After weeks of roaming the halls of McArthur and learning about education and teaching techniques and practices, we were unleashed out into high schools to practice our teaching skills, and experience first-hand what it's like to be a teacher.
My first day at Frontenac was a welcoming one, with all the teachers in the math department greeting me and making me feel right at home. After a day of observing some classes, getting to know my way around, and learning some of the school policies, my associate teacher asked me if I wanted to teach a lesson tomorrow. My initial reaction was "whoa, I've only been here a day lady!" But of course I said yes. Why wouldn't I take every opportunity to learn and better myself as a teacher? That's what I'm here for right? I was provided with a ton of resources, and she gave me a good idea of what was the plan for the lesson the next day, so everything went well. The class I started out teaching is a grade 9 applied class. It became very apparent the first few days that these kids really struggle with math. But here's the catch- there are only 9 students in it. Sounds like a dream right? Well in some respects, it's definitely got its perks. With such few students, classroom management isn't a huge issue, and there is lots of time for individual one-on-one attention. Learning the students names was a walk in the park, and I've got to know each of them as individuals very well in the last 5 weeks. But sometimes I find that this number of students is too small. There are technically 9 in the class, but the number who regularly show up is around 7. It's quite funny with the 30 desks in the classroom, because I let them sit where they want. They all come in everyday and disperse themselves throughout the classroom. But one day they came in and all sat in the very back row by the windows.
I took on another class shortly after, and I was astounded at the difference between teaching the 2 classes. My second class was a grade 10 enriched academic one, with 30 students in it. Now, these kids are all pretty strong at math, and very into school. They are also very chatty, so it definitely gave me an opportunity to work on my classroom management skills. I'm so glad that I got to experience both of these classes. They both posed different challenges. The enriched students were full of questions, and wanted to know so much more than I ever had planned in a lesson. They really pushed me to explain the reasoning behind every math concept, and why they would use it in real life. It was a great learning experience! I also really worked on letting them figure things out for themselves in this class, instead of just telling them how to do things. My associate teacher encouraged this, and I think I got a lot better at asking the right questions to get them thinking about concepts and coming with ideas of how to do problems without me telling them.
The grade 9s were the opposite end of the spectrum. Keeping them engaged was one of the biggest challenges. Sometimes when I noticed they were being chatty during the lesson, I would tell them they could have 3 minutes to do whatever they wanted, and then we would come back to talking about math. If they were quiet during the lesson after that this was something we continue. I found it very effective, and when I had them write me comments on my last day, a couple of the told me that the appreciated our breaks.
I could continue to write about the last 6 weeks forever, but for now I'll say that overall, I'm extremely satisfied with how this placement went. I feel confident in front of a classroom, and I feel like I really grew as a teacher and a person.
