MY ATTITUDES TOWARDS PUPILS / MY ATTITUDE TOWARDS PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE (ME AS A LEARNER)

 

MY ATTITUDES TOWARDS PUPILS

From my experience concerning children in general, I always say that they don’t believe what you tell them, they believe what they see. This is why some children pretend to agree with adults, but among themselves, you’re shocked at how they truly feel and what they say. Concerning pupils, in particular, I say they mostly trust their teachers more than their parents. This is why some of them would argue with their parents over what they believed the teacher said. On one occasion, a parent had to call me at night concerning homework, to explain to the child that he didn’t hear well and that Mum was right. Why do I mention this? These two contexts involve children and have streamlined my attitude towards them.

As a teacher, I am so conscious of the importance of relationships with my pupils that my first challenge each time I have to take a new set of students, is to make myself accepted by them. In life, they usually say first impression matters, but as a teacher, there’s nothing like the first impression for me. I would rather say daily impression matters more because after winning my pupils, I must always strive to KEEP them. With this, they become active during the lessons and I can identify their strength and weaknesses and build in them The trust they put in me is such a huge responsibility to carry that I am careful not to fail them. To achieve this, I bridge the gap between teacher-student relationships by going down to their level, loving the things they love, discussing the topic they like, breaking, or being flexible with some rules, if I’m sure it would make them a little bit happy without hurting them. I enter their minds and I understand because I was once like them. We all need some fun.

Nonetheless, I must not lose sight of my other responsibility as a teacher, to help bring out the best in them, and help them develop into responsible and fulfilled adults. It requires a lot of discipline and self-discipline. In order not to transform my class into a concentration camp, and look like a tyrant, I understood it is important to involve the students in making the rules to ensure maximum compliance from them. I didn’t have the opportunity to implement it during my practicum because their teacher did a great job at the base, and the kids were pretty responsible and disciplined. I just had to get them to respond to my “Hello” with a “Hi” when I needed their attention.

As far as the students’ individual profile is concerned, it influenced my attitude in the sense that I tend to speak slower, since my accent may be difficult to understand, and according to their L2 level. for example, I now use a lot of illustrations, Venn diagram, tables, diagrams to get myself understood and avoid lengthy instructions which is a challenge for me to make them simple, and also to receive feedback.

To conclude, as a teacher, my experience of the past enables me today to mold the minds of the children in order to impact the future.

 

MY ATTITUDE TOWARDS PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE (ME AS A LEARNER)

Before I teach, I must learn from someone or something. And if I expect my students to learn from me, I must teach by example. So how am I a learner? First of all, I have the willingness to learn. I believe that we learn every day, and even on the last day, we learn to die. I am open-minded, and I don’t only wait for the knowledge to come to me by chance, I go for it. I learn from my teachers, I cooperate with my colleagues, I discuss even with my students, and make expensive use of multimedia resources to confirm or infirm information then apply and assimilate them into my teaching practices. Afterward, I learn from my experience, and more deeply from my mistakes. That’s why I am not afraid to take risks, and I share the view that you fail fast, you learn fast.

During my training, I have understood the power of a reflective mindset. For me, it is the catalyst of learning because, through reflection, I was able to identify where I was, where I wanted to be, what I had, and what I needed in order to achieve what I wanted. I might as well have done some thinking once in a while in the past maybe out of a reflex, but now I do the thinking with understanding, with a vision. It is well structured, with specific, realistic, measurable, and achievable goals. Reflection has become a conscious and systematic act, even where there is no problem, just to understand situations. In the process, I learn, grow, and become more confident in taking decisions, defending, and backing up my stance.

For instance, during my practicum, I had a child suffering from Asperger’s syndrome who was the subject of my action research. This was a disability that was completely new to me, and I researched it, and collaborated with my teachers, Mentor, and colleagues to come out with some proposal, to help the child adopt a healthy attitude during conversations with peers. Although I have not yet had the opportunity to implement my proposals, the experience of constantly reflecting on them, was enriching, and I am more prepared to handle similar cases in my classroom, and I know how and where I can dig to get solutions.

I have learned about Gardener’s multiple intelligence theory which describes the various and varied ways in which we learn, and so I make use of the various teaching techniques available for teachers and anyone truly concerned about the progress of the students under his or her care. I have also discovered learner autonomy, which is one of the key factors to take into consideration towards achieving the student’s goal. Moreover, I have never imagined how deep a classroom environment is essential to learning.  I thought it was enough to have a clean space or four walls decorated with didactic material, and a chair, to have a good setting for learning to take place. This was a very big mistake on my part. The learning environment goes far beyond the physical, including, the emotional, and the psychological dimension. It requires me as a teacher not only to be physically present, but my mind must also be present, and my student must feel it deep in them and react to it positively. These are things that one can’t feign. That’s where Krashen’s affective filter comes into play. I must keep it very low so that I am able to impact my students.  

One interesting thing that I learned about myself was that I did not have an English accent. I mean, I was so confident that I am fluent in English and could teach English anywhere. It was only during the course of English phonetics that I was shocked. I still have a long way to go in this domain. This was confirmed when I was not selected for a teaching job. Since I like to learn from my failures, I requested feedback from the recruiter, and she said the methodology was ok, but my accent was the problem, and she said if I worked on it, I could still apply in four months. I was very happy with this feedback because you can’t solve a problem you don’t see. I discussed it with my teacher of this course, and she suggested that I listen to a lot of native speakers and watch such movies, to be able to improve my accent. I have printed the “Sound Foundations” of Adrian Underhill, to have it constantly before my eyes for practice, and to remind me of the work ahead.

Therefore, I am very positive toward learning, receiving, and even asking for feedback because they help me become a better person and positively impact my student. I have made learning a continuous venture because our world is fast changing. A lot of innovations are constantly being initiated in all fields of life, and I am quite aware that my student will come from anywhere, and would embrace any field in life. So. I must be up to date to meet up with their needs and expectations. More than a desire, it is a duty for me to acquire knowledge to teach. As I practice, I grow in experience and as such gain knowledge, and even after practice, I still learn from my failures and successes.