This week I taught my second-last class for my practicum and also had my second and final evaluation. My teaching partner and I planned a lesson for the students to review the discussion language and summarizing language we have been working on during our time together. We used our usual discussion and presentation lesson structure for the majority of the class, but we tried a new warm-up activity.
The new warm-up activity was based on a suggestion from my sponsor teacher last week. We had the students form a virtual discussion circle of sorts, placing their cursors which displayed their names around a circle and taking turns responding to a mini-discussion prompt. The activity was somewhat successful as all of the students participated and demonstrated discussion and summarizing skills, but the activity did not run entirely smoothly as students had to move their cursors to look at the discussion and summarizing phrases located elsewhere on the screen. When they moved their cursors, they lost their place on the circle and I essentially had to make up the order and call on names to speak rather than having smooth transitions between speakers. This issue was an oversight on my part, so I think it would have been better to try this activity in a previous class rather than attempt it for the first time on evaluation day.
During the discussion activity I was impressed with the students’ participation. I have been seeing improvement in participation week after week which has been encouraging for me as a teacher. This week we were able to get most of the students using their cameras in the discussions and presentations which is sometimes a struggle for us. I was particularly pleased that one of my most shy students turned on her camera for both the discussion and presentation for the first time. I think the students felt more pressure to follow the request to use cameras as my practicum advisor who was evaluating us is their regular teacher for this class. This showed me that I likely have not gained as much control over the class as their regular teacher has. My practicum advisor told me I should not be afraid to take control of the class and should not hold back on providing feedback, so I will keep these notes in mind moving forward.
Next week will be my final lesson with my students. My partner and I are going to try to plan something fun to do with them for our last hour together. My practicum experience has really flown by and it feels strange to me that it is already almost over. I have come to look forward to teaching every week and have had a lot of fun getting to know my students.