First Time Around: Advice for IFX Pre-service Teachers

By Katherine Wilson, University of Alberta

When beginning your journey as an IFX pre-service teacher, stepping into a classroom for the first-time can be exciting and intimidating. Years of what you have studied and prepared for have come to a culmination. Although, despite what we have been taught, it is unparalleled to what you will learn within the classroom, so here is some advice on how to help you achieve success that I encompassed during my experience.

First and foremost, professional growth requires proactive communication with your mentor instructor(s). Mentor teachers are there to guide you, although it is your responsibility to advocate for advice and feedback. Inquire about your lesson plans flow, how they find marking assignments most effectively, what tasks you need to complete daily, or even solicit suggestions for improvement. Receiving feedback is a common standard amongst mentor teachers and their students, but it’s your initiative that will determine your growth. 

Secondly, working together with colleagues is essential and applies greatly to the teaching community. There is no need to hesitate to seek out other educators in your department as they too are there to help. This can be through support, resources or sharing different perspectives. You can also ask to collaborate on labs and assessments if you're teaching the same class. Personally, I found that the more exposure I had working with other teachers, the more it molded my teaching pedagogy. 

In addition, establishing relationships with your students is one of the most important things as it sets the tone of your learning environment. What I found that worked well was having your mentor teacher send out a Google forum before you start your practicum, so that you get to know their interest faster. Another easy thing is learning their names and faces as soon as possible. Calling on them or doing attendance by just seeing their faces makes them feel more like a person to you than a number in your class. I also would recommend incorporating your students’ names and interest in reviews or worksheets if you can. The little things like that, I found noticeably increased students’ excitement and appreciation of you since you included them.

Furthermore, my final piece of advice is that being prepared is crucial for it is inevitable that you will encounter unforeseeable circumstances. I learned quickly that it is best to rehearse your lessons or labs before the actual day of. Despite how simple instructions may appear, practicing can resolve many unpredictable issues or bring insights on instruction delivery. Lastly, be mindful of the learning diversity within your classroom. That can involve learning styles, processing speed or language barriers. Strategies I found to make my class more inclusive were pre-planning different modes of learning, making sure I used language that would be understood by every student and pre-printed fun customizable word puzzles for students who finished faster than others. 

Ultimately, everybody’s experience through their IFX is different. The only thing you can try to do is be prepared, build those relationships and be open to collaboration. Your growth and success hinges on the effort you give.