The past ten weeks have been a time of intensive growth for me. One of the main things that I have learned is the importance of quality practice. I feel so fortunate to have had the support of my SA’s and FA, who worked patently and critically with me. I came to notice, that the best way for me to improve was to focus on one aspect of teaching at a time. It is important to me to be able to do my job well, and have time to reflect on my practice. I went in t the classroom focusing on my classroom management techniques. I wanted to be sure that I understood the best way to connect with each student on an educational and personal level before I felt I would be able to assess them. I wanted to be comfortable in front of them and feel confident that I could provide them with the instruction they needed. Something that surprised me was getting my head around actually “teaching”. By this I mean, I was often so focused on my instructions, remembering what I was trying to do, that I didn’t realize that I was not paying attention to the class. After a particular observation my SA asked “where were you looking?”, I realized, I was staring right over the heads of my students, focusing on what I was trying to say rather than what they were learning and understanding. This was a key aspect for me to be able to focus on classroom management, knowing what the students are needing at any given moment, scanning the students, looking for understanding.

Once I felt more comfortable with this, about mid-point through the practicum, I shifted my focus towards assessment. I had a solid understanding of my students and their individual needs and abilities. I must admit, putting assessment into practice was a struggle for me. I was reminded that I needed to keep a clear lesson objective in order to determine if students were meeting the goal of a lesson or unit. Once I worked on clarifying my objectives, I attempted a variety of assessment practices. Including checklists, anecdotal notes, pre-determined learning standards (rubrics set out by British Columbia) and one on one assessments. As the weeks went on, and after numerous discussions with my advisors, I was starting to feel more confident about assessment. It is still an area I need to explore, but I was able to collect enough information to write report cards for each student. Assessment is such an important part of teaching, it still seems daunting to me. I am more confident that I am headed in the proper direction, and knowing that it is something that I must focus on will only help me in the future.

Making connections with students was so important to me. I wanted everyone in the classroom to feel comfortable, because when a student feels comfortable they are more open to taking risks; risks that often lead to higher learning. I noticed that many of my students are very hands on learners. This was wonderful for me, because the focus of my inquiry is about making learning meaningful though creative, hands on learning. I feel that this worked, the units that leant themselves well to hands on learning were the ones that students became excited about. “Ms. Oreziak, are we doing science today?” were words I loved hearing. Parents coming to me, telling me that their children were coming home excited about what they had learned that day made my heart soar. Teaching is such an emotional activity, putting so much into each plan and hearing that it was impactful was the best.

I learned a lot about my practice over the past 10 weeks, I wish the best to my students who are moving on to grades 1 and 2 next year. I couldn’t have made up a better class if I tried.