Self - evaluation 2

 

     In this blog entry, I would like to share with you, my second self-evaluation connected with two topics; attitude towards the practicum experience (me as a learner) and attitude towards pupils.

A) ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE (ME AS A LEARNER)

   

     After each lesson that I have conducted, I think what went well and what should I have done differently. Often I can not stop thinking about mistakes that I have made because I cannot forgive myself, making them. I believe that when it comes to teaching, this is a good thing because I will never make the same mistake again. It also gives me more energy to search for new ideas and solutions to my problems. I also appreciate when someone tells me about my mistakes because sometimes I do not see my own slips. During my practice, my mentor teacher was observing me and after each lesson, she gave me feedback. I always listened carefully to her comments, and I tried to use ideas that she proposed to me. She has a lot of teaching experience and can find a solution to almost every problem. I hope that one day I will be able to be such a teacher.

     Thanks to the practice and help of my mentor teacher, I have learned a lot of things that will help me in my future work. First of all, I have discovered a few interesting ways of maintaining discipline in the classroom. I also have acquired some knowledge about methods of organizing work in groups. I have learned about CLIL method, what is it, how does it work and I had my first opportunity to conduct CLIL lessons. I started creating my own activities for lessons, especially for CLIL lessons, because it's very hard to find already made materials. Additionally, I realized that planning lessons in advance and preparing appropriate materials is an extremely important part of a good teacher's work.

     I hope that in the next semester I will also have an opportunity to learn a lot during my practice.

B) ATTITUDE TOWARDS PUPILS

     This part, I would like to start with keeping discipline in the classroom. During my bachelor studies, I wrote my thesis about classroom discipline, so I thought that I would not have a problem with that. However, despite the fact that I have knowledge about maintaining discipline in the classroom, I could not manage with children's behaviour, especially when they were working in groups. After conversations with my mentor teacher, I have learned what I was doing wrong and what I should improve. I have done some of the things that she had told me, and thanks to this children's behaviour had improved. I started to be more firm in my actions, I gave children pluses and minuses, I wrote the word 'BREAK' on the board and I took one letter for every bad behaviour which resulted in taking a minute from their break or I wrote, next to children's names one letter from the word "SPEAK" for every use of the Polish language. When the child collected all the letters, he received an extra speaking task. As you can see, theoretical knowledge does not always equal the practical one.

     When it comes to my relationships with pupils, I always try to be friendly and helpful. I respect all of my pupils, no matter how they learn or behave. I understand that each child is different and that they are still learning what is good and wrong. I try to accommodate all tasks and instructions to my students' needs and skills. When I know that some students have problems with memorizing, I try to use more repetition drills or games, or when some kids have problems with an understanding I use gestures and pictures. These things do not need a lot of preparation and can help students in their learning process.