Practicum Experience at Tabb High School

Reflection by Kevin Johnson

For my practicum experience this semester I was assigned to work with Lindsay Olson at

Tabb high school. The first day that I observed, the class was nearing the end of a pickleball unit.

I did not observe any skill development or skill based training because the class was already in

the gameplay stage. The students were very engaged and enthusiastic about pickleball and the

teacher had a good relationship with the students. The level of participation and active gameplay

was very high and it was a good day. The second day was freedom Friday and the students were

allowed to choose between several options like ping pong, pickleball, basketball, and walking the

track. Most students were engaged and active. I also had the chance to observe 2 classes in other

content areas and I chose biology and ecology. Those teachers were passionate and engaging

with the students and the material. Overall, the observation aspect of my practicum experience

was really valuable and a great experience.

Once my observations were done, I discussed my lesson plans with Miss Olson to

prepare for my teaching requirements. I did not want to introduce anything that was not already

in the plan for the class so I wrote lesson plans on the units that Miss Olson had already planned.

That turned out to be ultimate ball and mat ball. First I wrote a lesson on ultimate ball based on

conversations that I had with miss Olson and I was very nervous the first time I taught. I rushed

the instruction and missed key points but overall it went smoothly. I taught the same lesson to 4

classes over 2 days and got more comfortable and effective each time. The next lesson I wrote

was on mat ball which I just learned about during this experience. Mat ball is a modified version

of kickball that allows for more participation. The students were all very familiar with mat ball
and these lessons went really well. For my final lesson, I had a student record me for evaluation

purposes.

The feedback that I got was a lot of things that I already knew I needed to work on like

moving around more, taking time on instruction, and giving feedback. I do feel however that

some of the feedback by miss Olson in the later lessons were just repeats of her previous

feedback that I feel like I corrected well. Miss Olson was a great mentor and helped me a lot, but

I did start to notice that she wasn’t paying attention to me teaching at all. Every time I looked

over at her, she was talking to a student that hung out in the class every time he had a free period

and she wasn’t watching me. Then I would see comments on my feedback form that didn’t make

sense. She would say that I wasn’t enthusiastic or talking loud enough when I completely

disagree. Other than that, I feel like this was an excellent experience that will absolutely help me

with student teaching.