Graham Preston

EDUC 4265 YA
Jan 5, 2015
Practicum Reflection
The last few weeks have been a wake up call to what teaching in a challenging public school is like,
both humbling and inspiring. I came in to placement confident in my teaching skills and now realize
how much I have to learn about classroom teaching as opposed to outdoor or private education. During
these five weeks my confidence has improved in engaging and managing challenging students.
Although I taught math not science, these skills are completely transferable. I have new admiration for
the the impact, both academic and personal, that a skilled and caring teacher can have on students in a
school like Algonquin, or any school for that matter.
Throughout placement I had in mind our conversations about teaching applied students (teach the
students, not the curriculum) and I found that this was behind much of what I found worked well. I
grew up in a very comfortable middle-class, strongly academic school, whereas at Algonquin many
students face challenges in their home and school lives that I know little about. Making an effort to
learn about those challenges and their interests outside of school and simply show students I care had
an impact even in five short weeks. The trust and respect it built led to easier classroom management
and greater engagement. Considering how these factors affected individual learning and behaviour
made it easier to plan effective lessons, accommodate struggling or advanced students, and work
towards making lessons more fun and student centred. I found that high expectations for behaviour and
effort (and high expectations individually but variable overall for academic performance) worked better
than lowering expectations.
Planning was essential to being able to make any of this happen. In outdoor education or a wellbehaved classroom I was often able to adapt lessons on the fly. Here, those Plan Bs (and C through F)
need to be thought through in advance to accommodate for class mood/hunger/tiredness/understanding
of a given topic. There was an incredible range of academic abilities in my classes with numerous
accommodated or modified students. Lessons and instructions need to be clear, concise and flow
smoothly into each other without time for students to lose focus. Well planned classes make everyone's
lives easier and more fun.
When things didn't work my classes made it painfully obvious. Anything planned off the cuff rarely
worked well. I don't have enough experience to take into account the needs of all students on the fly
yet. With that I learned a lot about what doesn't work with how lessons are taught. Giving students too
little structure without the tools to use it wisely means classes fall apart. I can't assume students have
the necessary skills work in groups independently or guide their own learning. Assuming students have
previous knowledge or believe a topic is important can lead to losing engagement quickly. With
classroom management it was also very obvious when techniques did not work. Any sort of action that
made a student embarrassed, such as confronting them in front of peers or not taking into account
external factors, usually resulted in the situation getting worse.
From these experiences I realized I have a lot to learn about teaching in challenging classrooms, but it
is satisfying to now be able to identify these areas. Next placement I will think more about having a
plan for assessing what level of inquiry students are ready for and techniques to help them progress to
higher levels. I want to continue to learn more about effective classroom management and engaging
applied students, or classrooms with a wide range of abilities and interest in school. I plan to be clearer

and firmer with my behaviour expectations from the beginning, and address problems that arise quickly
and more directly by talking to students outside.
Our discussions in class were a good foundation for my placement. The importance of assessing
student readiness for different levels of inquiry and the idea of developing the necessary skills was
useful to have in mind. I was willing to explore varied instruction, and now have a lot of questions
about how I can bridge the gap between what my students were doing and what students in the Peel
Project were doing. I was ready for the amount of planning I would need to do in order to address the
range of students in my class, and saw the effects of well planned activities (ie trying activities yourself
first) and lessons. The most helpful preparation was feedback on applied lesson planning and our
conversations about teaching applied classes. Next semester I want to continue to learn about managing
challenging classrooms, especially challenging individuals. I also need to learn more about how to
teach the skills necessary to shift to a classroom like the Peel Project.
Although I saw the beginnings of many elements of 21st century teaching (ie inquiry-based, student
centered) I also saw the challenges of implementing them in difficult classrooms. They cannot simply
be started the next day. I see how they will improve engagement once implemented, but doing so
requires planning and thought about what student skills are necessary. Some technology was used in the
classroom, but I have ideas about how to incorporate more. I also saw some of the challenges of 21st
century schools, such as the difficulty of changing behaviours with minimal options for discipline.
Students have a lot of power in today's schools, and it is possible to progress through grades without
doing much work at all, which removes one incentive for doing the work. It is necessary to think of
others and to structure classes accordingly.
Although I was teaching math, not science, much of my focus was on classroom management and
engaging a wide range of students. These are skills that transfer to any subject. Although I was initially
disappointed about not teaching science, I am really enjoyed the experience and am very satisfied with
my growth over the five weeks of placement. It was the perfect opportunity to focus on areas that I was
very interested in learning more about. It has given me a clear idea of where I want to grow
professionally. Overall this placement was both challenging and rewarding. I will be returning to
classes with lots of questions and still excited about teaching.