As I mentioned in previous posts, this is my second year in the Teacher Education Program. This year I am heading into my practicum (THIS THURSDAY!!!) and I’m so excited to be able to put into practice all of the amazing things I’ve learned the past year. My goals for this first school visit are…
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Gah! I did it. It happened. I was finally in a classroom! Of course I’ve been in many classrooms before, both as a teacher and as a student, but never as a UBC B.Ed teacher candidate. This has been YEARS in the making. My day started off lumpy with a trip to the hospital. No…
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On my second visit to the class I felt much more comfortable and the kids seemed a little more comfortable around me as well. I got their early and no one had arrived yet, so I hung out in the teacher lounge. Pat arrived 15 minutes later with news she’d won a free office makeover…
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The past weeks have really flown by and it’s been challenging to keep up with all that I would like to do and need to do to prepare for my practicum. This Thursday is my last visit before my short practicum, so I hope I can get some things done, including: Bring some lesson plan…
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Something that has become very apparent to me in my first two school visits is that some voices just don’t get heard in the class. There are 25 kids in my class, and of them about 7 don’t speak up. A few of those 7 children can actually go an entire day saying almost nothing…
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Leyton and Bel have been teaching us that creating a class profile is an essential part of planning for the upcoming year. And the best way to build a class profile, according to Leyton, is to get to know your students. Hence the “Getting to Know You” worksheet! The getting to know you sheet that…
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I’m four days into my short practicum and there are already a few things I know for sure: I love teaching! There are not enough hours in the day—compromise is necessary Connection is everything I love teaching! Sometimes when I walk down the hallway at school, I feel this overwhelming sense of gratitude. I’m finally…
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My short practicum observation took place on Thursday morning during a lesson I’d been planning for almost a month. There’d been quite a few hiccups in the planning of that lesson, the first of which was feedback from my SA saying she didn’t quite think the focus of the lesson—symbolism as literary device—hit the mark.…
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Well, what do you know! I was able to use the Getting to Know You worksheet after all, and it was a success. I learned a lot about my students through this exercise, including personal interests and challenges, but also insights into the class as a whole and about students or this age-group in general.…
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It happened. I raised my voice during class. I promised I would never be the teacher who yelled, so I’m disappointed to say the least. I don’t feel good about it, but I also cannot beat myself up about it as I know that I am learning. I clearly lacked other skills/options in the moment,…
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One of the things I’ve learned about recently that I would like to try with students is choral reading. My teacher friend recommended it to me as a way to improve reading comprehension and build vocabulary, especially for students who are struggling to learn to read, and EAL students can benefit. However, I also think…
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One of the most important things I learned during my practicum is that I am prone to wishful thinking and unrealistically expectations. My expectations of what can be done in an hour are unrealistic. My expectations of students’ capacity are often unrealistic. This is part of learning to be a teacher—having realistic expectations and creating manageable…
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As of today there are only a few Thursday practicum school visits left before winter break. Three to be exact. This means I have three one-hour lesson blocks available to me for teaching, so I really want to make them count. Here are my goals: Get the students *thinking* about groupwork and collaboration in healthy ways.…
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I am on top of the world today after my practicum experience yesterday. I had two big moments of success: I initiated group work for the first time in class and it went really well The introduction to the new unit on friendship and mental health (SEL) was received with a lot of interest Success…
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One of the biggest things I’ve learned in my practicum so far is that when I prepare my lessons and I come in armed with a plan, my students respond with their attention and effort. It seems so obvious, but it’s been key for me to see this because it motivates me to try harder…
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Can you believe my luck? My SA has asked me to do a unit on friendship! Not only is this a great way to build the classroom community, but it also ties in very well with my inquiry project. There are two parts to the BC Physical Education Curriculum that fall under this unit: Social…
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As part of my Social Studies unit on Ancient Civilizations, I plan to design a treasure hunt using Google Arts and Culture, a website with thousands of virtual tours and very expansive database of ancient artifacts, as well as accompanying information and connections. The goal of the Treasure Hunt The goal is to introduce some…
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Got a knife to the heart today, as the image shows. It was just one of those practicum days where a lot of things went wrong. First of all, I had trouble sleeping, which is probably what caused a lot of my grief. I arrived to school a little later than usual, and was a…
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One of the advantages of having worked in communications for ten years is that I have a wealth of experience and knowledge of online technologies. I’ve been experimenting using some of them to build community and aid inclusion in the classroom. Some of my favourite classroom technologies I discovered during the teacher program: Menti, Padlet,…
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I had my second observation by my Faculty Advisor, Dave, this past week, and it was challenging to say the least. The lesson was on summarizing non-fiction texts using a text about stress to support our Friendship and Mental Health Unit. I had worked out a plan with Dave to attempt to scaffold the learning…
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During my weekly visits from January to March, I have continued to develop my skills in lesson planning and managing classroom behaviour, which are both intricately linked with engagement. I’ve also been able to implement some of the strategies I’ve developed in my own inquiry into my teaching practice for EDUC 451, which is on…
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The End is a New Beginning The last few weeks of my practicum were very challenging. There were serious issues with multiple students expressing mental health distress, and the principal, school counsellor and the youth worker had to get involved. Let’s just say I experienced things that I shouldn’t have had to experience during my…
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Sad turn of events This week during my CFE, I had some upsetting news about the mental health website my class worked on since January. We were unfortunately told not to publish the website in order to ensure the safety of the entire classroom community. This was indirectly related to the mental health of some…
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So this was the last week of school with students. We made it through a very strange year with Covid19, masks and social distancing. It is bittersweet saying goodbye: on the one hand, I wish it would never end. On the other hand, I’m exhausted and really looking forward to a break. If thank you…
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