And just like that… it’s over. I do not think that I have ever had such a bittersweet experience as I did during the last week of my 10-week (and final) practicum. There were extreme highs and devastating lows. I went through the process of giving up things that I felt I had originally needed from the program. I came to peace with myself as an educator. Above all else, I found my purpose and place within the profession, and am finally ready for my next steps.
Before heading into practicum, I thought of it as something to push through so that I could come out the other side as a full-fledged teacher. At that point, I didn’t know the students and how much we would connect, I didn’t know my Coaching Teacher and how much we would care for each other, and I didn’t know the other staff in the school and how much support and courage they would offer me on my journey. Little did I know, I became a teacher during my time at my practicum placement somewhere along the way. I went into practicum with a set of goals to achieve and skills to develop, not thinking about all of the other wonderful elements that would come along with my time there.
My goals before entering practicum were straight forward and skills-based. I wanted to get more familiar with summative assessment, develop a general idea of reporting grades to families, collect resources, better understand the curriculum, and create / implement well thought-out lessons. I think that my goals and thought about practicum prior to beginning were based in the fact that I was almost done and that it was now or never that I fill in the gaps of my learning, because I knew I would be applying for jobs the moment I could. I felt like I needed to power-learn everything I could about managing and taking care of a class on a day-to-day basis so that I would be qualified and capable of doing it on my own in a short couple of months.
That being said, the things that I learned during practicum that have made me feel most prepared are none of the above.
Sure, I learned and practice summative assessment to the point of confidence. And I collected a massive amount of resources and ideas, I even feel like I have the Grade 4 curriculum memorized from all angles. But these are not the developed skills that have made me feel like a competent educator.
The skills that I grew throughout these past 10-weeks are communication, community-building, caring for my students’ needs and acting in their best interests, scaffolding information to turn it into knowledge, and creating meaningful connections with those around me. I am so sad to be leaving that classroom (you should’ve seen the tears… not all from me), but I feel incredibly ready to move onto my next steps.
I am so grateful for the people I met and the soft skills that I learned throughout the course of this program as well as in practicum. I could write forever about the stories and events that occurred during this time, but ultimately I feel like this post is to sum up my learning in #OneWord, as I have done in previous posts.
My #OneWord as someone who is leaving the program and entering the field of education is: Accomplished.
This past practicum was one of the most challenging experiences that I have ever had to endure for such a long amount of time. It was challenging because of time constraints, behaviours in the class, difficulties in connecting with the students, and even with my own mental health acting as a blockade for creative thought. That all being said, I feel as though throughout the course of these past four weeks I have been experiencing growing pains, not struggles, because while I had my moments of self-doubt I have come through on the other side so incredibly proud of myself, of my students, and confident in my abilities as a teacher.
Strengths
While going through these growing pains that accompanied practicum, I was able to draw strengths out of myself that I did not even know that I had. I am most proud of my ability to create and reinforce boundaries, for myself as well as on behalf of my students. There were certainly times where I was so exhausted and frustrated that it would have just been easier to let the students argue their way out of an activity, or maybe even just to let them talk during an assignment time instead of reminding them to work independently, but I persevered and drew strength from my boundaries and expectations. I found that this was the right thing to do because while it maybe some days made me the least favourite person in the classroom, the students still learned the material and ultimately respected me more because of it. In a grade 6/7 class of 27 students and no Education Assistants, only 1 official IEP and several students who likely needed them, I grew to understand what my role in that classroom needed to be, and while some days my role included foot races in the field as recess, my role was first and foremost to be the teacher, the protector, and to provide guidance for the students around me. Without an ability to stay strong with my boundaries and expectations I would be over powered and out numbered because of the time in the school year and the sheer will power of the students, but at the end of it all I have found that I respect myself immensely for the effort I put into setting boundaries.
Stretches
An element of this practicum that I struggled with (and still struggle to wrap my head around) is recognizing, understanding, and adapting to different behaviours in the classroom. With my experiences in primary grades I could usually soothe an upset student easily because they often express their emotions outright (crying because they are hurt or sad, lashing out because they are angry) but with intermediate, I found that the students would hide their emotions behind a metaphorical brick wall. Nearly every day of my practicum I experienced students who simply would not reply to my saying “Good morning” or reminding them to stay on task and work on their assignment. No tears, no lashing out, just silence and a refusal to communicate. From this behaviour I could definitely tell that something was wrong, or that the student had something blocking them from being able to act like themselves and participate, however I could never quite get around that brick wall to see what the problem was and what I could do to fix it. I feel like more time with the students and more confidence in myself will help me get through to them in the future, yet I still cannot help but feel sad that I was not able to do this for the students in this EDUC 490 practicum. I had many days during this practicum where I would go home in tears at the end of the day because the students shut me out, or projected their negative emotions onto me through misbehaviours, and when venting to those around me I was almost always met with “Well maybe intermediate just isn’t for you.”, but that is not the problem here. The problem is that I cared SO MUCH for the students that all I wanted was to be able to help them identify their emotions and work through it with me so that school could be a more positive environment. I will know that I have grown in this regard when I am able to make those connections with the students emotionally, and I feel like I can do that when I am in a position to be able to properly influence the classroom environment and have more time to connect with the students. I also feel like I could really use some time with perhaps a school counsellor or maybe even just some outside research on intermediate student behaviour so that I can better recognize and react to the social cues that I was missing.
Favourite Memory
I have quite a lot of favourite memories from this practicum because we got to do so many fun and exciting projects during my time there. However, I would have to say that my favourite memory was a multi-day, multi-step project that I thought of (with the help of the amazing Adrienne Gear) that I got to lead the students through each step of the way. For this project I had the students work either independently or in groups of two or three and create Biographies (or Autobiographies) from scratch about the people around them. We started with a lesson on what a biography is, then they moved into an interview process, they had a chance to look at published biographies and eventually moved into two computer lab times where they could type up and style their written work. My favourite part of the process was when I did mini-conferences with each of the students because it gave me the opportunity to connect with them individually and personally about their work. During the mini-conferences I provided them with 2 Stars and a Wish styled feedback and then sent them back to work. The most magical part? I got to see the students use my guidance and feedback to help develop their own work right before my very own eyes. Now, I am left with a handful of personally written, revised, and printed work from the students who have taught me so much. These biographies are beautiful to me because they are all so different in content and writing styles (and most of them are hilarious) and they will forever be a reminder for myself that I created that learning environment and that I led them through that learning.
This is a snippet of one of the autobiographies I received from a student. This means so much to me because I struggled to connect with this student and I was always doubting myself, wondering if I was making a difference.This is the card I got from a student on my first day in the classroom. Definitely set the tone for me LOL.And this is a portion of a card I got from the students on my last day. The effort and work put into the card and the fact that each students’ name was on it was everything to me.
Today I had my first day at a new school for my observational practicum and I am blown away at how different all of my experiences have been between schools. My first placement was at a venturing school, then I moved to a rural school, and am now located in a higher-economic-standing school tightly knit into its surrounding community. I have learned a lot from each placement, yet I find that most of my learning has come from comparing the different schools and their respective communities.
The biggest difference between schools that surprised me the most was that of the venturing school and my current placement. This is because while the communities and socio-economic standings are much different I had not expected to see such a difference in the students. What stood out most to me right away this morning was that the students did not seem to need attention or validation from the teacher or any other adult in the room, they simply came in and sat at their desks, silently reading until class started. At the venturing school it was apparent from the moment the students walked into the school that they were eager for the attention from the faculty and staff members and were excited to share.
The students in my class today had amazing discipline, they did not once speak out of turn or argue with the teacher, much different than the venturing school. I think this is because the students at this new school do not have as much to be angry or anxious about compared to the students from the venturing school. Something else that struck a cord with me is that the students in class that I was in today used money and dollar value to count how many days they have been in school so far this year, I could not help but ask myself: “Could this be done at a venturing school?”. The concept of money to students at a venturing school would have a varied effect than that of other students because most times students at venturing schools have been subject to financial strain already in their young lives. Yet, for the students who come from more financially secure households may find that using money in their learning will make this idea more relatable to their own lives.
In my new placement I was able to see how a better socio-economic standing changes a students mindset when it comes to their education, it is almost like they attend school like one would attend a job instead of seeing it as something that they must do. The teacher was able to teach them various life skills in the classroom where venturing school teachers often struggle to get through the basic lesson plans. Today, the teacher had the students include in their planner to “Teach a parent how to add 9” and it struck me. This is not an option for a lot of venturing school students, whether it be that they do not live with their parents or that their parents are not always fully engaged in their child’s learning, and it occurred to me… venturing schools have my heart, and I believe I could be an asset to such students because of my experiences throughout this observational practicum.
A big thank you to everybody who coordinated our practicums, because without you I could not have gathered this insight!
Yesterday was my last day at our second school placement for our Observational Practicum. I was placed in a grade 6/7 split class for the day with such an amazing teacher who took the time to teach me as she taught her class. She provided me with many resources as well as insight on how to create a productive autonomy amongst her students on a daily basis. She also explained to me about how the “flow” of her class is of upmost importance to her; this “flow”, as she explained it, is the motivation and energy of her class at any given point of the day. She explained to me that if the class schedule for the day depicts that one lesson is supposed to end to make room for another but the students are still on task and motivated on the lesson at hand, she simply chooses to not interrupt their learning and will make room for the other lesson on another day or time. This was very interesting to see because it was evident that the students were able to completely understand the learning at hand as well as put it into practice all in one shot. I think that this is important because by disrupting a students’ train of thought to switch to another lesson they may lose their “flow” of motivation.
For the first hour of the day the students are given the choice of attending band or fine arts class. In band, the students are forming their performance for the Christmas concert and seemed to have full autonomy on how it would be structured. I was interested to find out that for the students who are unable to purchase their own instruments the school would provide one for them to use temporarily. I also found it interesting that each student got to choose which instrument they wanted to play, this gave me the impression that the learning was for the sole purpose of education for the student rather than to put on a ‘perfect’ performance. For the students who attended the fine arts class, they were loosely led into a project but from there were able to choose where they wanted to go with it. It was really interesting to see how the students used the creative freedom. They told me about how last week they were able to write and film a short movie from beginning to end throughout the duration of the class.
The teacher that I was with this week prefers to use a project-based learning structure throughout the course of the year. It begins with a starting resource, usually something used in a humanities subject such as a book or history lesson, and will morph into a large project that will take them a couple of months to complete. Throughout the project the teacher will implement elements of other learning subjects so that by the end of the project the students have learned elements from their curriculum without having to do a lot, if any, small assignments. Their final projects reflect all elements of the learning from the past several months which allows the students to assess themselves on their learning of all the material. I really liked this method of teaching because it allows the students to have creative freedom, to collaborate with their peers, as well as apply real life experience to their learning which would ultimately increase retention.
Overall, I highly value the time that I had at this last school. I learned a lot and gathered many resources that will aid me in my future career as a teacher.
Today I visited a new school for my observational practicum – this one much more rural than the last. After an hour drive at the crack of dawn this morning I found myself situated in the most adorable little school in the middle of a seemingly self-contained community. The sense of community followed me through the doors of the school and I was immediately surrounded by posters, artwork, cozy reading corners, music rooms, and many other elements that contributed to a wholesome and inviting learning environment.
Once all of us teacher candidates arrived we were greeted warmly by the principal. She was beyond prepared, handing us maps of the school and individual schedules for the next three Tuesdays showing us where we would be and at which time. She made sure to give us a tour of their tight-knit school and introduce us to all five of the faculty members as well. She quickly made it clear that her role within the school was to facilitate a welcoming and smooth education system for all involved.
The class I was assigned to for the day was a grade 3/4 split comprising of mostly grade 3 students. The students all had voices larger than their bodies and a level of energy that adults could only wish for and I was curious to know how a teacher structured their day to take on the challenge of capturing their fleeting attention. I had expected the teacher to be soft-spoken and overly nurturing because of the grade level being taught but I was genuinely surprised by her immediate level of assertiveness over the class. She was the perfect picture of a woman who demanded respect and hard work while still holding onto a sense of empathy for the fact that she is teaching young students who get the wiggles after sitting for too long or easily drift into imagination without provocation.
She achieved this balance by implementing a few interesting elements to her school day that I had not seen yet: short lesson plans and set aside times to get up and move around. She also made sure that not all assignments and work were conducted in the same way. Reading time was followed by group discussion, spelling and word work used cutting and pasting paper, and individual whiteboards were used for math. The teacher ensured that no two parts of the day were too similar and she allowed the students to express their work in whichever way worked for them while still maintaining a structure that she could use to equally assess the students’ learning. She would also only spend about 10-20% of the time for each lesson plan explaining the learning intention and then the rest of the time would be dedicated to the students working out problems or reading to themselves while she walked around the classroom and helped out when needed. I really liked this approach because it seemed to have given the students a sense of autonomy over their own learning which is something that I feel not a lot of children their age are able to have.
Within five minutes of being in the classroom I could tell that this teachers pedagogy was certainly more authoritative than I had expected, but was pleasantly surprised to see that it did not ruin the children’s spirits as I had previously thought it would. I learned today that a classroom can have both a sound structure as well as freedom and that a healthy balance of both can greatly aid in a students’ learning experience. I really look forward to visiting the school again for the next two Tuesdays and exploring other classrooms so that I can see how the other teachers manage their classrooms in that same school climate and environment and to see how the school culture evolves depending on the teacher and students’ styles of teaching and learning.
This week I found myself in the same classroom as last; I had the option to switch but chose not to because I was interested to see how the dynamic of a classroom could switch from week to week. In addition, I was also thinking that if I knew the students at least a little bit then I would be better able to monitor their behaviors and routines given from what I had observed last week. The energy in the classroom today was an an all-time-low, for sure, which was much different than last week, and when I discussed this with the teacher we developed a couple of theories as to why:
Today was a Tuesday after a long weekend.. As the teacher put it, Tuesdays after a long weekend “are like super Mondays!” in the sense that students are always a little bit off on Mondays, but after a long weekend things are always worse. The students were coming in tired because of their sleep schedules getting thrown off, more socializing than they are used to, and just an overall over-stimulation for three days straight.
There were also about five to six more students in class today than there were last week, most of which being students who needed extra attention during class time. However, regardless of the increase in demand for support, the amount of EA’s in the classroom hadn’t changed therefore resulting in a slightly more chaotic and disruptive day.
You could tell at the beginning of the day that motivation was meager. The students were often verbally bashing the lesson plans at hand and asking repeatedly for independent work or silent reading time. When encouraged to participate in class discussion the students were constantly losing focus and starting idle chit chat with their neighbors instead, and when asked to raise their hands to answer questions they were blatantly blurting out. So, as a way to attempt to raise motivation, the teacher decided to play a math game (as opposed to lecture-style) where he would compete against the class to see who could solve math problems with the highest products. This, for a short time, got the students excited and engaged. As the students began to fade yet again, he decided it was time for recess. Last week during recess the teacher mainly spent his time on the sidelines while the children played, but today we both recognized that it was important to make today a good day. We spent our 15 minutes playing soccer, tag, and any other games that the children decided they wanted to do. Recess was then followed by gym class where we did the same! The students got to decide what to do (as long as we were all physically active) and we simply played games. For the rest of the day you could really tell that their motivation to be at school and actively participate improved.
While their motivation improved, however, their behavior did not quite as much. They did end up being slightly happier throughout the day but their energy levels were so incredibly low (the students kept making jokes about stealing my coffee) that you could tell they found difficulty in being polite or in a good mood. Something I noticed today is that there are certainly a number of students in the classroom that exhibit destructive behavior and with the energy being as low as it was today I was witness to quite a lot of it. One experience in particular works as an adequate example. The class was working on math problems (prior to starting the game) and the teacher was spending quite a bit of time with one student who was having troubles understanding the equation. The more time the teacher spent with that student, the more hands of other students shot up around the classroom who also needed the teachers attention. Eventually, even though the student still did not understand the question, the teacher had to walk away to tend to the rest of the students. Within seconds, as the teacher walked away that original student who was facing the difficulties with math pulled out an eraser and scissors and began furiously chopping the erasure apart until it was dust all over his lap. He was clearly distraught, and my heart went out to him because I was (and still am sometimes) that kid who has a tough time understanding math. However, at the same time was important for me to remember that this one teacher is responsible for about twenty students at one time and that there is simply not enough of him to go around.
The main thing that I learned today is that with children in this age group (approximately 9-12 because of the grade 5/6 split), it is possible for the teacher to leave some responsibility to the students. Today I witnessed him make them responsible for their own self-regulation and energy maintenance and ultimately I think what I was the best case scenario for which the day was dealt. There were certainly struggles today, but I feel glad that I was able to take a deeper look at the composition of the class, take note of what worked, and to be there to help.
Finally! This week the day had finally arrived for me to begin my Observational Practicum. For the past month I have fought so hard to be patient through our online learning knowing full well that finally getting into a classroom with students would make it all worth it.
For this being my very first practicum (as well as the first time in an Elementary classroom in quite a few years) I went is as a blank slate. I had a vague idea of what I expected but I chose to not set any learning intentions for myself for the day. I made this decision for a couple of reasons:
I had woken up way too early that day out of excitement, just to sit in my car for 30 minutes prior to the school opening its doors.
I really just wanted the day to flow over me so that I could pick up elements that stood out.
I started off by acquainting myself with my teaching coach, he was very laid back and set me up a small desk area in the back of the room. He encouraged me to ask questions throughout the day but otherwise taught his class as he would have any other day. I really appreciated this because I was worried that if I was too involved in the classroom then I would miss the overall themes and intangible elements that the classroom would have to offer, we will have future practicums for getting involved anyways.
There was a part of the morning that had quite an impact on me, it was when the teacher was giving a lesson to his grade 5/6 class about how to do mental math using the Give and Take strategy. The teacher would write the question down on the board at the front of the room and get the children to write their answers down on their individual white boards. As they’d finish, he would walk around the room and let them know if they were correct or not, then, once everyone was done with the question he would return to the front of the room to go over how they solved the question and why the answer was correct. At one point while doing this exercise he posed a question like this:
6.29+3.71=
Now, the learning intention for this was to move the numbers around so that the question was easier (6.30+3.70=10.00), leaving the decimal alone seeing as they had not yet covered decimal places. However, when one student was asked how he answered the question he told the teacher that he had removed the decimal all together, answered the question, and the replaced the decimal back into his final answer. The teacher responded by asking the student how he knew where to put the decimal and the student immediately got frustrated. He couldn’t explain to the teacher why or how he knew where to replace the decimal, he said that it just made sense and he just knew without being able to give any reasoning behind it.
So, the teacher walked the student through how he would have known where to place the decimal, ultimately giving the student the tools necessary to be able to relate the knowledge in his brain so that he could better relate it and use those tools in the future.
I found this incident to be a profound part of my day because I was so impressed with the student’s ability to grasp the concept without being given a formal lesson as well as the fact that the teacher recognized this and spent the time to connect the student’s thinking. I feel that teaching can become so exhausting for some people that in a situation like this they would see that a student is exceeding expectations and leave it at that. However, at the school that I attended I found that none of the teachers seemed too tired, they were all so incredibly invested and motivated in their student’s learning and well-being (something I did not really expect from a Venturing school).
Overall, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to develop relationships with educators and students around Prince George. I can’t wait for next week!
