Wow, what a great first week on practicum! I have been lucky enough to have a supportive SA who was happy to test my abilities, and encouraged me to throw myself right in. And that I did… on my first day I taught a double block of mathematics! Here are some of my reflections on what I have learned from this week and some of the things I will be thinking about moving forward.

The importance of reflection

I think I taught a total of seven blocks in four days, on top of taking groups, providing general support etc. We had one day for teacher-parent conferences, and another day allocated for Remembrance Service/Grandparents Day, so it was an action-packed week. I am really lucky that my SA pushed me as he felt that experience is the best way to develop, and for some reason he felt confident enough in me that he would encourage me to lead classes so early on. We had really similar perspectives on this, as even though my nerves were through the roof, I knew I had to just throw myself in there. And each time I taught, I came out with at least five things I would do differently next time. I wrote these down and tried to keep these in mind for next time. There are certain things you can only learn through experience and through knowing your students (e.g. timing, how much time has to be spent on a concept etc.), so reflection for me is one of the most important things I can do to help myself develop. Experience really is the best way to learn!

Classroom management and the varied needs of learners

After my first week, I think these are probably going to be two of the most significant things I will aim to master over the rest of my BEd. I am lucky enough to be at an independent school where class sizes are low, expectations of the students are high, and the majority work at such an advanced level. But, with moving to a public school for my long practicum, classes will be larger and therefore the needs will be more diverse, so classroom management is something that I want to become effective at early on. During my first lesson, even though I thought I had planned more than enough content which I wasn’t sure we would get through, some students just flew through it, leaving for 15 minutes of extra reading time. Finding a happy medium between adequately challenging the diverse students and not ‘punishing’ them for getting their work done by providing additional worksheets, is something that I would like to creatively get to grips with.

 

Building relationships

This is something that is really important to me, both in my personal life and working environment, and I think is one of the key factors in having a successful practicum. You could be one of the most confident, knowledgeable, and proficient teachers, but I believe that connecting with your students, and being able to collaborate and build genuine relationships with your peers is perhaps the most important aspect of being a successful teacher. This is something i’ve been keeping in mind during my practicum, and while this may be difficult to establish over two short weeks, I do feel like I have been able to connect with a couple of hard-to-reach students. Having the class fist-pump when they hear you will be teaching them improper fractions that day (seriously?!) must surely be an occurrence that won’t often be repeated!

Week 2? Bring it on!