My strengths during practicum:
1 . Energy / enthusiasm / positive attitude towards my students and colleagues.
2. Reflective practice (I implement advice)
Areas in which I improved the most:
1. Ease in front of classroom / being natural: I am now comfortable “on‐stage”.
2. Timing of lessons. I’m usually able to ensure lessons end very close to the bell.
The following is taken directly from my early Inquiry: “The best learning occurs in tandem with varied, meaningful, and shared emotion and experience. If this translates to a noisy classroom, so be it; my goal as an educator is to facilitate rich experiences.” I believe that my practicum teaching reflected this statement. I succeeded in getting students to make emotional attachments to lesson content, to provide purposeful, shared experiences that get them curious about the world they inhabit.
My early inquiry question related to the usefulness of SEL in senior classrooms and how best to implement it. Working with my grade 10 -12 students, it was clear that SEL is a necessary component for learning success. I implemented most of the strategies outlined in my early inquiry. Going forward, I want to keep exploring strategies and also look at other research and methodologies for enhancing the “average” student school experience. I also want to explore the experience of ELL students.
Throughout my programme and practicum, I did not focus heavily on ELL. During practicum, I put effort into finding out which students have IEPs or are new ELL. I didn’t modify any lessons for ELL students, but gave more attention to them. Usually, there was at least 15 minutes work time during lessons, which allowed me to visit them and check their comprehension of the lesson content, and help with in‐class assignments. I’ve learned to ask them questions which prove their comprehension, instead of just asking “do you know what ____ is?”, because most will nod indicating an ambiguous yes.