This past Thursday, current methods students finished kindergarten practicum. On the last day we were all bragging to each other about who had the best lessons and kindergarten class. Kindergarten practicum took a lot of planning! Most groups followed a farm theme, practicing the letters t, k, n, and short o. We had one group following an octopus theme. I think we all put in a lot of work and our lessons were great! Kindergarten was a fantastic experience, I wish we could have had more time teaching! It was great to see the bonds that we made with students and cooperating teachers. I know that two cooperating teachers joined in on the bragging, talking about who had the better Gustavus students. I know that I will miss teaching kindergarten, and I know other methods students feel the same way. Pretty soon we will be off teaching our elementary practicum!
I personally feel like I had a great practicum experience and even through it was only a week long, I learned a lot. From watching our cooperating teacher teach, observing peers teach, and receiving feedback from our cooperating teacher, I was able to get ideas from others, and see things that work and don’t work. I also gained confidence in front of the classroom as well as learned a lot about teacher talk and classroom management. I’ve also learned things about myself that I will have to work on such as providing clearer instructions. After being in a kindergarten classroom for a week, it will be interesting to see how different my elementary practicum experience in fourth grade at St. James goes.