School Experience Overall

           There was definitely some mixed feelings as my School Experience came to a close but overall I am very happy. At the beginning of this practicum, I went in not having a clue how my classroom set up would go- the idea of three mentors with three different classes was extremely intimidating. We then figured out a schedule to where myself and Andrew would be able to work with all three of our mentors for the short practicum but would have to stick with one mentor for the long practicum when we return in February. During the final week some of the anxieties from the beginning of School Experience resurfaced during a bit of a schedule mix up but thankfully it is resolved and the new year looks promising once again.

            As the week was a phase out, I stepped back from being a prominent force in the classroom and acted as more of an observer. My goal from my fourth reflection was to observe students whose parents I did not meet during interviews so this was my concentration for the week. One of the major things I picked up during the interviews was that certain students showed extreme anxiety at home due mostly to workload. This is something that surprised me, mostly because of which parents said their children were having these troubles but with a closer look, I was able to notice signs that it was going to be a tough night with homework. My TM is very good at setting up assignments in class. The students are never expected to start something on their own, there is always an explanation and the whole class discusses the assignment before they are dismissed. It is when student are rushed that the anxiety comes out. If teachers do not plan effectively to recap a lesson, remind students of homework or refuse to answer questions that the students look harried and leave the class with a ‘look.’ This is something I will be planning for as I start my unit plans.

            The last two weeks have also been dedicated to building my final report for School Experience. Being able to see an example was very helpful in figuring out a template and for me, the rest went quite smoothly. I used our program goal outline sheet as a checklist and compared it to what I had reflected on in my personal journal. I actually was able to write my report quite quickly thanks to the effort I had put into reflecting.

            Overall, I am very happy with how the School Experience went. I had expected to be concentrating fully on my students and their learning but quickly found that I needed to balance my attention between them, scheduling, mentors and lesson planning. This woke me up to the realities of being a teacher. As I move forward into unit planning, I have confidence in my lesson planning abilities and look forward to planning with the my specific students in mind.