The one week placement has really gave me insight on what it is like to be a Primary school teacher. It has definitely made me feel confident that this is the occupation for me. Being in a primary 2 class for the whole week was challenging, but overall a great experience. The teachers were all very kind and made me feel very welcome in the school. The only negative aspect would be that the one week was too short!

Strength

I would say that my biggest strength was that I always spoke in a loud voice when speaking in front of the class. This allowed everyone to hear me when I was reading  a story to the children  and carrying out their morning meeting. Speaking at an adequate volume allowed the children to understand my instructions and also made me feel confident in my teaching.

Area of most Progress

I think that I have improved my non-verbal communication the most on the placement. I always made sure that my body language was positive by sitting up straight or standing in a wide stance. Before placement, I would tend to cross my arms and legs. Now, I am always thinking about my positive body language, and it really does made you feel more confident!!

Area Requiring Progress

For me, I have to really focus on my pace when speaking. When nervous, I have the tendency to speed up my pace of speech, which leaves me stuttering and using a lot of words like ‘ehm’ and ‘ah’. I have always had a issue with this and would love to tackle this problem.

Action plan

In order to become more successful, my action plan is to read about improving verbal communication and ways to calm nerves, as I feel that this would really help me to slow down my pace of speech. Another thing that I am going to do is record myself speaking so that I can listen to my voice and point out any errors that I could be making.