Symposium Paper

Marcus Dolliver

St. Thomas University

Bachelor of Education, Field Placement 1
January 13, 2017
 My first experience in an elementary school classroom was in a grade 2 class. I had an

amazing experience interacting with, and observing the staff within the school. The particular

school I was placed in was extremely well run and fine tuned to provide students with an optimal

learning experience every day. To do so the school had established a very strong sense of

community, and allowed many opportunities for collaboration between all staff members. This

collaboration allowed for each teacher to understand where they should be at in their teaching

and allowed for developmental level grouping called flexible grouping. The flexible grouping

was done for all math classes throughout the school. In addition to this, guided reading groups

were created based on the reading levels of each students (depicted by running records done

previously by homeroom teachers). These flexible groups allowed students to work in a

classroom with a range of students from many grades providing them not only with an

appropriate level of instruction, but a sense of responsibility. It was extremely impressive to see

how the math and reading groups were ran/developed. The communication and support

developed through this was very transferrable throughout the school. Whenever there was

assistance needed for events, activities, concerts, duties, etc. there was always more than

enough people lending a helping hand.

Throughout my internship, my mentor teacher was severely sick with a fungus in her

lungs. She was able to return to the school for only four days of my practicum, until doctors

informed her that the cause of the issue was something airborne in the school. Due to this

sickness, I was in the classroom with multiple supply teachers, however one supply teacher was

eventually provided the role of the classroom teacher. She was also given the responsibility of

being my mentor teacher. She ended up filling in the Classroom teacher position until

December 23rd. Her teaching experience and calm demeanor allowed her to do an amazing job

stepping into the classroom and developing her knowledge of the grade 2 curriculum. We

communicated and worked very well together when developing the classroom plan for the
remainder of my field placement. In addition to this, she provided valuable feedback on my

lessons throughout the placement and shared many teaching tips and tricks along the way.

Although everything worked out, there were a few days where I was nervous about what was

going to happen. This event has allowed me to grow as a professional and become more

accustom to adaptations. It has provided me with some very valuable observations of teaching

strategies, and what to expect when I supply in the future.

The last two weeks of the placement I began assisting the physical education teacher

when possible. I had previously done a short placement in a physical education class through

my undergraduate program, but I was intrigued to see how things were similar/different in New

Brunswick. The Physical Education teacher was very helpful with showing me how she has set

up her classes to cover the curriculum, and add in things she believes is beneficial. It was

unique to see how she interacted with the students in comparison to being in the classroom.