November Practicum Reflections Nov 14, 2021

Rory Leitch

This practicum week was interesting and challenging, but also somewhat disappointing for me.
I feel like I made the best of it and I feel like I have learned a few things. Why disappointing? My
AT and I had put together a plan for me to teach my own lesson sequence this week, but this
did not happen because of scheduling challenges. Nancie has a crazy job! She ended up
subbing for a VP this week, she had an important union meeting to attend one day, and she was
busy trying to find subs and help teachers meet report card deadlines during the week. She has
been great, but she really hasn’t had any time for me until the end of the day, and I have been
very hesitant to take up her time after class because she has so many things to do, not to
mention her own family responsibilities, etc. I’m pretty independent and I was able to make
good use of my time, but I was only able to observe her teaching one class all week. Hopefully
things will be calmer in January, but I’m not sure they will be. Also, I had made a loose
arrangement when I was at the school in September to work with another English teacher, but it
turned out that she had a 1st year B.Ed. student assigned to her already. I joined them for her
10 and 11 classes on Monday, but I felt like it was a bit unfair to the other pre-service teacher
for me to be in the middle of her practicum. I hoped that things would be more settled when I
return in January, but it looks like my assignment will continue to be unsettled.

Instead of my short story lesson sequence, I ended up putting together a last minute workshop
for the students focused on strategies to interpret and respond to complex essay topics. We did
the first part of this on Tuesday (which was interrupted by a fire drill) and finished it up on
Friday. This was quite positive. Interpreting essay prompts is a key literacy teaching point that I
have worked on for many years with university bound students whose first language is not
English, so it was not hard for me to jump in and do this. Several students commented that they
appreciated the exercise, so I’m hopeful that the work we did will help them on their essay
assignment. However, I was disappointed that I did not have a chance to plan anything for Sam
on Tuesday. Sam will not be writing an essay and he was not included in that class. For Friday,
I made a separate activity for him to do while we were working on essay topics.

I was also able to work with a substitute teacher to cover a few of my AT’s Grade 12 Learning
Strategies classes. Also, I ended up getting to meet two full time substitute teachers. I enjoyed
the opportunity to chat with both of them about their experiences at the Mount and about doing
sub work. I am, however, saddened that these bright young teachers have not been able to find
full time positions, even after 5+ years of subbing.

One thing I really know nothing about is how the Learning Strategies course fits into the
curriculum. I don’t think we had a class like this when I was in high school, but I think this is a
very good idea. Students can have some quiet time to decompress and catch up on their
homework. Everything seems to be such a crunch in highschool. This might be the only time
during the day when students would have the chance to have a real conversation with a
teacher. I wish I knew more about math/science. These seem to be the subjects many students
are working on. On the other hand, for students who are quite disengaged or amotivated, this
period could be a real pitfall and lead to them acting out in antisocial ways. The way the class
seems to be organized, it puts a lot of onus on the students to be self-directed learners. I can
November Practicum Reflections Nov 14, 2021
Rory Leitch

see how this might not work for some students. Although we’ve had quite a lot of course work
on ELA methods in our program, there are still big areas I don’t know much or anything about.
One of these is the IB program. I was able to observe an IB 12 class, but I don’t really have a
sense of how IB students and teachers participate in the school overall. Another one would be
the exams; I’m not really sure how much of the term is focused on exam prep. Or how the
teachers and students feel about the exams.

I am very outgoing and I really do love students, so engaging with them on a personal level
comes very naturally to me. However, over many years of teaching, I have come to believe that
the most effective and most substantial path to building positive relationships with students is by
planning really coherent and meaningful tasks for them to participate in with their classmates.
This is a way to engage with all of the students rather than only with the ones who are
themselves outgoing. For instance, the essay topics the students were shown on Monday are
very challenging and so I knew they would appreciate a workshop that was focused on their
needs and would help them to do well. I definitely feel like I have connected with a number of
Nancie’s quieter 12s through this instructional choice. Secondly, one thing that has surprised
me a bit about the learning environment at Halifax West is how quiet and serious the classes
are. The contrast with Fairview Junior High is striking. For me, effective learning is intimately
connected with humour, laughter, and other joyful experiences. This week I have been making
an effort to add humour to my interactions with students in class.

Improvements you believe that you need to make

This is not exactly an improvement, but what I know I need to learn a lot more about is how to
meet the needs of students like Sam on IPPs and who need adaptations and accommodations.
I made a real effort to try to adapt our story text for him--I didn’t get to use it, so I have no idea at
this point if I was anywhere close on this. Same goes for the little project I created for him. I
have a great prof right now who is a Learning Center director in the HRCE; I’m going to talk
about this with him when I get a chance. What I’m really seeing is that I need to learn about
what the different exceptionalities are and how to respond appropriately, but also how the
system works in the school. There seems to be a kind of isolation or separation between the
classroom teachers and the learning support team. I don’t know, for example, how I would
contact an individual student’s EPA before class to provide adapted materials and discuss how
to use them in class. I don’t know if teachers and EPAs are communicating in this way. I hope
they are.

The main lesson for me this week was how chaotic things are. As Nancie said, you have to be
ready to “pivot.” I think I’m fairly good at that already. I do like to plan sequences, projects, and
other larger chunks of instruction, and I do get frustrated when these plans get interfered with.
However, I’m also pretty good at rolling with things as they come.