My 1st year placement has come to an end I it is now time to reflect on the experience.  I had previously gained some placement experience as part of my SWAP course at college, so it was really interesting to visit a different school and compare it objectively.

I found the placement experience valuable and given it was arranged by the University the formality of it helped me approach the experience with a professional head on.  (My experience through SWAP was much less formal).  The Placement handbook was also a valuable tool as it helped my focus throughout the whole experience.

Strength:

Ability to engage with the puipls and speak with them in words they can understand and engage with.

Area of most progress: 

Understanding a maths lesson as this is an area where I lack confidence.

Area requiring Progress:

Adding hand movements and gestures in my teraching style and losing my shield (which is a pen in my hand to fidget with and my inability to move more than 5 steps from the front of the class!

Action Plan:

Use the assingments approaching to consider ways to work on my areas for development.  In particulare work on a strategy to engage with pupils at the back of the class.  These were the ones that suffered as a result of my returning to the “teaching area” at the front of the class frequently.

Something that I found very beneficial was the observation tasks which were done with my placement partner.  I have to admit that I have a tendancy to be a bit of a know it all and I monitor this within myself.  As a mature student I have to remind myself the my younger cohorts can provide important, valuable and objective feedback and that I must be receptive to it.  It cannot have been easy for my placement partner to have had to feedback to me and I think she did this with great professionalism.

These tasks were of particular importance as not only did they provide positive encouragement about areas where my strengths lay, they also suggested areas where I can improve and develop.  One thing that seemed to crop up on more than one occasion was had gestures.  Whilst I received positive feedback about my body language, which I worked hard to be positive, it was noted that I had a lack of hand gestures.  This led me to think and I noted that in my eagerness to always have a pen or pencil on hand, these then became a barrier to me.

It is hard to summarise two weeks of experience into a blog post of reasonable length, I feel that as mentioned in a previous post there are always going to be things that one must move on from, but the lesson remains with you in your own mind.

I cannot move on without also noting the bond that develops for the children I have been involved with.  It is natural to feel fond of children, some are funny, others are kind, some remind you of your own children, others have bed hair or appear tired.  Some have challenging behaviour, some have barriers to learning.  One thing I note reflecting back over the past two weeks is that each child is individual and unique and each has a right to be respected and heard.  I am proud of my own professionalism and am confident that this was noted by my peer, and the school staff.