It might be difficult to tell, but I have been slowly chipping away at my teaching practice between the Spring of 2014 and now - March, 2016! Below is the Core Plan I created, which summarizes the plan and overall process (the link takes you directly to a version which might have better formatting):
Jay Thompson's Teaching Practice Core Plan (link)
Jay Thompson's Teaching Practice Core Plan (link)
And now...the lesson diary from my teaching practice:
Jay Thompson’s Teaching Practice Diary (Jan-Mar, 2016)
[excerpt from my Core Plan]:
The aims of the study module that are part of the study plan:
Grade 8 SGC:
- Introduction to SGC as a subject (these students did not have SGC in grade 7)
- Introduction to Working Life: Career dreams, Working Life Experience (TET)
- Introduction to ’Life after EIS’ (peruskoulun jälkeen)
Core contents of the study module
What are the core contents of the study module? (in the form of questions)
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What parts of the study plan do answer the questions?
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What teaching methods am I going to use?
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Schedule, timing, other resources
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Grade 8 SGC:
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What is Student Guidance Counseling?
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Introduction to SGC
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Explanations, question/answer class participation
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1 week
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What do I need to know about working life?
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Introduction to working life (personality inventory, career dreams and connections between the two; TET)
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Explanations, display of information, exercises/activities, use of online resources and tools
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Several weeks;
Laptops, own smartphones
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What will I do after I graduate from Espoo International school?
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’Life after EIS’ presentation and discussion
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Prezi presentation, class discussion, question/answer method
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What are the basic skills I need when participating in an interview?
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‘Introduction to Working Life’ and ‘Life after EIS’
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Interactive group work, interview sheet
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See lesson diary
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I had originally planned to include my Grade 9 SGC lessons in my practice teaching, as well, but ended up including more Grade 8 lessons in the teaching practice, instead.
Grade 8 Student Guidance Counseling Teaching Practice Diary:
Monday, January 11, 2016: 3 separate (identical) lessons at 10:00 a.m., 10:50 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
Introduction to SGC and working life ice-breaker
Although I knew most of these students from being in our school for 1 ½ years already, this is the first time I have taught most of them. So I used this lesson as both a preview of the upcoming course (1 lesson per week, Jan-May) and as a creative ice-breaker.
First, I officially introduced myself and briefly listed the primary topics I will cover: Working life (TET, personality inventory, career preferences), organizational skills/time management, the importance of sleep, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, group/individual challenges, Life after middle school (overview of joint application process and a visit to the local vocational school in May).
Next, for the remainder of the lesson, I handed out small sheets of paper and asked students to put their names at the top and then to discreetly write their three dream careers on the paper. After that, they gave the papers to me, I shuffled them up, and read them out, one by one. After reading each one, I gave the class the opportunity to guess whose dream careers I had just read until they guessed correctly. I gave each student the opportunity to add any explanation or detail to their list. This activity also helped me learn some new names and remind me of ones I did not know well. It was an overall success, and I look forward to the rest of the semester.
Monday, January 18, 2016: A substitute teacher led my lessons due to a conference/training I was a part of. As he is familiar with TET, I asked him to review the TET forms and online information for the students (knowing I would need to do much of that more than once, anyway).
Monday, January 25, 2016: 3 separate (identical) lessons at 10:00 a.m., 10:50 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
Personality inventory and links to potential careers
A colleague sent me a link last year to careers linked to personalities. I decided it would be a great way to tie together two parts of the SGC curriculum that I normally covered in grade 8. So to start with, I introduced the concept of personality inventories, and in particular Myers-Briggs. Then I gave them the opportunity to use a school laptop or their smart phone and to visit the website www.16personalities.com to take a short personality quiz and to then read about their results. After reading their results, I also shared the chart/graphic which compared their results with possible career interests. Many students had surprised looks on their faces! Some disagreed with their personality inventory results, but many thought they were spot on. It was a worthwhile exercise and one that hopefully will lead in well to next week’s topic…TET.
Monday, February 1, 2016: 3 separate (identical) lessons at 10:00 a.m., 10:50 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
Working Life Experience (TET) forms and explanations
During these lessons, I first reviewed the required TET forms and then handed them out in a packet for students to read, share with parents, and to put into use. These forms are available from www.pkstet.net and include:
- A bulletin to the pupil and guardians
- Information for the pupil’s supervisor (in English and Finnish)
- The TET Agreement (in English and Finnish)
These forms are crucial for students to understand TET in a nutshell, as well as the specifics such as the specific dates that students will be doing their work experience, what the legal requirements and protections are, the role of parents and site supervisors and especially how to complete the agreement (contract).
One role-playing exercise I use during this lesson is for students to practice placing a phone call to a prospective employer (TET place). It never fails to perk up the class a bit, as we otherwise need to spend a lot of time going through basic, required information. It is always helpful for students to really think through exactly what they will say when they call, email or speak in person with a possible TET work site. It is surprising to me sometimes how little phone etiquette many students have at this age, and yet how skilled other students are. Those who are skilled at this type of interaction are given the opportunity to help those in the exercise who struggle with what to say, how to say it, and when.
Monday, February 8, 2016: 3 separate (identical) lessons at 10:00 a.m., 10:50 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
Working Life Experience (TET) brainstorming and sharing of ideas
This class is where students are faced with the task of coming up with three different TET places where they would like to go. The first one is where they would most like to go with two back-up places. I challenged students to think back to the exercise from 2 weeks ago when they did the personality inventory followed by links career interests. They are also often interested in finding a TET place that might lead to a future summer job. In addition, they can use the www.pkstet.net website to help search (in Finnish only) for TET places around the Capital Region by name or category. Students typically want to use their own smartphones for this task, but I offer laptops for those that prefer those (or for those that do not have a smartphone with them).
This exercise is challenging for most students. They often find that it is far easier to come up with theoretical TET places than actually listing the place, the contact person and phone number/email and why they would like to go there. As they are completing the forms individually (with plenty of discussion among them), I move around the room and check in with as many students as possible regarding their progress, addressing their problems, and suggesting places based on their interests. I also provide lists of past TET places where EIS students have gone that have worked well for them. Finally, when the sheets are completed, as ask students to take a photo of the sheet for their own use before I collect them to review on my own. This exercise almost always helps students move forward with their TET planning…but it takes a lot more encouragement for them to actually ASK their potential TET places. Deadlines seem to be the only solution for most students!
Monday, February 15 AND Monday, Feb. 29, 2016: 3 separate (identical) lessons at 10:00 a.m., 10:50 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
Where will you go after you graduate from basic education (9th grade)? The Joint Application Process
These two lessons – separated by a week of Ski Holiday – are ones in which I normally have no problem keeping the student’s attention. I introduce the lesson by telling students there is a fine line between making sure students understand just how important it is that they focus and work hard in 8th grade and stressing them out unnecessarily! (I have found that students who are already working hard are the most likely ones to stress out more, ironically, when the more ‘relaxed’ ones usually do not start stressing until it is too late – the last few months of 9th grade).
I use a presentation with the overhead projector, made with Prezi. This gives it a unique and professional look – something the students normally appreciate (although Prezi is not as unique as it used to be). I explain to the students that this is the same presentation I use to explain the entire Joint Application (yhteishaku) process to grade 9 parents every January. It serves both audiences well.
Here is the link to the Prezi I use, skipping only the last few slides (which are addressed to the parents):
http://prezi.com/qomdna2hwehq/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy I got to the slide showing the minimum grade point averages of local lukios when I needed to then break until the second week, picking up there where I left off on Feb. 29. The classes went well! Students know that this has a lot to do with their future – it applies directly to all of them – so they listen closely and ask very good questions. Since so many of our students apply to specialized lines (IB, English-language lukios/linja’s, etc.), the process is a bit more complicated and competitive than for most students around Finland (requiring entrance exams and high GPA’s). It keeps me busy as their guidance counselor!
Monday, March 8, 2016: 2 separate (identical) lessons at 10:00 a.m., 10:50 a.m. (the 3rd lesson was not necessary, as class 8T was away)
Exchange students visiting from Holland: Group interaction theme
The goal of these lessons was to simply get students to briefly meet one another and to interact constructively. The method I chose for this is an activity called, “Lost at Sea”, and it can be found here:
Since we only had 45 minutes together with the visitors, we quickly did introductions, I read out the activity instructions, and split them into 8 random groups. They had approx.. 25 minutes to work out their answers and then we went through the solutions to see how well they worked together as a group.
Monday, March 15, 2016: 3 separate (identical) lessons at 10:00 a.m., 10:50 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
Review of group activity, discussion of group project work in general
This week we reviewed the purpose of the group activity that we did last week. I explained that over the years, I have found that it is very important to spend time doing group interaction activities with class groups. Students sometimes wonder why we are able to do ’fun games’ during lessons, but for me (as long as I have time) it is easy to justify: the better a class works together with cooperative games, for example, the better the class/learning atmosphere. Sometimes a little healthy competition between small groups, such as that created with the ’Lost at Sea’ activity, can also inspire students to work more cooperatively and effectively together.
I then tied the cooperative game concept/purpose into how important it is to be able to work well on group projects. Since we are part of the IB’s Middle Years Program, every subject includes group projects, many of which count for a significant portion of the student grade. In the end, if students cannot work produce good results in group project work, they may very well not be able to find a study place in the school of their choosing (normally a highly-ranked lukio). So we discussed issues such as: what should you do if your partner does not do his/her share of the work? What if the quality of their work is poor? How can you deal with uncomfortable conflict? At what point should you involve the teacher? And how soon should you do so? (i.e. – do not wait until the due date to involve the teacher in unresolved disputes!). Students were asked to come up with their own answers in this group discussion, and there was a lot of interest. It was clear that many students had already been in difficult situations with group project work/partners, so this is something I should already address with future grade 7 guidance counseling lessons...
Monday, March 21, 2016: 3 separate (identical) lessons at 10:00 a.m., 10:50 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
Interview skills/practice
The topic of interview skills is one that I have wanted to work on for many years, so I am happy that I finally had a chance to develop a lesson around it. I found a good resource to help with this lesson, and I borrowed/adapted information from it to make the lesson better:
Since it was intended for high school students, I needed to tailor it more for grade 8 students. I had them think of the interview as for a summer job or for a TET place, or even for a future interview for a scholarship, high school application or university application. I found that some students took it more seriously than others, but in general, they really seemed to get a lot out of the role-playing. The basic overview of the lesson went like this:
Explain that sooner or later, you will need to have a brief interview for TET, a summer job, a scholarship or high school…and eventually a real interview. Today we are going to talk about some basic skills needed for interviewing, as well as give you a little practice.
- A job interview is like a “try out” for a job. Just as in any other type of “try out”, it is important to be prepared. Preparations might include:
- Know the location and time for the interview
- Plan how you will get to the interview and how long the trip will take. BE EARLY!
- Make sure you know the interviewer’s job title and how to pronounce his or her name. If you are not sure, try to find out.
- Plan ahead what to wear to the interview. (Match your clothes to the job. If not sure, plan to dress a little more formally, yet conservatively.)
- Take the time beforehand to take care of your grooming: a hair cut, a shave for guys, trimmed and clean nails, look neat.
- Start off with a handshake. Practice this correctly!
- If you are nervous, say so aloud [Symbol]. If you don’t understand something, ask for clarification.
- Don’t stretch the truth!
- Be yourself, but be respectful.
- Have questions ready - they will usually ask if you have any at the end.
Give example of answering ‘Tell me about yourself’.
Divide up into groups of 3. Tell them they are interviewing for a summer job.
Give question sheet to interviewer. After 5 minutes, rotate.
At end, ask how things went. Give summarizing tips!
The lesson went well, even though it was tough to fit it all into 45 minutes. I could have used an assistant to help roam around to the different groups. Also, my supervisor was present for this lesson (upon my invitation), which was great. We reviewed the lesson briefly afterwards, and she was pleased with it. The only suggestion she had to improve the lesson would have been to have some of the students lead a sharing/advice/wrap-up portion at the end of the lesson to show what they learned, what went well, etc. I liked that idea, and will try to incorporate it into lessons in the future. The only trick to that is that it might require using part of a second lesson in order to do it.
Total recorded teaching practice hours: 26
Thanks for the interesting blog entry about your experiences. (I've also trained young people to do a job interview properly. The points you make are valid indeed, like practicing a good solid handshake! Offering a limp bunch of dead snails is not the way to go there...)
ReplyDeleteBR, Juha