“What do I no longer know as a result of my community field experience (CFE)?” and “Why is this not knowing important to my teaching practice?”
I completed my CFE at Vancouver College, an all-boys Catholic independent school in an affluent part of the city. Apart from the fact there were not any female students around, that prayer was a part of each day and most classes, and that the students wore uniforms, I found the students to be in many ways like the students at the public high school where I completed my long practicum. A lot of the slang used, jokes made, and interests of the students were the same in both environments. While I could just as easily write about differences, I came to the conclusion that in many ways students require the same kind of support and consistency from their teachers. I had the opportunity to teach a Macbeth unit on my long practicum and then repurpose some of the lessons I had designed to use during my CFE. I was a little bit surprised to find the students from the independent school, a University prep program, and those from my grade 11 special timetable course at a public school encountering the same difficulties, and also latching onto the same aspects of the play. In some respects I felt that a good lesson is a good lesson regardless of the students, though the delivery can be altered in some ways to fit the students’ needs. I will take this lesson with me, as I know that you should not prejudge your students and their ability to handle given material.