First Experience
Cambodia 2013
My first real experience observing students. These students are extremely eager to learn and are grateful to be given such an opportunity.
These students sparked my the desire to become a teacher, the desire to be able to bring positive change into the lives of as many children as possible.
They made me want to be a better person, thus my new life motto became:
"A simple act of caring creates an endless ripple." - Unknown
First Field Experience 2018
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During the observation field experience, we met all kinds of teachers with different methods of teaching. One teacher had a bunny in her classroom, which she used for zoo therapy. This helped her students remain calm, quiet and, as she explained, more concentrated.
She used the bunny also as a way to reward the students who performed well by allowing them to take it home for a weekend.
This is a method I would use because, not only is it great for classroom management but it also helps the students become more responsible when putting the life of a pet in their hands for the weekend.
Along with zoo therapy, the students seem to respond very well to point systems which give them rewards for good behaviour and performance.
This method helps motivates students to be attentive and to learn making it a method that I can easily see myself using in the future.
An important thing that I have learned during the first field experience is the importance of our peers, our colleagues. As a teacher, the school community will become a part of my family. It is important to be there for our peers and to lean on them when necessary because one teacher cannot do it alone. We have as much to learn from them as we have to teach our students.
Second & Third Field Experience 2020
Due to covid, I completed my second and third field placements at the same high school. I was placed with a total of six groups: two grade 7, two grade 8 and finally, two grade 9. All of my groups were in the PEI program therefore I learned a lot about the program itself, the values/attributes that students need to learn and embody throughout their high school years.
I was given the opportunity to plan out
multiple lesson and unit plans since my
Cooperating Teacher allowed me to
develop materials that I wanted to
explore with my students. I was also
given the opportunity to carry out all of
my planned lessons to experience how
students would respond, what worked
and what could be improved upon. During this time, I learned so much about myself as a teacher, about classroom management and how to capture student interest using various materials, resources and the incorporation of gamification.
Fourth Field Experience 2022
For my fourth and final internship in the Bachelor of Education program, I
had the incredible opportunity to complete it on the indigenous reservation
in Listuguj, Quebec. As this community speaks English as their first
language due to their close proximity to New Brunswick, I ended up as a
generalist teacher in a grade 1 classroom. This gave me the chance to, not
only develop my skills as an elementary teacher, but also to learn about
teaching from a different angle than the focus of my program as a second
language student teacher. This school taught me so much about the
importance of getting to know your students to understand them and their behaviors in the classroom. I was able to learn more about the deep and lasting effects of residential schools on
the community and its students and how this might affect the
learning styles and outlooks on education.
This also provided me with opportunities to
develop in both my personal and professional
life as I would never have understood the
repercussions as I do having had this experience.
Overall, this is definitely an experience to remember both due to the
teaching aspects and because of all of the activities I had the honor to be able to attend or assist with.
