Practicum Stories

One of my favourite experience during this practicum was when I finally had a chance to interact with a class of junior science students as they worked on a class worksheet.  Up until this point, though I had observed many classes and been introduced in many of these classes, I found none of the students really had any interaction with me.  Since I sat in the back of the room, none of them spoke to me as they came in to the class and ignored me throughout the actual lesson.  I was quite worried at first that perhaps these students hadn't taken a liking towards me and did not want me as their student teacher; however, during my observations of one junior science course, I found that much of the class was confused about the material they learning and did not know how to get started on a worksheet they had been given.  Since it was a large class and the teacher was busy trying to help some of these kids with their questions, I tried to help out and see if I could answer the questions of anyone waiting to see the teacher.  Not only were the students openly appreciative of the help I gave them, but soon many of the kids had formed a group around me as they all wanted to hear about the explanations to solve the science questions.  Up until this point I hadn't had any chance to interact with any of the students, I had begun to feel that the students found me unapproacheable; however, I found once students know you are there to help them, they were more than happy to come up and talk to you and ask you for help.

Another part of the practicum that had an influence on me was the first lesson plan I came up with and the first lesson I actually taught.  I was so proud of myself when I finished my first lesson plan and was printing it off at my home computer.  I was surprised at how long it took me to come up with it though, as I'd expected it would have been simple enough to come up with the lesson as it was for a Math 8 class.  It actually ended up taking me hours to decide how to teach the lesson, make up my notes, etc.  The teaching of this lesson was also a big moment for me, as it was the first time I was actually teaching.  It felt somewhat surreal when I was up there in front of the class and whenever the students called me Ms. Sidhu, I felt like smiling.  I was extremely nervous before starting the lesson but ended up quite happy with how the lesson went.  I felt quite comfortable in front of the class and look forward to teaching more classes during my long practicum!