I’ve been fortunate enough to have had a number of great teachers and experiences throughout my first twenty-five years on this planet. They in some way helped influence my decision in becoming a teacher, and I hope I can leaving a lasting impact on my future students like them. When I think about the learning experiences that influence me the most, the first one that popped into my head was one that happened quite recently. I felt that my actual practicum experience was much more informative, dynamic, and eye-opening than when we were learning theory and writing academic papers in our university classroom. My first practicum really provided me with a huge learning experience, and having a supportive coaching teacher really helped me as well.
I was in the second grade, and after my first couple of lessons with writing and mathematics went well I was feeling pretty comfortable and relaxed. It was when my first science lesson plan didn’t go perfectly that I experienced one of my more influential learning opportunities. It was the final class of the day, and I decided to conduct a food colouring experiment. Since the students were having a pretty good day, I decided that they would watch me do the experiment and then they could do it themselves after. My demonstration went well, it was when the students tried to conduct it themselves that problems arose. Jealousy, indecision, and a lack of teamwork contributed to a botched experiment activity idea.
I felt pretty heartbroken and devastated. I wondered whether I should even become a teacher, that maybe it wasn’t something for me. This lead to the realization that I was more disappointed that I failed the students, that I couldn’t provide the best learning opportunity for them. I really cared and wanted to be the best teacher that I can be. My coaching teacher could tell that it disappointed me. They said that not every lesson would be perfect and that it would be a great learning experience. That it will help me prepare and adjust if I wanted to do another lesson similar to it. The ensuing lessons after were smooth sailing.
The practicum experience provided a much more interesting and better hands-on opportunity than studying in a university classroom could ever provide.