Week Two Reflection

What were some positive aspects?

Having now taught for two weeks in the classroom, I feel that I have developed a much greater
sense of awareness of what is happening in the classroom during a lesson. I have built a rapport
with the students and I feel confident in front of them, as compared to my teaching confidence a
week ago. I have developed a familiarity with school protocols and have built more relationships
with a greater number of school staff by using non-teaching time to observe other teachers'
lessons and talk about their teaching experiences to expand and develop my own teaching
strategies. From doing so I am exposed to many different students from different year levels,
which contributes to my understanding of catering for individual differences.
The time management aspect of my lessons has also improved as I time my lessons better instead
of letting them draw out, which at times, means that sacrificing the time used to let every single
share their responses or opinions is required. I have found that whilst it is important to build and
develop speaking skills and allow students to connect ideas to personal experiences, the lack of
hours in a day does not always permit that. From limiting some of this time, I feel that the
students have more to say and have had more time to think about their responses when they
approach me after a lesson to talk about an aspect I taught.
I am pleased with the ways in which I presented the content I taught, which I found the students
displayed enjoyment of and engagement with. Even students who do not usually contribute and
participate when I teach as a whole class setting were eager to put their hand up and offer
responses, which I found very rewarding as a teacher. Even though the children's answers were
not always correct, the fact that they wanted to participate is a very motivating aspect for finding
interesting ways to teach content.
What were some areas that I need to improve in?
Whilst I am now more aware of the different relationships between the students, I still need to
improve in is being able to create groups or pairs that enable the students to work most
effectively. There was a significant decrease in the times during second week that I had students
come up to me and inform me that they were unhappy about particular students. I have a lot to
learn in helping the students develop important 'life skills' such as solving their own conflicts and
getting along with other people in general, as well as showing resilience to people or situations. I
have observed my mentor help them develop these skills as she turns a problem that the students
expect her to solve back into a problem in which they are responsible to solve for themselves to
instill these skills into them. Because this is something I need to improve on, I am grateful for
being able to teach a 'You Can Do It' program within the classroom, which focuses on such
themes such as confidence, problem solving, resilience and other skills that students need to start
developing. In turn, teaching this program really helps myself to understand these in order to
create a classroom in which students are supportive of each other and strive to do their best.

For the time being, planning my lessons and teaching them are going relatively well because of
the extra resources and guidance I am fortunately given by my mentors. I am aware that this does
not reflect realistically as I will not have an extra pair of hands in the classroom to help when I
start having a class of my own, nor will I have resources ready to be used to accompany my
lessons. I believe I need to start to gradually become more independent and showing less reliance
as the prac progresses, so that I will be prepared for when I become a graduate teacher with my
own students.
Furthermore, an area of improvement that both my mentor and myself have identified is
enforcing more consistent behaviour management protocols within the classroom. As a preservice teacher, I have found that I am very inclined to give the same student 'too many chances'
for misbehaviour, which does eventually use up valuable teaching time as time is spent on
managing student behaviour. I think by improving in how I approach students who do not follow
established class rules; being more consistent and ensuring I display fairness, will make me a
better role model for the students and as my mentor said, earn me more respect from the students
as they know my expectations as a teacher.
How does this inform me for my future lessons and teaching practice?
Having now gained more insight into what teaching strategies makes students engaged and
excited to learn, I would structure my lessons so that it gives an opportunity for students to do
their own learning and make their own discoveries with teacher guidance, rather than explicit
teaching time all the time. I have noticed that students have a lot of contribution to make and
many discoveries are being made but do not always get a chance to share. I would try to make
my lessons practical, hands-on and authentic tasks, and structure my lessons to incorporate
movement and activity so that the students are kept stimulated.
My second week of prac has further reiterated the importance of getting to know each child as an
individual to best cater to their learning needs. The development of each student affects their
learning and with each student progressing through tasks and gaining understanding at different
paces, means that differentiation becomes such a crucial aspect of teaching. I would strive to
make learning meaningful and authentic for each child rather than use a 'universal' approach of
using the same prescribed method of teaching all students. Most importantly, I want to spend as
much time as possible getting to know my students and learning who they are as individual
human beings.