Becoming the teacher for a few days was extremely daunting for me, I think more so because their actual teacher was still there and knowing I had someone watching me the whole time was quite scary. Learners were so excited to have me as their teacher full-time for a few days and that definitely helped my confidence and I wanted to make them comfortable while I was in charge.
The most difficult part for me was definitely time management, on some days I had the learners for up to three lessons one-after-the-other and this meant that I lost track of time, we would get so caught up in a lesson that I would look at the clock and we would have gone through to the next lesson already! So I had to learn to watch the clock carefully and make sure we were keeping up with our workload while still actually engaging with our learning (which I have realised is a lot easier said than done).
The reasons that I would get caught up in my lessons was due to the type of class I had, for something that I assumed (first mistake, never assume) would be a quick recap or a quick lesson would take much much longer than expected because my learners were all just so different and their needs for learning varied immensely! In my one tiny little class alone (8 students) I had one learner who has severe Tourette's, one learner who has severe dyslexia and therefore can barely read, another two with milder dyslexia, two learners with severe ADHD - not on any medication (two others with mild ADHD on medication) and one learner with some of the worst dyscalculia I have come across so it was a lot for me to cater for in one lesson. The speeds at which my learners work is so different and therefore when I was teaching a concept that I thought would be quick ended up going into the next lesson. I think fixing something like this takes time and that in my allotted three days was not enough for me to get it spot on but I know that if I had had them all year my outcome would have been incredibly different.
I felt extremely overwhelmed a lot of the time and I recognise that that is because I am a new teacher and that with time and growth it will get better but some days it just felt like I wasn't ready to be there.
Another challenge I faced which was actually the perfect opportunity for me to see what it is really like as a teacher was how many interruptions there are at school! in the three days that I did my "life of a teacher" there were always things that came up like people coming to read stories to the learners, or rhino talks or the opening of the new field. I finally understood why my teachers hated things like this, where is the time to learn?!
But at the end of the day I felt like I really accomplished a lot, I was able to connect to the learners in a different way, although I already had an amazing relationship with the learners, they finally saw me as a real teacher and I found that my bond with them only grew more after this experience.
Being a teacher with my own classroom and having all the pressure on me for the first time was a wonderful way to learn, and I think it was a good point of reflection for me, it is a lot more responsibility than I ever thought and it is certainly very different than sitting at the back of the classroom and only teaching now-and-then.
Some things I learnt while being the 'teacher-in-charge' -
You need A LOT of coffee.
Learners love arguing, but instead of getting upset about it engage their curiosity and independence - you will both be better off because of it.
Nothing will always go as planned.
Getting close to your learners is important but you need to learn where the line is - like don't call them "dude" because then they start calling you dude back...
It doesn't always need to be a panic to get things done, take it slow and actually enjoy your day.
Opmerkingen