This artifact is about two Grade One science units that I planned and taught during my PSI semester. I taught Topic A: Creating Colour and Topic D: Senses in the 5 week time frame and created my own workbooks that corresponded to the GLOs and SLOs of each science topic. Although the workbooks were used for almost all lessons, there were various activities that surrounded each workbook page to ensure that students could learn in varied, engaging and relevant ways. The pictures show how workbooks were used in the traditional senses, but also how workbooks can be used to complement hands-on and exploratory activities. 

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I chose to include this artifact because creating the workbooks and unit planning/teaching showcases my involvement in becoming more competent with TQS #3 and building my professional body of knowledge for Grade One Science. Creating the workbooks/linked activities exemplify:​

• short-term and long-term planning (ex. daily lessons/activities and all the lessons/activities for the whole unit to be organized and included in the workbooks that students will have from day 1) 

• connection to the Science Program of Study into my teaching (ex. each activities corresponds to at least one SLO)

• use of varied instructional strategies (ex. inclusion of sign language into lessons/activities, hands-on activities such as mixing colours, painting, dyeing, separating sunlight)

• consideration of student variables (ex. prior knowledge and learning of students reading and writing abilities; second language learning which included visuals and explanation in students' mother-tongue; physical, social, and cognitive abilities such as autism, ADHD, deafness in students)

• use of formative assessment tools (ex. use of the circle, triangle, and square method to provide students with feedback) 

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From this artifact I learned about the organization and planning needed for teaching units. As all the hands-on activities to accompany workbooks needed to be planned and ready for students from the first day of teaching, therefore, I needed to ensure that all the learning outcomes were considered as I designed and created pages to correspond to each learning outcome. Additionally, I learned about the importance of evaluation practices, as I could improve in communicating learning outcomes with students. Although I kept track of students' abilities, I barely made time to communicate these with students. For students who had triangles or squares, I felt like I didn't have enough time to sit down with each student and help them in their learning. 

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The ways in which I grew or changed as a teacher as a result of this artifact are that even with workbooks, I was able to create varied, engaging and relevant lessons for students. I ensured that my workbooks were not workbooks in the traditional sense of "sit at your desk and fill out the workbook", but more innovative in terms of including visuals, discussions, group work, hands-on projects, storybooks, sharing, creativity and exploratory activities.  Due to the corona virus, safety always became the highest priority when teaching science, however teaching two science units for Grade Ones was an experience in which I learned how to provide safe, but engaging activities for my students. I also grew from the first workbook that I made to the second workbook as I made many changes that furthered engagement, interactions, and collegiality among students within their learning process.