We had to answer this questionnaire about reflecting on our teaching after our last week of prac at school, and I thought I'd post it on here, so you could see what I've learnt whilst being a teacher for 3 weeks!
What I consider the 3 most important things I've learnt:
1. Don't be afraid to change something if you realise it's not working in the middle of a lesson.
2. Positively reinforcing students who are doing the right thing usually has the added benefit of detering students who aren't, and is far more pleasant than always dealing out punishment.
3. Being excited about a lesson usually makes the kids excited and engaged too.
What I consider the 3 most challenging things I'll face during my next prac:
1. Timing of lessons. In PP1 I would often go overtime with my lessons without realising it.
2. Planning for a new grade, now that I've gotten used to Year 2.
3. What to do if I don't have a Smartboard! I've gotten so used to using this as a resource to engage the students that I'll be really sad if my next class doesn't have one!
What surprised me:
How much I was influenced by my supervising teacher's teaching style. Without consciously realising it, for the majority of the time I was in 2J I imitated the way he taught the class, following his rewards and discipline systems and the way he organised the classroom, even when I was teaching full day lessons.
What the strengths of a positive relationship between the school and the community are:
It makes the whole process of communicating with parents and the community easier. Because my supervising teacher was the Assistant Principal for K-2, I saw how he dealt with calling parents abut behaviour or discipline issues, and it was always a lot easier if a positive relationship already existed.
The most important connections I've made betwen the theoretical and its application:
Behaviourism has its place, with punishment and reinforcement, but so does Humanism, and creating a warm and supportive environment for the students each day.
Questions I still have:
How do teachers find time for everything? Between the lesson planning, teaching, school events, discipline issues, dealing with parents, etc, it just seems like there's never enough time in the day for everything in the timetable! How do they ensure their students learn everything they need to in a year with all of the interruptions and scheduling changes that take away from class learning time?
What I've learnt about myself as a future teacher:
I enjoy letting the students have fun while learning. However I also learnt that you still have to remain an authoritive figure, and I think I found a good way of balancing this in the classroom.
What I've learnt about myself as a person:
I learnt that I am definitely heading towards the right career! I just had such a great time on prac, looking forward to seeing the students every day. All the elements of my personality just seemed to be a good fit for teaching, which is what I always assumed, but it was nice to have it confirmed.
How what I learnt and discovered will influence my future actions:
I learnt that students like having something tangible to learn from, whether this be a video or a song or concrete materials that they can engage with, and I will endeavour to include this in future lessons.
3 things I hope to improve about my teaching practice in PP2:
1. Develop a more consistent method of gaining students' attention, now that I have had the opportunity to try out so many (eg. hand claps, hands on head, ringing a bell, etc).
2. Continue to develop my knowledge and use of Smartboards and associated technology.
3. Investigate students' prior knowledge in more depth before launching into a lesson.
