I thoroughly enjoyed my placement and being in the classroom environment. I was told before I went out into placement, that this will allow me to determine if this is the career I want to pursue. And this experience definitely allowed me to realise that this is what I want to do.

A strength I felt I had was the use of communication through facial expressions and hand gestures. During a maths lesson, the primary 3 teacher I was working with allowed me take a same group of pupil who required extra support with their tasks. They were doing a lesson on place value and adding. I was able to use hand gestures to help the children determine which column they were looking at when doing addition with numbers from 100 and which way the number was moving, for example, they had questions that asked “what is 100 more than 567” so I would use hand gestures to help them understand that the hundreds column is moving up. This method was effective for these children as they could apply it to other questions which were more difficult.

My use of facial expressions was effective because whenever the children got an answer correct or were on the right track, I was able to use positive facial expressions and nodding my head, so they understood they were correct and to keep doing what they were doing.

However, a weakness I have identified is that I should try not to be so shy in new environments and situations. I was very nervous at first because it was the first time being in the classrooms with all the children and having a responsibility of taking a small group for a maths lesson. This also feeds into my non-verbal communication and my use of body language as when I am nervous, I tend to shut my body off.

In order to learn how to develop and improve my body language, I am going to practise being more open and confident so I don’t feel the need to close off my body as it gives a negative impression. Also, I will try and find relevant texts which can help me improve my body language.