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About
Me.........
I am an aspiring teacher who is kind, honest, caring, patient, and people orientated. I am extremely passionate about children and shaping their little minds. I believe that teaching is a calling, and I cannot wait to dive right into the educational working environment with my abilities to teach any and every subject that a primary school has to offer. Subjects such as Natural science, Social Science, English home language, Mathematics, Life Orientation, Afrikaans, Technology, Creative Arts, Economic Management Science and more. I am equipped with the knowledge to teach grade 4 to grade 7. Over the years, I have developed various skills including critical thinking, patience, imaginative thinking, communication, leadership, time management and so forth. Not only am I a soon to be qualified educator, but I have years of sales experience. I bring my A game when it comes to communication skills since the sales environment has taught me many skills that apply to the faculty of education as well. Impacting young lives is what I live for. I come with a fresh perspective, new ideas and technological literacy which will allow for me as an educator to plan lessons that are both informative and exciting for my learners at the same time. I love creativity and I believe that creativity plays an important role in being a teacher and technology can be used in a number of creative ways. I am also knowledgeable and can work with technological platforms such as Microsoft, Blackboard collaborate, Stasy, Academia and so on. Currently, I hold a TEFL certificate which I wish to use in the near future to pursue my dreams of teaching abroad. Education is the key to success and a teacher is the driver.
Community of Practice Reflections
Service learning
Teaching is all about creativity. Teachers tap into every occupation. From parenthood, to artistry, to anything that you could possibly imagine. Teachers do it all so that their learners could produce the best outcomes.
Each component of the project was different, however, it led up to the main activity. The learners were given a short survey to select the series that they would like to watch an episode from. The options were taken from them and then compiled into the form of a survey to gather votes on the most liked series. There were options such as, Victorious, Teen Titans, Outer banks, Friends and so on. The survey showed that Victorious stole the most votes. The first step of the project was for the learners to tap into their listening skills as they watched an episode together, of a series called Victorious. They had to listen carefully to what was said by each character, observe the personalities of the characters and the roles in which they played in the episode. In step two, the learners were put into four groups and played a fishing game to randomly pick a character which they had to represent for the project. In step three, the learners had to write out their own play based on the episode that they had watched together. This was a tap into the learners writing skills. In step four, the learners had to read out their play in front of the other learners using all of the skills which they have learnt along the years in reading, such as audibility, clarity, eye contact and so on. In the final step, all of these activities lead up to the learners presenting their play in front of the grade six learners of the school. The project was effective because it allowed the learners to engage in the necessary skills of English, such as listening, writing, reading, and presenting. The project also gave the learners an opportunity to showcase their acting skills and place themselves in the shoes of an actor and actress. This entire experience has been a unique one for me and it has allowed me to observe each and every learner, their differences, their similarities, how they work together and so on.
The most challenging moment for me was on the final day of the social action programme. The day was planned for and set by the English teacher and I, and it was planned to happen on world literature day. We had already planned when we were going to take the learners out to do their plays, and the learners had come to school dressed as their characters. However, it so happened that many teachers weren’t present on this day, therefore the English teacher and I were stuck in classes serving relief. We had to come up with another plan of when the learners were going to perform their plays. The first group got an opportunity to perform their play while other prefects waited in the class that I was due in, so that I could be present for the learner’s performance. The rest of the groups had to perform their play after the lunch break and in front of other learners of the school who were also outside and waiting to use the stage. It was a busy day, however the social action project ended gracefully. Despite this challenge, the entire social action project was a success in every aspect.
Service learning has allowed me to feel what a teacher feels and do what a teacher does. Over the four years, it has given me the opportunity to go to different schools, both public and private, meet new people, engage with different learners, complete the activities of a teacher and so on. It has given me the opportunity to grow as an educator. In my first year I was shy, and I didn’t know how I would control a class of forty learners on my own. However, through the years of service learning, I now can control any class. It has made me ready for the real world and to be an effective teacher. Professionally, I have learnt how to complete administration activities, maintain myself in the classroom, deal with problems that the learners may have, liaise with other teachers and so on. I have learnt a lot from learners themselves and it has given me a positive attitude which I wish to always have through my years of teaching.
This project is beneficial to the school since it allows learners to build on skills such as listening, reading, writing, and presenting. These are the necessary skills for the subject of English, and it is a fun way for the learners to build on those skills. The initiative is sustainable because it does not cost anything. The school already has the resources for the project to continue. It can be an ongoing project as the only thing that will change is the series that the project will be based on.
Micro Teaching Reflection
I like that with online teaching, everything is at my disposal. When I needed to upload my lesson plan, it was under my file folder on my cell phone, and I was able to extract it from there and export it onto the online site that I was teaching on. For a face-to-face lesson I would have had to physically print out the lesson plan. Online teaching is easy, and it can take place through the use of a cell phone, which I had used for my microteaching lesson. It can also take place anywhere. For my micro teaching lesson, I got to be in the comfort of my own home. There was no need for me to go to one specific venue. It is also very cost effective as it saved me from paying for transport. Teaching online is convenient for all of the involved parties.
I dislike the fact that the online microteaching was not face to face. That meant that I did not get to engage with the people watching and listening to my lesson. Network or other technological issues can also become extremely frustrating at times. For instance, at the start, my microphone was not working. That meant that I could not hear anyone speaking nor could I speak. I felt pressurised as I had to sort out the issue immediately or else, I would have missed my turn to teach. Thankfully that issue was sorted out in the end. Teaching online means that an individual must follow certain steps to get to the main aspect, which is teaching, whereas in a normal face to face lesson, there is nothing holding a person back from teaching.
I have learnt new skills such as how to use blackboard collaborate to teach an online lesson. I have learnt how to upload my lesson plan and other resources that I would need to use when conducting an online lesson. This experience has also taught me how to teach without physically seeing anyone. I have learnt technological skills, how to be patient and persevere despite the obstacles that are thrown my way.
If I could do something differently, I would not have rushed through my microteaching lesson. Instead, I would have taken my time to explain how I would teach the lesson.
I had chosen the most appropriate tools to teach my lesson. With the subject of mathematics, there is not much that can be done to make the lesson interesting. Therefore, every tool that was used to teach the lesson was to ensure that the mathematics lesson was as exciting as it could possibly be.
This experience has majorly developed me for teaching in a school. Personally, I feel that the biggest development through the online teaching experience was confidence. When teaching online, no individual could see me. That made me feel comfortable because I did not have to worry about how I looked or was dressed. However, the lesson went well for me and because of the smoothness of the lesson, it has made me feel confident enough to stand in front of a number of learners to teach them.
Life of a teacher Reflection
Living the life of a teacher for three days, despite being exciting, was no easy task. My coping mechanism was planning. I had made the necessary arrangements to teach the lessons well in advance so that I could plan. I had gotten a timetable from the teachers, including the topics that they would be teaching on that specific day, and I planned my lessons using those resources and information. I had managed to complete these three days solely because of the kindness of the teachers and one of the teachers being on leave on the day that I took over his timetable. The teachers were my main assets as they helped me to plan how to set myself up and they had given me the opportunity to fill their shoes for the day.
Since block one was more about the social action project that I had to conduct, I had completed my three-day life of a teacher segment in block 2. I would not have it any other way as it had worked out perfectly in my favour. The process of having so many lessons to teach and prepare for was overwhelming, however, it was something that I could handle and learn a lot from.
The activities that I found to be the most challenging was the collecting of money for an excursion and dismissal. This is because the process of handling money can be stressful. If anything had to go wrong, I would be held accountable for it. Secondly, dismissals can be a tedious process since the learners are always so excited to go home. However, at Just Juniors Academy, every learner needs to be collected either by their parent or transport before the educator can leave the dismissal area. This meant that I had to make sure that the learners were dismissed correctly. I overcame these challenges by being very careful. I ensured that the money collected went straight to the office and was signed for by the secretary to say that she received the money. I was also extra careful when dismissing the learners. I had found out from the form teacher which learners went home with their parents, who went to aftercare and who travelled with a liftclub. Since the school is private, there were a small number of learners per class which made the process a little less stressful.
I would not rate myself higher in any aspect as I had filled out the survey truthfully. I am a work in progress and my life as a teacher will mean that I am continuously learning and improving myself.
All of my competencies have been improved since this was a 6-week experience. It has allowed me to tap into creative abilities that I did not know I had.
According to my mentor teachers rating and my self-evaluation, the mentor teacher sees more potential in me than I see in myself. This is very uplifting and encouraging.
It has been an amazing experience filling the shoes of other teachers and it makes me impatient to become a permanent teacher.
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