Category Archives: 3.4 Prof. Reflection & Commitment

Professional Development in Semester 1

As a student teacher, we are constantly asked to reflect on what has happened so far so we can learn from the past and develop into qualified teachers. I have been asked to reflect on my professional development during semester 1 and one moment stood out for me. During semester 1, we were required to do a module called “Working Together” in which we had to work with people from teaching, CLD and social work. As a part of this module, we had to visit an agency to see how they work together with others and our agency happened to be CLD workers within a primary school . Before this visit, I didn’t think that teaching would have much to do with other professions like CLD and social work, however, during and after the visit I realised how important it was to be able to work with other professions.

When on the visit, we talked to two CLD workers and they told us about how much involvement they had with teachers and social workers. This made me realise how important it is for me to be able to work with other professions during my career, even if it can be difficult at times. It is important to put the needs of the child in front of your own opinions of people to make sure the child’s needs are met. When the CLD workers were talking about times when they had to work about other professions and it wasn’t always going as they had planned, it made me feel better about working with other professionals in the future. They talked about scenarios when things didn’t go as they had planned and they had to compromise to get the best results for the child. This made me relax a bit, knowing that if I have to work with other professionals and things don’t happen as planned, I will know that it happens in a lot of scenarios and it takes time to and effort to compromise with others but always works out for the best for the needs of the child in the end.

Reflecting back on the agency visit now, I realise that this visit to the agency has taught me how important it is to be able to work together with other professions and being able to compromise on decisions if it is for the best. I think when I am teaching in schools, I need to keep this in mind to remember that it is always important to put the child first to make sure their needs are met.

C. Engaging with Learning

Leave a reply

Benefits of Active Learning and Collaborative Working.

Benefits of Active learning:

Uses real life situations so it can be relatable
Can make learning more interesting
Can change people’s perspectives on learning
Can increase creativity and critical thinking

Benefits of Collaborative Working:

Reduces stress as workload has decreased.
Support system if needed during times of stress.
Builds trust and relationships
Allows you to view things from different perspectives

B. Managing My Learning

Leave a reply

Activity 1

Complete the table below to identify and reflect on those factors and plan actions for each.

Recognition/ Reflection	Action
What helps my learning?	How can I utilise this?
Discussing ideas	Meeting up with others to share ideas or having a study group.
Making notes	Making notes during lectures to make sure I have all the important information and reading over the notes later to make sure I understand it.
Planning ahead and being organised.	I set targets for my work to make sure I am on top of my work to ensure I don’t get stressed closer to deadlines, especially with assignments.
Studying alone	I think I work better when doing assignments alone in my room as this allows me to stay focused on the task and not be distracted by anyone or anything.

Recognition/Reflection		Action
What hinders my learning?	How can I address this factor?
Spending time on social media	· Stay away from my phone when studying or working on assignments. · Avoid going on social media on my laptop unless absolutely necessary
People talking around me.	To study or work on assignments alone in my room to stay way from any distractions.

Activity 2

I have a diary of all the assignments, placements and modules I have throughout the year to ensure that I can stay on top of my work load and not be stressed when it comes to the due dates of my assignments. This allows me to plan ahead to have time for reading, researching and writing assignments.

A.Identifying Skills and Abilities

Leave a reply

Activity 1

Below are a list of skills and abilities. Complete an audit of where you are now. Record this in your learning journal/portfolio.

Rate yourself (1=Not very well developed; 3=very well developed)

Skills and Abilities	1	2	3
Flexibility			✓
Self confidence	✓
Self discipline		✓
Work under pressure	✓
Set personal goals		✓
Take risks	✓
Share opinions confidently		✓
Team work			✓
Take responsibility			✓
Build social networks		✓
Manage Time			✓
Act as a leader		✓
Negotiation			✓
Make presentations			✓
Listen to others			✓
Debate formally and informally		✓
Contribute to discussion		✓
Converse confidently		✓
Take notes			✓
Write for academic purposes		✓
Computing skills			✓
Be creative		✓
Use technology			✓
Problem solve		✓
Generate new ideas		✓
Work on own initiative		✓
Organise and plan			✓
Think critically		✓
Evaluate information		✓

Activity 2

Complete the audit below, using the information from the table above.

Recognition	Reflection	Action
Skills already developed	How I will use these	How do I know (evidence)**
Flexibility	To be able to compromise with others, especially in group work.	In the working together module, I had to be flexible when working with the group when sharing ideas and had to compromise on some things.
Team work	I will use teamwork when I have to work in a group for a project, as it is important to work together to get the project done.	From the working together module, we worked as group to plan and make our presentation and then present our presentation at the end of the module.
Organise and plan	Plan assignments and have to do lists.	For both working together poster and the values essay, I had to plan the layout and content of my poster and essay before I started them so I knew what I was doing.
Take responsibility	Be responsible for my actions.	When working in a group in the working together module, I always tried to have my work done ahead of meeting up as I had to be responsible for my own actions and not let the group down.
Manage time	Being able to plan ahead.	When it comes to deadlines, it important to manage my time to be able to meet the deadline. I always have to plan my assignment in advance to ensure I can meet the deadline.
Negotiation	Being able to compromise and negotiation with others.	When working in groups previously, I have been able to negotiate and compromise well with others to avoid conflict.
Make presentations	Making presentations for assignments in working together module	I have previously made many assignments during my IB, however, I will continue to do so in the working together module for my poster and group presentation.
Listen to others	When working in a group	It is important to listen and respect others opinions and ideas when working in a group and I have done so during the working together module and other times previously when working in a group especially during IB.
Take notes	Taking notes to reflect on my learning later	I take notes during every lecture to remind myself later of what I thought was important or relevant to know. I also take notes when studying as I feel this helps me.
Computing skills	Using computer for assignments, blogs or online units.	I have used my computing skills during my online tasks and using it for assignments and presentations.
Use technology	Using laptops or phones to research things for assignments, using online resources or complete assignments.	I use technology to do my assignments and using online resources and have previously used technology a lot during my IB course to complete coursework.
Set personal goals	I set personal goals to achieve by the end of the week/day on what I want to be completed.	When completing assignments, I set goals on what I think I should have completed by the end of the day to ensure I am managing my workload.

Recognition	Reflection	Action
Skills to be developed	How I will develop these	How do I know (evidence) **
Self confidence	I can use self confidence in my work and presentations	I will be more confident in my work when submitting assignments or presentations
Self discipline	Having self control on working on assignments and not being distracted easily.
Work under pressure	Sometimes when there are a lot of assignments due around the same time, I can get under a lot of pressure. I can work on this by trying to control my workload more.
Take risks	By being more confident in myself and to not be afraid to try new creative ideas.
Share opinions confidently	To share ideas and opinions more openly in group work and lectures and not to worry about other peoples opinions.	I have been working on this by sharing my ideas to my peer group more during the working together module.
Build social networks	Trying to talk to new people and always staying in contact with people.
Act as a leader	Being more confident in myself to take control of situations during group work.
Debate formally and informally	By raising discussions with friends and during group work.
Contribute to discussion	Voice my opinion more during group work and not just sit back and allow others to talk.	I have been working on this by contributing my ideas to the group discussions more with my peer learning group.
Converse confidently	Have more confidence in my ideas and opinions.
Write for academic purposes	Working on my essay writing skills.	Always reflecting on my writing skills after receiving feedback on an essay.
Be creative	By doing more research for ideas and having more confidence in my ideas.
Problem solve	Looking from different perspectives and thinking outside the box.
Generate new ideas	Doing research on ideas and increasing my knowledge.
Work on own initiative	Have more self-confidence in my initiative and not be afraid to try new things.
Think critically	Being able to reflect and analyse something so that I can improve on it.
Evaluate information	Focusing on feedback from assignments and working on improving the negatives.

Why teaching?

1 Reply

As I was growing up, I was always the older cousin that the younger cousins would turn to at family gatherings as their entertainment for the evening. By being almost a role model for them in this way, it inspired me to consider a career in teaching. As I got older, more opportunities became available for me in the Education world, which further encouraged my interest in teaching.

When I moved to Thailand, it opened many doors for me in Education. It allowed me to gain experience in teaching by going to local Thai schools and teaching the young children how to speak English. During this time in the local Thai schools, it made me realise how much I enjoyed teaching the young children and being able to make a difference in their lives. What made me enjoy teaching so much was the fact that I could help the children develop and learn new skills at such a critical stage in their life. I want to continue this throughout my life by teaching young children and help them to grow and develop and help them to fulfill their potentials.