Educators understand and apply knowledge of student growth and development.
Considering our final practicum was 10 weeks long, I was able to observe and experience a great deal of student growth and learning development. In just 10 weeks, my grade twos completed their number sense to 50-unit, story elements unit, landforms unit as well as their mapping unit. Some units took longer to complete than others in order to solidify student learning. It was my first-time creating units and therefor I did not anticipate how difficult or easy some lessons would be. That is something that will differ from year to year depending on the students in my classroom. It was really satisfying and encouraging to see the learning progress students had made in these core subject areas over the course of 10 weeks. Just this week, I was able to send their math package home full of the work they have completed. On the front of their work package was an assessment grid I had created and filled for each individual learner. Over the course of ten weeks my students had also progressed in their emotional and social skills. They have gotten used to the routine and demands of the classroom, as well as the teacher expectations.
One of the big learning curves in this practicum was how to organize and mark student work. I was unsure what this would look like when I asked students to hand things in. I quickly got in a routine and was able to hand back assignments that could go home immediately while keeping assignments that would support their portfolio progress. Thanks to my coaching teacher, she showed me how to mark assignments, what to look for when marking, and how to stay on track and organized. It is very easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of paper that gets used in the classroom. Once I got the hang of keeping important assignments, I could observe improvements and learning progressions for each student. I could also adapt the learning to support students who needed more time and space with different learning outcomes. I also learned how to support students who had been absent for a few days and had missed key lessons that scaffolded student learning. Being able to document and celebrate student learning was one of my achievements and highlights from this practicum.