Practicum has started up again. I have decided that I want to try and get a grade 7&8 placement for my third practicum so on Monday this past week I talked with several science teachers about working with them. Mark Newell stepped up to the plate and the next thing I knew I had two associates. It looks like I will be teaching two new classes this block: the grade 9 locally developed math class I observed during October and a grade 10 academic ESL science class.
Unlike last block my math class has no curriculum or textbook to guide me and there are no rough unit plans that I can follow (it is a locally developed class and it is the first time my associate has taught it). This means that I definitely take more time to find resources and plan lessons. However, ignoring getting through daily lesson plans for math (grade 9’s and a couple of the gr. 11 classes) the first week of my practicum has focused more on learning how to unit plan. The grade 9 class was scheduled to start a new unit on Tuesday and that meant that I was at home Monday night trying to piece together a unit plan from the workbook so I could get an idea of what I would teach each day. I am thankful that this occurred in math as I have a sound foundation in what I think is important content and could use this to structure the unit sketch I made. On Wednesday the ESL science class finished their unit. In contrast to Mr. Grace, Mr. Newell wanted to meet and develop a unit plan together after school. The contrast between my two associates will be a great learning opportunity for me this term as I will get to see two different styles of teaching and have two different people teaching me how to teach. Hopefully that will allow me to glean strengths from each associate that the other may not display quite as frequently.
