"Life of a Teacher" Reflection

How Did you cope/ manage completing the three days in the ‘life of a teacher’?

The three days of life of a teacher were exciting, challenging and an eye opener to what teaching my own class will be like one day.

Before teaching a day in the life of a teacher I was terrified and absolutely did not want to teach for a full day as I was nervous for the unknown and tackling another teacher’s class and their lessons. However, I went in with an open mind and prepared myself for any possible challenges I may face and realised that I was over prepared and did not need to worry about every component of the day. I realised that as the day goes on, we get faced with different challenges or obstacles that we cannot prepare for but rather solve these problems by looking at options and facing them head on. I managed all 3 days with ease and realised how competent I was to teach a full class for a day and more. After teaching the 3 days I managed to face simple obstacles, how to handle misbehaviour and bullying, as well as how to plan lessons that enhance learning for the learners by using resources available to me. I realised the importance of time management for planning lessons to ensure everything is ready for the teaching and learning experience, as well as time management throughout the day. We cannot plan our lessons according to strict 1-hour lessons in chronological order, we need to rather be flexible to allow change and adaptability when an obstacle is faced. For example, when load shedding occurs and we cannot teach lessons that need slides, we need to be prepared to change things around and teach a lesson (or even pieces of a lesson) that does not need electricity so that learning continues.

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

Taking on the teacher’s responsibilities in Block 1 I was nervous to teach her lessons as I was worried, I would not teach it the way she would. I was hesitant to teach lessons in my own unique way, using my own creative resources, and implementing games or different styles of teaching into the learning environment that she did not bring. I relied a lot on her opinion and asked how she wanted the lessons to be taught so I could teach them the same way she would avoid leaving out any learning opportunities that she would have implemented. However, when I took on her responsibilities in Block 2, I was a completely different person with a lot more confidence than I have ever felt with my teaching. I was a lot more competent to teach lessons as I felt confident in myself and the way that I teach (which is different to my mentor teachers). I looked at their weekly plans and planned the lessons for the days I was teaching with my own style of teaching, I made resources and implemented learning games that enhanced and developed the learner’s knowledge and learning experiences. As I took on the 2 days in block 2, I felt so calm and collected in what I was doing that I felt as if I had already been working at the school and that the classroom was my own, it was a lovely feeling and experience.

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

The activities that I found most challenging was planning my day around outside classroom activities (such as PE and Library) as well as load shedding. It was a challenge to plan lessons around load shedding as I had to look at the schedule and change the lessons around to suit the load shedding schedules so that learning could still take place with all the resources needed for each lesson. It was also a challenge having library and PE schedules during some of the days I taught as I had to play around with time management to ensure all lessons are taught and completed successfully by the end of the day. This taught me the importance of being flexible in the classroom. I say this because it taught me to be ready and so well prepared for all the lessons of the day so that when a challenge appears, we can face it head on and move things around with ease (and not have to worry about going to print worksheets because of lack of readiness, or teaching Afrikaans instead of English handwriting because the projector cannot be displayed due to loadshedding). I overcame these struggles by ensuring that I was prepared the day before with all worksheets printed and ready (to beat load shedding), I ensured that I checked the loadshedding schedule in the morning to see when I needed to teach lessons that require electricity and what lessons I can teach while the power was off. I also overcame time management skills by completing the subjects that would need more time before Library and PE so that learning activities that were quick could be completed in between breaks and outside classroom activities (and not hinder teaching and learning experiences).

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

After analysing my self-evaluation that I completed before Block 1, I have realised that I thought very poor of myself and didn’t believe that I could do a lot of things. However now I realise how much I can do and how much I have developed in many areas such as:

• Teachers have a sound subject knowledge. - Distinguished

• Teachers know how to teach their subjects and how to select, determine the sequence, and pace content according to learners needs. -Distinguished

• Teachers know who their learners are, how they learn, their individual needs and teach accordingly. - Distinguished

• Teachers must have highly developed literacy, numeracy, and IT skills. -Distinguished

• Teachers must be knowledgeable about the school curriculum and be able to unpack specialised content while using resources appropriately. -Distinguished

• Teachers must be able to manage classrooms effectively.

• Teachers must be able to assess learners in various way and use results of assessments to improve teaching and learning.

• Teachers can reflect critically in conjunction with professional community of colleagues on their own practice to improve.

Justify how you have improved these competencies through this experience.

I have improved these competencies through constant practice and engagement through my 5-week practical. As I was given more tasks to complete in my life of a teacher, I was challenges to face different scenarios that helped me develop the competencies and prepare me for more complicated areas. Through my lessons I developed how to communicate and teach different knowledge to learners with different learning needs as well as how to teach the curriculum with resources that I had or had to create. I developed my IT skills further by using PowerPoint slides and online educational games and activities during the lesson to make it effectively engaging and successful. I developed these competencies through going back and evaluating the learners’ assessments and seeing where I can improve on my teaching styles and methods while giving critical feedback that will help me develop for my next lesson.

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.

Looking back at the comments my mentor teachers made both within my school assessment log & report and in person, as she gave me feedback and had open discussions with me about my competencies as a teacher, I do feel that I have come such a long way from my first self-evaluation I completed at the beginning of my teaching experience. Going into practical’s I never want to think I am the best as there is always room for improvement and so I land up rating myself lower so that I can give myself room for improvement. However, after speaking to my mentor teacher and seeing all the lovely things she had to say to me I do feel that I need to give myself more credit as I am capable of a lot more. When it comes from a teacher who has been teaching for years it is very uplifting and encouraging to keep teaching the way I am with enthusiasm and the constant thought of how I can further improve myself. So, with that said I am grateful for the comments my mentor teacher gave me because it was useful, encouraging and confidence booster for myself going into my future job next year.