The second week of my practicum helped show me how to lower my own expectations of myself so I can embrace the joys found within each day. There have been many experiences this week that I believe will endure as long-lasting memories for both the students and me. Seeing my class give a fantastic performance at the Surrey Dance Festival was wonderful and noticing the pride on the students’ faces afterwards helped reinforce the magic of the moment. Having the students engage in a more controlled fashion in many of my lessons, such as creating gender stereotype free commercials, experimenting with a ball to learn about balanced and unbalanced forces, and playing with putting together recycled materials to make a variety of new objects, was rewarding and helped ground me in my original motivations behind becoming a teacher. I love to see the light behind a child’s eyes when they learn something new, accomplish a goal, or find pleasure in the education process. Slowing down to notice these feelings and connections in my students demonstrated to me that this passion has not diminished through the challenges I have faced so far but has increased instead. This passion drives me to continuously learn more about being a teacher, commit myself more to the classroom, and try to be more for each of my students. However, my passion can sometimes spill over into my becoming overly critical of myself, and accepting nothing less than my version of perfection every day. Of course, I understand logically that it is not possible to be a perfect teacher at every moment especially when I am only just beginning to become one, and that pushing myself towards this goal will only lead to undue pressure. Therefore, I am not so much as lowering my standards for myself, but rather shifting them through the lens of a growth mindset to being the best learner I can be. I am walking into the third week with excitement to discover both more of my own personal strengths and areas for growth, while embracing the messiness and imperfections of this process.
