We interviewed an Education graduate to ask them what advice they’d give students going out on prac placements. We love it so much, we thought we’d it question by question throughout the week. Pop back tomorrow for more!

“How did you prepare for your first prac as opposed to your final prac? What, if anything, did you do differently?”

My first prac was more about observing, and doing a small amount of lessons, mostly with small groups. In this practicum, all lessons were fully prepared lesson plans. Lesson plans take a lot of time to prepare, so allow plenty of time before your prac to complete these and get lesson preparation done. Go and see your teacher BEFORE your practicum, to work out what lessons suit their program and curriculum. Good preparation will help you feel confident and allow you to enjoy the experiences with the students. Collect resources BEFORE you get there!

In my 4th year 10 week practicum, I created all my own programs for each subject area (for 10 weeks), did lesson plans for the first 3 weeks and then continued with detailed daily work pads. The workload for the 10 week practicum was UNBELIEVABLE. If anything, before starting, cancel all unnecessary appointments, cook lots of meals, warn everyone that they may not hear from you for a while and really give your practicum everything you have. If you are a parent then beg, steal, borrow babysitters and warn your children that this may be a difficult time, but to just try hard to “hang in there.”

Although lots of work practicums were the most exciting time of my student teaching. One of my colleagues said that when she wasn’t as confident with a lesson, she would create a lesson plan (even though we were doing daily work pads at that stage) and work through it step by step, so she didn’t miss anything and had the sequencing. This helped her confidence and ensured she delivered the lesson to the best of her ability.