The past year has been a blur. From arriving in Vancouver in August, to completing my long practicum at the end of April, I have learned so much and grown exponentially as an individual. Teaching in and of itself has taught me extremely valuable lessons about patience, community, confidence and effort among many other things. Below I outline 3 of the most important lessons that teaching has taught me, and how I came to learn them.
- Kids want to learn, you just need to reach them.
Building a respectful, trust-based community within my classroom was something I knew was going to be extremely important, especially as a student teacher on his practicum. What I didn’t know as how important this was to each and every one of my students. During my teaching experience, I was very lucky to be able to connect with each of my students on an individual level, building a relationship that was based on trust and mutual expectations. I was able to connect with students regarding their interests, musical tastes, past accomplishments and other subjects. I truly believe that the effort must be put in to build relationships with every student you teach. Not only does this show each student that you care about them as individuals, it shows them that you are genuinely interested in their well being and education. I learned this first hand when I was able to connect with an ‘at risk’ student, based on our shared musical tastes. This student ended up with a grade above 90% and an elevated level of effort because he understood what I expected as a teacher, and he respected the way I put in the effort to build a relationship. I believe that this is the most important lesson to learn as a beginning teacher, no matter how much time it takes, an effort must be put forth to get to know each of your students on an individual level.
- Get involved to enrich the experiences of your students.
Being a part of both the business club, as well as a teacher/mentor/judge in multiple business case competitions allowed me to not only witness the growth of students, but actually play a role in this growth. This feeling is one of the most rewarding I’ve ever experienced. Watching students become more confident speaking, get past their fear of being wrong, and build communities not only with fellow peers, but others from around the district was absolutely incredible. I encourage all teachers to become as involved as possible not only within their subject areas, but outside of this as well. Further, my participation as a coach and teacher sponsor for both the senior boys soccer team and track and field team at Burnaby Central Secondary again allowed me the opportunity to interact and build relationships with students outside of the traditional classroom. I have always been involved with and passionate about coaching, so being able to be involved in both sports, as well as extracurricular educational activities was a huge part of my experience.
- Be prepared!
One of the most challenging aspects of teaching, especially when going through an education program is the ability to stay on top of preparation and marking. This is extremely important as it is very difficult to catch up on lesson and unit plans once you have fallen behind. In my opinion, it is more beneficial to have a solid idea of units and concepts that you wish to cover, and have a more general idea of how and when these concepts will be taught. The small details will change lesson to lesson, and you will often change how and what you want to teach. Thus, it is more important to have a more general outline of how everything fits together, and work each and every day to stay on track while making small tweaks as you need to. Lastly, don’t let marking pile up! Try to consistently evaluate your students without having piles of tests on your desk. If this is the way you choose to go, don’t let a day go by without marking everything you possibly can.
I hope these 3 tips help aspiring teachers on their journey, these are meant to be tips from someone who has experienced practicum and wishes he knew before beginning.