My two week practicum is finished! What a whirlwind! My time in the classroom is far from over, but I’m feeling a little sad about returning to my own coursework at UBC on Monday. Those kids have got me hooked! The focus of my reflection for the first week of my practicum was on the class itself and its evolving dynamics based on observations I’ve made since first stepping foot into the classroom. This week, however, as I transitioned to teaching a 20% load, I’ve been reflecting more on my own teaching and areas of focus.

I’ve realized this week the importance of having clear criteria and sticking to it, both for myself and for my students, even during lessons where criteria can tend to be wide open. For example, in an art lesson I taught on Monday afternoon during which we took turns tracing each other into life-sized avatars, I gave them free reign on how they could decorate their avatars in a way that represents them as a person. Though we brainstormed ideas and I made some suggestions about how one might complete that task, I was not clear on what the criteria for completion was.  Did the whole thing need to be coloured? Did it have to have a face? Could the students go a little more abstract and colour it like it wasn’t a person at all? Since I wasn’t clear on the criteria myself, there was no way the students would be either.

My SA gave me a great tip. When planning, make sure to finish the sentence, “I’ll know you’re finished when…” It seems so simple, but it fully had not occurred to me in this instance, art class, that not having clear criteria left it open enough for kids to not colour it at all, if they chose. So if I say those words to the kiddos, and follow up with clear, simple instructions and expectations,  it will make enforcing attainable limits that much easier.

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