Teaching practice - Self-evaluation (1)

 MY POTENTIAL AS A TEACHER 

My professional attitude. Am I interested in entering the teaching profession? What are my attempts to perform competently? Am I creative and flexible? Am I mature enough to work in this profession? (work under pressure, accepting criticism, being open to others’ needs)

 

Before these studies, I didn’t have a clear plan about my future. I knew I wanted to work with children, and that was really the only clear thing for me. After past practices, I thought I’m more shaped for individual work or with small groups. I didn’t feel comfortable in the classroom, where I had very little control over students. Now, I got quite a few chances to test myself in different situations and I got better at it. I’m not sure if I want to teach English, but I’m certainly interested in working with CLIL. I’m amazed by how different learning English can be from what I remember from my school days.

Each time I’m asked to do something, I try to do it as well as I can. I’m trying to be open to criticism and new ideas, but also be seen as a person with my own views and different ways to do things. I’m working on balancing what I already know and what I still need to learn, as well as gaining more confidence in the knowledge I have from my previous studies.

As far as creativity goes, I’ve always been creative. I didn’t have the courage to share with others and let them see my ideas. I love how this profession allows so much creativity and is a field in which both teachers’ and pupils’ creativity is being developed and highly needed. In the past, I struggled with flexibility. Now, when I’m somehow restricted by the time but can also use it in different ways, I feel like the lack of time flexibility is no longer a big issue. Working with young students requires flexibility and I’m also getting used to being more reactive and less chained to specific points of lesson plan.

This is a big question to answer, and I’m not entirely sure I can do it fully. From what I’ve observed, I can work under pressure and I’m getting better at accepting the stress, and even using it to my benefit. I know that my experiences from the practice cannot be compared to working in the classroom, without other adults supervising me and with parents having various expectations. I can accept criticism, especially if it’s constructive and not based only on someone’s feelings. As a perfectionist, I struggle with self-criticism. I think I’m getting better with lowering my expectations, so I can actually meet them. I hope I’m open to others’ needs. I’m learning to recognize them and the ways in which I can help students.

ORGANIZATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A DIDACTIC PROCESS

Can I form appropriate lesson goals and objectives/ select appropriate methods and teaching materials/ select appropriate forms of students’ work/ provide justification for teaching decisions? Can I motivate students? Do I provide meaningful feedback?

I believe I can form lesson goals and objectives, having learned about the differences between them. I see now how important it is to base the lesson plan on the goals and how helpful it is in terms of evaluating the lesson and checking how successful it was. With materials, I look for ones that are engaging and not too difficult. Students need to be interested in them and be clear about the instructions. Different methods suit various topics and stages of the lesson, and I’m trying to find and implement a variety here. Because I wasn’t sure what the students are capable of, I tried making the activities easier than I would initially do. Still, a few times there was too much information or the instructions were too long and complicated. I’m still working on that.

I think I’m quite good at motivating students. I try to notice each effort from them and let them know I appreciate it. I encourage the shy ones to speak up, while remembering how difficult and stressful it is. I try to give students time to think about answers and also show that I’m ready to help. I try to give them space and chances to ask questions. I provide them with activities that seem enjoyable and interesting for them. I’m making sure each time there was at least one activity with movement.

I’m not sure about the feedback. There was one chance to really do it. After making a note in their notebooks, students were showing me their notebooks and I was supposed to look for possible mistakes. With each student, I tried to give at least one positive thing before proceeding to point out things to correct. I was highlighting the errors, without correcting them. I asked each student if he or she understood my point. Then, I checked each of the notebooks one more time. From what I observed, my feedback was understandable and they didn’t seem sad or mad about having to correct something.