Educators value and care for all students and act in their best interests.
Over the course of the three weeks, I had really wanted to connect with my students and try to help them do the best that they can.
I found this to be very hard to do in a three week practicum, as that is not quiet enough Time to connect with all students in the classroom, especially those that are shy or away for part of the practicum. Three weeks gives a student teacher just enough time to get comfortable within the classroom and with the students and then they are done.
One thing that I had tried to do (which I know I was unsuccessful in many days) was check in with each student every day. Sometimes it would be just saying hi, other times it may be a conversation, either about their work or about something else. I did want to try and be as “human” as possible with my students without crossing boundaries, so having conversations not about school or classwork was important to me. Over the course of my practicum I found out a lot about my students such as how some of them hunted and how some of them really liked making ninja stars (this was a major problem one day unfortunately and was a problem during one of my formal observations).
I did also try to make an effort with students who missed class. I always tried to check in with them about their work and be accommodating as I could (within reason).
One thing that I had expected to struggle with was giving feedback on work. I didn’t struggle with this for the most part. The only part I had struggled with was giving them a bad grade. I always felt horrible giving a bad grade to students as I knew they had so much potential. I would try to give good feedback on work for the students that hadn’t lived up to their potential and I knew that they could hand in something better (as they often had handed in better before). This is something that I am still working on myself as it does make me feel bad (even though it shouldn’t).
A large part of this standard for me is the connection with students, as this connection is so important in the classroom. Not only will students respect you if you have a connection, but they may also have better engagement and hand in better work. This allow the teacher to better support the students in the classroom.