While I don't know yet where my placement will be, I'm definitely feeling excited for it. Getting to experience different classrooms and teaching styles, whether as an active participant or more of an observer, serves a key role for me in my growth as an educator, as well as in my journey through the Ed department. I appreciate how placements allow us to put the theory we're learning in our coursework into the context of an actual classroom - how do they line up? What's different? What takeaways can be gleaned from each alignment and divergence? In the past, I've only had placements in private schools and extracurricular academic programs, so this semester will definitely be a new experience for me, which is exacerbated by the fact that I am monolingual yet will be in a classroom community with multilingual learners. Of course, I've learned alongside emerging multilingual learners before, but I've rarely worked with these students when I myself am the educator. These unfamiliarities do make me a little nervous, but they also make me grateful that I have the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone a bit and gain new perspectives and abilities. My largest anxiety ahead of my fieldwork is definitely the "getting there" part. SEPTA can be pretty unreliable (especially the regional rail), and it honestly tends to eat up a lot of time. Since I don't know my placement location yet, I can't plan out my transit/commuting path, which also means that I can't really schedule out how much time it will take or what things I'll have to move around in my day to accommodate the placement itself as well as the transport. I think I'll feel better about this when I have an actual plan in place, plus once I do it a couple times on my first few visits and gain a better understanding of the exact SEPTA path and needs.
Hi Jane, I definitely agree with your emphasis on the importance of placements. I've had a variety of placements including public and private schools and different grade levels, subjects matters, and languages of instruction. I hope that you enjoy it and gain some new interesting insights while comparing this placement to your previous ones. Although differences are very important to take note of, I've also learned a lot from paying attention to similarities and what core values are present across the classrooms I've visited. I also appreciate that you point out the roles of "active participant" and "more of an observer." While I agree that it is crucial to become involved in the classroom community and support the spaces that feed our learning, I also appreciate the value in stepping back for a bit and observing. I like to take a moment sometimes to zoom out and consider the classroom or school as a whole or to watch a specific situation unfold. Finally, I hope your SEPTA concerns are resolved - it is frustrating but will hopefully become routine as the semester progresses.