It seems strange looking back on practicum and remembering how much I was dreading it before I started. I was so nervous, but I very quickly fell in love with my kiddos and teaching as a profession. I learned so much from the students, my clinical supervisor, and the rest of the school staff. I will carry these lessons with me through my remaining field experience opportunities and into my career. I am beyond excited to see what my next field experience will teach me and what amazing teachers and students I will get to work with.
Getting ready for practicum my first day, I was petrified and my stomach was in knots. So many questions were running through my mind. What if I made a bad first impression? What if my clinical supervisor did not …show more content…
It is essential for me to witness and take part in more classroom management activities. My clinical supervisor is an amazing teacher, but she is the first to admit she picked Kindergarten because she is a “cupcake.” Meaning she is sweet and soft on discipline. My hope is that next semester I am placed with a teacher that can provide a real-life example of quality classroom management, including engaging students, time management, classroom organization, and behavior management. While this semester taught me that there are many different teaching styles and no perfect way, I did see the importance of organization. This is an area where my clinical supervisor struggles and I definitely saw this impact students and learning. The classroom always had an underlying sense of chaos and much of this was due to misplaced materials or inadequate planning. This chaos was also added to because of the lack of consequences. While positive reinforcement works wonders in the classroom, particularly in kindergarten, there are times when students need to have privileges revoked. This is something I imagine I will see more often in the later grades and I look forward to observing real-world instances of handling discipline with firm compassion. Within my practicum class, I was not offered many opportunities to teach the whole class, so I have not yet built confidence in doing so. My hope is that next semester involves teaching more as a whole group and more chances for me to create and teach my own
Getting ready for practicum my first day, I was petrified and my stomach was in knots. So many questions were running through my mind. What if I made a bad first impression? What if my clinical supervisor did not …show more content…
It is essential for me to witness and take part in more classroom management activities. My clinical supervisor is an amazing teacher, but she is the first to admit she picked Kindergarten because she is a “cupcake.” Meaning she is sweet and soft on discipline. My hope is that next semester I am placed with a teacher that can provide a real-life example of quality classroom management, including engaging students, time management, classroom organization, and behavior management. While this semester taught me that there are many different teaching styles and no perfect way, I did see the importance of organization. This is an area where my clinical supervisor struggles and I definitely saw this impact students and learning. The classroom always had an underlying sense of chaos and much of this was due to misplaced materials or inadequate planning. This chaos was also added to because of the lack of consequences. While positive reinforcement works wonders in the classroom, particularly in kindergarten, there are times when students need to have privileges revoked. This is something I imagine I will see more often in the later grades and I look forward to observing real-world instances of handling discipline with firm compassion. Within my practicum class, I was not offered many opportunities to teach the whole class, so I have not yet built confidence in doing so. My hope is that next semester involves teaching more as a whole group and more chances for me to create and teach my own