mr C on YouTube
I love these songs that you can find for counting, and I know that there are so many other songs that have been turned into counting songs. They are so fun for students and with how many are out there I can find ones based on music students are interested in. I see using these as a way to get students engaged in their learning and as a way to help them remember their basic facts.
This is an example from one of the first lessons I taught in practicum, it was a great experience and I had to adjust how I approached lessons from then on, but it did give me the confidence to start planning further.
In the last year of my BFA, I had a fantastic advisor who asked me what I wanted to learn, and I said mural printing, so we learned how to do it. We figured out the setup, chemicals, paper, and enlargers, she completely let me learn what I wanted. I was so invested in the learning I was doing, and this student-based learning is something that I would like to bring into the classroom. It may not be as directed at one specific student but I do believe that it is valuable to have students like what they are learning.
This was the evaluation from the second lesson I had taught (on my third day overall) and was done by my faculty mentor. I had previously had an evaluation done by my teacher mentor, but it was nice to hear another person’s feedback that I was able to apply to my next lessons.