Tips for Your Practicum Experience

Sarah Wilde

McKay Student Ambassador

Special Education (Severe/Profound Disabilities Emphasis)

---

Practicum can seem daunting, but it doesn't have to be scary! Here are a couple of things I have learned this semester while doing my first practicum as a special education student in an elementary school setting.

Ask for Feedback

It can be hard to hear that you aren't doing something correctly, but take all the feedback you can get from your professors and mentor teachers! They can spot things you didn't realize you needed to work on. Not all their feedback will be negative, but the more criticism they give you, the more you can improve before your student teaching! You can't be perfect now, you haven't even started teaching! I have grown so much this semester, and a lot of the changes have been in areas I didn't know how to manage. Take notes and take feedback with grace!

Stay Ahead

While it may look like those projects aren't due for another couple of weeks, practicum goes by so fast! At the beginning of the semester, sit down and make a plan with yourself, your mentor teacher, and your peer partner so that you aren't scrambling to come up with it later. Take it from me; I didn't listen when my professors said to do this on the first day, and then my mentor teacher got sick! We were on week three before we could do any of our assignments! This made for a lot of unnecessary stress and tears. We had to get extensions on assignments, which put us behind on our larger projects! The whole first month of my practicum experience was chaotic, and it was partly my fault for not being on top of things.

Take Care of Yourself

This may seem boring and basic, but I mean it. Practicum takes the energy out of you. Not only that, but you are being exposed to all the germs and illnesses a school has to offer. I got sick, my partner got sick, my mentor teacher got sick, all my professors got sick the same week... you get the picture. In order to get your teaching license, you have to get all your practicum hours in. This means that you have to make up any hours you miss on a different day! Rescheduling practicum around work and other classes can be tricky, so make sure you do what you can to stay healthy in the first place! Eat good foods, spend time outside, and get enough sleep. None of this is easy with the amount of homework practicum students have, but I would say that sometimes your health is more important than your homework. Don't push yourself so hard that you crash.

Practicum can be really hard, and it's up to you to get the best experience you can! My biggest piece of advice: remember that practicum is all about growth. My professor said they want our mentor teachers to grade us harshly! If we get good scores, she'll make us do it again! We're not supposed to be perfect teachers yet. We are just beginning. By the time we enter the field, we will be better than we are now. A couple of years in, and we'll be even better! You've got this!

---

HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT EDUCATION MAJORS?

Come meet with us! Schedule an appointment here. We would love to meet with you!