This is the last week before everyone goes into the long practicum; everyone is busy working on lesson plans, unit plans, putting in final touches, etc. While I’m here writing my blog posts. I think the reason I’m not “working” on preparation is because I already feel prepared enough already for it. Everyone says you cannot be “too” prepared for the long practicum, and that you will be stressed and be sleep deprived; However, I feel that if you emphasize and focus too much on the negative aspects of the long practicum, it will put more stress on your life.

I know that the practicum is something new for everyone, and that everyone is kind of freaking out about it. Many of my peers feel under prepared for it, have no idea what’s in store for them, and are just lost in the plethora of finishing up assignments (like this one). I for one feel a little nervous, but not really stressed about the whole situation. I think the reason I feel this way is that I have previous experience in teaching in a classroom, and through that experience, I realized that by actually being in the classroom, teaching, and getting used to the schedule, you naturally will adjust and adapt to the situation.

Although some people may not like their practicum placements, I encourage everyone to get the most out of this experience; in the end, this practicum does not define who you are as a teacher. It is there to help you improve your teaching pedagogy, your lesson plans, your assessments, etc. and it is placed in this time to help you become a better educator. Do not be so hard on yourself; instead, go in the classroom with an open mind, be respectful to all students and staff, and have a fun time during practicum!

…Till we start our ten week practicum! I’m sure everyone is looking forward to the upcoming practicum and what that holds for each of us. I for one cannot wait to get back into the classroom. After the two week practicum, I knew that becoming a teacher was the path for me. I just really appreciated the atmosphere of the classroom, where we have the opportunity to share whatever knowledge we have, and in return also learn a lot from the students.

I always try to keep an open mind, especially when I’m teaching; Through my experiences when I’ve taught back in Korea and tutoring here in Canada, I learned that as a teacher, you shouldn’t always be “teaching”. Instead, you should always keep your eyes and ears open, observing the actions done by students, listening to them, and actually learning their point of view, thoughts, and ideas. It always surprised me whenever I did this because many students that I’ve taught had bright ideas for projects, interesting viewpoints, and great input on topics. As a teacher, I think the role that I have to take is a facilitator.

As I start to prepare for the long practicum by making my unit and lesson plans, thinking of new projects, and organizing everything, I realized that although this practicum is important, it is not a be all end all situation. It’s a time for myself to grow as a educator, learn new things from my faculty and student advisors, and just absorb as much as I can. Some lesson plans may not go as smoothly or the way I wanted to, some lessons might be great, while others might fail miserably, but that’s okay. I will fail but through those failures, I hope to pursue the best that I can be.

Inquiry:

– an act of asking for information.
“the deluge of phone inquiries after a crash”

– an official investigation.

These are some of the definitions of what “inquiry” is. The students in my cohort (myself included) are pursuing answers to questions in a plethora of different subjects regarding technology education, and while I am having a pretty interesting time searching answers for my particular questions, I wanted to explore what inquiry really is, and how it can best benefit us right now.

If you look at the two definitions above, they’re actually two very different definitions. The first one is “an act of asking for information”; this particular definition is not particularly the definition that I am pursuing in my own inquiry. Yes, I may be looking on the internet for some information on my topic, but I feel that in order to have a good inquiry project, I need to actually investigate my topic, learn what it’s all about, and thrive for an answer, rather than just gathering up as information as possible and conglomerating a summary.

Although both definitions hold true, I feel that a good inquiry requires someone to ask a question regarding information, receive answers, and interpret those answers to form an opinion. If all you do in an inquiry project is ask for information, no new information will formulate off of that; rather, it would just be a “new” way of repeating the same information. So I encourage my peers to actually investigate, find new information, and form their own thoughts and opinions on their inquiry project. I look forward to seeing all of my peer’s inquiry projects in the near future.

After an awesome winter break, I have a chance now to reflect back on my experiences during my short practicum. To sum up my experience in a few short words… It was a blast! I felt like the school staff and students welcomed me into their space, learned way more than I expected to, and felt like I was choosing the right career path on becoming a teacher.

During my short two weeks, I really did learn a lot through observation and my three mini lessons that I taught. I knew that during these two weeks, I needed to absorb every thing that I could, so I decided to stay open-minded, taking every little thing into consideration, and asking for a lot of advice from my Student Advisor (SA). My SA really showed me the ropes and told me that while the things you learn at UBC are good, a lot of it is not really practical when you’re actually teaching; this was actually very true.

Yes, it’s good to have self-assessment in the classroom, it’s ideal to have all the tools and machinery in the shop brand new, and it’s awesome if every student is engaged in classroom activities. But this is not the case in the classroom; many classes already have pre-made rubrics and assessment tools that need to be used (implemented by admin), the tools and machinery is usable at best, and not every student is engaged. What the practicum showed me is that while the philosophies and theories behind education learned at UBC is important, what’s equally important is taking away from what I learned in class, and actually implementing things that work and don’t work in to the classroom at school.

As it was only a short practicum, I’m looking forward to my upcoming long 10 week practicum so that I can put my theories and philosophies to the test. I know it will be long and tiring, but it will also be an invaluable experience for my future, and I have high expectations that I want to achieve during the practicum.