After completing Professional Semester I, the following are the goals that I set at the beginning of Professional Semester II, as well as a reflection of these goals upon completing this practicum.
Goal #1: BECOMING MORE COMFORTABLE WITH OLDER STUDENTS AND BUILDING MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEM THAT ARE DIFFERENT THAN THOSE WITH ELEMENTARY STUDENTS.
I am quite nervous about working with older students in this practicum. I have a ton of experience working with elementary students, but very little experience with older students, so this will be a very different, but beneficial, experience for me. My classes for this practicum are quite small, so I am going to try my best to create a meaningful relationship with all of the students that I teach. I hope that by the end of this practicum, I will be much more confident and comfortable working with older students.
Reflection of Goal #1:
I am extremely surprised by how well I was able to achieve this goal. Not only was I able to form relationships with the students that I taught in Grade 8 and 9, but also with many other students in the school. This practicum allowed me to become much more comfortable working with older students and I have learned to really love teaching middle and high school students. I especially enjoyed teaching English Language Arts, as it really made me realize the passion and enthusiasm that I have for my major. I now no longer have a fear of teaching students that are not in elementary, which is a huge step for me. I am pleasantly pleased and surprised by the growth, in this aspect, that I have made in this practicum.
Goal #2: CONTINUE TO WORK ON DEVELOPING MY TEACHER VOICE.
I worked extremely hard on this during my PSI practicum and want to continue to do so throughout this practicum. I have a very soft and quiet voice, making it difficult for me at times to get the attention of my fairly loud and energetic class in PSI using just my voice. My former TA and I implemented different strategies to gain students attention, but a bell seemed to work best. I plan to use this again with older students, but I still want to work on my voice as well. The Grade 8 class is quite small and quiet, but the Grade 9 class is quite a bit bigger and much more energetic, so I think I will most likely work more on this goal when teaching the latter class. I think that this goal will be one that I will always be working on throughout my teaching career, finding strategies that work for me and making a constant effort to improve.
Reflection of Goal #2:
I definitely worked on this goal throughout my practicum, but I wouldn't say I was as successful with it as I wanted to be. There was not much of a chance to really practice and improve upon this goal because the majority of the classes that I taught and supervised were either quite small or really well behaved, which meant I could almost always get their attention with just my voice. I barely ran into any issues with the Grade 8 class, as there were only 8 of them, making it extremely easy to grab their attention whenever I needed it. The Grade 9 class had 14 students, but they were so well behaved for me that I rarely had to raise my voice to get their attention. When I supervised or briefly taught other grades, I was able to work on this goal to some degree, as some of these classes were quite a bit louder. What seemed to work best with these classes was just having a discussion with them that I have a quiet voice and they need to be listening and paying attention in order to hear what I am saying. They seemed to understand this and for the most part were quite understanding and respectful of this. I did not end up using a bell or other method of getting students' attention in this practicum, but I definitely will in the future when necessary. I will continue to work on developing my teaching voice in PSIII and the rest of my teaching career.
I also had many other minor goals set for myself going into PSII including becoming more confident in myself as a teacher, getting better and more efficient at lesson planning, learning to find more of a balance between school and home life, and getting enough sleep during practicum. Some of these goals, such as becoming more confident in myself and more efficient at lesson planning, I feel I have made significant improvements on, but other goals, such as finding more of a balance between school and home life, and getting enough sleep, are definitely things that I still need to work on in my future. I have learned so many incredible things about both teaching and myself throughout this practicum and I can't wait to become a teacher and continue on this constant road of growth and development.
Goal #1: BECOMING MORE COMFORTABLE WITH OLDER STUDENTS AND BUILDING MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEM THAT ARE DIFFERENT THAN THOSE WITH ELEMENTARY STUDENTS.
I am quite nervous about working with older students in this practicum. I have a ton of experience working with elementary students, but very little experience with older students, so this will be a very different, but beneficial, experience for me. My classes for this practicum are quite small, so I am going to try my best to create a meaningful relationship with all of the students that I teach. I hope that by the end of this practicum, I will be much more confident and comfortable working with older students.
Reflection of Goal #1:
I am extremely surprised by how well I was able to achieve this goal. Not only was I able to form relationships with the students that I taught in Grade 8 and 9, but also with many other students in the school. This practicum allowed me to become much more comfortable working with older students and I have learned to really love teaching middle and high school students. I especially enjoyed teaching English Language Arts, as it really made me realize the passion and enthusiasm that I have for my major. I now no longer have a fear of teaching students that are not in elementary, which is a huge step for me. I am pleasantly pleased and surprised by the growth, in this aspect, that I have made in this practicum.
Goal #2: CONTINUE TO WORK ON DEVELOPING MY TEACHER VOICE.
I worked extremely hard on this during my PSI practicum and want to continue to do so throughout this practicum. I have a very soft and quiet voice, making it difficult for me at times to get the attention of my fairly loud and energetic class in PSI using just my voice. My former TA and I implemented different strategies to gain students attention, but a bell seemed to work best. I plan to use this again with older students, but I still want to work on my voice as well. The Grade 8 class is quite small and quiet, but the Grade 9 class is quite a bit bigger and much more energetic, so I think I will most likely work more on this goal when teaching the latter class. I think that this goal will be one that I will always be working on throughout my teaching career, finding strategies that work for me and making a constant effort to improve.
Reflection of Goal #2:
I definitely worked on this goal throughout my practicum, but I wouldn't say I was as successful with it as I wanted to be. There was not much of a chance to really practice and improve upon this goal because the majority of the classes that I taught and supervised were either quite small or really well behaved, which meant I could almost always get their attention with just my voice. I barely ran into any issues with the Grade 8 class, as there were only 8 of them, making it extremely easy to grab their attention whenever I needed it. The Grade 9 class had 14 students, but they were so well behaved for me that I rarely had to raise my voice to get their attention. When I supervised or briefly taught other grades, I was able to work on this goal to some degree, as some of these classes were quite a bit louder. What seemed to work best with these classes was just having a discussion with them that I have a quiet voice and they need to be listening and paying attention in order to hear what I am saying. They seemed to understand this and for the most part were quite understanding and respectful of this. I did not end up using a bell or other method of getting students' attention in this practicum, but I definitely will in the future when necessary. I will continue to work on developing my teaching voice in PSIII and the rest of my teaching career.
I also had many other minor goals set for myself going into PSII including becoming more confident in myself as a teacher, getting better and more efficient at lesson planning, learning to find more of a balance between school and home life, and getting enough sleep during practicum. Some of these goals, such as becoming more confident in myself and more efficient at lesson planning, I feel I have made significant improvements on, but other goals, such as finding more of a balance between school and home life, and getting enough sleep, are definitely things that I still need to work on in my future. I have learned so many incredible things about both teaching and myself throughout this practicum and I can't wait to become a teacher and continue on this constant road of growth and development.