Overview: 

During my first experiential teaching practicum, I spent three weeks in a Grade 3 classroom at a primary school. I was placed with an experienced coaching teacher who supported and nurtured my growth as an educator. I was responsible for teaching 25% of the lessons each day which worked out to two 30-minute lessons each day. Throughout my time with this Grade 3 class, I taught all the Math and Social Studies lessons. I also led the daily story-time lessons in the last week of my practicum. This experience reaffirmed that pursuing a career as a teacher was the right decision for me. I learned a lot and I am grateful to have had this experience! 

Reflections & Biggest Takeaways:

During this experience, my eyes were opened to just how much planning, thought, and preparation go into every piece of the school day and every lesson. I was fortunate to be placed with a coaching teacher who has decades of experience teaching Grade 3 and has their classroom running like a well-oiled machine. There were clear expectations, clear consequences, and established routines in this room. Positivity and student involvement in the development of classroom norms were foundational pillars in this classroom. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to witness and learn the basics of classroom management in this environment.  

These are three of my biggest takeaways from this practicum:  

1. Be consistent.  

  • Being consistent helps both the teacher and the students to contribute to building a thriving learning environment. Consistency in academic expectations, behavioural expectations, and consequences helps students to learn and see that certain actions lead to certain consequences whether they are positive or negative. When positive actions consistently lead to positive consequences and negative actions consistently lead to negative consequences, students learn quickly what is acceptable. Additionally, my coaching teacher taught me that when you already have clear expectations, norms, and consequences established that are consistently upheld, you can avoid ending up in a situation where you are making up a consequence in the moment which may be unfair.  
  • Consistency in instruction also impacts student learning. As I taught my multiplication math unit, I realized how important and impactful it is to complete every worked example using the exact same steps and colour coding system. A high level of consistency during instruction helps students to grasp new concepts more clearly.   
  • Being consistent also helps to put students at ease by helping them predict what to expect from their teacher and the learning environment.  

2. Build a routine. 

  •  The classroom I was placed in for my first practicum was very much built on routines. The students knew their routines well, they were well-established and respected, and students seemed to enjoy knowing what to expect each day. Building solid routines and developing standard procedures connects to having consistency in the classroom.   
  • I had not considered how important building a routine for transitions in the classroom would be until I began my practicum. Now, I understand that when transition time is not well managed, it can lead to the loss of a lot of instructional time. Conversely, when transitions are well managed and students know the routine, it can make all the difference in keeping to the schedule and keeping students regulated.   
  • In the classroom I was placed in, every afternoon followed the exact same schedule so students knew exactly what to expect in the last half of the day. They seemed comforted by knowing what to anticipate and they looked forward to the afternoon because they knew that if they made good choices throughout the morning and completed their work during work time, they would be rewarded by getting to play during playtime. It will not always be possible to build a classroom schedule where every afternoon is the same, but I strive to build strong classroom routines and ensure that at least one part of the day stays consistent across the weekly schedule. 

3. Think ahead and be prepared. 

  • I learned during this experience that it is best to think through each lesson plan thoroughly and try to anticipate what could happen. What might go well? What might students find challenging? What will consume most of the time? Is there something in this lesson that might consume a lot of the time but is not the focus of learning? Is there anything that needs to be scaffolded to support student success? How will you transition from one activity to the next? Will you have or need more adults in the room to support students during this lesson?   
  • My coaching teacher always told me it is better to be over-prepared and not need everything than to be under-prepared and end up scrambling to think of something. I lived by this advice during my practicum and it helped put me at ease as I taught because I knew if the first activity did not take as long as I anticipated, I had a backup plan or an extension, or I could move on to the next lesson because I already had those things prepared and ready to go.  
  • In my Social Studies unit on global Indigenous cultures, students completed poster projects in small groups. Each day I set a target end goal that students had to reach by the end of the day to stay on track. After each lesson, I would go through their project folders and organize their work for the next day by sorting through what they had previously completed and setting out what needed to be completed next. I tried to organize their folders in a way that minimized the amount of time they would have to spend focused on administrative activities that did not pertain to their learning goals for this project.    
  • When I was prepared and knew my lessons well, it was easier to provide clear instructions and communicate clear expectations to students.