Practicum finis!

Last week I finished my first practice teaching block.  The experience that I had in the classroom is so different from what I was expecting after my first two months learning about the theory of teaching.  Though I felt I was prepared in some areas, I quickly realized that it was in the schools where I was going to really learn how to be a great teacher.  Though there were many "ups" and "downs" during my four weeks, I think in the end I came away knowing what I did well and what I really need to improve upon.  For all those people out there who think teaching is a job where you start at 8 am and are done by 3 pm, you are WRONG! Although I know as I go a long I will get better, lesson planning during my first block took more than several hours a night and that is after an entire day of school plus the daily grind of fighting Toronto bound traffic.  There is no doubt by my fourth week I had improved significantly from my first week and my lesson planning times did decrease, though I still need a lot of work.  The biggest thing I learned about lesson planning is that you really need to understand what you want your students to know by the end of the class.  It needs to be clear and concise and totally achievable in that time period.  When I first started, my lessons were fun and interactive but were way too packed with information that the students did not need.  When I was living in Israel, I gave some tours of the Old City of Jerusalem and I think I brought some of that tour guide style with me to my teaching practice.  I thought that the students would need to know everything about a topic rather than just the most important points.  However, I have learned a valuable lesson and I now know how to streamline my information and to wait for the students to ask questions if they have a deeper interest.