Week 1 Check-In Prompt:
Your 385 instructors spent time over the summer reflecting on the strengths and struggles of the practicum courses. We listened to student feedback, praise and concerns from our mentor teachers and considered our own highs and lows as course instructors.
In addition, having put a few changes in place during the Fall of 2022 semester and then reflecting on course evaluation comments, portfolio presentations and mentor teacher responses, we made additional revisions for the Spring of 2023.
This reflection and discussion allowed us to revise practicum in order to strengthen the identified weaknesses and fortify the strengths.
Use this first reflection opportunity to evaluate your first week of practicum experience. What are you excited about in terms of the weeks to come? What questions or concerns do you still have at this point? How can Professor Hancock or your fellow practicum peers make this a semester of professional growth? How have you set yourself up for success?
What are you excited about?
I think so far the thing I'm most excited about is just being in the classrooms in general. I had heard from peers about what this course requires in very broad and unspecific ways so I still had a lot of nerves about going into student teaching. I was nervous about how I was going to be integrated into the classroom and how I would be creating lesson plans or building good relationships with my students that still have the appropriate boundaries. I've yet to learn or discuss in depth most of these things up until this class. It makes me feel more secure and comfortable looking to the future that I will have learned how to properly approach this and do all of these things and have already done them. I look forward to collaborating with my assigned teacher and learning how they approach certain things and being able to experience it all in a more low-stakes environment where mistakes are okay and the teacher will just redirect me.
What questions or concerns do you still have at this point?
I think so far my only concern is that because I'm still in a student mindset I am worried that it is going to be difficult for me to be more demanding about receiving a level of respect because I am also there to learn so while I'm not necessarily seeing the students as peers I'm still not particularly seeing them as people who should respect me and see me as an authority figure.
How can Professor Hancock or your fellow practicum peers make this a semester of professional growth?
I think the most important thing for me for professional growth is having relationships with my peers/professor so that I can feel comfortable opening up about my weaknesses or if I am struggling with a student going to them for advice and to talk about it if I need to and also being someone they feel like they can come too. I think by creating these relationships we can also have a better class dynamic.
How have you set yourself up for success?
I have set expectations for myself with grades and set aside time after class to complete readings for the next day to make sure I don't forget to complete them.
Week 2 Check-In Prompt:
What was tough this week? What strategies do I have in my toolbox that could help? What do I need help with? Where can I seek that help?
In what areas can I still improve professionally? What’s currently stopping me from improving in these areas? What was inspiring about this week? What was so inspiring about it? How could you bring that energy to your lessons? How much time have I spent with friends, family, and/or pursuing personal interests lately? How does this relate to my work with students at the school? If you had to pick one phrase to describe this week, what would the phrase be and why?
What was tough this week?
I think I kept coming back to figuring out how to implement the things we learn in class in the actual classroom when I am going into it. How do I create relationships with students with trauma I cannot relate to, how do I get them to see me as someone there to help not hurt, and how do I approach this or that? Trauma is tricky because we all deal with it differently and I don't know how to approach it well because how I would deal with it would be different than how they're dealing with it.
What strategies do I have in my toolbox?
The strategies I have currently is to write notes on students to keep on file consisting of their learning style, personality type, and any attention issues I might pick up on throughout a class. Focusing on what we might be learning about where I see them lose focus the most, is it poetry? Maybe I can bring in a different poetry style that is more fitting to their character. Also just offering reassurance in various senses, assurance that you're there, the reassurance that you see them, the reassurance that you understand. I think that keeping the PBL in the back of my mind because I think based on what we discussed in class that Problem-Based Learning can be really beneficial in allowing students to use the tools I've provided for them and figure it out in an independent way.
What do I need help with/Where can I seek that help
I think I am going to be using our trauma readings a lot in the field as well as talking to Professor Hancock and my mentor teacher when I do encounter a student with trauma I don't feel I am adequate enough to help.
What was inspiring about this week/What was so inspiring about it?
I think what was really inspiring for me was in class on Friday moving around the room and answering different questions with different students while also bringing in what we talked about in our last groups. Hearing the different teaching methods and experiences of my peers allowed me to feel not so out of my depth that we all experienced similar things or have similar views on how we'd prefer to structure our classes and prefer to go about building connections with students.
How could you bring that energy to your lessons?
Something I am concerned about is actually how to keep my energy levels up, how do I give my first period the same energy and the same effort I give my seventh/eighth period of the day? We often talk about teacher burnout and already not being the most energetic person in the world is intimidating to think about. Especially given how common that burnout is, how long and difficult the days can be, and how stressful the overall career is.
How much time have I spent with friends, family, and/or pursuing personal interests lately? How does this relate to my work with students at the school?
I've not had much time to spend with my friends or family lately due to my commitments and responsibilities which I think is going to negatively impact my work with students at the school if I cannot figure out a balance soon because those people do kind of help me regroup and bring me back down to the real world when I get too lost in the academic world and neglect everything else.
If you had to pick one phrase to describe this week, what would the phrase be and why?
"Chaos makes the muse."
We learned a lot about trauma and how it changes people this week and went into soft lockdown over the altercations in the hallways. We have been slowly getting use to this new environment and I think this week was just kind of chaotic for everyone in terms of how our environment changed from that first week in but I think this chaos is kind of warping us into the teachers we will become in a slow yet realistic way. We were informed about the student altercations and the bathroom fights, and we saw how it changed the atmosphere in the school and how faculty and students' entire days were altered but we weren't the ones in charge of getting the students under control or figuring out the best option for discipline instead we just got to experience and observe.
Week 3 Check-In Prompt:
Please create a checklist (that you might also supply to your mentor teacher) of TO-DO items you would like to accomplish while in your classrooms during this first field rotation that begins next week. You should consider the SMART goals you set for yourself, along with other important points we have discussed over the past few weeks.
EXAMPLE:
Visit the Data Room
Talk with a Special Education teacher about how to work with a particular exceptionality.
View an IEP and discuss how the modifications are met.
Checklist for field
I want to interact with every single student in both classes at least by the end of the week
Learn every student's name by the end of the week
Building a relationship with all of my students and having them feel comfortable with me
Building a relationship with my mentor teacher
Scheduling regular sit-downs with my mentor teacher to discuss where I am compared to where I need to be and how to get there.
Learning what the curriculum is and getting comfortable with all aspects of it.
Engaging in the class novel and joining discussion/helping students who may be struggling with it
Working on my With-it-ness
Setting up the appropriate boundaries with the students
Sitting in on another class (not mentor teachers and preferably not English) to see how other teachers work with students.
Treat this more like a job than a class/being involved with school activities that take place outside of the classroom.
Week ten check-in prompt
Considering your professional growth into the role of professional educator now that you have completed your first field rotation and had time to reflect:
What would you identify as important to focus on in the second field experience? Please consider this question from three perspectives--the what of teaching (content knowledge), the how of teaching (pedagogical knowledge), and the dispositions necessary to be an effective teacher.
Going into this next field rotation I think that it is important for me to focus on getting the students to see me as more of a teacher and less of a friend. I think when I went in during the first rotation I was so focused on creating those relationships with students and creating a good dynamic in class that I wasn't quite so focused on working on the respect aspect. I think that when I go in it is going to change the dynamic a bit when I am taking on more of a teacher role rather than being essentially an aid. It's a necessary change in dynamic though and I think when I go back it's going to have to be something I'm extremely conscious of. I can't go into the hallway with students every time they're having a bad day and talk them through their assignments nor can I excuse certain behavior any longer. Right now because they see more as more of a friend/aid they aren't taking me as seriously. The students like me and listen to me for the most part but it is extremely obvious that they struggle to take me seriously. When I'm teaching my lesson within the unit plan I need the students to be willing to take me seriously and put the effort into following my instruction so I think when I teach the lesson it will be a good self-assessment on how well I've done with creating the new dynamic.
Week eleven check-in prompt
Describe a particular behavior you encountered this week.
What root cause might be perpetuating this behavior? (This could be a behavior you noted in a peer, an instructor, a stranger…)
What types of students do you need to spend more time focusing on when you head back out into the field?
What behaviors are you only continuing to perform out of habit or laziness?
Describe a particular behavior you encountered this week.
I encountered a situation where someone I had just met said something that made me uncomfortable
What root cause might be perpetuating this behavior?
I think this person just needs to feel like they have power and like they've outsmarted people or one-upped them in a way. I think it was just a conversation where the individual felt the need to brag while also establishing dominance in a way. I think this behavior is primarily in an effort to get attention and respect/admiration.
What types of students do you need to spend more time focusing on when you head back into the field?
The students that aren't as vocal in class or aren't receiving a lot of positive attention. These students always fall under the radar in both classes because there are so many fires to be put out in each class that these students don't often get much help or given the resources to achieve their potential while the students who are being loud and trying to gain attention receive it.
What behaviors are you only continuing to perform out of habit or laziness?
I think just following Bleicher's routine and sacrificing making the students do the work themselves in order to keep them steady and on track with where Bleicher needs us to be so I often step in and give page numbers and paragraphs for them to pull answers from
Week fifteen check-in prompt
Over the past few days, many of you have expressed that you are feeling very overwhelmed, tired, disenchanted, frustrated, concerned, busy, adding more to your to-do list than taking off, nervous, concerned, burnt out, on the verge of tears, slap happy, questioning the why of your life choices...and perhaps even still a bit excited and motivated.
First, I want you all to know that however you are feeling right now, is acceptable and common in the teaching profession! Any given day or any given hour can bring about a wide variety of thoughts and feelings. You are not alone in the way you are thinking and feeling. It is important to remember that, which brings us to this week’s check-in prompt:
Tell us how you are feeling.
Share your thoughts with us.
List everything you need to get down in the next few weeks.
Give us a few tips regarding how you deal with your stress and frustration, but also how you celebrate yourself and all you are accomplishing.
Yes, you are accomplishing some amazing things right now, so celebrate!
Use this reflection to let these things go. Read what your fellow teachers are thinking and feeling, just to remind yourself you are not alone. If you feel like giving each other a WAY TO GO! or a helpful hint...DO IT!
I feel extremely overwhelmed by everything currently. I'm trying to stay on top of coursework but have classes outside of my methods and practicum that require attention as well as a job to balance. I feel guilty that I feel overwhelmed by these things because I know these things are a privilege and only for my own gain. But as the semesters go on and all of these projects and presentations keep getting added onto my plate I feel like I'm never going to be able to complete these things. I genuinely don't know how it is all going to get done because I feel I don't have the time to really give these things my all because there's always other stuff I need to be doing. I feel like there is an awareness that there are other classes students have but toward the end of the semester it felt like there became a lack of that awareness due to the fact we had so many things added to our plates.
Usually, I'm very good at dealing with stress and have never been one to cry or feel a large amount of anxiety due to stress because I've always known one way or another I'd get it done. I don't know how it's going to get done this semester and it's been weighing me down to where I just don't feel like myself.
I also really struggled with my mentor teacher because I didn't feel welcomed or well communicated with so it made my experience less enjoyable. I didn't think she liked me very much from the beginning and as we kept spending time in the classroom the more I felt like she seemed more put out by our presence rather than happy. As I bonded or worked with students I felt like she wasn't exactly happy with the approach. I wanted to go to her for guidance but didn't feel it was a safe enough place or that she would actually help me but rather be sarcastic in her reply. I know she had a lot going on in her personal life and that her students did not make her day easier so by the time we came in she was drained.
The only class I really felt I was constantly learning and having fun it was when we were in Professor Hancock's class. It was nice to bond with my peers and talk about our struggles and victories but we got limited time in that and I just felt upset that the one class I truly enjoyed and I felt I left learning something new every day was the one where our time together was limited. I loved being in the class with the students but wished that there could've been a way where we could come in on Friday to decompress and talk about what we observed throughout the week instead of doing discussion boards. Overall just lots of negative sad vibes currently