2 Weeks Done of Practicum 3

Two weeks of practicum 3 is done.... and they have been busy. I was very fortunate because my two of my associate teachers let me teacher within a matter of days. I was able to get right into the groove of teaching right from the start. This practicum I am teaching my first teachable, Math. I also have 3 different associate teachers, one for each class, which adds a little more stress, as I am always going from teacher to teacher. For the past few days, I have not been busy marking, but I have been busy planning lessons. It is hard to keep on top of my planning, and making sure that every class gets the same amount of attention and work towards it. It has been harder this past week, as I was also fighting a cold (I think it came on from stress and over working). So I have learned my lesson, and that is that sleep is important even if that means you cannot mark a paper for another day.

From my poster 3, I said that I wanted to try and do the group quiz, however, I do not see that happening as it is hard to do this with math. (I have looked at the resource you mentioned, but I could not find any questions that I wanted to assess). However, I have been using stuff from my other classes, such as 'Foldables'., where you fold a piece of paper to help students connect the dot on how different topics are related. This was really interesting to see, as some students thought that they did not need to do it, or did not take it seriously, and then told me that they regretted their decision the next day. As a teacher, this made me proud as it showed me that if I think something is a good idea, it usually is, even if the students do not like it or do not want to do it at the time.

One thing that I find interesting at my school is that on test and assessments, the teachers do not assign a percent they assign a level. This means that when you write a test you must write a few level 1, level 2, level 3, and level 4 based questions. Then when marking, you look at the test and see if it is a level 1, 2, 3, or 4 answer; if the student is able to complete the entire test then they get a level 4, if they show limited knowledge they get a level 1. It is a very subjective way of marking. I am torn between liking this method and not. I like it because if you mistype something on the test and make the question harder than plan (like I have done) the question is just marked at a higher level. However, what I don't like about it is that there is no reinforcement about the mark that you assign the student. You must have a reason for each student why you gave them that certain level. For example, Jimmy and Johnny both could get an answer correct, however Jimmy got a level 4 and Johnny got a 3+. Well, if Jimmy and Johnny come up and ask you why one got higher than the other even through the answers are the same, you must have a reason, whether it depends on other questions or not. Personally, I think this is very confusing, especially since the report card have percents and not levels.

Even though it has only been two weeks of practicum, I am very happy for all the information that I have learned so far. It is amazing how much you can learn in just a small amount of time. I cannot wait to see what the last two weeks brings me!