I can now look back fondly on my first, all too fleeting placement experience as a trainee primary school teacher. I had approached it with a mixture of obvious excitement but slight trepidation. I was assigned to a primary two class in a large Catholic school, with a roll of circa 800 pupils, in an affluent area of Glasgow. I had attended Catholic schools myself but religion was not something that had played a role in my life for a considerable length of time so how to approach this element, and how I would be received as a result, had caused me some consternation. I was also much older than the average BA1 student, so was apprehensive about how this would be interpreted. My concerns, though proved to be largely unfounded as the experience solidified my feelings that this was the right route for me.
Strength
I have real altruistic motivations for becoming a primary school teacher. I have a profound desire to be a positive formative influence on my pupils and, while I understand that this goal could be regarded as idealistic, I was hoping that my positive attitude and my enthusiasm towards becoming this would shine through. Thankfully, feedback commended me on these attributes and commented on my desire to understand the individual needs of the pupils and to seek out, listen to and respond positively to feedback.
Area of Most Progress
Experience had made me doubt whether I was the sort of person who could adapt to new environments with ease. I feel that I spent far too much of Monday and Tuesday ‘in my head’, overthinking and overanalysing the situation, which I believe hindered me and was perhaps reflected in my body language. However, Wednesday brought a real shift in perspective as I felt far more relaxed and formed a far more natural rapport with my class teacher and the class themselves. So much so that, by Friday afternoon, most pupils expressed disappointment that I would be leaving and a few offered unprompted compliments on my manner, nature and competency. My class teacher also reported favourably on my ability to communicate with, and build rapport with, the pupils. This has given me the belief that I can approach future placement experiences with less inhibition and more confidence.
Area Requiring Progress
My self evaluation and peer assessment both indicated that I need to learn to adopt a firmer approach with the pupils when situations of indiscipline arise. The fact that I had a strong desire to be liked by the pupils possibly contributed to this. It is my hope that this area will improve with experience and by acquiring both more subject knowledge and knowledge of behaviour management strategies, although there are certainly actions I can take to expedite this.
Action Plan
-Read ‘Getting the Buggers to Behave’ to improve my knowledge of behaviour management strategies.
-Ensure that I do not just do what is required in terms of reading, but undertake relevant further reading to improve the depth of my subject knowledge.
-My strong desire to be liked by the pupils hints that I may need to undertake further self-examination over why I feel the need for this approval.
