Reflection+-+Practicum

=First Practicum= >> >> Met with my AT, they were glad to see me. We really get along, in spite of the difference in our teaching philosophies. It's actually really cool. I like them as a person and am learning a lot from observing them in the classroom... but I still can't stand some of the things they do as an educator. (I wonder what they'll think of me, when I fill that role). The first hour of the class was spent on the topic of communities: cities, towns, population density, etc... What happened was my AT first asked what physical features define X, and students answered with X1, X2, and X3 physical features. They were reading them verbatim from their notes, which I gathered were copied down exactly from the textbook. I don't think any of them will retain X1, Y3, Z2 after 2 or more days. Next my AT put up an overhead which described particular distributions of populations. i.e. in a suburb you often have a linear distribution of houses. Students were given an associated handout which had the same headings, but blank lines for writing instead of filled in text. Yes, you've guessed it, students were required to fill in the blanks (on their page, not in their heads). They also had to re-sketch a graphic that each heading had, as well. >> >> I feel like this was a wonderful learning opportunity missed. It would have made complete sense to group the students off into four's (or three's, or five's, or w/e) and get them to talk to each other about different types of communities. Use fayer models with a gallery walk... use a debate triangle over the difference between a town and a city (hopefully without disclosing too much, the school is in Whitby... i.e. the Town of Whitby, even though it's population is 100,000+). Discussion would have been very applicable to digest this information. How much more relatable can you get then, "talk about where and how you live"? >> >> Anyways, that was the first hour. They then had Art class, which was somewhat fine. There was still strict guidelines to how to draw something, which I think is backwards, but it seemed to go okay. They then DPA (which I always think of as Gym). My AT teaches Gym the best! I think it's because they really enjoy it, which clearly always makes a huge difference. I don't like how competitive it is, but it seems like the kids are really having fun (the AT is too). It's a nice environment to be in, and I really appreciate how my AT lets me join in on it. >> >> I can't wait to teach them in new ways. I want the students to be more interactive. I hope they'll love it! >> >> my faculty advisor came today and assessed a math lesson that i prepared. they gave me solid tips on how to improve, along with many kind words of encouragement. i enjoyed the dialogue. i enjoy hearing mistakes that i can tangibly improve upon, to make myself better. are my students any different? i'm not sure, but the experience with my FA did make me rethink how much feedback i should be giving... up until now i haven't done much official assessment with them. i've taken an observer stance to their learning in terms of assessment (somewhat accidentally) but have been emboldened to change that. i should give more official feedback. i've been performing unofficial assessment for my own curiosity, but the students probably want to know how they're doing! this is an important realization! >> >> further to the discussion with my FA, it really hit home how important consolidation is. i self-admittedly 'ran out of time' on the consolidation, trying to get through the lesson i had planned (but had to shift gears on, mid-way through). we had a great discussion which i already knew the punchline of... but hadn't felt viscerally. make time for consolidation. yes, of course i know this... and yet i still allowed myself to make the excuse "i ran out of time". gah. i will not make that excuse again. what am i running out of time of, if i'm not consolidating? >> >> another idea that i found interesting was the topic of meta-education... asking my students something like: "why did i present this material in this way?" it's a very interesting idea for me to consider, but i need to rest on it for a bit. >> >> >> >> 100% week >> >> last monday morning, my AT informed me that they wouldn't be around for the rest of the week due to a family emergency. we discussed what my expectations would be for the week and decided that i would be taking over the class 100%. a supply would be in to observe, but it would be clear to them that i was running the show. i'm thankful that my AT had enough faith in me to let me take over the class 100%, and that i had the guts to accept. >> >> the week ended up going swimmingly, i got to try a lot of different methods and activities. i also planned... i planned a lot. the freedom was amazing too. it felt like my class, as the de facto teacher was gone, and in terms of relationships i was actually the natural next of kin (not the supply). so it felt like my class, which gave me tons of freedom to try things. and a lot of them worked out pretty well. there was a lot of role playing and acting out of cell processes. i used an anticipation guide for science review, and it worked well. >> >> one day, however, did run into some (expected) hiccups. it was wednesday. i made the theme of the day "mistakes are awesome learning experiences" and to be meta-consistent, i didn't officially plan or prep anything on paper for that day. (i did prep a lot in my head, but nothing written down). although perhaps a bit foolish, the idea was to learn deeply what needs to be planned, what doesn't, and the visceral reasons why. the day started awesome with a super engaging hour of art. in language, i missed a big opportunity in modeling the construction of a descriptive paragraph. gym went well. next was math, and we were doing a unit review. i took a quick survey of the class, and most of them proclaimed to be ready for the test next week. i assigned them some questions from the text, and created a focus group to work on a review session with (i admit, i fell back on just assigning questions from the text. it was lazy and ineffective. it was also easy to just do that. it was also the wrong way to teach... today was a learning experience). the focus group had a wonderful class, they got caught up on all the material... it was super productive. the rest of the class however, was for the most part off-task. this was my fault. i didn't prep and plan enough accommodations to keep them engaged. >> >> in the end, the mistakes theme was true for me, as i anticipated. i learned a hell of a lot that day. i learned deeply the necessity of modeling assignments and expectations. i learned deeply the necessity of varied levels of engaging accommodations for all types of students. the next day, i addressed the issue with modeling descriptive paragraphs, and taught a nice math review lesson to the entire class. both subjects are running smoothly again. >> >> i'm definitely developing a teacher's voice. i'm also picking up on better, cleare, more efficient ways of delivering instruction. i'm still super low control in terms of classroom management, and haven't really had to 'bump' up yet. i'm seeing the importance of community circles.... i ended up missing one, one lesson and some of the students were disappointed. i can see how strong a community classroom you would have if you made this a habit at the beginning and end of every day. >> >> --- >> >> what i've taken away so far >> >> consolidation = must >> students might feel assessment is as important as teachers do (when i get some time, i'm going to look deeply at this [|assessment resource]) >> meta-education -> think about >> mistakes are awesome.. really awesome >> engaging accommodations = must >> modeling in anything and everything >> low control can work wonderfully >> community = must >> >> also drama is a wonderful way to end the day. >> >> --- >> >> final thoughts: i can teach somewhat effectively 100% on the fly. i have confidence in lesson planning a day in advance, for 3 or more subjects. i still love the idea of teaching, after giving up slept to write a 5 page lesson on urbanization, industrialization, and transportation. >> >> if i'm not going to be a teacher, i'm not going to be anything.
 * **Observation Week**
 * I've reflected a lot of my first practicum with fellow students, as well as teachers and advisors. I've also posted a bit on the practicum wiki. In essence, I had an AT that used a lot of threat of punishment to control their classroom. This led to a lot of confusion for me, as it ran opposite to the general theme of what I was taking from the first 2.5 weeks at my B.Ed. I think that I've resolved this confusion by talking about it with lots of people. I generally and genuinely miss my AT and wholly miss the kids. I can't what to get back to them and start teaching! Even though I have some core issues with my AT, I think there's a lot to learn from them (and a lot of stuff I should learn not to model). I am also on good terms with them, and hopefully creating an amazing (employable) impression of myself!
 * **September 24th, Half Day**
 * On Sept. 24th, most of us students got the day off. I took the opportunity to go to my placement school. Really I just wanted to see how the kids were doing! I only had a half day to spend there, since my fiancee was coming to spend the weekend, at around 2pm.
 * **October 25th, mid-practicum reflections**
 * FA visit :)