Throughout my final practicum, I faced a great deal of challenges which at the time, almost broke me down and made me question why I had chosen this career. However, these challenges I faced helped me grow and they opened my eyes to new ways of teaching.
Throughout this program, something that has been a major area of focus is lesson planning and unit planning. Specifically filling out the template provided to us. We must make sure every box is filled and the format is correct. I would often find myself panicking before turning in a lesson, wondering if I had got the timing down to the minute correct. Is my hook strong enough? Did I include all of my core and curricular competencies and explain how I would be addressing them in the lesson? Where are my FPPLs? Are they authentic? What about assessment? Is it meaningful? Do I even understand what I am assessing for? We put an immense amount of weight on these lesson plans and don’t get me wrong, I understand why. I see the value in them as it prepares us to be thinking of all of these things when planning lessons for a classroom of our own and we do not have a template to remind us what we should be considering. However, because we put so much weight into these plans and making sure we follow them to a T, we did not learn the art of swaying from them when necessary. When I first began teaching, I would get into a lesson and all would be going swimmingly, when suddenly a student asks a great question but it is off topic from the main point of the lesson. However, it would make a great learning moment for the whole class to explore the question further. I would then find myself saying, “maybe we can explore that another day” knowing full well, we probably would not find the time or I would forget. I also struggled as sometimes the challenge of scheduling could really throw me a curve ball. It was difficult to fit everything into the day and certain things like math and literacy were a priority first thing in the morning when the students were settled and in a good space to learn. This resulted in having to teach my science lessons at the end of the day. You can just imagine my thoughts as I am trying to complete an experiment involving food colouring, isopropyl alcohol, hot water, and 23 children who have so much energy they are practically vibrating and could not care less about science. Well that is just too bad for them! I spent hours on this lesson plan and we have to get through it. My teacher mentor, after watching me struggle through his situation a few times said to me “you know, if it isn’t working, it is okay to wrap it up early and go for a walk or play on the playground and revisit the next day.” I thought, “What do you mean? That is not in my lesson plan!” However, she was right. I realized when I began doing some checks for understanding on what I was teaching, the students were lost. I was not feeling out their headspace before teaching a lesson, and I would push through even when I knew they were not understanding simply because I had to get through the lesson I had planned on paper.
Good teachers can pivot on the fly. Even if you can tell the class is not with you it does not mean you need to scrap it all and end early, maybe you just incorporate something different like some movement, or some discussion time. Being able to read your students is critical, and to be able to do that you need to know them well. This is why relationship building is so critical for teachers and students. Planning is important, being organized is important, knowing the material is important. But if your student’s mental well-being is not in a place for learning, everything you planned does not matter one bit. Once I learned this lesson, and got to know my students better, I found my lessons were much more successful because I was able to use my plan as a guide but I did not need to have it on the table in front of me as in was inhibiting me rather than enabling me.