The Elementary and Middle School Education and Teaching program at Longwood enables students to have plenty of professional development opportunities. I have been fortunate enough to have experienced many so far during my time here at Longwood.
For my first practicum experience, I was placed in a fourth grade classroom in Charlotte County, Virginia, where I spent thirty hours observing students. Through this experience, I have learned so much knowledge and gained so much advice.
One piece of advice I obtained from my cooperating teacher was, “You have to gain control of the class before you can teach them.” I used this advice when I was going over a worksheet with the students and they were being loud and not paying attention. When I tried to get their attention, they couldn’t hear me because of all of the talking. I quietly stood there and waited for the students to notice. After a minute, the students started to understand my hint and they became quiet. I stated that they had had their turn to talk, it was then my turn to teach. Saying this firmly showed the class that I was in control and I was serious. We finished going over the worksheet without incident. I often think about how this scenario would play out differently if I didn’t wait for them to stop talking and went ahead with my lesson. I am very thankful for this piece of advice from my cooperating teacher and can’t wait to utilize it in my future classroom.
The second piece of information I gained from my practicum experience was the seating. When I first walked into the classroom, I immediately noticed that the seats were made up of wobbly stools, bouncy ball chairs, and elastic bands on the seats. I was impressed, because choice seating is uncommon, and asked my cooperating teacher about it. I learned that the mobility of the seats allow the students to focus on their work while moving around. She stated that as long as the students are getting their work done and paying attention, she didn’t care how they sat – and I agreed! I can’t wait to buy these seats for my future classroom in order to give my students a fun way to learn.
The last lesson that I learned from my time in fourth grade was everyone has different needs in order to succeed. This can include different learning styles, IEP’s, or 504 plans. No matter their differences, it is my job to help students succeed in any way possible. One way that I accomplished this during my practicum was helping four students take a test. They had IEP’s which allowed for their tests to be read aloud. I took them into the hallway and read the test question by question, giving them adequate time to answer each one. I had never witnessed this before, as I didn’t have an IEP in school, therefore I am thankful to have had the opportunity to learn about different learning accommodations.
For my second practicum experience, I was placed in a first grade classroom in Chesterfield County, Virginia, where I gained even more experience.
During this practicum, one of my assignments was to create a lesson plan and activity for a small group of students in the class and present it to them while being observed from my professor. I was extremely nervous but knew that this experience would benefit me in the long run. My goal when creating the lesson was to make it fun and interactive for the students, while also help them learn word study words. I came up with a Go Fish game with their word study words. Students were given laminated cards with words on them. To practice vowel pairs, the students had to color in the vowel pairs before they could play the game. After that, they played Go Fish and after saying each word, they had to state the vowel pair. This helped them with their word sort as well as spelling. In the end, the lesson was a huge hit. I could tell the students were having fun and learning. My professor left with a smile, so hopefully that is a good sign for my grade!
During my partnership semester, I was placed in a sixth grade science classroom at Buckingham County, Virginia, for my “elementary” placement and a seventh grade math classroom in Cumberland County, Virginia, for my “middle school” placement. With this being my first classroom experience in COVID times, I definitely learned a lot about flexibility and online learning.
In Buckingham, not all students are fortunate enough to have internet at their houses. Therefore, work was uploaded to flash drives every two weeks and was available for the students to pick up at the school. Students that did have internet completed all of their work via Google Classroom. During this placement, I graded a lot of papers from Google Classroom. I am used to just writing feedback on paper, so it took some time to get into a rhythm and figure out how to write feedback and grades on virtual paper. I learned to highlight the x’s for wrong answers in red, and highlight written feedback in yellow. That way, it was easy for students to recognize and learn from their mistakes. I also loved being able to write encouraging comments on the Google Classroom platform. Another opportunity that I participated in was hosting Google Meets. Every Tuesday and Thursday for an hour each, the students could log onto the Google Meet and ask me any questions about notes, assignments, or graded assignments. I was able to get to know the students on a personal level since only a few students showed up at a time. Additionally, I loved getting to see their face light up when they finally understood a certain concept.
Cumberland had a similar situation, but there was a specific time each day that the class met for instruction. This was for anyone who had internet and was able to join. New material was taught and practiced together, online. The other students received packets and flash drives to complete their work. Halfway through my time in Cumberland, the students came back! I was so happy to see them! In both virtual and in person class, my CT gave me the opportunity to teach lessons. I used her lesson plans and activities, but was actually able to teach the concepts to the students. She even let me create my own assignments for the students. I learned how to make interactive and fun assignments for the students that were able to be completed on the internet and on paper. It is definitely a challenge, but a challenge that I will happily take in order to educate students to the fullest.
Overall, I am grateful for the opportunity to learn to teach during COVID times. I am lucky to have been able to get into an actual classroom and understand how teachers are teaching during COVID.
During student teaching, I was placed in sixth grade math at Powhatan Middle School, and Kindergarten at Powhatan Elementary School.
One of the great things about my first placement was that it was block schedule, which meant I had many chances to practice and perfect a lesson. It also gave me the chance to try it on my own before my cooperating teacher gave me tips and pointers. For example, I was introducing ratios to sixth grade. I had all of the activities, formative assessments, and behavior management strategies planned. When it came time to teach, I started the activity and explained ratios as I went. After the lesson, I did not feel good about it. I honestly could not put my finger on what went wrong, but I know the students did not get the best instruction that they could. My cooperating teacher asked me what I could have done better, and then suggested that I explain ratios on the board and have the students practice before the activity. DUH! I have done this so many times during my undergraduate classes. I do, we do, you do. I was frustrated with myself for not doing that the first time, but then realized that this is how I grow in my teaching. I took my cooperating teacher’s advice the next block, and it worked out perfectly. Sometimes things have to go wrong first in order to learn from them. The ability to practice lessons multiple times has given me an extra boost of confidence in my teaching.
My second placement, Kindergarten, was very different than my first placement. One of the main events that boosted my confidence was having the students engage with something else in order to get myself back on track. It was a Friday afternoon and my cooperating teacher was out, so we had a substitute. Towards the end of the day, I had run out of things picked out to do, and was struggling with what to do next. I looked at the substitute and asked, “Is it okay for them to have free time for thirty minutes?” She said, “Yes, they’re kindergarteners.” Students need time for themselves, no matter the age. It is not fair to have them work, work, work all day long with no breaks. In the future, if I have a moment of panic, I know that I can have them color, draw, read, etc. for a few minutes while I figure out what to do next.
These opportunities have only strengthened my decision to become a teacher. I can’t wait to be called Ms. Andersen every day!