Star 1

For my first point of growth, I will talk about my improvement of pacing.  Pacing was my largest concern over the period of my practicum as I knew how fast thirty minutes can go while teaching.  My first lesson, although I felt it went well, could have been organized much cleaner.  My second lesson was better, but I went a few minutes over my time limit.  By the third lesson, I felt more dialed in with the timing and used my time more effectively.  However, on my last lesson, I had the pacing down perfectly for what my lesson entailed.  I fit my instruction into five minutes, followed by twenty minutes of activity, and five minutes mixed with closure and student sharing.  I had expressed this concern to my TM on the first day, and they were able to give me valuable pointers and advice in order to stay on time.  By implementing this advice and focusing more on time management, I feel that this is the area where I showed the most growth as a teacher candidate.

Star 2

For my second point of growth, I want to talk about my improvement of understanding children’s behaviour.  Before entering this program, I had never heard of the term “IEP”.  Within my practicum, there are two students who have registered IEPs, while I believe another one or two would likely qualify with parental consent.  I had not been exposed to behavioural problems or children on the autism spectrum before, so our TM gave us lots of advice on how to deal with this.  At first, I allowed these students to remain at their desk while moving along with my lessons.  By the end of my practicum, however, I had learned how to manage each individual student and how to get them to cooperate.  I was able to get each student to fully participate on my activities, and I even helped deescalate a student that was feeling frustrated.  These are not things I expected to deal with in grade three, but I am very happy with my improvement in this portion of practicum.  It was a huge compliment to hear I had impressed with my Differentiate Instruction section of my lesson plans, and I take great pride in ensuring each student is included.

Wish 1

For my wish on my first practicum, I will talk about giving clear instructions at the beginning of lessons.  While I really prepare for my lessons before teaching them, I think I need to put more focus in how I will deliver my instructions prior to beginning my lessons.  There were multiple instances where I was either unclear before starting the assignment, or I would be adding instructions as the students were beginning the assignment.  In the future, I want to deliver clear and concise instructions prior to starting the assignment, and then reiterate the instructions I need to during the task.  Some students were confused as I had not given clear directions, and this was evident in my first lesson.  I felt as if I worked hard at this between lessons, but found myself still trying to add things as the students worked.  I believe the best way to achieve this is to verbally rehearse what I am going to say before I get up there and say it.