Life of a Teacher

How did you cope/manage completing the three days of “Life of a Teacher”

I felt like this was a great indication of how life would be as a teacher, I felt I coped very well with the three days. I stayed organise and prepped everything beforehand that I could to make the days go much smoother. As always you can’t predict everything and need to be flexible, and accepting this was a great help for my composure in the classroom.

How did you feel taking on all the responsibilities of a teacher in Block 1 compared to Block 2?

I felt a lot more confident in the second block, I was less overwhelmed with the amount of preparation and I had learnt the learners behaviour and how to manage it. At this point I had a mutual respect with the learners so it was easier to control the classroom, this was still challenging and I needed to be flexible with my lessons and timing but it went very smoothly.

Which activities did you find most challenging? How did you overcome these challenges?

Some of the learners still thought that because I wasn’t their class teacher and so they thought everything we did was going to be fun so I found the monotonous testing the most challenging. The learners were bored and restless but it was all the Friday testing that had to be done. Having this mentality in classroom made the mundane activities the most challenging, and pushing me to bring in elements of fun to all lessons. Simple things like addition and subtraction in Mathematics, writing in English and reading and phonics; I pushed myself to think outside the box to do these lessons in a more interactive and fun way.

Analyse your results of your self- evaluation survey where would you rate yourself higher?

No I don’t think I would rate myself higher, for majority of the sections I got full marks or just below and I feel that was an accurate representation of my teaching. I understand that I will always be learning and have space to grow, but that doesn’t take away from how far I’ve come in my teaching. I learnt so much from my mentor teacher, different ways of doing things, fun activities, classroom management skills, attention grabbers etc. all these elements I didn’t think of before. There’s always a new way of doing something and as a teacher I feel like I will constantly be growing, developing and improving.

Justify how you have improved these competencies through this experience.

I have been very attentive and wanting to absorb everything, the great aspects I will probably use in my own classroom but also aspects I would not be using, all is a learning opportunity. I have improved on my confidence by being in the classroom more, teaching more and understanding the dynamics of a classroom. I feel like because I have gained more confidence in my teaching I can have better classroom management, there is a level of respect with my learners. Understanding the balance of doing creative fun things but also having a foundation of respect and understanding that some things we do isn’t going to be completely exciting but it still has to be done. I feel that I am building strong routes in the kind of teacher I want to be, I want to build relationships with my learners, having a safe and trustworthy class environment. I feel that I have grown in the groundings of my teaching, building the foundation of respect and so when I am teaching the learners fun and exciting lessons I can be myself more and show my personality and there is still a level of mutual respect.

Look at the exit level outcomes and the final comments of your mentor teacher in your School Assessment Log & Report. Compare this to the initial self-evaluation you had completed at the beginning of your teaching experience.

My mentor did not leave any additional comments on my School Administration Log & Report, yet looking at all the comments she has put on my lesson plans and comments she has made towards me in person. The consensus is that she believes I am a confident individual who has great ideas and management in the classroom. She was very happy with my lessons, exciting for me for my future as a teacher and said that I can only grow and learn more from here.