Conclussion

I had started this Practicum with curiosity and anxiety, with lots of questions and doubts, and reminding myself periodically that nobody died because of practicums. This was it. The real thing was happening and I had to be up to the task. Contraire as I had thought, the idea of tutors observing me was not menacing but relieving in some way, as in "they trust I will be fine, so they only observe". There was also a journal activity along the year, and despite I've never got used to writing diaries, I have to admit it was a useful reflective tool... And of course, I will be reading it in the future to remind me the path I walked.

Along the year –a very long year-, classmates and tutors would participate in the construction of this stage of our training, and kindly repeating a thousand times the same information we would all feel we were heading towards the right direction. This was one of the most cooperative learning experiences I had, reinforced with a strong group support. What could have gone wrong?!

Every part of the practicum was special, passed incredibly quickly, and provided different joys or concerns. I loved singing songs with the younger ones, but it was also nice to fool around with the teens, and I was definitely more scared of the adolescent’s impressions about me than of the other students’. Fortunately, time and talk would accommodate everything in its place… although sometimes I was almost finished with my lessons by then. I found out I need a lot more practice on classroom management, lesson planning and other fields, but I’m confident I will quickly get the grip of these and my lessons will improve. I have also reassured my “art-attack”-self developing materials for the students, and I will try to make it a characteristic of my teaching style. It was rewarding to notice the interests student’s had over the materials I brought to class –they thought they were pretty-.

This practicum felt short and long, was both stressing and relieving, was a vehicle for social practice and introspection, it was “the real thing” in a pretty controlled container: it was worth every single effort made. I have to thank many people that walked with me and supported me along this experience, from teachers to classmates, to school-staff to family, and of course, the students… I am because they are.

Finally, I would like to share a postcard I got many years ago, and I think it suits the spirit of this practicum experience quite accurately: