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Something comical I had to be aware of in my practicum and in my career moving forward is my height. I really did not think that I was that short, but my AT made it pretty obvious that I was going to have to use other means to create a presence and sense of leadership as I am quite a short individual. This whole conversation made my giggle as it is such an obvious roadblock but it had not even crossed my mind. Essentially, my AT recommended not ever siting down while I teach as most of the students will lose sight of my behind their taller peers.

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The importance of my students mental Health 

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The importance of my students mental Health 

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Something that was further stressed is always being aware of how the students are feeling and how to best support them in their development. I had a couple of instances where I was quite frustrated because it was so stressed that I was starting to notice some students taking advantage and not applying themselves because the expectations would be lower. While being aware of a students life outside of the home, teachers are no longer expecting big, great things from students because it 'could' harm their mental health. I was quite distressed with how little teachers actually knew about mental health and how mental illnesses effect people or students. They are supposed to be supporting it, but know so little about it (or might not be wanting to put in the effort to find out) that they might not know how to support certain students.

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I wanted to use practicum as a safe place to experiment (which was done although through safer means than necessary) with different kinds of lessons and ways to teach. However, as things played out, my AT demonstrated herself not to be a trusted colleague so for my own sanity, I had to play it safe which I regret. The few things I experimented with did end up successful but nothing I tried ever really felt satisfying enough. My AT did indicate on my interim report that I needed to take more risks and frankly I agree, however, it was ironic that she noted that in my situation. If I had felt safe and supported, I would have been much more adventurous.

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My teaching philosophy was challenged in a way I had not predicted 

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My teaching philosophy was challenged in a way I had not predicted 

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My teaching philosophy is centered around the needs of the student then the curriculum after the needs can be sufficiently met. I came to a road block in which I had to put boundaries in place for myself as I began to see my mental health decline as my philosophy was in compatible with my own needs. I had to reestablish where I sat in terms of helping my students as much as I could while still having firm boundaries so that I could take care of myself outside of the school day.

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I was endlessly scrolling reddit when I was not in a classroom as I could not trust my AT and needed to ask someone for advice on how I could do this without sacrificing my well-being.

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Hi all, as the title says I'm in the first practicum of my program and I'm beginning to really struggle with it.

It could be that I'm at what's labeled an "inner city" school, and as someone who had a gifted designation and was put in strong enrichment programs throughout school, it's hard to teach when basic skills are lacking.

My major issues are that 1) the kids don't seem to care about the material. I'm bringing out good stuff, my mentors say they're engaged and that I'm teaching really well, but there's a general air of stress/depression/disconnect with the kids. It makes me feel like what I'm teaching is irrelevant nonsense to help them pass high school. Getting engagement and interaction is like pulling teeth. I am so passionate about my subject and I'm trying to spread that to the kids... but in high school I was pretty much past caring, so it doesn't surprise me that they are too. I love a good challenge, and I always have, especially an intellectual one, but this doesn't feel like a challenge, it feels like a dead end.

As well, my teacher is less knowledgeable in the subject than I am. She's more of a coach/classroom manager than an actual content teacher. Which is fine and definitely useful, but the kids in her classes are not learning. Her teaching style is totally different than mine so we aren't really connecting, and she also seems more preoccupied with admin stuff and interpersonal staff drama. That's not to say she doesn't care about the kids cause she absolutely does, but it's off-putting.

Have i chosen the wrong career? Is it like this everywhere? I was feeling so excited and stimulated about practicum and now halfway through I'm totally discouraged.

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Hi all, as the title says I'm in the first practicum of my program and I'm beginning to really struggle with it. It could be that I'm at what's labeled an "inner city" school, and as someone who had a gifted designation and was put in strong enrichment programs throughout school, it's hard to teach when basic skills are lacking.

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I had a wake-up call in terms of the kids in high school right now

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I had a wake-up call in terms of the kids in high school right now

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Covid's impact on everyone's social skills and for many school aged children, socialization. A lot of the children in high school in Grade 11 were actually developmentally closer to a Gr 9. They were also very shy and did not want to contribute towards their learning. This tiktok account is a teacher that sees these situations and pulls down the rose-tinted glasses a lot of newer teachers wear (including myself) to shed light into how children now struggle. The video's he posts are both enlightening and disheartening as a lot of the situations are more layered and complex than I had first thought.

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4.8M Likes, 25K Comments. TikTok video from squirehaligast (@squirehaligast): "#teaching". "laptops out please" | quiet kid's laptop dead | "why didn't you just say something". #3.

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Introduced to the dangers of a negative staff room 

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Introduced to the dangers of a negative staff room 

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I spent my mornings in the staff room with teachers who were either completely removed from situations students were dealing with or suffering from compassion fatigue. This challenged me both as a teacher and as a person. When I signed up for the program, I knew that this element of co-workers was going to be the most challenging for me as working with children is much easier for me.

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AT gave me a book to plan a unit (despite controversy about author)

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AT gave me a book to plan a unit (despite controversy about author)

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My AT gave me a book that was the class was going to study despite the author being problematic (she had told me that 'I'm too lazy to change it despite Boyden's controversy'). I was excited to teach a unit but was lost in terms of what my AT was expecting the students to know for their end of semester exams, and my AT was just expecting me to know despite her lack of guidance in terms of the cirriculmn document.

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Sudbury, ON, high school in the inner city 

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Sudbury, ON, high school in the inner city 

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I was very excited in the beginnings of my practicum as the school environment was exactly where I wanted to be. I like working with the 'tough' kids and I was completely steeped in a school with lots of these situations. I worked one-on-one with one of those students and tried to become an adult he could trust and depend on (since there was little stability in his life. The area that the school was in was a lot 'rougher' than I expected with lots of drugs, homelessness and mental health struggles.

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Noticing the lack of public knowledge about Education system

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Noticing the lack of public knowledge about Education system

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The lack of knowledge in media surrounding who is the 'bad' guy of the education sector and that this villianization was now going to be my new normal. I'm LGBT+ though so this aspect was not knew to me, but the almost rejection of acceptance concerning any support for the education sector was a hard pill for me to swallow.