Wow-what a ride my first practicum was. I must say that jumping in I was a little uncertain about how it would go, however, from the first minute I walked through the door I felt supported in what I was doing. My practicum teacher Nathan was with me every step of the way and was always willing to drop what he was doing to answer questions or give input on lesson ideas. This was great as without this sort of support, the experience would have been a lot harder and I do not think I would have had the same excitement to go to class.

During my time at Heather Park, I primarily taught math and social studies lessons. As I was in a grade 3 class the math that I had to teach was not overly hard (three-digit addition and subtraction), however, I was surprised at how descriptive and specific I needed to be in order to accurately describe what were to me simple concepts. I was somewhat taken aback upon realizing that students really have no idea what I am teaching before I teach it. Everything I say is new and therefore it is up to me to teach it in a way that students will understand. Of course, there were several times that students did not understand exactly what I taught (thus re-teaching), however, I was happy with my overall performance in the practicum and was happy that I had the ability to teach like I thought I would.

During my practicum Nathan provided me with an abundance of information. This included new programs for teaching math, science, language arts, and outdoor education. I must say that I particularly enjoyed the outdoor education aspect of Nathans class as he brought his kids outside and into the forest on a regular basis. In doing this I got to experience how outdoor education can be incorporated into the every day classroom experience. Honestly I wish that one of my teachers would have done something like this with us when I was in school as I would have LOVED IT. I know now that instruction like this will defiantly be a part of my practice after I finish teacher school and I look forward to helping my students experience the great outdoors.

Going forward I will be working on my content. In this practicum I feel that I was running many of Nathans programs with a good idea of what I was doing in the moment but not a lot of context as to why what I was teaching would be important going forward. The purpose of some programs like math for instance was relatively clear as students obviously need to learn how to add and subtract, however, other programs like spelling (Words Their Way) and ELA were a bit more of a mystery to me and I would be curious to see where this learning takes students.

Moving into the rest of the semester I am excited to see what happens. I have to admit that it feels a little strange being back in online classes after 3 crazy weeks at Heather Park, however, I am still committed to get the best out of the semester. I am curious to see where my learning takes me going forward and I am especially excited for my next practicum, wherever that might be.