Reflection Report:

Observations from my 2 week practicum (Week 1) – November 2 – November 6, 2015 

This week has been a very interesting experience. I have reaped the rewards, faced the challenges, and participated in the long hours that teachers put in to making the classroom an enjoyable learning environment. Mrs. S has been extremely helpful and has provided me with many resources to help benefit my lesson planning. Over the course of the week, I have learned so much about the students; their strengths, their amazing talents, and some of their struggles. I have come to realize the many challenges that come with managing a class- in particular, having a large group of students with defiant behaviors. This is a large learning curve for me, as I do not have a lot of experience working with children in a classroom setting, or working with students that are difficult to manage. I have received lots of great feedback from my SA during my teachings, and day by day I become more comfortable in the teacher role. Throughout the week, I was given many opportunities to take the lead in calendar/morning sharing, helping with read-alouds, and also teaching two math lessons. Mrs. S gave me a math workbook to follow, but I decided to make alterations to the dictated plan to provide the students with a more stimulating lesson. I wanted to incorporate bigger ideas, and make learning a great experience for the kids! For my first lesson, the students were learning about estimation, so I decided to be creative and have 3 jars with different amounts of gumballs in each. The students had to observe and use strategies to come up with their “guesstimates”. The strategy that I was hoping the students would start to use is grouping numbers into 5’s and 10’s. It was essential for them also to learn about place value, so once we estimated the jars, I counted the gumballs individually to represent how many ones and tens we had. The students were very engaged and excited that I brought in gumballs! At the end of the lesson, the students were given a gumball each- everyone had a smile on their face 🙂 It made me happy that they enjoyed and took something away from the lesson.

Unfortunately, my second math lesson did not go as well as I had planned. I had grand ideas of letting the students use a variety of materials/manipulative’s to represent the number 19 (plates, gumballs, plastic cups, paper clips, etc.,)- soon to realize that stepping out of the box sometimes backfires. The students worked in groups and became somewhat confused as to what the task was. I was beginning to feel slightly overwhelmed as the defiant/problematic students began to get a little bit out of control, so I quickly changed into our next activity. After the lesson, Mrs. S gave some great feedback, and explained that if a lesson ever goes south, there is no problem scrapping it and moving on to the next task. She also mentioned that having a math class as the last lesson of the day on a Friday is extremely difficult, and attention spans are limited. I can definitely see the importance of having math class in the morning, as opposed to the afternoon! Although I was initially frustrated with my lack of control over the students during the group activity, and the amount of work I put in to preparing the lesson, I came to realize that this was such a great experience to have had. Not every lesson is going to be perfect, and adaptations need to be made accordingly. It is also beneficial to keep a lesson somewhat simplistic at this age.

Mrs. S was also able to sit closely and observe the students on the carpet while I presented the lesson. She mapped out every individual student, and provided a complete analysis on each student’s behavior as the lesson progressed. It is absolutely amazing what teachers can miss when they are so in tune to what they are teaching…Mrs. S explained that even she misses so much of what’s happening and how off-task students can become during a lesson. It was shocking to see how many students were fidgeting and not paying close attention. Especially having 5 students with major behaviour concerns, the teacher’s attention typically goes to those children, and often times, we forget about the others. From the observations that Mrs. S made, I am definitely going to become more aware of the entire group as a whole. Without the help of our EA, I can’t imagine how Mrs. S would get through a lesson without the extra hand. It amazes me what she can do as a teacher- and I aspire to become as controlled and as patient as she is.

I have also had the opportunity to read with many of the students, and see where their levels of comprehension and word pronunciation is at. Many students are beyond their reading capabilities for their age, while some are having significant struggles. During silent reading, I have been taking students aside one by one and making notes on the strategies that they are using as readers, and also to see what level of books they have in their book box (Mrs. S wants 2 easy reads, one challenging read, and a chapter book). For those needing extra assistance, I was able to attend an IEP meeting with Mrs. S and the Resource Centre teachers. It was amazing to be introduced to this process, and what is discussed amongst the professionals in order to give each child the best instruction and guidance possible. Being a part of this meeting has given me the opportunity to learn more about some of the students on a individual basis, and has allowed me to connect with them further in class.

I believe the greatest struggle so far in the first week of practicum is learning how to manage students that are defiant. I can see how a teacher can become easily overwhelmed and stressed in these cases, and I am very eager to look into this further for my inquiry question. Many times I would ask a particular student to move seats on the mat, and they would argue and say, “No!” Mrs. S gave a few tips and tricks to deal with these types of situations, but at times they did not work as expected. As Mrs. S and I discussed, I believe the students are still trying to get to know me as a teacher figure, and that they must show me the same level of respect as Mrs. S. They view Mrs. S as the “big boss lady,” and the EA and myself as easier to defy. However, as time progresses in my practicum (and so I have already seen over the past few days by becoming more engaged in teaching lessons and being hands on), the students will come to show me greater respect as a leader and teacher who has rules and regulations.

So far, this has been such an amazing experience, despite one lesson that had a few hiccups. I am so appreciative of how engaged my SA is, and that she is able to share a great amount of feedback on my lessons. All of Mrs. S’s advice and feedback is so invaluable to me, and for her to allow me to dive right into the teaching role has been so helpful. Even though it might be nerve-racking at times, I feel good about learning from my mistakes- a very challenging thing to do, as I am a bit of a perfectionist. As time goes on, I am learning from these hiccups, and it’s making me a better teacher. I look forward to teaching more in my final week of the 2-week practicum! 🙂