I Guess That's It!

I guess it is it! I should maybe start blogging about other things, other than my practicum because that's been about 2 weeks ago! Move on Mr. Fabia is what you're wondering I bet.

The purpose of starting this blog in general was to share my experiences and help out my fellow educators when necessary. Whether we're face to face friends, facebook friends, legit friends or just avid readers -- I want something that you guys can look forward too! 

I feel that I've been dragging my experiences and posts about my IFX too, however, in the future I want the opportunity to look back, read them and have those memories present. For some people, they take pictures or make Instagram/Tumblr posts. I guess blogging has helped me in ways to express my experiences to the Web. It's also a great conversation starter too at pubs & restaurants!

For now, I'm not sure what I'll be blogging about! This week I started my new job with the Strathcona County Library where I'll be there working for the summer. For sure I'll blog about that. In addition, I look forward to share more book lists, educational resources and stories with all of you lovely people! 

So, for now, don't expect me to blog more about my IFX, as that chapter of my life is complete. My grade 6's happen to love quotes, which is one thing we have in common! To end off, I'll finish with this typical (and cheeeeeeesy) Dr. Seuss quote. 

Subject 5 (and final) - Religion

The last subject I taught was Religion! If you've been reading my blogs (which I hope you have!) then you would know that Easter Mass was during my last week of my practicum! I taught my class certain bible passages that were Easter related.

If you haven't read my blog post about the school's Easter Mass celebration, you can read it here! I listed in that post the two hymns that were played throughout the mass. These songs are on my repeat YouTube playlist without a doubt!

An activity I led in class which summed up the religion topics, was to make a greeting card for grade 2/3 students preparing for their First Holy Communion. This is legit straight from my lesson plan:

"Explain how First Communion is considered one of the holiest and most important occasions in a Roman Catholic person's life. It is the first time that a person receives the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, which is the consuming the bread and wine (body and blood). Catholics believe these to be the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Most Catholic children receive their First Communion when they're 7 or 8 years old."

Here are some examples of their greeting cards!

I emphasized the purpose of this activity was to use what they have learned in the previous classes, and explain why and how Jesus is important to all of us. I told them not to put their name on it, as this was anonymous. These grade 2's/3's would be thrilled for their First Holy Communion preparation to be started with a caring, 6th grader making them a card! Here is the template I provided for them. Of course, they were expected to add more! 

Dear Student, 

Jesus is important to everyone because… 

Jesus will always remind me of love, power and forgiveness because… 

Jesus is a part of me… 

Yours, 

A 6th Grade Student

My favorite part about this activity was I gave the students just one block to do and finish it. This block actually happened to be before recess. Once the bell rang, I believe about 8 or 9 kids stayed in, during their recess, to make it more colorful and more meaningful for the students. How thoughtful is that?! It definitely is, shows how caring these students are for younger ones!

Subject 4 - Health (or the elementary version of CALM class)

Health and Religion were interesting classes to teach, because there's no Alberta Program of Studies (POS) available online. However, my MT had certain objectives, similar to the POS that she has. She listed the outcomes I must focus on, thus my lesson revolved around that.

Here is an example of one of the objectives: R6.8 The students will analyze the influence of groups, cliques and alliances on self and others; e.g. at home, in school, in the community.

I introduced this class with a movie trailer and transitioned into a class discussion about cliques vs. group. I had to use examples and some kids even asked me "Mr. Fabia, were you a nerd?" I told them the truth. ;)

Here's the trailer I showed! They seemed to enjoy it, somewhat, maybe?

Teaching health was pretty cool, and I don't mind teaching it more! I also focused about community and forming relationships with older people. The outcomes were straight forward, it's the matter of using modern (and easy to assess) activities to use in class.

PS - Instead of playing the trailer above, I was going to play Mean Girls. However, the trailer was not appropriate for a Gr. 6 Catholic school class. Good thing I switched it last minute!

Subject 3 - Physical Education or "The Best Class Ever" According to Some

During Spring Break, I did a vast amount of prep work, which included lesson planning for gym. The PE teacher at the school (who, by the way is such a gem) and my MT decided I'll be teaching the line dancing unit for my grade 6 class and a grade 7 co-ed class. First though in my mind was Grade 7, whaaaat? 

This is such a given, but grade 7's are just one grade older than grade 6's! Only difference is the elementary/junior high division. Truthfully, I had so much fun teaching the line dancing unit because it wasn't in a classroom, and I was able to incorporate a range of music too!

My best friend gladly helped me out in how to teach dance. I have never taught dance, let alone know how to do it, so I called in reinforcements. She has danced (and taught dance) for practically her whole life, that it was amazing to see the breakdown of step-by-step dancing. Did I also mention she teaches ZUMBA?! Uhm, yeah. You the bomb.com!

The four dances I taught were Electric Slide, Cadillac Ranch, Cha Cha Slide and Cotton Eyed Joe! I didn't want to do partner or "social" dance at all, strictly line dancing. For the Electric Slide, there's not a specific "song" that goes with it, unlike the other 3, so I introduced 3 different songs with varying pace to dance with. Check them out!

Average Speed

Average Speed 

Faster Speed 

And finally! The last two days on my practicum, I had supervision outside before school started. Some students asked if I could play the songs from the line dancing unit from my phone. Without hesitation, I quickly grabbed my speakers from my car, connected it to my phone and was now a walking, supervising, DJ. By the end of it, there was about 15 students just dancing along, remembering the steps I taught them all. How proud was I at that moment? Very! 

Subject 2 - Language Arts

While teaching language arts, my MT gave me the responsibility to teach and assist with newspaper writing. I assigned, I think 3 or 4 different ones and marked them individually, giving each student a score and constructive criticism for their future writing!

I'm such an elementary teacher, I gave stickers (of either stars or happy faces) with their comments. A happy face described something I liked and a star is an area I suggested they could improve upon. At grade 6, they still love receiving stickers. I swear I'm going to be using them everywhere and still be finding an excuse to use them in whatever. I think it's because they're cheap, I can get a lot for so little money, and anyone under age 12 will do anything for one. Win-win-win. Ha. 

I didn't just give out the assignments and let them write their article. Instead, after each one I read them all over that evening and decided, where as a class we can spend the next lesson on. I remember doing a lesson about closing paragraphs, as most were just not finishing their article as strong as they could be! I also pulled out student examples of strong paragraphs, and discovered that students got that "aha!" moment from realizing what their peers have written!

Click here to find PAT examples under the Alberta curriculum. I used these examples during my instruction too! 

Subject 1 - Science (Rules!)

Teaching Science 6 was the first subject I taught! Pretty exciting and overwhelming, I must say, especially since this grade has Provincial Achievement Tests in June. I love elementary science because it's not as boring as high school. High school I remember taking physics and chemistry, not the most exciting topics out there. 

I taught not just my homeroom grade 6 class, but all the grade 6 classes science. Also take into the account that each class had approximately 27 children. So if I do my math right 3 x 27 = 81 children's names to know within the first two weeks. Ha. Welcome to my life. On top of learning their names, I also struggled with learning classroom management skills, teaching the science topics and assessing their learning. Of course all those improved significantly for me! #proudteacher

The science topics I taught was from the science unit Evidence & Investigation where the students learned about fingerprinting, forgery and analyzing crime scenes. How wicked is that!? The topics I specifically taught included chromatography, fabric samples and soil samples. All these lessons included discovery learning and varying experiment trials. It was pretty neat to watch the kids learn like this!

For these weeks, I essentially had to create one lesson plan, because it was the same for the three classes. At first, I didn't like doing the same lesson 3 times a day as it was tiring and repetitive for me, however it was the best opportunity to improve my teaching skills with different classes! I was able to see where my weaknesses were and change it for the next class right after. The only downfall with this was... there were SO many of them! I mean 81 names to know within the first week? Tough. Now I know that in the future, is to create my own seating plans! (Which I did during Spring Break)

Since I taught science with using science experiments, I remember getting the materials the night before. I was scrambling around West Edmonton for soil and fabrics because I needed the right, and I mean the right materials for my lessons. Then, I had to go home and test it. Those were long prep days, but totally worth it! 

Soil Samples

Soil Samples 

So, What Now?

As the title says, so, what now? You may be thinking, he's done he's practicum what else could he talk about now? Entirely true, but I don't think you know exactly what I thought, do you? ;) Take a guess. Guess how many subjects and grades I taught.

Did you say 3 subjects? More than that! 4? More. 5? Yes you're right! I did teach 5 subjects. Now you're thinking grades? Didn't he just teach grade 6? True, but I also did teach grade 7 gym! Wicked, hey?

With all this said, I'll be making a blog post for each subject I taught and reflecting on my most favorite thing about it! I taught a variety of subjects and looking back on the diversity I accomplished during my IFX, I hope will be informative to other educators out there!

For now, I want you to guess the 5, yes F I V E 5 5 5 5 subjects I taught, made lesson plans/power points/handouts/etc for. Maybe I'll give you a prize if you get all 5 right. We'll see who's actually been reading my blog. ;) Jk.

Easter Mass

During my last week, which is actually last week, our school had an Easter mass to celebrate with the entire school. I taught religion classes last week to prepare for the importance of Easter and how it's an important day for us Christians. 

I didn't think that 800 students would fit in the gymnasium, but it certainly did. A lot of the students were even asking why have an Easter celebration so far away from Easter itself? I responded saying that Easter marks celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, and it's never too late for it.

I further explained how Jesus is and always will be a part of us. At times during struggle and at times during triumph. In order to prepare for the celebration, my MT played 2 hymns for the class to be familiar with. These two songs are inspiring to listen to while watching the lyrics pass by on the screen. Every time I listen to these songs, I'll always think back of the amazing students I was blessed with for my first practicum.

I hope you like these amazing Christian hymns and pass it along when you teach Religion!

My Sassy, Superb and Stunning Group of 6's

Today is Saturday. For the past weeks, my Saturdays would include working and creating lesson plans for the upcoming week. Today, however, is different. I don't have any more lesson plans to make until my APT and I don't work today since I switched shifts. I'm so used to having routine that it's strange for me to have it changed.

It's also strange that I won't see my fantastic group of grade 6's anymore. As the title says, they were a sassy, superb and stunning group of 6's that have further inspired my passion to teach. This blog post will explain what I gave each of my 6's as a little, parting gift!

I learned throughout my practicum that at any elementary age, you are never too old for stickers! So, I took a trip to The Education Station, recall my earlier blog post of how I'm in love with that store, and bought smelly stickers for each child. I gave them a sheet of varying smells in their bag!

strawberry, caramel & pineapple!

In addition to the stickers, I also made a personalized message on a colorful index card, highlighting their strengths and wishing them the best in their future schooling! It had many happy faces!

Do you remember my blog post about my class field trip to the legislature? Well, it was my second day with them and our class happened to run into the Alberta Premier -- Jim Prentice! I took a class photo of my 6's with them and printed the photo out so each child had a copy! When I gave them those pictures, every single one came up to me asking for my (messy) signature/autograph. It was super awkward, as I never consider myself famous or anything... but truthfully, it was pretty cool. But then again, people don't ask for "autographs" of famous people now-a-days, rather it's a selfie. Oh man. 

Lastly, I each gave them a lyric sheet of my Body Breaks/Transition Songs I used in class. There were 2 songs I used, since they were an older group, and as a result they totally LOVED! I told them how I was surprised that every single one of them participated in the songs and how the lyrics will help them remember to sing it, even when I'm not around. Here are the two songs I used -- they are pretty darn cool! There Was A Crocodile and Shark Song :) 

Bitter-Sweet Ending

Wow, what an experience! Today was such a bitter-sweet day because it was my last day of my IFX. A lot of the students asked:

"Are you coming back to teach here?"

"Will you visit us soon?"

"Are you coming to camp with us!?"

"Can you be my teacher again?"

Unfortunately, I answered no to all of them. They're grade 6, meaning I can be more truthful and blunt with them (unlike Grade 1 or 2)! No, I won't be teaching there again. No, I won't be visiting (I have 2 days off in May and 2 in June from work!). No, I can't come to camp because I wasn't even invited. #sad. And no, I won't be their teacher again, as I'm specializing only with elementary students. 

The very last block of today, my students surprised me with a flash mob dance to Cadillac Ranch (since I taught them the dance), gave me a humongous green card and a bag full of inspiring books. It bought tears to my eyes knowing they genuinely care about me and my passion for teaching!

Even though today is my last day of my IFX, doesn't mean I'll stop blogging! As I have more time within the week, I'll reflect more about this experience as it has been truly a remarkable one! #passionforteaching

2 Days Remain

I have been absolutely, crazy busy that I thought I could keep my promise in blogging more frequently. I guess not :(

This practicum has been such a great experience to see where my strengths and weaknesses are at. I'm looking forward for the summer to improve in areas that need improvement so that come my AFX, I'll be fully ready.

The next days are going to be so bitter-sweet! Tomorrow, our school is having an Easter Celebration and is a short day, for the staff meeting. Thus, I don't even teach anything tomorrow. And Friday, well I teach 2 subjects and we're going to have a little party for my goodbye. Please don't cry, please don't cry is all I'm thinking about. 

Week 3 Recap

I can't believe tomorrow I'm already onto week 4 out of the 5! This practicum is just rushing itself to be over. This last week was the best so far out of all of them. I think I really needed Spring Break to re-energize, collect my thoughts and come prepared as ever. Though it was a short week, it felt pretty darn long! I couldn't wait to sleep and eat.

I taught language arts, religion, health and gym this week. It may seem a lot, but it was a bit of everything, which I like! Kind of like a buffet.. ;) In language arts, I spent a majority of an evening giving feedback on my students' newspaper articles they've written! I gave them stickers (surprisingly, still at grade 6, they still like it) in what I liked about their writing and where they could improve upon. Teaching gym has to be my favorite so far, I'm teaching specifically the dance unit so all my lessons are line dances! Remember the Electric Slide? Cadillac Ranch? Cha Cha Slide? Those are all dances I'm teaching! Pretty pretty cool I must say.

Going into week 4 I'm stoked as it's the same subjects as last week. More dances, more newspaper articles and a couple health/religion classes too. I don't know how I feel come the final week as my students are truly the best.

I know I've been dropping the ball here for blogging, teachers are just b-u-s-y. Hopefully my next one will be soon. I'm sorrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyy.

EDPY 303 Recap

Woop woop, this is my last class that for the year that I'll be doing a recap for. I wasn't going to recap for EDPY 303 (Assessment class) until I got my letter grade received. We all wrote the final exam on March 12 and didn't get our grades till today (March 31). That's 19 days later! For me, totally not cool. Did you know that professors have 5 days from the point students write their class final, to give their later grades back? That's typically the guideline, but how often does that happen? Usually 50%. Assessment was clearly an exception! 

I don't even remember this class fully, it's been almost a month since I sat in its lectures! The final for this class was also the latest one for me, so I wrote the final, took time to work and relax, then BAM practicum hits. The final was decent and fair, just like any other final and I walked away with an ehh grade. #kindadisappointed

EDPY 303 was pretty straight forward, where we learned about different assessment practices to exercise when student teaching or teaching. I remember there was a lot of proper test creations, such as selected-response, constructed-response, matching, etc. My favorite section in this course would be the how of assessments and learning its pros and cons. Should I use checklists? Rating scales? Holistic or analytic rubrics? These questions are what I'm asking myself during my IFX currently! 

Am I right or AM I RIGHT?

I sat beside my good friend all assessment classes, who I met last term and we partnered for both of the assessment assignments. She's an example of someone who I want as a teacher across my classroom! She's that amazing. And so am I.

Week 2 Recap

So, I'm currently at work blogging because I wanted to tell you how my week 2 of my IFX went. To be honest, it was a little rougher than the first week. I had a couple lows during Tuesday/Wednesday, where I felt a bit insecure about if being a teacher is what I'm meant to be doing. But you know what, that's okay, I felt like I needed that realization to see if teaching is truly for me. I felt like I finished this week strong and positive as spring break, SPRIIIIIINGGGGG BRRREAAK, is here, about time! PS - this picture is a typical spring break picture which is something I am unfortunately, not doing.

I'm not sure why I struggled with teaching this week, but my MT has high expectations for me I feel like. They're higher than what I originally expected, but I'm slowly understanding that she wants me to achieve so much more than a typical IFX student! She just wants me to do my very very very best and I can see why her bar is raised so high. She pushes me more, in a great way, to achieve that bar.

She gave me great pointers in what I need to work on, classroom management skills especially. I've been experimenting with tricks in how to get the children's attention here and there. Ones I've tried include "if you hear my voice, touch your ear/nose/lips/etc" and also "if you hear my voice, clap once/twice/three times" and "hands together, sit on them please". If you have any others that work great with your classroom, I would love to know!

Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break -- I'm almost 99% sure that every, and I mean every teacher is way more excited for this break that students. Yes, that includes me!

Even though there's "break" in Spring Break, I'll be doing anything but that. I have about 10 different lesson plans I need to complete, plus creating any additional worksheets and power points. Oh yeah, did I mention how I still have to w-o-r-k. I still need to make money as I'm a poor, hungry student. I just realized that every day for the past 2 weeks, I always go and grab either an L or XL 3S 1C coffee from Tim Horton's. Have I turned into that kind of teacher?! One where I absolutely rely on coffee to survive the day? I may have. Students even ask me "Mr. Fabia, you ALWAYS drink coffee!! Why?"

Meet Mr. Fabia

It wasn't until Friday that I had the opportunity to explain a little bit about myself to my grade 6's. I immediately started to teach on Monday, however I never had a "real" introduction of me to them. Instead of talking about myself, I kind of made it into a game!

I put up a list of 11 things and they have to choose 6 that they think I am. I went down the list and explained which nouns I am and which I'm not. It was actually pretty interesting and only took 10 minutes! After going through the list, I asked who got alllllllll 6 right. Turns out, not a lot! Surprise, surprise. The cool thing is, after this "game" ended I heard someone say "that was a fun activity!" Ha, it was just a different way for them to discover who I am before actually talking about myself.

I dare you to try it out if you can! I put it down below for you to see. Can YOU guess which six I am or was? ;)

Week 1 - Check!

Wow, what a week! Wednesday I pulled the longest day at the school thus far: 12 hours. My MT wanted me to stay with her for the school's "student-led conference"-like evening so that night I wasn't home till about 8pm. Thursday I went to The Price Is Right Live with my friend and last night I didn't get home till late evening as well. The past few days, just like the days to come will always be go go GO.

I was going to blog earlier this morning but I have this thing, called a job. Where I need it to earn money. I got home from working and took a nap, and now I'm here! Talking to you recapping my intense (yet rewarding) week of my first practicum.

Two things I learned this week:

1. I have the best support system. At the school I'm at, my mentor teacher is hands down, absolutely, positively, happily, such a great mentor. She's given me constructive criticism and feedback that is going to help me be successful later on. She understands where I'm at in my teaching experience and is taking all of my previous experiences into consideration. Not only I have a great mentor teacher, the other staff and other student teachers are such a privilege to work with. I'm one thousand percent blessed in the administration and people who are here to support my journey through my IPT!

2. I need to transition from student to teacher more effectively. An area I need to work on as a student teacher is making that transition from a University student to a teacher. For the past 3 or so years I'm used to saying words like campus, lecture and cafeteria. And that's okay as that was my setting and environment for that time. Now, I have to change up what I say as these words, along others, I can't use anymore as a teacher since my grade 6'ers won't understand! I'm doing my best to use more elementary friendly vocabulary such as instruction or lesson -- so wish me luck! Transitioning from student to teacher is a lot harder than people give credit for.

Two Days In!

Wow, already started yesterday and I am already so so so busy! Which I love! I'll do a quick recap as I'm currently watching The Challenge: Rivals II. (Go Sarah and Jordan!)

I've observed for the most part yesterday and my MT and I sat and planned out the upcoming week for me to start teaching. I already made some lesson plans and am so excited for this journey to happen!

Today, we went on a FIELD TRIP! Yes, field trip, on my second day, huh what huh!? We went to the legislature and unfortunately, my MT couldn't come. It's okay, since I told her great the experience was. This was a great day to spend time with my grade 6's in an environment that is outside the classroom. Check out my pictures!

Selfie with Ed Stelmach!

Palm Trees looking up!

Stairs where we took our class group picture

One One One!

So the number that best represents me right now is currently ONE! Why?! Well, In exactly ONE week I start my IFX and also I have just ONE final left. Even though I only have 3 finals this term, it is the greatest to know that one is remaining. I also can't believe that I actually get to start student teaching next Monday! My this term is flying by it's crazy!

I have been ridiculously busy with studying, work and others knick-knacks that I haven't blogged in a little while. As my term of classes end, I hope to get into the regular routine of constantly blogging about my thoughts and experiences for you guys to read! I hope to even take more pictures to share rather than GIFs -- that way I'm not shamelessly advertising GIFs daily. 

In the next couple weeks, I'll be doing quick blogging recap of my courses (assessment, science curriculum, music curriculum) so watch out for those. And of course, my other upcoming ones too!

Observation Day Three

My third and final observation day is complete and I couldn't be more content. "Observing" for the first little while was fine, but if you're a hands-on/kinesthetic learner like me, then watching for so long can get boring. There were parts that were, however as a whole I'm glad my observation days happened as they were organized and truthfully quick.

Knowing that the teacher I'm with is my mentor teacher is such a great feeling, as she's had many student teachers before. She told me that I'll be teaching a lot of ELA and science, which I'm not at all disappointed! She also mentioned that if I am comfortable with teaching more, she'll let me at that opportunity. I most likely will already be comfortable that I'm not surprised that I'll take on more.

Also, as it's the school day before Valentine's Day, it was nice that my MT gave them time to hand out Valentine cards/treats to one another. Here are 3 reasons why I'm looking forward in teaching Grade 6!

- They think of each other.

I can give clear, distinct examples in how they consider one another, but I won't. You just have to trust me that they genuinely care for each other by not using their words, but also their actions. Watching these students interact with one another is such a privilege. 

- They get involved in other curricular activities.

I witnessed several students getting involved within the school community, which I am totally gun-ho about. Knowing me, I get involved with various schools/organizations that it could be a bit overwhelming. In high school, I was even President, Grade Representative and even Event's Coordinator...not to toot my own horn or anything. Regardless, I love the community aspect that these students bring! 

- They want to learn.

In my teaching career, I will encounter students who truly don't want to learn. With what I observed yesterday, I did not witness that motive whatsoever. I can 100% say that all the students I saw want to learn something new and expand their knowledge with school. Those sixth grade keeners! 

With all this information given, I know I'm blessed in having the grade, the group of students and the mentor teacher assigned. To end off, I took a picture of what I received from them. I mean, I got Ferrero Rocher. Jealous? You should be. (Actually don't since I can't even eat Ferrero Rocher). 

Observation Day Two

Today marks the completion of my second observation day at the school I'll be doing my practicum. From my blog last week, I shadowed the upper grades, thus today I watched the lower grades. 

In the morning, I watched a third grade class do their "morning routine" which consisted of many mini-lessons of ELA, math and social studies. They work in their booklets for 20-30 minutes every day right when the morning bell rings. After, I shadowed another third grade class (this one had twice as many students as they combined the classes) for their lesson on guided math. With my immense experience with mathematics and explaining numbers like a pro, I had no trouble at all with this one. 

As I was roaming around the classroom, I had a conversation with a young boy which I thought was pretty hilarious. Here's what went down:

Student: Where is the University?

Me: About 20 minutes from here.

Student: By Saskatchewan Drive?

Me: Yes! Very close to there!

Student: Cool, do you know an Ashley?

Me: Do you know how many students go to the University? A lot! And I mean about 30 000 alot! So the chances of me knowing someone you know are very tiny, just because there are so many people at the University!

Student: Oh, I don't care, so you know an Ashley?

Internally, I'm laughing inside as I love how these students think we know everyone at the University, knowing them by their first names. Their curiosity and their humor kind of wants me to be a comedian, however I'm no Jimmy Fallon or Ellen DeGeneres. I don't think I'm that funny..

Lunch was lunch as I had a soggy salad and read my emails and texts. 

In the afternoon, I observed a grade 2 class and another grade 3 class. The second grade class was the most energetic group of kids ever, as they completed "mini challenges" since today was their 100th day of school! I could tell their stamina and motivation in celebrating the 100th day of school is something that could last as long as the movie Titanic. If I teach these kids gym, I would be out of breath within minutes while these little ones are waiting to do more suicides...

Right at 2:30 we were able to find out which grade and mentor teacher we'll be assigned and the wait is over! I will be teaching...

..........GRADE 6! 

Yes, the older ones. The rough ones. The loud ones. Actually, the group last week weren't rough or loud, but interesting. I'm so so so so SO excited for this group as I was hoping for an older group for my practicum. Working at the library last summer I was exposed regularly to younger kids, not as much to the older ones. Having a grade 6 classroom is absolutely thrilling to look forward to! I'm secretly dancing as I'm typing this.