Personal Reflections
Below, is a record of journal entries from my experience teaching literacy in grade one during my second year as a pre-service teacher.
Week 1 - January 27, 2021
This is my first week back in class (college and otherwise) since last March when schools were shut down due to the pandemic. It was wonderful to see the students' smiling faces. Because I am in my son's school, some of these kids know me through passing and some because they have siblings that are in my son's class. They gave me a warm welcome and eagerly allowed me to help them with their spelling review and journal writing. During their free time, the students enthusiastically told stories about their drawings or other exciting points they wanted to share. Practicum experience is essential, especially right now, during the pandemic. We as students are stuck in our homes, in front of our computers for hours at a time alone, so this connection is important to keep us motivated toward our goal of becoming teachers.
Week 2Â - February 3, 2021
As I arrive in the grade one class, I help the students get ready for their day. Some of them need more help than others, and some just need reminders of what they should be doing. This class is a very busy class! Today, for the first time, I was invited to take a small group of the children to a private room to help them with numeracy. On a whiteboard, they were to start from a given number and count backwards five numbers. Next, the students played a partner game with dice where they rolled the dice, subtracted two, and marked that number off a bingo sheet. The student with the first row of answers first was the winner. Finally, the students worked in their Math workbooks. I wrote some examples on the whiteboard and gave each student a turn inputting their answer. After recess, I recited the spelling list of the week for the students to practice. As a group, we practiced by writing the words on whiteboards, writing the sentence of the week, and generating rhyming words for a chosen word. I then took my small group out of the class to focus on literacy by practicing sight words and working in their ELA workbooks. I really enjoyed being involved in the teaching process by helping the small group. This was a new and fulfilling experience for me!
Week 3Â - February 10, 2021
Much like last week, my day begins with my helping the students with their morning preparation. I enjoy the time I get to connect with the students in the morning before the daily work starts, and I think this is a practice I will continue as I continue practicum and eventually in my own classroom. Today the class had a substitute teacher, so things were a little different for all of us. I do, however, enjoy learning from a variety of people. The substitute used a variety of mindfulness techniques with the students that are methods that I would one day like to use in my own practice. My mentor teacher had left my instructions with the substitute teacher, so I was still able to take my small group to work on ELA. This week I felt a bit more confident, so I focused on some phonics techniques to see where the students were at. The phonics seemed to suit the students better than just asking them to name the sight words. I feel that this is a technique that I will continue with in order to scaffold for their understanding.
Week 4Â - February 24, 2021
My poor mentor teacher really hurt herself, so we had a substitute again. I'm grateful that it was the same teacher as last week, so she knew why I was in the class and seemed eager to accommodate my learning experience. Today was a little different because my practicum is at a Catholic school and they had a scheduled virtual Mass for this morning. For most of that time, I made sure students were focused on the screen and keeping quiet. After recess, I took my small group to the quiet room and practiced this week's spelling words by sounding out each sound in each word. We then made up rhyming words. Some of the children have issues with grasping the concept of rhyming, so I made sure that we were focusing on the rhyming sound only, and the words they used didn't have to be real words. I didn't have a lot of time with my group this week as they were also participating in 100 day activities. It was a busy day for these kids!! I enjoyed participating in the group work they got to do with Lego for 100 day. Who doesn't like building with Lego? I am definitely a hands-on teacher!
Week 5Â - March 5, 2021
After getting ready for the day, we started in on Math right away. A couple of the students hadn't listened to the instructions, so I concentrated on helping those who needed direction. The most exciting part of the day was that I was able to teach my lesson on focus! I was incredibly nervous (just because it was my first lesson actually being taught, last year I wasn't able to teach my lesson before the schools shut down). The time went by so quickly! While the students were very attentive during the story and actively participated in the discussion, some of them finished their nail art activity much more quickly than I anticipated. Next time, I will plan a back up activity for the fast finishers. My mentor teacher had a lot of great feedback for me. After the lesson, I took my small group to the quiet room to work on sight words and read together. One of the busier students of the group was not very co-operative this time, and I had to send him back to the classroom. I didn't like doing that, but even my mentor teacher said he can be incredibly difficult and the best thing to do is send him to the classroom, so I guess I did okay!
Week 5Â - March 10, 2021
After getting ready for the day and doing some Math, I was able to work with a small group of students who exceed their current grade level expectations in literacy. We were given a small book and a corresponding worksheet to answer questions in COMPLETE sentences. I had the students take turns reading from the book and allowed them to take turns answering the questions. One of the students put their hand up at one point, and when I called on her, she said, "I like you." That very much made my day! Connecting with students is incredibly important to me, so comments like that fill my bucket! Today I also did a lot of one-on-one work with a student with Down Syndrome. She is incredibly smart, and it was interesting to see how her IEP differs from those of the children who stay in class for most of the day. It was helpful to see how different (and yet similar) literacy is at different levels and in different contexts.
The Semester, in General
I can't believe the semester is coming to an end. I have already fulfilled my hours of practicum, but I have one more lesson to teach this week--St. Patrick's Day! I'm excited to teach my next lesson, but I was sad to see my practicum coming to an end, so I have arranged with my mentor teacher that I will stay on to volunteer for the remainder of the school year. She is more than happy for the help, and I am more than happy for the extra experience! I feel like practicum in literacy has been an extremely fulfilling experience. There are things that I have learned that will be essential in my teaching practice. At the beginning of the semester (only six weeks ago), I began doing small group literacy work with little idea of how to do that. Within a week, I came back feeling more confident with the information I was armed with. My professor in EDTS 371 has armed me with some incredibly valuable information on language and literacy that I know will continue to evolve as I gain confidence in the classroom. My mentor teacher has given me an invaluable experience by allowing me to work in her classroom, observe her teaching practices, and by giving me the freedom to teach small group literacy AND the literacy lessons that I prepared for the entire class. Even with her absence due to injury, my mentor has given me so much feedback that will help me through the rest of my education journey and into my professional life, as a teacher. I am very grateful to have experienced my practicum with this very unique class of students.