Week Ending November 20th

Weekly Reflection

Nicola Janse van Rensburg

Throughout this week the greatest challenge which was presented to me was during the beginning of

the week. This challenge was focused on having the students try to test their limits with me. This was to

be expected as I am a new adult coming into their classroom and trying to enforce rules they made when I

was not there. This was a challenge for me because the lessons and activities I had planned would run

smoothly but then students would try to test their limits. They would do this by trying to be funny or burst

out talking rather than raising a hand to speak when we should be maintaining a zero-level voice volume

during work. I found this to be a challenge because when one student began to have an outburst other

students would join in just like a domino effect. I would have to stop the lesson regain control and then

begin again from where we left off. The outbursts luckily did not affect the lesson, just having some

students chatty while I was teaching was hard for me because it made me feel as if I was not doing well.

Even though this was and will be a challenge with teaching I am glad to have experienced it in my first

week. This is because I have now discussed with my TA ideas and techniques to work to reduce students

trying to test limits with me, and I am excited to implement them into my lessons in the coming weeks of

practicum.

I believe that this challenge made me feel like I was not being successful in some of my lessons

because of the expectations I had put on myself for the first week of practicum. Some expectations I had

for myself included maintaining student focus during my lessons, but this was not a completely realistic

goal to have for my first couple of lessons as a student teacher, but it is a great goal to have to work to

throughout my three professional semesters. Entering practicum this was one thing I did not even think

that would occur, but it is something that happens in all classrooms. It is good I can now find strategies

that work for me to implement into my future work. I had to remind myself that I am learning to be a
teacher, and I am not a teacher yet. Learning how to maintain classroom management was one thing I was

going to be learning, not only through PS1 but most likely through PS2, and PS3 as well. As this is only

the first week I feel that I have started making an effort towards reducing this challenge, but my true goal

is to continuously work on this for the rest of the practicum moving towards and into PS2. As my TA said

this is something she still works at, because students’ emotions, feelings, and behaviors vary each day.

That is why flexibility is what should be learned along with classroom management techniques to

improve performance regarding classroom disruptions and students testing limits for what they will get

away with.

After teaching lessons my TA and I are able to have discussions to talk about what went well, some

tips and tricks, and what to try next time. I found valuable information through our discussions for what

to try to work towards for my future lessons to improve as a student-teacher. The goal in which I am

setting for myself for the next week as a short-term goal is implementing personal tricks into the

classroom. This is going to look like introducing an attention grabber that hasn’t been used by their

teacher. This is important because it will be something to help connect myself to the students and have

that special thing that is only for me and them. I feel that as a student-teacher using attention grabbers

already introduced by their teacher worked, but they did not listen as well or lost focus quicker than if

their teacher were to use them.

A long term goal which I am setting for myself for the rest of the practicum will be to implement

successful attention grabbers and to have more confidence to stop the lesson and remind students of voice

level, and that if work is not being completed it will be completed during recess or golden hour. (Golden

hour is a 30-minute break they have to play with stations at the end of the day.) These were methods my

TA and I discussed and told me she would support me to implement consequences, as she does the same.

Having such young students this is a way to maintain focus because they do not want to risk their playing

time. Another long-term goal is to work away from consequences as I find this to be an extrinsic

motivator for the students, and in the long run, I hope to help spark intrinsic motivation within the
students to have and maintain their focus throughout lessons because they are excited and want to learn.

Overall, I had an amazing first week of practicum. I feel like I am learning so much so fast. I am so

excited to see what the next four weeks have to offer. I know it is going to be hard work, but I am excited

to learn new tricks, tips, and methods to use as a teacher. I am also looking forward to my lesson

observations to have more insight into how I can improve as a teacher to work on my career-long

learning.