My practicum location was at Woodhome Elementary Middle School which is located in Baltimore City, MD more specifically in the Baltimore City Public Schools district. I found my practicum site because this is where I used to go to summer camp when I was around the Elementary-Middle School age, it was technically a travel camp so we would go to different amusement parks in the DMV, the pool, roller skating rinks and museums but also learning about different weekly topics. I met my site supervisor through my aunt, currently her two daughters attend Woodhome as a 1st grader and a 5th grader (I am so proud of them), she connected me to the current principal at Woodhome and I explained my intentions for an SGC practicum project as well as my interest in Education and she was 100% on board. The principal then forwarded me to Ms.Makeda Warner who is somewhat of an outreach coordinator for the school, so she handles volunteers and volunteer projects with current students of the school and outsiders. Ms. Warner asked me my ideal age range, SGC requirements and previous experience with teaching/education to give me a useful classroom assignment as well as make my project impactful. I would say when contacting a site or supervisor, use your family resources especially if someone is in the current field you are interested in! Nothing hurts a failure but a try and you would be surprised to see how many people are fascinated by research especially when they can be involved in some way. Obviously if you are interested in Education feel free to contact me (maybe you can even complete your practicum in my future classroom :) ). Another way is to ask professors either in your major, minor or elective if they know any research opportunities happening around campus or the general College Park area. Something important to note is that professionalism is key, responding to emails in a timely fashion, being punctual and dressing appropriately are a lot more crucial to the success of your practicum than you think.
The tasks that I performed at this site ranged from teaching an entire classroom about Math and Science, to creating lesson plans, creating engaging posters around the classroom, hosting small group discussions, helping students individually with work and grading assignments for the entire class. I do believe that with my assistance I took the pressure off of my teacher’s backs especially as the marking periods came to a close or as things piled up. So like I mentioned a bit before, I worked in Math and Science courses for 4th and 5th grade, focusing on the Science aspect though, I was able to use my knowledge from SGC as well as other Science courses when conveying information about our planet. This meant when talking about climate change or conservation sciences and even the history of our planet I frequently visited our old Canvas class pages to review the information and even use that when creating activities and my slideshows to teach the content while also making it friendly for 10 year olds. I learned that students actually do enjoy Science more than they say they do, especially when they are able to understand it on a deeper level/when it leads them to think of it more critically.
I have gained so much more appreciation for teachers and the effort that goes into teaching every single day. Science is a very complex subject. It basically ties in every other subject into one with the simple label of “Science”, by knowing how difficult Science can be to understand and study that's where the importance of delivery comes in. The way we, as teachers, teach these topics to our students can honestly influence the way they think of the subject moving forward. When I think about my future career plans it makes me even more excited to become a teacher, being able to relate to students but also get rid of the worries that they might have when it comes to learning to new things, I feel honored to have that power and opportunity for them to learn from me about numerous scientific topics. I think as I get older (like a lot older), I will definitely branch out into the background of Education so curriculum development and just overall research utilizing the process that I did here to better Education in urban communities and beyond.
In conclusion, becoming an educator is something that I genuinely look forward to post grad. This practicum project 100% reassured me that everything will be okay.