October 2016 – Kimberley's Education Blog

End of the practicum blog reflections?

I thought I would submit one last practicum reflection on my blog before transferring over to emailing them to my advisor. Personally, I really like keeping my reflections on a blog because I feel like it is my own space to collect reflections… that being said, I understand why some things are better sent directly AND realize that, without a weekly assignment to come here to submit, it will become a challenge for me to find my own time/motivation to continue to reflect here. So let’s make the best of this reflection!

I start my 2-week practicum tomorrow and, compared to my cohort members, I am feeling surprisingly calm about everything. Thursday’s class went AMAZINGLY well. Although it was stressful meeting and talking to each of the students that I did not meet last week, between the two visits I somehow managed to meet most of them–the biggest stress will now be retaining all 56 names when I start tomorrow!

Merging ideas that I had from my course work and from the conference that I attended, I developed what could be my favourite introductory activity, and implemented it on Thursday. First, I introduced myself to the class with a picture activity, where I printed out 12 pictures about important things in my life, and asked the students to work in groups to figure out that story. Since I am dealing with the gifted children who I felt would be motivated by challenges, I included some images to test their geographical knowledge, and tried to include some language arts and math concepts in my actual storytelling. After presenting the activity, I gave the students a link to a google form that I set up, asking them for a little bit about their lives.

Despite having an assignment due on Friday, I made the unwise decision to take a peek at the early results late Thursday night. 1:30AM on Friday morning my mind was buzzing with excitement and wouldn’t let me sleep until I emailed my school advisor about how excited I was to be working with the class, and asking for permission to compile a presentation with their results.

Not only did my activity keep the students engaged throughout the time, I also sensed a distinct difference in their overall attitude towards me after the activity. By the end of these introductory visits, I cannot overemphasize how important a good introduction is to forming bonds with students. I have also remembered to keep in mind that students have excellent opinions about how their class should be run, and that tapping into that fund of knowledge can have so many positive outcomes. I really hope to keep that in mind as I move forward, because I think that losing sight of that priority will be one of the greatest failures I could make as a teacher.

A good class starts with a good introduction

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After many weeks of anticipation, I finally received word about my school placement and had my first full day in the classroom on Thursday. So far, I am thrilled with the teachers and classes (I was blessed with two!) that I will be working with. I eagerly started planning my first activity from the moment I left the school (and finished preparing it that night), so I am all set for next week.

As always, I learned and observed so much from this week’s practicum, but the main point that I want to stress is how important it is to make a strong introduction.

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CUEBC Pro-D Thoughts

Yesterday I attended a conference held by the Computer Using Educators of BC about integrating technology and using it effectively in the classroom. Overall it was a good experience, and I gained some insight about how many of my teachers spend their professional development days. For my own reference, I’ll just briefly note some of the things I observed and learned from the conference:

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School visit reflection (II)

Walking into my second school visit this week, I was a little bit surprised by how much more confident I felt having had one previous day at a middle school. The two middle schools that I visited were both distinctly different in many ways, yet I had a much better idea about how things were structured, and what to expect upon entering the building. Whereas last week my main priority was to get a sense of what a middle school really was in general and how it functioned, this week my goal was to spend more time interacting with the students in classes that I visited and to get a sense of the differences between different classes.

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A tip on conflict management

This isn’t my weekly practicum reflection but… While I was at my school visit today, one teacher went out of her way to explain to me her method for dealing with conflicts between students after a disagreement occurred. I was very grateful for her care and advice, and decided to take note of it.

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My personal history

Today I submitted an assignment for my EDST401 class (Education, School and Social Institutions) where we were asked to write about our personal histories. I absolutely loved that assignment because it gave me the rare opportunity and absolute freedom to reflect on and put into words things about myself that I am eager to share with people. Although 1000 words was not nearly long enough to talk about myself, I also realize that there is a limit on how much another person can care to know about me. I really respect my professor for even asking to know as much–particularly given how many classes of students she is dealing with. Without further ado, a bit about the story of my life…

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School visit reflection (I)

What is a middle school? What kind of atmosphere does it have? How does it function? How is it different from an elementary or high school? My mind swirled with questions as I stepped foot into a middle school for the first time. I couldn’t help but wonder if media portrayals of middle schools–which I always dismissed as overdramatized and unreal–would somehow be manifested in the place I was about to visit.

Growing up in system that did not have middle schools, the term remains a foreign concept to me, and I struggle to get a sense of what life in middle school could be like. To my relief, the school that I visited did not scream of all the middle school conventions that I’d seen on TV and in books–however that’s not to say there were not less dramatic suggestions of those conventions that I did not notice in the few hours I was at the school. Nevertheless, my first day of practicum went rather well and I enjoyed my visit.

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One-month reflection

In a whirlwind of activity, my first month in the BEd program flew by as quickly as it started. Overall, I’m still feeling every bit as flustered and overwhelmed as I did my first week in the program… but at least I am ever so slowly gaining ground on my readings and assignments–with much help from the rest of my cohort.

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