Life of a Teacher

Reflection:

When it came to managing the three Life of a Teacher days, it was a bit exhausting by the end of the day but I really enjoyed teaching. My mentor gave me full control of the classroom which allowed for me to utilise the classroom as if it were my own which I greatly appreciated. Taking over the role and responsibilities was a lot of fun and made me feel a lot more comfortable teaching the learners. They were all super excited that I was going to teach them the whole day. Once I completed my final day they asked why I wasn't teaching the remainder of the week which really touched my heart. The most challenging activities was the Life Skills Eco project and my balloon activity, because of the noise control. However, it's completely normal for the learners to be noisier during projects and when working with balloons. Based on my competency results, I can now see how important it is for a teacher to know her content! If I didn't plan before and ensure that I knew how to teach a specific topic, I would not have taught it as well.

I have improved on these competencies and went through the process of self reflection after every lesson. Those reflections helped me to see where I needed to work on and what I can do to make the lessons more fun and engaging for the learners. Based on the marks my mentor teacher gave me for the School Assessment Log & Report, I can see that I have improved since the first Life of a Teacher Day. The exit level outcome makes me feel proud and ready to have a classroom of my own where I can grow professionally. Any training provided along the way will only contribute towards my development and improve my holistic teaching strategies. Based on my self-evaluation from earlier in the year, I have improved a lot.

What really made my heart melt and cheer with joy was when the one mother came up to me on the last day of school to thank me for the impact I had had on her son. She said that he had never been so excited to go to school until I started doing my practical there. There were some other parents who also thanked me but not as much as that one mom. This proved that I was doing something right and that I have been doing what I had set my mind to do from the beginning of this degree. I shall always cherish all of the memories I had made at Crawford and will never forget those children.