GNS at a glace

I had an extremely positive experience during my 2 week practicum at Glenlyon Norfolk Secondary School. Here are a few things that stood out for me:

(1) The teachers! I was introduced in a staff meeting on day one so even teachers who weren't directly supervising me made me feel welcome and ushered me into their classrooms. My PE supervisor took an extended medical leave when I arrived which ended up to my advantage: her substitutes were inept at PE, so I got to teach in everything everyday. Another member of the PE department welcomed me into her class as well, so I ended up getting lots of feedback from a variety of sources. Similarly, in English, all of the teachers wanted to see me teach. I ended up leading an advanced creative writing seminar, teaching two grade 9 classes and ghost marking sixteen grade 11 IB papers. Lots of variety!

(2) Resources! The PE facilities were beautiful--new turf had been laid on the field, and I had access to lots of new equipment. The teachers themselves were also great resources. My principle supervisor in English had a masters in Shakespearean lit, so when he asked me to teach a mini unit in Elizabethan culture/syntax/grammar, he was able to critically assess my material from an academic perspective as well as an educational one. Very helpful!

(3) Class sizes! In English this was a definitely advantage: students were comfortable sharing their writing with one another. Also many students had been classmates for 10-12 years which heightened this comfort. In PE however, this was less advantageous. For example, if a soccer units final objective is to re-create accurate game-play, and if there are only 8 girls in your PE class and there are 11 players per team in a real soccer game, how are you to demonstrate a real-world game?