Sunday – arrived in town while the temperature was like 37
degrees! I was sweltering! Had trouble getting to sleep because of the loud
trucks coming up over the hill and passing my room and the stuffy heat.
Unfortunately I could not get the air con working.
http://www.whereis.com/qld/harlin#session=MTI= Harlin where is.
Monday – woke up fairly refreshed ready for the day ahead of
me. Before I left for the school (a minute’s walk across the road) I
fortunately and unfortunately found that the air con cord had been unplugged
and been hiding behind the door night before. I went to school with the hopes
that tonight I would not be sweating in bed now I had air con! My positive
attitude was slightly crushed when I arrived in the classroom and my Mentor
teacher (also the school’s Principal) looked at me confused and said “I forgot
you were coming” WHAT?! I have a six week
prac with you and you forgot? I immediately went to blaming the uni for not
notifying her enough…when in actual fact it probably was mine for not emailing
her the week before…but oh yeah…I had three huge assignments so I had no time!
Anyways my teacher said that it was good to see me anyway and immediately put
me onto doing a task. The task was to choose books from the library for the
English Fairy-tale/Folktale unit for the term. We went through the class
timetable/routine. And after that I began to feel like I was in a paid position
already as I went around doing odd jobs like a teacher aide. Come afternoon I
was already given the opportunity to organise an art activity. I came up with a
fantastic idea that each student makes a leaf or two and we make a bean stalk
to follow along with the day’s fairy-tale of Jack and the Beanstalk.
I
was also given the task of taking the Year 1’s for a maths lesson on addition.
I loved this because as I carried it out I used my teacher-senses and observed
that one girl was struggling so I got her to work on the small whiteboard with
me while the other students did individual work. That night I went to bed
feeling great because I knew I had already grown in leaps and bounds in
confidence since last year’s prac. Also cool with the air con and the fan both
on J
Tuesday – Today I was set for observing a substitute teacher
while my Mentor acted out her Principal duties while the school was being audited
(The result was great). I set about organising a lesson for Thursday (the day I
am meant to teach next) and assisted where needed. The best part of the day was
in the afternoon when nothing specific had been planned but it turned out two
huge trucks with Camels had parked themselves across the road from the school. So the sub teacher took the class across the road then spent the rest
of the afternoon doing camel activities…including singing “Alice the Camel” as
loud as the students could.
Wednesday – Another day of just observing and continuing to
build repertoire and relationships with and amongst the students. I also
carried out a spelling test of 70 words with the Year 2 students. A lot of
Behaviour Management was required here! After that I was helping a Year 1
student count in 5’s from 50 to 145. That was an uplifting time for both me and
the student as I found myself naturally asking questions and giving prompts
when needed and the students found herself becoming more confident in what she was
doing as well as building confidence! I was amazed at my ability and hers! I
told her that I wanted her to go through it with me again after lunch and as I
walked into the classroom, she came to me willingly asking if she could go
through them! And she did! I was cheering! Had the best night’s sleep that
night, despite feeling disconnected from my ‘home’ world/life. Also today I had
to draw some characters from Cinderella. I don’t consider myself a great artist
but when the students saw my work they were asking for drawing lessons! My
homework this weekend (given by the students) is to learn how to draw an
airplane, jet, bird with crest, cat, dog and a helicopter!
Thursday – Today was my first day with an actual planned
lesson on this prac. From the lessons I did I learnt that it is most important
to be flexible and to not stress if things are not going according to my plan.
Flexibility means to be working with the students and finding where they are at
and to go from there and make a path towards the lesson’s objectives.
Therefore, I learnt today that the most important part of planning is the
objectives…, which I did! Thankfully! I’m starting to feel like my mentor is
very different from my past prac teachers…don’t know if it is the culture of
the school or the pedagogy (teaching practice) of teacher. I won’t say anything
yet until I see her in action more though. She keeps telling me that this week
is very hectic because it is first week back in term 4 and there was the audit.
So I hope I see improvement in her teaching practice in the coming weeks. One
things for sure I have already found myself analysing how I would be as a
teacher if this class was my actual classroom….the conclusion is that I would
definitely be more organised and not a Principal as well as a teacher! But I
applaud my mentor for all the effort she does put into the school!
Friday – Today I got a sore throat because of the *ahem*
behaviour management I had been doing…the students were constantly talking! Ahhh.
But it was a good test of my ability to manage behaviour and found the best
way to do so is the clap strategy…I clap they repeat. No stress on my voice!
That was during a diagnostic spelling test which was new to me but I learnt how
to do it so yay! From Wednesday’s drawing time I was finally able to give three
students who kept asking for them a drawing lesson on how to draw a prince.
And there ends my first week at prac! I hope you enjoy
reading my experiences!
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