Miss Art of Teaching

For today's blog entry, I decided to share a newsletter article that I compiled with teacher and students' feedback on Vivo (virtual points reward system) prizes. The school's 'Vivo' reward system works by having accounts set up for both the teacher and student. The cost of running the 'Vivo Miles' program depends on the number of students at your school. Teachers can reward students based on how well they are meeting the school's values of being a respectful, engaged and an active learner. Students can look up their virtual points and the messages that go along with it on their computer/mobile app and trade their points in for prizes of their own choice i.e. tangible prize or a teacher service prize.  To get a bit of a background about Vivo, please read the following post on: Ways to get donations/prizes Love my classes Newsletter article: A BIG thank you to all the teachers and staff who have donated their time providing these amazing Vivo T...

I am a huge believer on rewarding students and I try my best to get donations rolling into our school system. Over the past two years, I have been speaking to local businesses in person, sending out emails, letters and even asking for donations from the school community (via school Facebook and email). Sometimes we get monetary donations, other times we get tangible prizes. I try to be creative as well and ask if teachers are willing to provide services such as baking a cake, wearing a onesie, being a note taker.... If you want to know more about the different prizes, please remember to check out my links at the bottom of this blog post. This is the letter that I have been sending out to local companies: Dear I’d like to introduce myself, and outline the purpose of this letter. My name is Miss Kwan, and I am a High School Teacher at X High School. We are seeking funds to keep our school online rewards system running. Alternatively, you can provide merchandise to be placed i...

I LOVE MY CLASSES. This year I have been blessed with really good classes. I still get my dose of challenging students but overall the students are settled and I get to be myself in front of them. I can be silly, make jokes and do some horrible dabbing.  Teaching is about knowing your students and working on building good relationships with them. At the same time NOT letting them get away with things like coming late to class, incomplete assessments tasks and being rude. It is important to have consistent instructions and consequences. Students do three things when they walk into my classroom: 1. Bags off (and placed at the back of the room). 2. Sit down. 3. Zip it. This is to get the class settled quickly without interruptions. Once the introduction is done (for practical lessons), students can start on their own project. If it is a theory lesson, students need to remain quiet unless there is a class discussion. I am generally more flexible with senior s...