My 2 Week Practicum

I completed my 2 week practicum at Kwalikum Secondary School and it was an amazing experience all around. Both of my sponser teachers were very welcoming and excited to have me participate at their school and within their classes. My P.E. sponsor teacher was unbelievably encouraging and supportive and it was obvious that she was enthusiastic about having the opportunity to help me begin my career. In addition to my P.E. sponsor teacher, I was lucky to receive support from the entire P.E. department. Each teacher took time out of their schedules to sit down with me and answer any questions and address any concerns I may have had and also invited me to observe their classes. I was exposed to so many different teaching styles and activities and am very excited to implement many of them into my own classes. The amount of feedback I obtained from both the teachers and the students in my classes was awesome and I learned so much from my time immersed in the P.E. department. Much like Kali discussed, my sponsor teacher also included student self assessment into her class which I found was a great way to interact with each and every student, leading to opportunities to discuss both concerns and praise that may be necessary to expose. Another very positive feature that I was excited to observe was the amount of support and discussion between ALL of the P.E. teachers. My sponsor teacher was consistently asking her colleges for ideas and suggestions and it was refreshing to see how comfortable they all felt communicating and sharing ideas. Furthermore, each P.E. class at the school participated in both a running and ab program. This was accomplished through the rotation of 'ab days' and 'run days.' On ab days, an abdominal routine was lead by the teacher for approximately 15 minutes at either the beginning or end of class. On run days, students participated in a variety of running groups dependent on their fitness levels. I was impressed with the amount of trust between the teachers and the students within this activity as it was relied upon the students to be running at the right times, on the right routes, often with minimal supervision. What I found very impressive about both of these activities was that the P.E. teachers were always participating along with the students.
My second sponsor teacher was the Communications 12 teacher at the school as well as the Vice Principal. I was significantly more nervous to enter my Communications class than my P.E. class but quickly gained confidence in my abilities. The Communications class had an extremely large diversity of students, many with learning disabilities and behavioral problems. There were many students that were reluctant to accept my contribution to their class and take my role as their teacher seriously but with determination and effort I was able to connect with the majority of the students and had a great experience. One of the unique aspects of this class was that they only received formative assessment throughout their term and their final grades were determined at the end of term through a one on one discussion and review of their work throughout the term. This was an interesting and challenging feature that I am happy I was exposed to as I gained experience utilizing formative assessment through oral and written feedback.
Overall, it was simply amazing.