Symposium Paper

Marcy Lesperance
12 January 2017

During my first field placement, I interned at a K-8 school, and taught in a multigrade
classroom. I was placed in a grade 6,7,8 homeroom class, and had the opportunity to team teach
alongside a very supportive community of teachers. Going into the placement, I could never have
predicted my professional and personal growth. This unique teaching experience taught me many
lessons and significantly impacted me as a future educator.

Teaching in a multigrade middle school classroom was very daunting to say the least. I
believe that I would not have succeeded it if was not for the support and guidance of my teacher
mentor. My teacher mentor gave me the independence and constructive advice to develop my
own lesson and unit plans, to develop a positive rapport with my students, and implement my
own classroom management strategies. One of the classroom management strategies that I
implemented was a period of mindfulness. I found that this strategy was an effective way that
calmed and focused the students preparing them to learn. They were very receptive to this
strategy and it positively impacted the class environment.

In a multigrade classroom, the class environment and atmosphere was in constant flux.
The students schedule differed dramatically day to day. In the sense that one day I could be
responsible for teaching a language arts class with all three grades, and the next I could be
teaching the language art class with the grades separated. Another factor that impacted the
schedule was the needs of the students. Frequently I would conference with other teachers to
decide if It was best to separate the grades for certain classes (for example the class would be
split into two groups. Group 1 grades 6 and 7, and group 2 Grade 8). The other teacher and I
would only do this when the multigrade classes that we taught were scheduled back to back.
Meaning, if I worked with the math teacher to split the multigrade class, I would have to take
group number 1 for one period and group 2 for another period. An advantage of this in relation to
my professional development was that I could reteach lessons, learn from my experiences, and
professionally collaborate with my colleagues. As time went on and I learned to became more
comfortable with my surroundings and developed the skills to be an flexible and collaborative
educator.

In reflection, my first field placement has taught me invaluable lessons that I will be able
to transfer to my professional career. In my experience, I was responsible for not only teaching
my students, I was responsible for working alongside teachers to provide support. This gave me a
unique opportunity to observe other teachers styles throughout my placement. Another
advantage of teaching in a k-8 school was the ability to interact and work with students of
different grade levels. The multigrade classrooms abled me to establish a professional
collaborative work environment, that I could use to better the needs to my students. I am very
thankful that I was placed in a professional learning community that relied on professional
communication and respect. I was intellectually challenged by the complexity of the placement
but I believe that everything that I have learned will have a positive impact on my professional
development.