In this post I would like to describe general reflection on my practicum experience - observations and microteaching. I will focus, among other things, on what I liked best, what I found the most challenging, what I learned about becoming a teacher and what are my goals for the future.
What I liked best during this first semester of practices is that students I observed and taught are really friendly, cooperative and they respect the teacher even if he/she is the new person they did not know before. I was afraid of the first contact with these students because they come from different countries, different cultures and I was not sure what their reaction would be like. Fortunately, it turned out that they are really interested in me, my nationality, country as well as are really eager to share their own experience or some information about their culture. I have to admit that understanding children's behaviour and reasons that caused it as well as their different way of understanding some things (often because of different culture) was the most challenging for me during this semester due to the fact that this my first experience as a teacher in the international classroom.
Regarding student learning I have realized that they acquire new knowledge better if something is shown in a interesting, attractive way and is somehow connected with their life. What is more, students learn through different input channels - visual, auditory, kinaesthetic and need a lot of repetitions. That is why they have to be provided with various activities during the lesson - it is also important that activity does not last too long or too short so as not to discourage our learners. On the other hand,someone who wants to become a teacher has to remember that being a teacher is not easy and requires a lot of time and commitment. Teachers with passion, make enormous effort to create learning friendly environment where students feel safe and are eager to participate. Additionally, each teacher to be should remember that students are also people with feelings, problems which can influence their behaviour and attitude towards learning.
During practices there was one lesson that I remember best due to the fact that during it students had possibility to learn through various senses. What I am talking about is science lesson where students were observing the growth of the bean seeds they planted some time ago. They could have seen the changes (height, colour, leaves), touch it or even smell it if they were curious. What also should be emphasized is that these plants were the effect of students' own work. That is why I think that this situation was significant for learning as it showed that children are able to create something on their own, think about something and come up with some answers or ideas - they do not have to be given to them by the teacher.
Practicum experience did not change my way of thinking about the work of a teacher a lot because before it I knew that it is hard and requires a lot of patience as well as huge dedication. One thing that I have realized is that each teacher uses different approaches and methods which in his/her opinion are the most efficient ones. What's more, each teacher has the right to do it and there is no correct answer how to teach because everything depends on our students' and their needs.
In the future I will focus more on increasing the STT (Students Talking Time) so as to make their learning more effective and productive. During practices I did not have big problems connected with discipline, nevertheless I will try to find some solutions which will improve students' behaviour and make them more engaged in my classes.
Komentarze
Prześlij komentarz