November 13: End of Week 2 Reflection

I am writing this blog to describe the summary of my 2-week practicum. Overall, I have to say that I am very thankful of the opportunity to teach at Point Grey secondary school under the guidance of my English and math sponsor teachers and my faculty advisor. The students at PG are always full of energy, either it is the first block of the day, after lunch, or the last block of the day where students are dying to go home, they are always enthusiastic and approachable when it comes to learning.

The second week was a lot busier than the first week because I had to teach multiple of classes. I felt I was more nervous to teach the English classes because I have never taught English in a large setting before. In the past, I had mostly worked with individuals to teach grammar and ESL, so the opportunity to teach a class of roughly 30 students was an eye-opening experience.

I realized that in English, there is really no absolute right and wrong answer - as long as there is evidence to support the argument. This style of teaching is unlike teaching and doing math, where there is always one right answer for every problem, even though there may be more than one way of solving the problem. I understand that while teaching, the questions that I bring to the class should be open questions that give everyone a chance to think and discuss. I also realize that I need to be constantly coming up with real-life questions to stimulate students' thinking process on the spot, and those questions should always tie with the topic of my lesson. In other words, to be able to improvise is important to all teaching professions.

Ultimately, as a teacher, I am here to let students learn, think, and reason. I should be giving students the chance to think for themselves, under the proper guidance and tools. Just as a Bachelor of Education student myself, my faculty advisor, my sponsor teachers, and my Education professors are all here to make me (and the rest of us) a better teacher, for now and the future.