So prac is officially over. Two weeks have flown by and it's now holidays. I had the most amazing time on prac and I kind of wish it didn't have to end. The kids were getting quite rowdy in the last couple of days and they were especially rowdy on the last day - although they did have free dress (here in Australia, every school has a uniform, so only particular days do they wear normal clothes). But despite that, I'm really going to miss that class. I liked them as a whole, but there were particular children I liked more than others. There was one girl who would look at me until I smiled at her or told her to turn around. And when I told her to turn around or get back to her work, she would always funnily roll her eyes. Year 2's can be pretty cute when they want to be.
On the other hand, there was one kid was constantly tested my patience - he would easily get distracted from his work or didn't quite understand what to do because he wasn't paying attention when instructions were being said. He would constantly talk to the other boys beside him so I would have to tell him to be quiet or go over to him and tell him to do his work. There was also other times when kids would come up to me and tell me 'so and so said this' and sometimes I would say to them that I didn't want to hear it, because it's not really worth telling on them for. However, there were a few times where I had to go over and talk to someone because one boy pushed another boy for sitting in his seat at lunch time or something more physical, rather than verbal.
But in the second week of prac, I had to teach FOUR different lessons! Well.. it was really only three. The first one was English, the second was Grammar, the third was Art and the fourth was Maths. The last lesson I wasn't really teaching as such though, as the children were just working straight from a "textbook" that they have. I was going around and helping them if they needed help though, so I guess that can still be considered teaching? Art was kind of scary at first because I was telling them about the kind of art they were going to create and then had to model how to create it and it wasn't the greatest drawing. But with the type of art it was, there was no real 'wrong'.
I also got the chance to mark some of the assessment they did in the last week, such as spelling tests or maths test, which was pretty cool. Though some was painful to read, as they hadn't spelt words correctly or their maths answers were way off. But there were some kids who did pretty well in both regards and they were the ones I liked more than others :P I got the full experience while I was there and I'm so glad I got the opportunity to do it (even if prac is part of the course requirements).
Another thing I loved about prac was being called Mr Wilson! Even though I had a name badge that had my first name on it, none of the kids ever called me by my first name. It was always such a great feeling every afternoon when they would say 'good afternoon Mr Wilson'. Ahhhhhhhhh.
I could go into even more detail than I have, but I think I'll just leave it at this. Hope this was interesting to read about.