This had actually been a wonderful practicum and an amazing four weeks.

I had been put into two Grade 10 English classes in a high school in Prince George. I had been very lucky to be put in a very supportive classroom with a very supportive coaching teacher. I had also been incredibly lucky to have many supportive people from the cohort also working in the school with me.

When I had found out that I had been placed in this school, I had been very excited. I had been placed with six other people from the cohort, and a couple of them had been close friends that I had made in the program. I had also heard good things about this school from the people who had been there during the three practicum.

The two classes I had been put in had been incredibly different, which I had not been expecting. They had both been WONDERFUL classes, but the differences had been astronomical at different times. Especially when my first class would just exhaust me (my period. 3 class) while my second class was very low energy (my period 4 class).

The best example of how tiring this class could be at times is during my last week two of my students had pulled a dead fish out of the fish tank. I had been working with a group of students during catch up time and had my back to the group of boys that sat in the back. All of a sudden I could smell something awful in the class, almost like rotting food. I had asked a few students if they had known what it was, and one student who I had not been expecting to point me in the right direction, pointed me towards the boys in the back. These two boys (the ones that had pulled the fish out of the fish tank), and put the dead fish in a worksheet (that they where supposed to be handing in to me) and squished it (I’ll include a picture at the bottom simply because I think the picture is funny, but if you don’t want to look don’t scroll all the way down). They did also try to throw it out in the classroom, which I did not love since it was period 3 and I did not want that in the class the rest of the day.

I also got a very supportive coaching teacher. He had given me a lot of freedom with what I wanted to do and had given me so many resources and had been ready with feedback and tips whenever I asked for it. One thing that I had really liked that may people may not like, is that he had kind of stuck around in the classroom for the first two weeks. I found this to be really helpful in my learning/teaching/growing, and had allowed me a lot of time to bounce ideas and feedback. I am someone who does very well with feedback, particularly positive feedback.

My experiences in this practicum had really shown me that this is the right profession for me. I really wasn’t sure if this is what I should be going into, but the feedback and the community within the school has really shown me that this so what I want.

I am also extremely thankful that this practicum had gone well and I had been able to share these experiences with my mom. She had passed away right after this practicum ended, which had really put a sour note on the end of my practicum for some time, but now it’s been a bit over a month since she passed (at the time that I’m writing this) and now I get to be thankful that she did get to see some of my experiences in teaching.