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In brief:
• Sponsor Teachers are mentors for our Practicum Students

• Students spend at least 20 hours with their sponsor teacher and his or her classroom, and eventually organize, plan, and teach classroom lessons

• Our practicum program is made possible by the cooperation of the sponsor teachers. We gratefully acknowledge and thank the many sponsor teachers who offer their classrooms as a place for our students to develop all aspects of their teaching skills.

“Having a UVic Practicum Student changed the classroom dynamics in a positive way. The students benefited by having another English native speaker to converse with and learn from. As well, I enjoyed sharing teaching ideas with someone who was enthusiastic and keen.”

- Lisa Espinosa, Pacific Gateway International College

Description
Sponsor Teachers find many advantages to having practicum students in their classes. The most obvious is the opportunity to have another fluent speaker of English who can provide additional input and interaction possibilities for their students. An additional teaching resource is welcome in any language classroom, and it can be invaluable when teachers are working with multi-level or large classes. Many of our practicum students have already done some teaching, and all have spent the previous term in a variety of language classrooms; observing, volunteering, and tutoring. Although practicum students have much to learn from the experienced teachers who agree to mentor them, sponsor teachers have commented that they also benefit, as the novice teachers often bring fresh and innovative ideas to their classrooms. It can also be rewarding for practiced teachers to discover the depth and breadth of their own experience, as they realize just how much knowledge about language teaching they have acquired over the years.

For some institutions, an advantage of hosting practicum students is the opportunity to observe potential candidates for future teaching positions.

At the end of the practicum, we ask the Sponsor Teacher and the Supervising Instructor to evaluate the student’s teaching performance and potential as a language teacher by filling out an evaluation form. This input is a very important factor in the overall assessment of the practicum student’s performance.

Guidelines for Practicum Sponsor Teachers

• To provide a teaching model for the Practicum Student to observe, allowing time for students to reflect on what they see and think before asking them to perform independently.

• To give students opportunities to participate in teaching-related activities, such as preparation of lesson material and planning for future lessons, done in addition to classroom practice.

• To discuss their daily, weekly and course goals, as seems appropriate, with the Practicum Student in order to help students focus on the larger picture of classroom development, inter-relatedness and continuity.

• To assign teaching tasks of increasing length and complexity to ease students into the responsibilities of planning and delivering material for an entire class period.

• To give students clear instructions about assignments, encouraging students to produce their own materials and strategies, which they will discuss with the Sponsor Teacher before attempting to use in class.

• To go over the student's lesson plan with him or her before class to ensure that the lesson plan is appropriate to the classroom situation and to help the student avoid problems.

• To give the student oral (and written, if appropriate) feedback on his or her teaching performance after each lesson, asking the student to reflect on his or her sense of accomplishment or disappointment and providing constructive criticism and making useful suggestions about how to improve.

• To provide opportunities for the student to conduct selected classroom activities for a limited time on their own; not to use the student as a substitute teacher.

• To discuss the student's progress with the supervising instructor on a regular basis, or as the situation requires.

• To contact the Supervising Instructor promptly if any difficulties arise.

• To make a written evaluation of the Practicum Student's performance in the classroom and as a colleague on forms provided by the Course Instructor, to be submitted to the Instructor within two weeks of the end of the Practicum.  The original copy of the report will be given to the Practicum Student by the Course Instructor.

• To be a sympathetic, experienced guide providing encouragement, constructive criticism, helpful suggestions, and modeling.

Testimonials

Our students aren’t the only people who benefit from our program; read what some of the Sponsor Teachers have had to say about their experience!

“The practicum student I sponsored was well prepared, motivated, enthusiastic, and multi-talented. I am still using one of her lesson plans! After she graduated, she was offered a job at our school and we consider ourselves fortunate that she is still with us four years later!”

                                                                                    - Anne Glommen, Pacific Gateway

“I have had the opportunity to host a dozen or so practicum students over the past several years, and have always from it a very rewarding engagement for a variety of reasons. Through guiding them in their teaching, I feel I reflect on my own practice and can nip and tuck as I go, thereby engaging myself in a sort of active reflection on the work I am doing. I am also refreshed by the energy and innovations they inject into the class, and for a road-weary teacher that fuel is precious. I also find the older I get the less connected I am to “the scene” that may students enjoy exploring. The practicum students are better able to connect with my students on that front. It is also very valuable for our students to have such immediate access to a real live Canadian student, or Canada-based student. I have noticed more and more of the Linguistics students are not necessarily Canadian-born, but are advanced L2 learners, like my students, and this provides an interesting angle. These students become mentors for some on my students who intend to stay on at UVic. Overall, my involvement with the Applied Linguistics Program has been a very positive one. One that has certainly stimulated me in my work.”


- Cam Culham, UVic English Language Centre

Contact Emily Story (alassist@uvic.ca) if you are interested in becoming a Sponsor Teacher.