Chapter XXII: Practicum Preparation

The last two weeks was all about preparation. We, teachers, can never get enough it. For pre-certs, like myself, sometimes two weeks of preparation isn't enough, most especially after it was PLANNED. I write really well, my ideas are creative, and I was ready to present it; but when it comes to the actual event -- teaching -- things do not always go as planned.

Bless my teachers' hearts -- theyve been very helpful in educating us what to expect out there. They spend countless hours each week teaching us one thing: preparation. But when it comes down to it, they haven't taught us that no matter how prepared we are, plans can go flat, kaput, zilch.

I know that right now I sound extremely bleak. but in reality, I am not. I feel just the opposite. Because what I planned, what I prepared for, went uphill and the practice was a success. Let me explain:

The unit that my Mrs. Dearly's working on with the children is on butterflies -- painted lady butterflies to be exact. In the unit there are chapters -- aka pre-written lessons -- that we can pull out of this binder and talk about with the children. I decided to do it on how and why a caterpillar makes silk. Simple protocol for this practicum is to put that lesson into Western Washington University's template, called "WWU Instructional Plan". I had to "translate" everything in there into a language that public school educators would understand: the curriculum context and long/short term objectives, the assessment plans, instructional sequence (it's like a script that I made up to which I must follow to the tee), and management expectations/instructions. It's tedious work, but it was one thing I was really good at -- planning on paper.

What I love about the planning process is that it's totally and completely my idea. They're exactly what I want to see work inside MY classroom in MY own way. I have total control. This does not mean that I'm treating students like puppets. If you have kept up with my blog until now, you would understand that in my most recent career, I was a puppet and told what and how to teach things. It was not my comfort zone. The reality is this -- put your kids in school and teachers teach what they want to teach and how to teach it as long as it meets district/state standards. We are held accountable to not leave a child behind.

So goes the subject at hand -- making sure that I do not leave any information out to ensure that every second grader in that classroom is learning something new and interesting. And that it's something that they will carry onto their next grade level or higher.

To my surprise, even though things did not go as planned -- per my lesson plan -- the presentation and lesson was a success! What I did not expect was the time...there is NOT ENOUGH time to teach an entire lesson. I had too many ideas on paper and mis-calculated the time limit on my presentation. It initially was 40 minutes tops. I had no idea that with students' questions, transitions, and behavior management, all of that was important info to ADD in my lesson plan -- something I did not consider!