I completed my practicum for Education 261 during the fall semester of my sophomore year in 2019. For this practicum, I was required to have a minimum of thirty hours of observation in my assigned classroom. While I have helped in first grade classrooms before, this experience was different from my others. I was placed in an area I had never been before so I was able to observe a school in a different school system than one I had previously gone through and helped in. While I was mostly observing in this practicum, I was able to see how or how not to teach and interact with students, allowing me to reflect on my own experiences teaching this far as well as work towards becoming the best teacher I can be in the future.

I found it very interesting to see what I was learning in my Education 261 class at Longwood during my observation hours. For example, in the class with Dr. Hastings, we talked about the asset based approach to teaching. I was able to see this first hand when I was interacting with a student. At one point during this interaction, the student said that I was very nice for talking to and helping them with the task. When I responded that I thought the student was nice as well, the student’s face lit up and they said that no one had ever told them that before. This interaction really struck me because it illustrated how important an asset based approach is and how much of an effect a simple statement like telling a student they are nice can have on them.

I am thankful for this experience as I was able to mostly sit back and observe different aspects of the classroom and the teaching profession as a whole instead of being focused on teaching. I was able to see some practices that I think work and I will use in my future classroom, as well as some practices that I did not agree with and would practice or handle differently in my future classroom. I am also thankful that throughout my observation hours, I was required to keep detailed notes and write a reflection at the end of the semester because these two assignments allowed me to reflect on what happened at the end of the day as well as what happened throughout the entire experience at the end of the semester.