Throughout my 2 week placement I got the chance to visit four different classrooms to observe. Those were primary 1,3,5 and 6/7. From these classes I gathered a substantial amount of information when observing on communication from both the teachers and pupils. I also got the chance to receive my own communication feedback from a peer, teachers and self assessment.
From these experiences I managed to identify that in the verbal communication section one of my strengths is that I always have clear pronunciation of my words. This was recognised both by myself and my peer. For example in the primary 3 class many children asked me to spell out words to them, at these points i was able to break up the word to clearly pronounce the letter sounds and how those sounds blend to create the word. I know this was a strength as the children could successfully copy town my pronunciation of the word first time without needing to ask again.
On placement I also identified a weakness of mine within the non verbal section of communication such as eye contact. Throughout the period of placement my peer and teachers noticed that sometimes I struggle to maintain eye contact with the kids often when it’s one to one. I started to pick up on this myself as I noticed during the primary 6/7 maths task I looked away from a child to figure out the answer whilet still talking therefore the child didn’t really feel engaged as I wasn’t explaining to their faces I was speaking to the paper rather than the child themseleves. In order to improve this particular weakness of mines i am going to try my best to look at everyone in my group whilst doing both the practice oral assessment and the real oral assessment. I will practice in the mean time by presenting to friends and family without presenting my explanations to the ground or board I will try to engage the group with my eye contact.
overall, during placement I gathered lots of strengths and weakness I have within the communication section however these were the 2 that stood out to me most and that I also managed to pick out myself aswell as hearing it from peers and teachers.
