There are so many things to think about when you’re teaching. Prior to my practicum, I knew that I wanted a lot of things to happen in my classes. I wanted my students to learn from me and that I should be engaging so that they would be interested in learning. I was worried about whether my students would like me or hate me, about whether I would be able to manage the classroom well and if I would be a good and effective teacher.
The practicum has been an invaluable experience. I learned so many different teaching techniques and used the opportunity to implement various new ideas into my lesson plans. The students were generally very welcoming and I absolutely enjoyed teaching them. I would reflect on the day after classes were over. How did the students respond? Was it effective? What could I do better? What are the main objectives for this class and how can I progress towards that in my next lesson?
Although I am trained in music, I was very fortunate to have been given two blocks of ELL classes to teach on my practicum as well. I decided to liven things up in the classroom at one point and planned a Bingo game with prizes for the students using the words that they had been learning the past several weeks with me. I informed them that we had a test to study for, which they were not very enthusiastic about, but on the day of the test when I pulled out the Bingo worksheets, they were all thrilled and were absolutely engaged! I graded them on whether they had gotten the answers right, of course, but they had fun in class, they learned, and they all began to look forward to the next test. I started seeing improvements in my students’ writing. Quite often I noticed they had begun to use the new words they had learned. It is amazing what students can do when they are motivated to do well.
For my community field experience, I was placed in David Lloyd George Elementary where I began teaching on the very first day I was there. It was a completely different experience! I learned very quickly that every grade level is different and you speak to grade fours very differently from grade twos. Classroom management is completely different and you have to keep the children engaged at all times. I was fortunate to have been given the opportunity to teach ukulele, recorder, general music and the Orff Method while I was there and the teacher I was with was a fantastic mentor who asked me after every single class what I did well and what I could improve upon. My teaching method evolved with every class that I taught and observed, and every lesson was better than the one before.
What I have discovered is that I enjoy working with students of all ages. We must always be mindful that what may work for one student may not work for another. If something is not working for a student, change it up! We need to be flexible and open-minded while making sure that our students are learning what is required.