When discussing my notes with my partner, Aimee, we realised that they were actually very closely aligned. We both agreed that this teacher spoke clearly and at a good volume and appeared to be very professional. However, we both realised that sometimes when he was talking to his class he sat slouched at his desk. My partner and I agreed that this isolated himself from his class and he didn’t look engaged or in control of at all.
One thing that did surprise me in the videos was the fact that people actually videoed their lessons. I had never heard of this teaching strategy before but I think it looks very useful and effective because you can see your mistakes and successes and may try it out in the future.
Overall, I think that these tasks were manageable but required me to think deeply about my answers. I had to really analyse the teacher’s body language, volume and teaching strategies which was an entirely new experience for me but one I thoroughly enjoyed. As a result of studying their behaviour I decided that my answers were best suited to what I watched.
After completing these tasks, I think I have a good understanding of the difference between feedback and judgement. In my opinion, the difference is that feedback is constructive criticism and something you can learn from, whereas, judgement only focusses on the negatives and doesn’t give the recipient anything to feed off of.
The idea that I would like to hang onto and take with me to my forthcoming placement is that children should have the chance to discuss their answers with their peers, to improve their communication skills, but I would inform them of a signal I’ll use to tell them to stop their discussion so I still have control of my class.
Personally, I am extremely excited about my placement as it will give me an insight into my future career as a teacher and give me the chance to practise what I have been learning at university. I will also be able to see my strengths and weaknesses which will give me the chance to improve as a student teacher.
