Practicum Week 3 Self Assessment

Commitment to students and student learning The grade 8 class are independent workers. When lecturing or giving instructions the students are extremely disruptive, disrespectful and talk among themselves, even minutes after they have been told to be quiet. As a result, I have had to modify and alter many lessons to work with their learning style and behavioural issues. I am working with articulating my thoughts to the students on why I am teaching them the way they are (for their benefit), and explaining how their lack of cooperation is wasting everyone's time and will not be tolerated once they enter high school. Furthermore, I am challenged by attempting to make the content relevant and engaging to teenagers who are not motivated to do anything unless they see an immediate benefit to themselves. Getting to know the students over the past few weeks has helped me to better gear my lessons to their learning. Knowledge I am teaching a physics unit on structures and stability to the grade 7 class. The content was not as familiar to me as the biology unit I am also teaching so I felt less comfortable teaching the material. Slowly, I have been figuring out interactive and effective ways to teach challenging concepts such as stability, centre of gravity and centre of mass. Teaching practise With the rowdy grade 8 class, I have found strict deadlines and time limits to be effective in getting the students on task and motivated to work in class. However, the quality of the work that was submitted was disappointing. Therefore, I would like to improve on motivating students so they see the internal benefit of learning the content that they have to. Professionalism From the first day I think that I have treated all staff and students with respect. I have also put in a lot of effort to get to know the students. As a result, they show me respect in return (at least the grade 7 class). I have been teaching 50% since the beginning of the second week. This shows significant responsibility for the students learning, as I have planned and altered the units that I have been teaching.

I feel enthusiastic about the material I am teaching, although I am not sure that this shows to the kids. My dependability is shown through attendance and coaching of girls volleyball during the lunch recess. Leadership and community I have been involved in coaching volleyball since my first week in placement. I coached a team at an all-day tournament on the fourth day of placement, and have been coaching practices at recess and lunch breaks. I show enthusiasm and interest with colleagues and fellow student-teachers about what they are doing. I am trying to pick up tips and tricks from others teaching other grades and subjects. I feel fortunate having another teacher-candidate in my class, as we support each other and share feedback about teaching methods, classroom management, and how kids are liking and progressing in our classes. Ongoing professional learning My associate teacher is always providing positive and constructive feedback about my teaching. He is patient and aware of the necessity to make mistakes in order to learn, as some of my lessons have not gone as well as I would have liked. His feedback about varying my classroom management, and finding different techniques that work for me was helpful for me to recognize a major area in which I can improve. Reflecting every night has helped me see how varied a lesson can go depending on the level of energy and focus of the teacher and students can impact the quality of learning. Growth Plan I plan to work on including more students into class discussions by using different strategies such as think/pair/share or think time. I will work on increasing my knowledge of structures in order to effectively explain concepts when teaching. Also, I will continue to show adaptability in planning. Finally, it is my aim to incorporate more classroom management techniques including rewarding positive behaviour and varying my voice projection.