I just finished my practicum in New Liskeard. I drove 8 hours back to Kingston, and am about to start a 16 hour drive to Mingan, Quebec. It's feeling a bit crazy to be going so far for such a short time. I guess I chose these placement locations, and it's not as if I'm going to another continent like some people, but it's still hard to justify it.
Part of why I'm feeling frustrated is that I felt like I was just settling into some parts of my placement in New Liskeard. I spent last week, and Monday and Tuesday of this week, with a SPH3U class. I observed until last Thursday, and then taught 3 lessons. Since I was jumping into the middle of a unit, and Shane, the teacher I was shadowing, posts a lot of material on the website in advance, I felt like I should just follow his plan, and not change things around too much. I ended up teaching lessons that I wasn't too happy with, because they were Shane's lessons, and not mine. It felt a little silly to be going through examples in a powerpoint that Shane knew much better than me.
It did end up being an interesting experience for both of us though. Sitting at the back of the class observing, Shane was able to analyze his own teaching material in a way that he couldn't have otherwise. We talked at the end of the class about what he wanted to change for the next time he taught that lesson.
There is also a lot that I was able to learn even while doing a lesson that was mostly prepared by someone else. I thought a lot about how to take up homework. Shane will often pass out whiteboards to small groups, and have them write out solutions to problems, and then present them to each other. I decided to take up some homework problems myself on the board, but then last minute decided it would be better to include the students, and brought two students up to write solutions on the board. I remember doing this in high school, but this really convinced me that it doesn't work. Most of the class is just sitting there, those two students were under a lot of pressure, and I'm just standing there while hoping they don't put up something completely wrong or confusing. I thought through all this as I stood there, and then stopped it, and brought out the whiteboards. I felt like everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It took the pressure off, got everyone engaged, and allowed me to move around the class and give one on one help while getting an idea of what the presentations of solutions were going to look like. Not sure if there are any peel procedures specifically about small group work with whiteboards, but I've found them really effective.
One more thing that I really took out of this class (there were a bunch, but these are the big ideas), was managing the class to create time for yourself as a teacher. Students working through things on their own for part of the lesson is effective for them, but I felt like it also allows a teacher to be more effective in other ways. When something is not quite going the way you want, or you are having a hard time explaining something, if you are able to get students to work through something on their own, it gives you time to think through what you want to say next, or what direction you want to go in. It's also really important in creating time to talk to some students one on one.
I learned a lot from this class, but I'm really left with the feeling that I could have gotten so much more out of spending an extended period of time with them. Jumping around from class to class, as I've been doing all year, has given me a taste of what it's like to be a teacher, and a lot of ideas, but I don't really feel like I've gotten the practise time that I'd like. If teacher's college goes to two years, I'd really like to see that include a lot more time in classrooms, and longer practicums. I think there could be a lot of benefit to a whole year being devoted to practicum, in one or two schools. I could see it being a huge opportunity for host teachers to get a chance to partner teach for a year, and would give TC's some really good experience.
Enjoy your travels, see you in April,
Jamie
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