Teaching practice - Self-evaluation (2)

 ATTITUDE TOWARDS PUPILS

Can I maintain classroom discipline? Am I respectful and kind towards all pupils? Do I correctly recognise and assess pupils’ skills and needs? Do I differentiate instruction according to pupils’ individual profiles?

During my Bachelor studies, I really struggled with classroom discipline. It was partly due to students’ age and the behavior that was accepted by their teachers. The other reason was my lack of self-confidence. I wasn’t sure what I was doing and it showed. This time, I got a chance to work with disciplined students, who were mostly willing to listen. I once wanted to befriend the pupils and they didn’t listen to me and didn’t treat me as their teacher. I believe this time they treated me as an outsider, and it helped me maintain a different relationship with them and gain respect and trust. I still struggle with the discipline but I know new ways to pull myself together and find useful solutions.

Being respectful and kind towards pupils was and still is one of my biggest goals. I never want any of them to feel mistreated or laughed at. I hope the feedback I was giving was helpful and my behavior encouraged them to engage in the lessons. I wanted to find each students’ strength and tried to work on that. When someone had a difficulty with answering my question, I gave them time, and only then decided to ask follow-up questions or help in any other way. Then, I really wanted to praise them for the effort, and not necessarily the outcome. Hopefully, they felt how fun and enjoyable it was for me to talk with them and learn from them.

In terms of recognizing students’ skills, observations helped me greatly. At first, I didn’t pay much attention to each particular student, and focused more on the teacher and how she approached each of them. Only when I stood in front of them, I realized that I needed to do things my way, instead of trying to imitate their teacher. In terms of pupils’ needs, I could recognise the difficulties and more or less see who’s going to have them. I could also predict the students who would end the work faster than the others. After some time, I was also aware of the level of understanding of English, as well as some obstacles students may have to overcome.

To be honest, I’m not sure I differentiated the instructions. I think every time I was giving the same instruction, hoping everyone would understand. Unsurprisingly, there were pupils who got the instructions right away, and some that needed to listen to it a few times. There was also a case of those not listening, and with these pupils I couldn’t really see if the instructions were understandable.

ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE (ME AS A LEARNER)

Am I open and willing to learn and accept constructive feedback? How easy it is for me to analyze and reflect on the learning and teaching process? What have I learnt during this year? How have I changed?

I am very open to feedback. I recognize the differences between how I perceive the lessons I conduct and how they are viewed by other people. I remember how shocked I was once I was confronted with other people’s perception of me as a person, and how different it was from my self-perception. I admit that the first time I was given feedback by my mentor teacher, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. She pointed out some things, both good and those to improve and asked me questions. I didn’t know what to do with them. Only after some time, I started appreciating how much freedom she gave me to explore and find solutions on my own. As I love doing that, I found this method very valuable, as well as helpful.

Sometimes it was difficult for me to decide if the lesson was successful. I wasn’t always sure how much students understood. I loved analyzing past lessons and comparing my predictions and expectations with reality. It helped me greatly in terms of understanding how much and how fast students acquire new knowledge. I had no problems with noticing the weaknesses or things that didn’t go as planned. I had to take some time to realize the strengths of my teaching and me as a teacher. Feedback from my mentor teacher was very beneficial here - I could go on to plan the next lesson remembering both the advantages and disadvantages of the previous ones.

I think the things I learnt are more about me as a teacher than about my teaching. I definitely started feeling self-conscious and more self-reflective when it comes to my teaching. With time, I gained confidence and was more willing to experiment. For the first time, I used the time during practice to try out different activities and approaches. I wasn’t that scared of doing something wrong. Instead of going for things I knew, I was looking for challenges. I made a deliberate choice to go for possible difficult topics and areas I didn’t feel comfortable in (math, grammar). I really felt safe and comfortable in that classroom and when I stood in front of the students, it felt natural.