Week One of Practicum # 2

Practicum #2 has begun and already one week has flown by. I am enjoying the new school immensely and already feel a great fondness for my new students. My AT has proven to be a huge support for me this week and provides daily debriefs on my lessons. He is kind and thoughtful and has the best interests of the students at heart.

As for the Grade 5's, I am finding that this dynamic, energetic and chatty class is keeping me on my toes. Though most of the 32 students are attentive and function well together, there are at least 8 individuals who continuously disrupt learning, leave most work incomplete and even disregard my instructions while continuing to misbehave. I  felt unsatisfied this week and confused by the actions of these particular attention-seeking students. Even though I created fun, interactive science activities that addressed many learning styles and intelligences, these children continued to cause havoc in the classroom; teasing each other, lacing heavy sarcasm into their comments, talking while I talked and showing a lot of disrespect for each other.

After an illuminating conference with my supervisor, my position became very clear. I need to start integrating community-building activities into my lessons, just as I would various subjects. Even though we are already 3/4 of the way through the year, it is still needed. I also am modifying some class management techniques. Instead of asking 'Jimmy' to be quiet a second time, I will comment on how nice and quiet 'Jane' is and try to use positive energies. Before each lesson I will reiterate the importance of listening and showing respect for others, and lay out ground rules for group work. I don't expect to see any improvements overnight but working closely with my AT, I hope to bolster the class moral.

No matter how in depth and spellbinding a lesson plan can be, it is a fruitless task to teach if learning is disrupted by negative, angry and disrespectful behaviour.

I am thrilled to be teaching Science and am positively frightened at the same time. I tremble at the thought of explaining how computers work in our 'Components' lesson Week 4 but know that having successfully demonstrated the measurement of gravity in my most recent lesson, I just might be able to survive it. I am having to teach myself the concepts every night and find 'teacher's notes' to be extremely helpful in my lessons. Had you asked me what a 'Newton' was three weeks ago, I would have said a cookie.

In any case, I look forward to the coming week and the challenge of designing language lessons as well as integrating community-building in the classroom. I'll let you know how it goes!

Good bye for now,
Catharine