Jenna Marie Blofield

I still do believe that in terms of the classroom environment, I would like to create a space of respect filled with learners that I hold a healthy relationship with. These learners should feel safe and open with their individuality. This is one of my great strengths, I find I have an assertive, gentle, and caring nature. Establishing a culture for learning in the classroom is sometimes difficult, I want to encourage active learning, where learners have a sense of control. Being experimental and learning through discovery makes the learning process fun but also social. Using collaboration will create this culture inside the classroom where learners encourage learning to others. I feel that through my experience in the Grade 3 classroom and working in a school for a year I have found many ways of doing this, learning from other teachers, experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t and learning the way in which learners learn best.

 

Classroom procedures can be managed by being organized if no procedures are in place the classroom will not run effectively. I do find this is one of my strengths because I like to visually plan. This links closely with organizing the classroom space, I want to be proud of my classroom and I have already started collecting resources to make it resource rich. I find that because of working with great mentors at school I have grown tremendously in managing student behavior before I found that I was too soft on a child and for that reason they feel they can do whatever they want. Instead, now I find that setting the boundaries and rules in my classroom, using different management strategies and other techniques has allowed me to be firm but approachable. The learners feel safe, but understand what behaviour is acceptable in my classroom.

 

Communicating with the students is a major aspect of teaching and learning, I find I am a very patient person with children, approachable and I am willing to communicate two or three times again with a child if they don’t understand. I have learnt many teaching strategies and techniques from both my experience and social media as well, I am always looking for new strategies to prepare myself for learners with different learning styles. I find one of my biggest strengths is engaging students with learning, I always try to make learning fun and exciting. I want to create a love for learning, to do this, I need to be a good role model for the learners. This approach has only strengthened by learning from personal experiences and from other teachers in the classroom. It is hard when the teachers in the classroom communicate in a different way, this through this experience I have only grown. Learning different ways of doing things, some I will take on myself in my classroom and some I will use as a learning opportunity.

 

With my experience as an intern, I have been involved in the processes of creating, marking and moderating assessment papers. I still do find that a lot of the assessments are not inclusive, I understand their importance and the purpose of standardized testing, but I want to challenge myself to find other ways of assessing when doing formal assessments. This is something I really want to work on, challenge myself to better the assessment system. The experience I’ve had I feel has prepared me for diversity, flexibility, and the necessary tools to overcome obstacles and challenges. I don’t feel scared about having my own classroom, I am excited to get in the classroom, use all that I’ve learnt and learn more as I progress.