Erinn: Student Teacher
Name: Erinn
Age: 24
Academic background: Erinn is an after-degree Education student, finishing her Bachelor of Education at the Secondary level. She already has a Bachelor of Arts with a major in French and a minor in History.
Teaching experience: This is Erinn’s last of two practica. Her first teaching experience was in a senior high school. Prior to starting her Bachelor of Education, Erinn did some sports coaching and volunteering with teenage youth.
Other background info: Erinn started learning French in Grade One and has always been an FSL student. She has done some traveling through Europe which allowed her to practice her language skills.
Current teaching experience: Erinn is currently completing her final practicum, teaching at an Elementary-Junior High school.
Erinn's Reflections
Reflection |
Timeline |
Summary |
| Reflection 1: Feeling Like a Fish out of Water | First week teaching; week 1of 9 week practicum | Erinn experiences teaching as an elementary teacher and the challenges that come with it. |
| Reflection 2: Caught Between being an Elementary and Secondary Teacher | Week 3 of 9 week practicum | Erinn continues to apply her secondary training to her elementary teaching placement. |
| Reflection 3: Overwhelmed and Overloaded: Just Another Day in the Life of a Teacher | Week 6 of 9 week practicum |
Erinn seeks support from mentor teachers especially when working with the curriculum and starts to feel some successes with her elementary students. |
Read through Erinn's reflections to find out more about some of the challenges she is facing in the classroom. Click on any of the highlighted areas to find out more about that issue from Dr. B!
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This is Erin’s first time working in a school environment with such young kids. What kind of observations might she make to prepare for taking over the class? How would these observations be different from observing older students?
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Erin is surprised at the energy level of the Junior High students. How might she use this energy to the advantage of her lessons?
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Erin has two mentor teachers; what could be the positive and negative aspects of this situation?
- How might the concept of ‘wait time’ be different with the junior high kids?
- What can Erinn do to feel more prepared working at the elementary level?
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Erinn’s Mentor Teachers are really good about letting Erinn take over their classes and doing what she wants to do with them. How might this be difficult for the mentor teachers?
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Erinn is very aware of how her older classes feel differently about learning a SL than her younger classes. What do you think happens in this time period to change their enthusiasm?
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Erinn uses the same games for her grades 4 and 7 classes with some adjustments in each class. What is this called? What kind of adjustments might she be making?
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In such a long practicum, it is natural for Erinn to face a number of new challenges and feel exhausted; what can she do to help herself?
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Erinn has been given lunchtime supervision duties. What other outside-of-class duties might a teacher have?
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Erinn’s view of herself has evolved over the course of this has changed; she now sees herself as a ‘general educator’. What do you think of this? Is it positive or negative?