The self-agreement one must make when becoming a teacher is being open to learning constantly. That’s why teacher candidates must complete four practicums when attending the Bachelors of Education program. With the idea that I am meant to learn from practice and experience, I jumped into my second practicum feet first and was terrified of failing.

I have always felt content and comfortable whenever I am in the classroom, and my first day of practicum was no different. All my nervousness and fear of failure disappeared, and I felt as if I was in my element. I immediately started building a relationship with the students and learned about their personalities and interests.

During the first week of practicum, I taught a Black History Month lesson about Nelson Mandela and asked the students to write a paragraph on what they learned about him and why he was an important figure. The students loved the lesson and wrote very moving and personal paragraphs. Having such a great first lesson with the students, I felt comfortable and ready to create more lessons for them. But before I knew it, my worst nightmare happened… I got COVID and had to quarantine for the whole second week of practicum.

Experiencing this unexpected situation brought my stress levels to a new height. I became worried that I was not going to finish enough hours and lessons for my practicum. However, with the help of my practicum professor, I was able to make up the time that I missed and created lessons that the students absolutely enjoyed.

In this practicum, I learned the importance of classroom management. Students need to be interested in what you are teaching for them to want to participate in the activities. For most of my lessons, I used formative assessment because that form of assessment fit in better with the Montessori way of teaching. The students appreciated my formative assessment practice because they received critical feedback that they could use to alter their assignments and grow from.

Although there were a few bumps in the road toward success, I fully enjoyed my first practicum experience and loved getting to know the students and creating relationships with them. I learned a lot from my coaching teacher and created a tight-knit relationship with her. Because of this relationship, I now have someone who I can turn to with questions and someone who can give me advice based on their real-life experience.

For my next practicum, I hope to develop a better understanding and practice assessment and continue to practice my classroom management techniques and discover new ones. Let’s see what the next practicum has in store. 🙂