3. Prof. Skills & Abilities | My ePortfolio- Nicola Steel

On Friday 18th January Derek gave us a lecture on how to reflect effectively. Reflecting as a teacher is a very important skill as it furthers you improving your skills and practise as a teacher.

The Standards for Registration under the heading Professional Skills and Abilities (3.4.2), this highlights the importance of and ways in which reflection acts in the daily life of a teacher and the development of the prospective teacher.

Derek asked us to reflect on one of the most important moments of my professional development in semester 1. In my opinion, the process of reflection is extremely important. When you make the wrong decision or have a blunder you always learn not to do it again, you reflect on what you did wrong to make sure you don’t do it again. A very common saying ‘you learn from your mistakes’ is something that we all say when we haven’t done the right thing. Looking forward to working with my primary 7 class, where after each lesson I prepare I will reflect on what I thought went right and wrong alongside my tutor’s thoughts to come to an overall reflection of what I could do better and the positives of the experience.

In semester 1 the Working Together module involved working collaboratively with 10 others from Education, Social Work and Community Learning Development. When preparing the presentation on Working Together we reflected on how our group worked together collaboratively. As my group all got on so well it was hard to think of any negatives however we reflected upon the positives. The positives lead us to come together as a group and produce a final presentation. However, as we mentioned in the presentation due to the friendships we made it made it difficult to focus on work at certain points.

Overall reflection is a skill that as a prospective teacher I will develop and learn from in the present and the future.

As a teacher, you become a child’s role model. I see the profession of teaching as a challenge. You are placed in a classroom with the ability to motivate and build more confident young people. Over time you build a connection with the pupils in the classroom and this allows you to motivate them through engaging lessons suited to enhance their learning experience. Through various opportunities, I have had I have been able to reflect on each of them to build on knowledge that I will use when it is my chance to educate young people. There are very few teachers that have made a difference to me and have shaped me as a person, these are the teachers that I will always remember. That’s my number one priority as a teacher. To have an impact on children’s lives would mean so much to me. The passion I have for teaching and making a difference in children’s lives will lead them to have a positive perspective on learning through their whole lives. What can I bring to the profession of teaching? The passion and dedication I have to teach and the relationship I form with my pupils will be something rewarding and I can look back on in later life as a massive achievement.

Reflections & Evaluations

Not just a teacher, a role model.