I completed my long practicum at Moscrop Secondary, and it was a positive and rewarding one. Although I did not have flexibility in what recipes were taught, I did have the flexibility to decide how I taught these lessons. The biggest challenge for me was adapting the same lesson to two different classes with two different dynamics. It was especially tough in the beginning of the practicum where I was teaching a subject I was not very familiar with to a class who was not particularly interested in learning it.

There was definitely a lot of collaboration involved in my practicum between my SAs and I. To keep uniformity between all classes, I had to make sure the information I was giving was correct and the same as the information as my mentors. This meant sending them my lesson plans a week ahead so they can be reviewed and revised, as well as passing notes in between classes as to how to improve the lesson for later blocks. The collaboration definitely helped to make my practicum less stressful and more meaningful.

I was also able to supervise several field trips as well as be a part of several school events, which were huge learning experiences in themselves. It takes a great amount of coordination to organize a trip of any size, and there were definitely times where it was quite overwhelming. However they the trade off was well worth the effort as it was extremely rewarding to see students build relationships with their peers and learn outside of the classroom.

The grade 8 Mentoship Retreat at the Extreme Airpark