The elementary practicum at Black Walnut P.S. is now over. On my first day, I thought I would not enjoy the experience very much, but now I already miss those kiddies! For my last day, my homeroom class gave me a hand-made card with individual messages and plenty of hugs. I promised them I would go back to visit them, and I intend to keep that promise because I am going to volunteer there after the program at York is over.
Anyway, now that I've experienced elementary and secondary, I can say with confidence that they are very different! Below, I will talk about some of the differences, similarities, and what I can take from the elementary experience to enhance my next secondary practicum.
The Culture
I believe that a principal affects the school culture, and at this school, there was a great principal who mingled with the staff and students on a regular basis. Every Friday, a different teacher was in charge of bringing in snacks, and the entire staff would go to the staff room during morning recess to enjoy the food and socialize. During every other time, teachers seemed to be very friendly with each other whenever they saw each other.
In the high school where I did my first practicum, teachers stayed in their workrooms during lunch and prep, and socialized less with teachers outside of their department. But at least they had companions in their workroom, unlike elementary schools where teachers have their own classroom and not a common workroom.
The Students
The younger they are the more energetic they are! They all love to move around and chatter, and get distracted easily. Compared to high school students, intermediate students socialize a lot more. But I didn't say any of this was bad... in fact, it is probably the reason I felt that there was more camaraderie among students in the class and less hesitation to work with a variety of people in group settings.
Regardless of the age or grade, as long as the teacher had effective classroom management, all students were respectful and paid attention to the teacher when the teacher talked. I saw this in elementary and in high school.
Teacher-Student Relationships
Because teachers have their own class and teach the same students for most of the day, it is much easier to build relationships in elementary schools than in high schools. This has a couple of big advantages. For one, teachers can get to know their students very well, in terms of their strengths and weaknesses, personalities, and even their friends and families. The other advantage is that the students get to know their teacher very well, and would presumably be able to meet their teacher's expectations better. That is because they know what the teacher looks for, what makes them mad, what pleases them, etc.
Even though I saw those students for a total of only 9 days, I had already learned all their names and their habits and learning preferences by the time I had to leave. My teacher testified that she feels close to her students, care about them, and is sad to say goodbye when the school year ends.
There were good relationships between students and teachers in high school too, but that happened only if students showed interest in their learning and participated regularly in class. I found that it was easy in high school for quiet students to fly under the radar, and because the teacher taught up to 90 different students in one semester, it was nearly impossible for him to develop good relationships with everyone.
Instructional Strategies
This is the area where I noticed the most differences. Grade 6 - 8 students need a lot more direction when it comes to tasks/responsibilities, assignments, homework, etc. Not only do they need more instruction, they also needed them CLEAR and REPEATED. This was evident even when the teacher gave simple orders like "Sit down and face the front," and "Turn to page 60 of your math text book." And, I also noticed that one activity takes intermediate students much longer to complete than high school students. A math lesson that I had designed to be completed in one day actually took 3 days.
Also, whereas I liked to use the 3 part lesson plan during my high school practicum, doing that in an elementary classroom is very hard, due to shorter time periods and also in some cases where the students stay with the same teacher for the next subject, the transition isn't always immediate, on time, or even at the same time for every student.
Finally, because teachers in elementary have their own classroom, they are able to put things on the walls. This ability can create senses of pride and familiarity in the classroom because teachers can display student work, classroom rules that were created together, a washroom sign-out sheet on the door, pictures of award winning students on a wall of fame, and many other things that relate to the students. I noticed that the inability to do this in high school classrooms deprived teachers of the opportunities to point to student work, examplars, rules/guidelines, and other items that could visually aid students during a lesson.
Assessment Practices
What a relief to not be asked "Is this for marks?" every time a teacher assigns something in elementary. Elementary students seem to be more obedient and willing to do work that the teacher asks them to do than high school students. My elementary mentor teacher used diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments very regularly and creatively (for example, one task can serve as formative for one thing, and diagnostic for another thing). I noticed that in high school, even quizzes that I would assume are given as "for" learning were evaluated and graded as if they were assessments "of" learning.
In conclusion, as you can see, I find way more differences than similarities between elementary and secondary, but I've learned a few tricks from some of the differences that I can apply in my next secondary practicum. This includes the following:
- venture out of department work room and discuss with teachers from other areas how we could possibly work together (for example, I could get my Marketing students to promote the Drama class' upcoming play as an exercise) - culture
- learn names and develop relationships with all students as early as possible in the semester because the consequences are positive and numerous - teacher-student relationships
- give very clear instructions so that everyone understands how to successfully complete a task
- where it is not disruptive, allow students to socialize a little bit with various classmates to create more camaraderie and a willingness to work with a different people - instructional strategies
- assess "for" and "as" learning regularly, as this can help students do much better when the time comes for assessment "of" learning AND eliminate the common curiosity among students of whether all tasks count towards their final mark - assessment practices
And if you're wondering which I prefer, between elementary and secondary, you are not going to get an answer now. Please stay tuned...
