Reflective Practicum Advisor Experience

I am grateful for applying and accepting the Practicum Advisor representative role of the Bachelor of Education (BEd) program at the University of Manitoba.

I am grateful for the professionalism and support of other PAs who provided me with different perspectives.

I am grateful for the opportunities to work with teacher candidates and mentor teachers to interact and collaborate with diverse personnel.

I am grateful to you all for the guidance and for building partnerships to allow my educational landscape to flourish.

I’m grateful for all the conversations, whether it was phone calls, emails, in-person or via Zoom, our voices were valued, and because of that, we grew more assertive.

I am grateful that the Practicum office provided many learning opportunities for us in this new role.

And I am grateful to be with a caring and supportive team.

My goal was to grow as a reflective Practicum Advisor and to offer my wealth of learning to my teacher candidates. I will continue to pause and reflect, to impact teachers and learn along with them.

The Practicum office is a niche where everyone is knowledgeable, communicates and offers many opportunities for us to be open-minded, reflective, and successful.

Teacher candidates were compassionate, resilient, and thoughtful individuals who instilled curiosity, energy, and kindness in their students. They ranged wildly in their learning abilities and preferences and taught me something new during each school visit.

As an educator, I passed on my passion for teachers to plan cross-curricular teaching plans and create a fun, inspiring, safe and inclusive classroom. Students should love coming to school, feel safe within the classroom, learn about topics that interest them, and be able to make mistakes and learn from them in all courses.

When working with teachers, I often shared that I try to learn something new every day and hope that I can bring this into our reflective practice. The best teachers are those who strive to learn and reflect on their work so that they can continually grow not only as teachers but also as individuals.

I was nervous and excited when I started as a Practicum Advisor last September. The first month was a blur. During my Fall term, I experienced some of the most profound learning with teacher candidates. Valuing each other’s differences and accepting our similarities allowed us to collaborate on what worked well and how to improve their lessons. It highlighted the importance of building community, self-confidence, and collaboration. My first year as a Practicum Advisor was an incredible experience and allowed me to learn and grow.

I brought what I learned in 39 years as an educator into my PA experience, which scaffolded my learning. It is essential as a teacher to look at what works and what we can do better and to gain new insights and perspectives while constantly searching for relevant, meaningful lessons matched to the curricula outcomes. Students should also be allowed to make choices in their learning, and teachers provide them with real-world learning experiences. 

I asked the teachers to reflect and respond to the following two questions in their self-assessments. What is your most important goal for the upcoming week? Tell me about a time when you positively impacted a student’s life. What specific things did you do that promoted a positive outcome?

If you look at these famous hockey players, Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe, and Mark Messier, they got better every game, and that’s how I see myself, becoming a more decisive leader and learning new things all the time throughout each practicum season. We are all learners, and let’s continue to have casual conversations with our students and get to know who they are and their interests.