My practicum went by really fast. I grew so much as a student teacher and as a person. Each week my roles responsibilities ramped up; and the balance of teaching, planning and writing lesson plans increased. The photo below is from my very first day of practicum, you could say I was excited!

I was really fortunate to be placed in a school with a large variety of programming in technology education. This provided me an opportunity to get my feet wet as a student teacher in many different areas. I worked with three different SA’s and got to experience a variety of teaching styles. I taught Woodwork 8, Woodwork 9/10, Metal 8, Metal Fabrication 9/10, Art Metal 9/10 and Skills Exploration 10-12. Working with a range of ages was really interesting as a new teacher.

My area of most comfort has always been the metal shop, especially in a jewelry art environment, so it was nice to be able to teach some wood and skills exploration to push myself outside of my comfort zone.

High, Low, Wow, Now

My practicum  high would be seeing the progress and development in my classes. I could tell that there were a few students that really appreciated me being there as a teacher one of my students actually made me cookies to say thank you. That was sweet. Feeling like you made some impact is definitely a high for me. However, ten weeks goes by so fast!

My practicum low would be realizing that I had lost one my classes engagement about four weeks in. They were resisting taking me on as a teacher. They had become a really big challenge and I was starting to enjoy that class less and less; it was my Art Metal class. My greatest frustration there was that I was looking forward to teaching this class the most, and they seemed to receive me the least. However, this was the greatest learning opportunity for me a teacher. The challenge of “resetting” a class and bringing them back in was a huge learning experience. I managed to turn that class around and engage with students more after we had a big open class talk. Resetting the class also provided me an opportunity to ask other teachers questions about what they would do, aside from just my SA’s, and talk to people that had also struggled with classes. After that talk my expectations of them and their expectations of me were all out on the table and the class was motivated and doing more than they’d done for me the first four weeks. It was really inspiring being able to connect with the difficult students and push them to learn, grow and be productive classroom citizens.

My “wow” experiences over practicum often came from the creativity of students. A lot of my classes were very self driven and some students were really keen to challenge themselves. I helped one student cast gold from their granny’s teeth, and tension set a sapphire they spent their wages on. They were so motivated it was truly inspiring. I find that the senior students that really wanted to learn worked really hard to do so. The creativity and work produced was always the most inspiring part. Below are some photos of student progress.

Now I am excited to work as a TTOC and continue to work on my teacher presence,voice and classroom management. I noticed from observing TTOC’s that they really have to have a presence to be successful with classes.

The Final Week 

My last week of my practicum I asked my students to fill out anonymous feedback. Some of them chose to leave their names and some did not. It is funny, after having students for a while you can usually tell who is saying what; even if it is anonymous.  Some of them were funny, some were sweet, some were constructive and some really felt like a win. There were definitely some students that were difficult to deal with from time to time, but the feedback affirmed that I managed to connect and break through the struggles we initially had. The feedback was definitely encouraging.

After ten weeks I can honestly say it is really hard to actually make a huge change in someone else’s classroom when the students are already set in their ways. But this experience was so valuable for a new teacher. It definitely is a lot of work, late nights and maybe some tears but definitely worth it. I had a great time on practicum and eagerly await the future.