I love a good challenge. One of the most important things I feel like I can do for my own professional development is to challenge my thoughts, beliefs, and comforts on a daily basis. Sometimes, I do this by giving myself new tasks to learn. Sometimes, it’s by reinventing the things I already know how to do but from the lens of another person. My final practicum, EDUC 491, was a combination of both.
My final practicum came with several glowing opportunities. I was scheduled to teach New Media 11 and Social Justice 12. Both of these courses/subjects are near and dear to my heart. Because of the way the quarter system works, I was also able to do a complete start-up at the beginning of the quarter and a semi-shut-down before students went on spring break. All good experiences.
One of the most challenging and eye-opening opportunities I was allowed, however, was the chance to learn from two completely different mentors.
One might think that having two different mentors is really simple – you get twice the support and double the advice. While this is true, there is also another side to the situation. For me in particular, having to learn two completely opposing pedagogies and teaching strategies was extremely disorienting.
You know how teachers have an on/off switch that they flip between going to work and coming home? That switch that activates their teacher persona? I had two switches. The one that I flipped for New Media 11 and the one I switched for Social Justice 12.
This experience is not a bad thing, though. It only took a few short weeks to realize that for me to feel comfortable in my own teaching skin, I needed to challenge myself into defining who I am as a teacher. Practicum became a period of self-observation, reflection, questioning, and tweaking. If something didn’t work, I could get two completely different perspectives to tell me why. If something did work, I could get advice to moving on to the next level, but the next level would have separate foci.
I won’t go into details, but learning how to answer to two authority figures is hard. You have to be able to insert yourself into a scenario and be malleable in your style. On the other hand, you have to be confident enough to decide what you will actually do in a situation.
I think that the most important thing I learned during this practicum is that I am a teacher. I might still be learning, I will make mistakes, I will ask questions, and I will cry a lot. But I am already a teacher. I can already facilitate education. Even if I still have a lot of learning to do, I can find solace in the fact that I do my best to learn how to be better every day and for my final practicum, I was blessed to have two strong supporters in my corner showing my how to do it.