Reflective Journal
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Reflective Journal #1
Before starting my practicum, I was super excited but anxious as well. I was having
second thoughts that teaching may not be for me. The reason I thought this was because I felt
my peers were more experienced than me and seemed to not doubt in mind that teaching was for
them. I have never had much experience when it comes to children, other than babysitting and
working at a day camp for two years. Then came time for me to meet my AT and was so excited
to see if we would get along and have a stress-free experience. However, when meeting my AT I
was shocked to see it wasn’t what I had expected. Once again, my peers were telling me about
their experience with their AT and how they were open-minded and non-judgmental. I then
started to contemplate whether I should continue with the practicum or not due to my lack of
experience and tension that had developed between my AT and I. However, something changed
my train of thought that morning and I decided I would push through no matter what, that even
Though this may not be the experience I was expecting, I would certainly learn something.
changing my mindset and allowing for only positive thoughts to come in changing the way I saw
my AT. Even though we had many differences I thought, what a better time to learn. As my AT
is an expert teacher and takes her job very seriously, I told myself, it's better to learn from a
tough experience with lots of learning than to have no learning experience at all. The day I
Started my practicum, all my thoughts of doubting myself about becoming a teacher had been erased.
I had spoken with my supervisor about the feelings and stresses I had been having and was told
not to worry. This helped a lot. The first day I went into the school I was very happy to see a lot
of the tools that were displayed in my AT'S classroom that we had learned in our previous
classes 238 and 231. The first thing I had noticed was the zones of regulation that we talked
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about in one of our classes last semester. Having the zones of regulation are prominent in a
classroom because it promotes a sense of autonomy and a sense of belonging. It’s important to
have the zones of regulation in a classroom because it allows students to develop a sense of self-
regulation, and shows them that it's okay to express their feelings. The second thing that I had
What I noticed were the sensory items like buddy cushions, bands, chewies, as well as stress balls.
Having sensory items in a classroom helps children to be on task since it allows students to be
focused as opposed to fidgeting with an object, or rocking back and forth on their chairs. During
that first week, I did two lesson plans. Making those lesson plans was the hardest thing I had ever
done because it takes a lot of work. When making a lesson plan we are always taking into
consideration what we want for our students, how can we get them engaged in a fun and
interesting way, accommodating the students who need extra help, and lastly, reaching all
students in the best way we can. One thing that I learned during my lesson is to improvise.
Improvising if you forget something, or if the lesson does not go as planned. For my first lesson,
I believe it went well, considering I thought it was going to go horribly due to my anxiety.
Something that I learned is word choice when teaching you must always use the appropriate
vocabulary for students to help them be engaged. During my first lesson, I did not use gender-
neutral terms and often said: 'you guys' which is something I am working on. Having an AT
and seminars help to reflect on the way you teach. Going back to my first lesson, I had asked
my AT to focus on these four teacher competencies: timing, organization, management, and
communication. For my first lesson, I went way over timing by 40 minutes. I was so stressed in
Having completed my lesson and not forgetting anything, I was focused. My AT had to remind me.
me of the time and I had to continue the second part of my lesson after lunch. As for
organization, my AT said that I was prepared and used good management tactics. However, as it
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was my first lesson, I was focused on getting my lesson complete, setting my boundaries, but
was a bit overly strict. I also did not smile a lot which is something I need to work on as I would
I would like to become a future teacher. One of the things we talked about in our 238-231 classes is
building connections with your students and one cannot build connections with students by
having a 'cold' face. When it comes to communication using the appropriate vocabulary and
word choice as mentioned above is something I need to work on. My instructions were not
always clear and that is something I am learning. To use children appropriate vocabulary is
crucial when teaching as I am learning. For a lesson to go well students must be able to
understand. I know that the one thing that I did well was being eye level when speaking to
students to let them know we are equal. Since the practicum has started, I am more comfortable
creating lesson plans and speaking in front of the classroom. However, I know it will take a long
time to do a great job when reaching all teacher competencies and I cannot wait to improve when