Spring break is over which means that not only are elementary and high school students back to school, but also me! Yes, I have begun my 10-week practicum and it has been an exciting learning journey for me. On Tuesday morning, I almost had to pinch myself that I was actually starting my 10-week practicum. It feels just like yesterday that I was anxiously sitting in Scarfe 100 on the first day of the B.Ed program and now we are here!

Regardless, I wanted to reflect on my first week at my practicum school. My Grade 1 class and I did a lot this week! We started on Tuesday with our Wonder Wall for our Plants unit, which will officially begin next week. The students had a lot of wonders that I am excited to explore during our unit, such as “Why do plants need water to grow?” and “Why do plants need roots?”. We also started on our Fairytales unit, reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, and Cinderella. The students are absolutely loving the Fairytales unit and it has been a success so far – I am having a lot of fun with it as well!

I will be honest and say that there have been little hiccups along the way, which is to be expected. I have also learned how to improve my own teaching practice – namely the importance of scaffolding and the emphasis on I do, we do, you do. This is so, so important in any teaching practice and it is something that I will continue to work on over the next coming weeks.

Next week, we will officially begin our Plants unit. We will be planting some different seeds into our class plant container to watch the different growth rates and structures. We will also hopefully get to one experiment involving plant needs and growth.

Stay tuned for next week!