Good for you Code!
Some words of advice for becoming a teacher:
-The Faculty of Education only tells you 'about' teaching;
-Nobody is going to tell you how to teach your specific subject like Science, English, Math or whatever
--Find out what specific classes you will end up teaching
--Find the main textbook you will be using
--Know the textbook in and out
This is an investment well worth doing in your own time while doing your studies; otherwise your practicum will be ridiculously stressful: Imagine learning a topic... figuring out how to explain it in a lesson... then teaching it the next day... almost every day for two months. That happened to me in my introductory practicum... and it was not fun. But it's not as big a deal if you know what you're going to teach ahead of time.
-Map out your lesson plans for the whole year so everything flows together nicely (Like an AMV
)
-Break each lesson into smaller manageable time chunks (also like an AMV
)
-1.Intro/Content, 2.Examples, and 3.Formative Questions/Practice
-Imagine yourself actually teaching the lesson from both your perspective and the students'
-Identify any misconceptions students have about the topic so you know where they will mess up
-Make it clear and firm what you expect of the students by the end of a lesson
-Now, this is going to sound bogus, but keep a Journal where you type out your passing thoughts and feelings. No joke. This is one of the most effective ways to evaluate yourself, and grow --not just as a teacher-- but also as a person. The goal is to make it so that the words coming out of your mouth are the same as those inside your head; which, oddly enough, isn't always the case-- especially in the company of others. By typing your thoughts and feelings out, it creates a sort of "feedback loop" where you get to see your own biases and anxieties; so that you can face similar situations head-on while teaching. In this way, you'll catch your own mistakes; so you can be more open with the students; without dancing around the thoughts you are trying to avoid.
-Lastly, always tell the students about yourself in the first lesson. They need to hear some sort of background that lead to you standing before them as a real person that was once a student just like them; otherwise it's hard to develop an environment of openness and trust beyond typical student-teacher expectations.
Anyways, good luck Code! And feel free to PM me if you have any concerns.