Journal #1

I am the type of person who feels extremely anxious when they are about to experience
something new. Teaching has been my goal since I was 7 years old; and leading up to my first
day of practicum you can imagine how nervous and excited I felt. To be honest, as soon as I
entered the doors of the school I felt very at home; a reassuring feeling that I am on the right
path. Our teacher mentor was so welcoming and excited to have us, that it took off a lot of
pressure being there. The last thing I wanted to do is be a nuisance to her by being in her
classroom; however, she made it very clear that she took on this role because it is something
she is passionate about, and she wants to help be apart of the process of creating wonderful
future teachers.
Over the last two weeks, I felt truly inspired by the children in our classroom. They were
so excited to be there, and were very enthusiastic in every activity that they were apart of. The
reason for this is mostly to do with their teacher. She speaks to her children with kindness and
respect, and also speaks to them in a way that gets them excited about learning and is
constantly rewarding and reassuring them that they are doing great. The students, and the
school in general have been very welcoming to us teacher candidates. Our students engaged
with us right away, treating us as teachers, and not just university students. By watching the
way our teacher mentor Hanna interacts with her students, has inspired me by giving me
different ideas on how to manage a classroom in a fun and engaging way, but still reinforce
rules when they are needed. I am excited to see what other personality types my future teacher
mentors have during my practicums. It makes me curious if a teacher didn’t have a kind and
enthusiastic personality, if their students would be less excited to be their.
Over the last two weeks, the most challenging part of practicum for me has only been
with one student. He has severe behavioural problems, where he will refuse to do what is asked
of him. In the past, he has injured students, and I find that he is very distracting to me, and
plenty of his peers. Our teacher mentor has talked to us about him before we started our
practicum. I made it my own personal goal to make him feel safe and at ease around me, so he
was one of the first students I interacted with and introduced myself to. By doing this, I found it
useful as it allowed him to like me, and not fear me being a new person in the classroom. He
wanted me to sit with him all the time, and read to him. By making this small step of introducing
myself to him, helped me later that day, and during the next week when he was misbehaving.
When he was acting out, I would say things like “don’t you want to show me how well you can
listen?” By making small encouraging comments it reminded him that good behaviour is
rewarding. However, there were points where he did get out of control, and it broke my heart to
see him this way. He is not at the same learning level as the rest of his peers due to constantly
refusing to do his work. I can see the potential he has, and one day I hope he will reach it.
Overall, I found the last two weeks of observing to be very useful to me. I was able to
learn about classroom management, and how it can be used in different ways. I also learned
that every child is different and likes to learn in different styles. But the one part of the last two
weeks that will always resonate with me, will be that one student who has behaviour problems.
He is challenging to be around, but I am starting to slowly learn what works best to aid his
learning. Next week I get to teach my first lesson, and I am extremely nervous for it, however,
regardless of how it turns out it will be a valuable learning experience.

Journal #2

These last two weeks have been a completely different experience from my first two
because I was able to teach two lessons! I was feeling very nervous in week three as this was
my first time ever teaching a lesson. My teacher mentor wanted me to do a spelling lesson, and
wanted me to follow the same style of teaching she does, as this is what the students are used
to. However, I found this more difficult for myself, as my teaching and learning styles are
completely different then hers. I practiced and practiced at home with my roommates,
pretending that they were the students as a way to gage how my lesson would go. I was able to
teach it with confidence with them, so I felt ready to bring it into the classroom.
Overall, my lesson went well with the kids for it being my first one. Some of the kids that
day were very distracting. Some were talking without raising their hand, and there was one little
girl who would not stop crying during my lesson, which made it difficult for me to focus on my
lesson because I was trying to console her. My teacher mentor told me afterwards that she
thought it went well, but I needed to work on a few things. These being: raising my voice as I
have a soft spoken voice that makes it difficult for children in the back to hear. She also wants to
see me use more strategies to gain the students attention, for example, “1, 2, 3, eyes on me!”,
and to prevent them from speaking out. She also mentioned after my lesson that the one little
girl who cried, often cries, and it had nothing to do with my lesson, (what a relief I thought it was
my fault!). She could tell that I was a bit nervous, but she said that it wasn’t portrayed onto the
kids. I appreciated these tips, and made sure to apply them into the following week when I
taught my second lesson. I felt more confident in teaching my second lesson, as I had gained a
little bit of experience the previous week on what to expect from the students when I was
teaching. For this lesson, we did a guided reading exercise on a short story. For the
assignment, we worked together to identify the title, characters, problem, and the lesson
learned. I made sure to speak clear, and loudly, and I instantly noticed that I had more of the
students attention compared to the last time. I also made sure to use more classroom
management strategies to keep them focused, which also helped them not call out the answers.
During the lesson I made sure to circulate the classroom more, giving students positive
reinforcement at their table groups, especially that little girl, as a way to make her and the class
feel encouraged and excited about the lesson.
Even though I have only taught two short lessons, I have learned so much about
classroom management. I am feeling more confident in the classroom, as I am able to learn
more about the students, and they get to learn more about me. I am excited for the next couple
of weeks, as I know I will learn a lot from my teacher mentor, and the students. I need to
remember that it is okay to make mistakes, and not be so hard on myself if my lesson does not
go exactly as planned. I am learning that mistakes are not necessarily a bad thing, as I am able
to learn from them, and create better outcomes for the next lessons I teach.

Journal #3

During the beginning of my first practicum I had a very limited view on what I was going to learn.
I felt that only being in the classroom once a week was going to make it difficult to gain teaching
experience. However, I found this first practicum to be a wonderful experience and something
that will always resonate with me as I was able to attain a lot of knowledge when it comes to
teaching in the classroom. For my first lesson, I felt like I was able to teach the material well,
but, my classroom management skills needed some work on. I had a difficult time reading the
room, and using strategies during my lessons to keep students focused on the lesson that was
being taught. However, this is something that I have worked on during each lesson that I have
taught, and I feel like I am on the right track to keeping the students focused in my lesson.
Towards the end I was able to use a loud clear voice, and use clapping signals, or “hands on
top” and many other strategies to gain the students attention, and to prevent chaos. There are a
couple of students in this classroom that have behavioural issues, and I found that in order to
keep them on track or even to participate, that using the premack principle often worked well. I
would ask them to do the work that they didn’t want to do first, then after we could read a story
together of their choice. Often the few students that had behavioural issues liked this idea, and
finished their work without making a fuss. There was one student who was particularly difficult,
and could not move forward in the tasks that were asked of him as he was so focused on having
perfect spelling. At this point my main goal was to keep him calm, so I suggested that he could
take a break to get a drink of water, and later that day he went to the sensory corner of the
classroom and did some deep breathing to calm down.
Our teacher mentor was very helpful in the planning of our lessons. She provided the
information that she wanted us to teach for her students, and it was up to us on how we were
going to teach it. The material that we taught was very similar to what we were learning in our
language and literacy class. I was able to apply the skills that I learned in that class, and use it
in my lessons for this practicum. For example, when teaching students the sounds a letter can
make, you can create a fun little story to help the students remember that sound. We did this in
our language and literacy course, and I was able to create similar fun ways for students to make
sounds of letters fun. I felt like I often had an engaging hook, as the students are always
engaged and asked lots of questions that would tie into the lesson. I do know that my close
needs more work, but that is mostly because our lessons ran out of time, so I often felt rushed
getting the students to summarize their learning.
To get a better grasp on classroom management skills in my classroom, the night before I had
to teach I would review material from my teaching and learning class, as well as my child
development psychology course. By doing this, I would have a refresher in my mind as how to
use classroom management strategies, and how to talk with children that have behaviour
issues. My fear of standing in front of the classroom is starting to fade as I apply more strategies
that I learn in my classes and apply them in practicum. I look forward to the next semester and
what it has in store for me!

 

Reflecting on my Practicum Reflections

The reflections written above are about my first practicum experience in the Education program at Thompson Rivers university. As I read through these reflections after some time, I noticed that my confidence in teaching improved drastically over those seven weeks. We went to the school every Wednesday for a full day over seven weeks. That may not seem like a lot of teaching practice, however I learned a great deal over those weeks that will benefit me in my future teaching practice. My confidence sky rocketed over those weeks and I was able to teach my language art lessons to the students with enthusiasm and determination. One big take away that I remember from this practicum is that it is okay to make mistakes. When we make mistakes in our lessons or in the classroom it is important to reflect on them and alter them in a way that will make them better the next time we teach them. This practicum allowed me to become an educator that will always grow and learn along the way. Teaching is a continuum, there is no max capacity to success, there is always room to improve my teaching practice to meet the needs of my students.