My First Day at Practicum

Three simple words sum up my first day at practicum..... puke, blisters, school-wide (700 students) roof-top picture.  My day started with a little girl saying..... “Miss Hodgins my tummy is not feeling well.”  Next thing you know this little girl is puking all over the carpet.  I thought to myself oh great what a nice welcome.   Later in the day, we had a roof-top photo where the entire school gathered outside, which was like organized chaos.  Lastly, after wearing dress shoes all day for the first time in awhile, I got a nice blister!  

That all being said I still had a wonderful first day! The children seemed extremely anxious to meet me, when they came in this morning. Once introductions were over and I had sat in the back watching calendar, I quickly jumped in walking around helping and guiding the students with their literacy centres.  I enjoyed seeing the children hard at work and still having fun!

On first nutrition break I had the experience of yard duty with my associate teacher.  Tattle-tailing seemed to be the thing... “so and so isn’t being nice to me,” “so and so jumped on me,”  and “so and so hurt my friend and she is really sad.”  I quickly learned the importance of active supervision.

My Grade 1 Classroom

Next was math and my teacher was teaching about patterning.  I loved watching how the lesson played out.  Starting with questions and the hook or “setting the stage” as described in the Brock lesson plan.  This helped to get the children thinking about patterns. Also, the core learning activity took longer than planned, which empathized how important it is to be flexible as a teacher.

Then we were called outside for a school-wide picture.  The fact that they included all of us made me feel valued even on my first day.  But imagine the chaos of 700 students and over 50 teachers trying to get organized and ready for the picture.  Thanks to many of the teachers whistles and “outside voices” they managed to get this done pretty quick!

Finally it was lunch time at 1:30pm.  The lunch room.... one work awkward! All 50-something  teachers, besides the ones on yard duty, are on lunch at the same time. There were goodies and a fruit tray on the table.  Oh how I would of loved to grab an oatmeal cookie, they looked so soft and so chewy.  But I didn’t want the teachers to be like “who’s this new placement teacher taking our delicious treats.”  So I continued crunching my carrots, anticipating the day when I will feel comfortable enough to have a cookie!

Now it was time for social studies, which was a great experience.  The children were learning about special helpers in their school and their responsibilities.  One of the little girls wrote “I love Mrs. Hodgins” on her social studies drawing, which put a smile on my face!  After most of the students had completed their work, I offered to read a story called Canadian Police Officers.  I saw the book to be fitting with the social studies topic of “community helpers.”  I asked the children the question, “what do police officers do,” and the children’s responses were too cute.  The best was one little girl said, “they get the robber that comes into your house looking for toys and kids.”  After reading the story, using different voices and expressions, deemed extremely important by my language arts teacher at Brock, I asked the children if they could tell me anything from the book that police officers do besides getting the robbers.  Offering to read a story allowed my associate teacher time to go around and help the few students that needed more guidance with their work.  I really enjoyed being at the front of the class and was very impressed with how attentive the children were to me.

At 3:30pm, when the home time bell went and I honestly couldn’t believe that the day was already over.  I had such a great experience and honesty can’t wait for my second day tomorrow J

Tomorrow: snack day and Friday! Can’t get much better than this!