Theories Are Not Enough

In one of my previous posts, Unsung Hero, I talked about how valuable a teacher was. 

I was scanning through the posts of @zolabundance2 and I found one article that I can relate to when I was in college. This is about practicum. So this post is somehow inspired by the post Reminiscing my practicum days. 

Embraced The Challenge

The post “Unsung Hero” was about me becoming a teacher without knowing it. I narrated there that instead of switching courses I just embraced the curriculum and decided to finish it. 

A practicum and on the job training (OJT) is always needed for every college student to undergo before graduating a chosen career in college or university.

I took up Industrial Education, actually that specific course has two options when applying for a job after graduation. That was the advantage I didn’t realize but our professor keeps reiterating that to us. It’s either we teach or have a position in Industrial establishments.

I conducted my OJT at a nearby IT establishment in our local area. It was challenging and fun at the same time because sometimes I was given a specific device to troubleshoot and find the main cause of the problem. Learning new things from the actual process is really fun. I guess that is the main reason why every college course should undergo OJT. Theories are far more different than the actual process.

I completed the desired OJT hours and received a very satisfactory rating from the owner of the establishment.

Business And Religion

One thing that was kind of remarkable with the owner was that during my last day, he gave me teachings about religious insight. He was not trying to convince me to join their religious group but was just trying to explain to me what he knows about what happened 2000 years ago. And that according to him there will be big things to happen every 2000 years. I couldn’t disagree, who knows.

We Were On Our Own

Anyway, two months before the commencement exercise, we were sent out to different schools to conduct our practicum. The actual practice teaching process. 

We were advised to do it in schools near our home or as much as possible to our high school alma mater.

The instruction was to submit a book-bind narrative report after the practicum. That will be where our grades will be computed plus the ratings from the assigned critic teacher.

I was assigned to a T.H.E teacher who happened to be my former teacher in high school so he still knew me. I was just observing the class during the first day then the next day moving forward he let me do the teaching until my last day.

As a requirement to pass the practicum we are expected to submit a narrative report of the whole duration of practice teaching. Right after the first day I started writing things and stuff that happened the whole day. It was 40 days so I have compiled at least 200 pages of my narrative report after the practicum. But before we sent out for that, we had already done our in company training. Meaning we have already practiced our profession inside the campus, teaching lower levels in college.

So going back to our practicum outside, the moment I entered the classroom where I graduated high school, I could sense the memories from the past. You know the chairs, the blackboard and the photos hanging on the wall has not changed for four years that brings pure nostalgia. I could even see some of our school projects still displayed on the shelf.

The moment I stood in front of the class, I could already see how my former teacher felt when it was us who used to be his students. I could also see myself in some of the students in front me. 

However I am confident enough and prepared like it was a battle. I was already aware of high school students' foolishness.

I was kind of strict in class and I always had a serious looking face, you know just to let the students feel like I was intimidating but I was not.

I Made It

I was able to finish the practicum nicely without any problem with the students. During my last day, I was evaluated by some teachers. They observed and graded me after the demonstration. So far I received satisfactory ratings and of course with errors but only minimal.

When we went back to the university to submit our narrative report, my classmates were kind of shocked because I had a 200 pages narrative report.  While some of them have only three pages stapled and mostly written in one sheet of paper. I told them that this is my narrative report so what is so surprising about it.

When our professor came in, he asked us to submit our reports. I just let them hand their reports first and I handed mine last. 

The professor was looking at the reports on his desk then he picked up those written in three pages along with the others and said:

“In 40 days you were doing your practicum outside, is this the only report you have? This is not a narrative report.” Then he picked up mine and said, “This is a narrative report.”

Yes, just like @zolabundance2 the one-point-oh really paid off. 

Thanks for reading. Ciao!

Feel free to check my previous posts:

The Great Story Teller

Ovation In Your Own Motivation

Anybody Can Do It, Why Can’t I

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Lead image source

Photo Credits:

ThisisEngineering RAEng

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IOANNIS KAKOURIS

Bernd Klutsch