Semester one of university brought about a lot of key moments in my journey to becoming a teacher. From the values module, which encouraged me to think about my personal and professional values, to having to choose an elective subject where I got to learn further about a topic that I was interested in. However the standout moment for me from semester one had to be the working together module and what it taught me about reflection.
At the start of the module I was apprehensive. I was so eager to get stuck straight into teaching and so was a little confused about why we were doing this module. On reflection I can see the importance of working together. The module involved working together in a group of ten people. I am quite a naturally shy person and so being thrown into a group of big personalities was very daunting to me. At the start I was very content to sit in the background occasionally agreeing with someones opinion and not really fully investing. However as the weeks progressed our group got closer and started to have more banter with each other. I began to get more comfortable contributing to the group and by the presentation I was confident enough to present alongside my group.
Through the working together module we learnt a lot about reflection and how important it is to your professional development. Reflection is about assessing what you did right, what you did wrong and what you would do different next time to improve. It is important to not just reflect after the incident but during the incident in order to assess your next move. This will be key for me as I begin my journey as a teacher and start professional practice later in the semester.
When reflecting on the working together module I can see the positives and negatives in my work. Even though I am naturally shy I should’ve let go of any reservations I had and put 100% effort into my group discussion. However I am proud of how when the weeks progressed I went out of my comfort zone in order to contribute to the group. I am now eagerly looking forward to learning more about reflection in the upcoming semester and my placement.
