Practicum is officially over and I am officially sad. I already miss getting to hang out with the cool kids of MB Grade 2. Overall, I really enjoyed my practicum placement, and I had a great time getting the feel of actually being in a classroom and what it entails to actually teach classes and have some part of being responsible for the students within my placement class.
STRENGTHS
I think something that went really well in my practicum was the lessons that I created. There were only a couple lessons that the majority of my students weren’t completely into (those were introductions to a new topic, though, so, while not as entertaining, were necessary). I taught the entirety of the geometry and water cycle units, and I found that math and science are definitely subjects that I enjoy teaching. I tried to incorporate ADST into my teaching as much as possible, and that was something that really resonated with my class. They were a very active bunch, so being able to learn by doing was definitely something that worked well with them. I also did a couple of STEM challenges with the class (an Egg Drop Challenge and a challenge in which they were the Three Little Pigs and had to build a house out of whatever their assigned material was that could withstand the Big Bad Blow Dryer), and those were really well accepted by the students, who were very engaged in creating their product. I would have liked to have done more of this kind of lesson with them if I’d have more time.
STRETCHES
The biggest thing I still need to work on is classroom management. While I definitely improved at this over the course of my practicum, I still have a ways to go. The class I was in was overall a high energy group, which meant that there was usually at least one or two students who weren’t paying attention to my directions or who were being distracting to the group as a whole. Being able to assert myself in setting boundaries of this is what I expect of you while I’m teaching and this is what the consequences are if you’re being too disruptive and/or haven’t listened to any warnings I’ve given you is something that I need to figure out. I’ve been working on different strategies for classroom management (Listening with your whole body; eyes on me and hands in the air), and, like my CT said, the only way to get better with it is practice, which I intend to continue to practice at future practicums.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Something I would love to do in EDUC 490 would be bigger projects. With how my practicum worked out, doing a larger, cross-curricular project wasn’t feasible, but that would be something I would be interested in exploring in my future practicums. I would also like to do more with STEM work and challenges with my class, possibly as a weekly activity. Something else that I would like to look into in the future but would not be possible right now due to covid would be running a school wide STEM club. This could be something that runs a couple lunches a week, where any students could join in teams and have, say, Monday and Wednesday’s lunches to create their product and Friday’s lunch would be test day. I just think this is something that could be cool and would get students excited for STEM topics. Like I said, though, anything school wide would not be possible with the current covid restrictions, but possibly this could be feasible for my 491 practicum or once I get a teaching placement.
