In today’s inquiry blog, we move onto practicum. I have comprehensively explored the Brightspace resources of ED-P 361, the UVic PDP Program’s 6-week practicum course in order to compile information about practicum relationships.
Professional and Collaborative Relationships
In both ED-P 361 and in other classes, our professors have emphasized the importance of maintaining professional and collaborative relationships with colleagues at your practicum school, and most importantly, your mentor teacher and field adviser. Your field adviser and mentor teacher are there to provide feedback, oversee your practicum, determine whether you have passed it at the end, but most importantly, they are there to help you succeed. Therefore, you should build strong professional relationships with them early, and not be afraid to seek support or feedback when you need it.
As outlined in the EDP-361 Brightspace page, the first step is to send a brief email to your mentor teacher, principal, and field adviser within 24 hours of being sent their contact information. You should attach a letter of introduction to this email as a PDF. The letter of introduction should include the following content:
- Your specific teacher education program
- Your relevant postsecondary coursework
- Your interests, activities, skills, or certifications that are relevant to teaching
- A brief reflection on prior field experience(s)
- Connections between your experiences and how they may help in the classroom or otherwise have shaped your pedagogy
- Do not include the names of previous teachers, students, or mentors – focus on their qualities and what you learned from them rather than the person
- Find the right balance between personal professional
- Share some information on what you hope to explore and learning, and connect these with the benefits for students
- Express thanks
Within this brief email, or sometime shortly after, you should seek an opportunity to visit your mentor teacher. In this meeting, I recommend you mutually agree on a method of communication, ask about which units or lessons that you might be involved in, and request any planning resources you may need or desire having. You should also begin a shared folder (i.e. Google Drive) for planning materials and receiving feedback. In this meeting and during the first meeting with you field adviser, you should also communicate your goals, areas of interest, and nervousness/concerns you may be feeling, and ask about school policies, professional conduct, or school-specific routines that are important for you to know.
During practicum, your field adviser and mentor teacher will be taking notes and giving you feedback on your lessons and other related activities. It is very important that you listen to this feedback and integrate it, whether you agree with it or not. Once you are a certified professional, you can do as you wish in your classroom, so long as you stay within the curriculum, professional standards, and school expectations – but practicum is not the time to “know better” than your colleagues. Besides your field adviser and mentor teacher, other colleagues may be open to answering questions, providing resources, or otherwise helping you so long as you take the initiative to ask and are respectful of their time and answer. If they cannot help you, accept their answer graciously and try to understand that they have their own classroom and life to keep up with, and their rejection is most probably not personal.
One of our professors, Dr. Saloni Dholakia, highly recommends asking your practicum school’s principal if they could come observe a lesson you give. A principal in this situation provides more than just another set of eyes; they are experienced educators themselves, and also highly committed to the success of their students, teachers, and school community. They are certain to have quality feedback for you. And this is also a good way to start building a relationship with your principal, especially since taking initiative in this way demonstrates a seriousness about teaching and gives the principal a direct impression of who you are as an educator. Building such relationships with school leadership is important if you one day want TTOC work, or hiring at that school. Lastly, I recommend that you invite them in for a lesson only after you have integrated a significant amount of feedback from your mentor teacher and field adviser, because as we’ve discussed, you want to make a good impression while they are present in your classroom.
Best of luck on your practicums everyone!
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