Midterm Practicum Reflection, Winter 2011

Midterm Practicum Reflection

ED209 - Winter'11

Winter 2011 marks my first experience as an Education major, a future teacher. Under the close supervision of both Mr. Tim Cate, an English/ Literature and Philosophy teacher and Ms. Jennifer Wahpepah, a Special Education teacher for emotionally fragile students, I challenged myself to work with the junior and senior students in Ashland High School. My involvement in AHS included traditional classroom observation, tuition for ADD/ADHD students in Learning Center and Special Education class room assistance. Two week is truly a short period however, within that limited time spent in Ashland High School I was able to learn so much from my supervisors’ instructional strategies. Indeed, the best way a teacher can benefit his/her students is to devote his/her heart, mind and soul for the students’ all-rounded development.

First and foremost, I would like to discuss my observation of high school students’ traditional classroom behavior. At the age of sixteen to eighteen, most students are in the search of their identity. We can certainly tell by observing their clear attempt to express their individuality through different channels: fashion, involvement in club/activities… especially classroom behavior. On the positive side, many students want to show their maturity and deep thought through witty and sophisticated answers to teachers’ questions. However, on the other hand, many students find it “cool” to make fun of their friends’ mistake, wrong answer or even the teachers. This behavior highlights the students’ desire to prove themselves to the peers. Most often, teachers respect the student freedom of speech and allow them to express their opinions. However, once a student crosses the line, over jokes inappropriately, immediately the teacher need to address it to set sample to the whole class. In Mr. Cate’s class, he would talk directly to the student and express his disagreement to such behavior. However, I was also cautioned: rather than making the student feel ashamed, the teacher wanted to remind the student constructively of the correct code of conduct in the classroom.

Furthermore, high school students are at the age where they prioritize their social life and external opinions. Students tend to involve in private conversations during class time. Due to these characteristics of the students, it was definitely a big challenge to control the class noise level in order to both: facilitate meaningful discussion and ensure that students are on task. In my observation, an easily adopted method used by Mr. Tim Cate was the appropriate use of instructional volume. In his lessons, Mr. Cate clearly and firmly articulates his requirement and expectation to the students with high volume - thus when Mr. Cate suddenly stops or lowers down his voice, the students get the message immediately and keep quiet.

On another point, specifically for literature and philosophy, I observed that students struggle with English more than the subject itself. These subjects were not written for teenagers to easily understand, but required an extensive vocabulary and the intellectual capability to digest the information. Because of the challenging language, more often than often, students are unable to make sense of the words thus unable to connect them into the sentence meaning. It was understandable that many were disheartened. In order tackle this problem, student should be taught how to break down words by words or phrase by phrase with the effective use of dictionary in order to grasp the meaning. In this manner, they will enhance the comprehension skill and learn a lot of new, sophisticated term. Furthermore, what could be a better approach to make such intimidating subjects more relatable could be the approach to connect students’ daily life and issue with the philosophy. This would make it easier for them to remember and understand the concept.

While traditional classroom experience was rather predictable, my time in the special education environment was ever-changing and a lot more challenging. Every student has his/her uniqueness that unfortunately drives him/her away from his/her peers. Though the teachers were aware of their special need – however, far from predictable, they are easily affected by their surroundings. This leads to a wild fluctuation of moods. Compare their friends in traditional classrooms; Special Education students are more sensitive. When I first came to Ms. Jennifer Wahpepah’s class, one of her students were absent from school due to a failed suicidal attempt the night before. This event struck me with the realization of how fragile my students actually were. Many of them were caught up with the disappointment in the present life, the endless and inescapable presence. With this in mind, Ms. Wahpepah allowed every student to share their experience at the beginning of the class so that they could let out their emotions before class. This seemingly simple daily exercise achieved outstanding result. Students felt like they were truly cared for and had a healthy channel to express their concern in order to get the teachers’ feedback. Without it, students would not be able to concentrate on their work at all throughout the whole day. Moreover, many students let me know that they looked forward to class and would not want to miss school because this class was truly their home. I believe this is an admirable effort from the teachers. Ms. Jennifer Wahpepah was always willing to go the extra miles for her students to ensure their emotional well-being and academic improvement. I would like to be a teacher like this in the future.

Working with Special Need students taught me patience, articulation in explaining concepts but above all, the experience struck me with the epiphany of what it truly means being a teacher. Other than working with Ms. Wahpepah’s class, I started working in the learning centre with ADD/ADHD students, who were unable to concentrate on their task for substantial amount of time in order to complete their work. Class-address may not be the best way to give out instruction but rather private counseling and tutoring would work so much better. Every student I tutored was a new challenge and I always had to remind myself that – even though they suffered from the same syndrome, they were very different individuals with different reactions toward instructions. Therefore, from the moment every student step into the center, I spent time closely observe their actions, study their body language and listen carefully to their questions. These might sound redundant. However, it truly helped a lot in the decision – which method I should approach them in order to bring out the best result.

Two week is a short period of time. I always wished I could devote more effort into helping the students in Ashland High School. Thanks to my teachers/ supervisors, I came to the awareness of students’ individual needs as well as classroom control. It had been truly a tough path I chose, however, whenever I saw the sparkle of enlightenment in my students’ “I get it” moment, I believe all these challenge were worthwhile. Indeed, it did not only the hard work to get you there - it must be the heart work that connects you and your students. I am determined to become a teacher, who would bring out her students’ very best.