Practicum II: A-One High School.

Today was a really good day – a nice start to my practicum. I taught year 7 twice, and I think I’m well on the way to winning their confidence. I’ve learnt about a third of the kids names and by the end of the week I should have all of them down pat.

I need to work on the clarity of my instructions; at the moment they are a little vague. I also have some classroom management stuff to work on; need to walk around the room some more and check out what the quieter girls are up to. My prac teacher, Wilma, said they were sitting up the back colouring. She also said that whilst I was discussing some classroom discipline issues with the class a lot of the students were bored, and this could be a greater problem in the afternoon classes, of which I have three a week. So the trick seems to be to get them working on something as soon as they get in the door as “busy work keeps them occupied late in the afternoon” according to Wilma.

There was also a smart board in the room we were in this afternoon, so, either next Monday, or another time soon, it would be really good to take it for a test drive.