Student Practicum

I'll explain the student practicum I had mentioned earlier. As a an junior education major, students at Mount Marty College are required to complete a student practicum. It entails being in the classroom all day with your cooperating teacher for ten days, and then during the last five days, you are supposed to teach one lesson a day. It is a good way to really get a feel for a whole day of school and all that a teacher actually does throughout the day.

I began my practicum experience over Christmas break. I did it in Bancroft-Rosalie junior high and high school. I observed two senior government classes, two junior american history courses, a sophomore civics class, and a seventh grade civics class. I did the first seven days of my practicum already, and the last three days I will do over Spring Break.

Mount Marty College's Education Department prepares their students so well that when I went out to do my practicum, my cooperating teacher was floored with how well I knew how to do lesson plans, etc. I actually ended up teaching two lessons on my second to last day and three on my last day! So, I have already taught five and plan on teaching two more when I go back (the two sections of the senior government class!). I am very excited to get back into the classroom all day; I miss it!

Spring Break

I always feel like my professors get together and decide to assign everything the same week. I have never been so swamped with homework in my life. I am a Secondary Education and History major with an English minor (as well as a coaching endorsement). I am a junior; so, I am really getting into writing lesson plans and learning how to integrate different things into the classroom.

I also play volleyball here at Mount Marty. We just started up our spring season a few weeks ago, and so that has kept me pretty busy as well. Since Spring Break is next week, professors are trying to get in as much information as possible before the week long break. I think our professors are just as ready for a break as we are. And we had the most beautiful weather today in Yankton. I walked around without a coat on! This weather definitely gets everyone thinking about being outside instead of inside slaving away over school work.

My Spring Break will be a bit hectic. I will be finishing up my student practicum, interviewing a WWII Veteran as well as a Vietnam Veteran, and many other things. I will explain my practicum and why I'm interviewing war Veterans in a later post. I need to get back to homework!

Coming Soon...

Check back soon for my first entry about my life at MMC!