Practicum Experience
Grade 2 -Okotoks, AB
Professional Semester III Internship
January 7th- April 25th, 2013
This was a sixteen week internship in which required me to take fifty-percent of my teacher mentors' teaching load, and because it was an elementary placement, this meant teaching fifty-percent of everyday. For this internship I was placed in a grade 2 classroom at a K-6 school in Okotoks, Alberta. My teacher mentor and I worked cooperatively to split the time and units in a logical and manageable way. From here I was required to create short and long term plans for each of the units, as well as formative and summative assessments and all of the corresponding learning activities. I was also responsible for culminating report card marks as well as comments to communicate to parents how their child was progressing. With that said, I also had a constant open line of communication with parents at all times. Additionally, as a school, each class was responsible for sending home a monthly curriculum newsletter to communicate to parents what the students were learning in regards to the Alberta curriculum, and how the curriculum was translated in to learning activities. Therefore, I was responsible for reporting on the units and subjects that I was teaching at the time the newsletter went out each month. During this internship I found myself interacting and cooperating with other teachers and making my way in to the school community. I developed professional relationships with a number of colleagues and was able to work with them to develop learning objectives and activities, as well ask questions and receive advice and mentorship. I also got involved in the school community by starting a lunch time club, the "Science Club", in which grade 1-3 students would meet once a week and perform a different science experiment. This provided students with hands on experiences which they could learn from and discuss. While my other practicums allowed me to develop my planning skills and classroom management skills, I feel that this internship really helped me to bring everything together and I was able to use all of the skills that I have learned in a more fluid manner.
This was a sixteen week internship in which required me to take fifty-percent of my teacher mentors' teaching load, and because it was an elementary placement, this meant teaching fifty-percent of everyday. For this internship I was placed in a grade 2 classroom at a K-6 school in Okotoks, Alberta. My teacher mentor and I worked cooperatively to split the time and units in a logical and manageable way. From here I was required to create short and long term plans for each of the units, as well as formative and summative assessments and all of the corresponding learning activities. I was also responsible for culminating report card marks as well as comments to communicate to parents how their child was progressing. With that said, I also had a constant open line of communication with parents at all times. Additionally, as a school, each class was responsible for sending home a monthly curriculum newsletter to communicate to parents what the students were learning in regards to the Alberta curriculum, and how the curriculum was translated in to learning activities. Therefore, I was responsible for reporting on the units and subjects that I was teaching at the time the newsletter went out each month. During this internship I found myself interacting and cooperating with other teachers and making my way in to the school community. I developed professional relationships with a number of colleagues and was able to work with them to develop learning objectives and activities, as well ask questions and receive advice and mentorship. I also got involved in the school community by starting a lunch time club, the "Science Club", in which grade 1-3 students would meet once a week and perform a different science experiment. This provided students with hands on experiences which they could learn from and discuss. While my other practicums allowed me to develop my planning skills and classroom management skills, I feel that this internship really helped me to bring everything together and I was able to use all of the skills that I have learned in a more fluid manner.
Grade 8 Science - High River, AB
Professional Semester II Practicum
March 7th- April 25th, 2012
This was a six-week practicum in which we are required to teach approximately seventy-five percent of the time, working our way up to one hundred percent. Unfortunately, my teacher associate’s teaching schedule did not allow me to work up to teaching one hundred percent of the day. However, I did get close to teaching approximately seventy five percent of the time. During this practicum I taught strictly grade eight Science. I taught three very different grade eight classes the same science unit. While I was able to develop a UBD and unit plan as a part of my University class assignments prior to starting the practicum it became very clear that a large amount of differentiation would be required to have all three classes achieve at the same level. During this practicum I was responsible for all summative and formative assessments and was required to enter the marks in to Students Achieve. However, I was not responsible for creating Learner Profile comments at this time. Having developed strong lesson planning skills in my first practicum, I was able to focus a lot of my time and attention to my classroom management skills. I found grade eight very different to manage as compared to my previous grade two and four classes. I did a lot of research on effective management techniques, in addition to seeking mentorship from a few teachers at the same school.
Grade 2 & 4 - Nanton, AB
Professional Semester I Practicum
November 17th- December 15th, 2011
This was a four-week practicum in which I was required to teach fifty to seventy five percent of each day. The other twenty five to fifty percent of my time during my practicum was for observation and aiding my teacher associate. During this practicum I taught grade two and grade four science. While it was not required that I teach units during this practicum, I started new units for each of the grades and taught all of the lessons until the end of my practicum. While I was not able to finish teaching these units in my time at the school, I left my teacher associate with my plans and assessments. I also had the opportunity to teach Language Arts in grade four, in the form of Writers Workshop. It was during this practicum that I began to develop strong lesson planning skills as well as strong assessment and lesson correlation skills. I was also given the opportunity to work with a small group of students in my grade four class twice a week. These students were below grade level in reading and therefore we worked on a separate novel study than the rest of the class. While I did not choose or plan the novel study, I did make use of some strategies that I had researched to help struggling readers. During this practicum I helped other teachers around the school whenever I could. I helped the music teacher with the Christmas concert by helping different groups of students rehearse during lunch hour.