Caring Relationship (Journal Reflection)

 

On the 4^th of November 2020 marked my teaching at Temwanoku Primary School. I was delivering English at Year 2 E and I found it very interesting as students enjoyed the lesson that I delivered to them. Initially, I was preparing my lesson plan and teaching aids before I started to teach them. The topic is about caring for resources and the subtopic is a Repetitive Text. Therefore, when I arrived at the classroom and all of students have been waiting for me to teach them. They seemed to be very eager to my delivering as I can tell by looking at them and where they were all settled silently. I came to know the difference between the Year 1 and 2 as Year 2 was organized unlikely the Year 1 that they were all in a chaos at all times.  

Furthermore, I started the lesson by a warmer in playing the preposition game, since the learning outcome is about responding to simple questions using verbal communication and that is why I apply this game for students to use. This is where I ask all student to put a book on a table and etc. They understand and enjoyed the game much as I can see from their expression. After the game, I demonstrate and display their learning outcome and topic including their repetitive text and activities afterwards. When marking their activity, I called any volunteer to write the answer on the chart. Additionally, my delivering was over and I was very excited because the majority of my student achieved the learning outcome as I can tell it after marking their work, where most of them gained full mark. 

However, there were also weaknesses I have in my delivering as I forgot to present and demonstrate the flashcard to students. Also, the allocated 1-hour duration exceed during my delivering as I forgot to allocate time to each part of the lesson I teach and therefore the time I spend in my delivering is 1 and a half hours.

Finally, I had recommended some strategies in order to solve the weaknesses I have stated. I must be ready and organized well in my delivering so that I would not forget some items in learning. I would also manage well my time by allocating each minute to each part of the lesson so that I can finished on time. By doing these, I could overcome my weaknesses and also, I would be an effective teacher in the near future.

Week 13 Reflective Journal: - 14th - 18th August 2023

 This is the last week of schooling and also it was a week for the final examination. During the 3 days of the final exam, I was supervising my form which is year 8 KKT in doing their exam. I asked students to clean their classroom and organize their desks properly and separately. Then, I distributed their exam papers and walked around to supervise them.

Furthermore, I was grateful for the intense experience that I acquired throughout the whole term. There were many challenges I encountered especially while I was in the classroom teaching the year 8 KKT students but I was grateful that my associate teachers, principal, and everyone at Ngaon te Rabakau JSS were always available to support, encourage, and assist me all the way from week 2 to the end of week 13.

Overall, I was grateful to year 8 KKT students that without them, I would not have been able to pass my two assessments from my lecturers, I would not have known how the classroom looked like, how the teaching would feel like, how would I perform or act as and I do not know who I in the classroom am. Year 8KKT helped me to adopt or find varieties of teaching approaches that would cater to their different learning needs. Thus, the experiences and challenges I encountered will strengthen me to walk into the path of an effective and well-trained teacher in the future.

Week 12 Reflective Journal: - 17th August - 11th August 2023

 During the 12th week, I started to implement the alternative curriculum in my lesson delivery. It is because I think it would be useful for the year 8 KKT students' learning. I begin the lesson with a game "seashore" in order to engage them and arouse their learning curiosity. I also managed to integrate two subjects that are social science and physical education in one period and create effective activities that best suit their learning capabilities. During the lesson, I allowed each volunteer from each group to play the game "Back to the Board game" where they stood at the back and then walked faster to the board to read "Culture and Tradition" that was written on the board and then came back to his/her group members and explain it.

Moreover, I realized that students were engaging well during the social science lesson process because they really enjoyed the lesson delivered to them. Consequently, all students achieved the learning outcomes.

Overall, I realized that the lesson was delivered according to the learning needs of students, where all students achieved the learning outcomes and also successfully participated in the learning process. This happened because I tried my best to apply effective teaching and learning activities to foster the development of creativity, insight, and understanding of students.

To conclude, it is necessary that teachers consider the implementation of alternative curricula in teaching outside the classroom, to be an approach to assist students who have problems to fully understand the content of the national or standard curriculum. Thus, students are also encouraged to pay full attention to the teaching process of teachers as they apply alternative curricula to teach them. So that, the alternative curriculum teaching is worth much to their learning progress.

Week 11 Reflective Journal: - 31st August - 4th August 2023

 This week, I studied the behavior of my students compared with the other students I have come across. I have seen the practice of gender equality practiced by every classroom I entered. For this reason, I will provide three of the things that I noticed it was very related to the increasing gender inequality.

Firstly, year 8 KKT students usually contribute to this matter that they like to sit separately where girls on their own as well as boys on their own. In their seating places, they emphasized different types of interests where girls like to sing and study along together. While boys like to talk about game players, wrestling, and studying as well. They show different interests in what they like to watch, do, and talk about.

Moreover, the experiences inside the classroom are also different for each gender. The boys are more likely to hate participating in group work and quizzes, for they always thought that girls were smarter than them. This is not applied to all the boys but most of the boys gained lower scores to the pass mark. In this sense, they always thought they were not good at studying and other academic skills. While girls are likely to win over the score in every test, I prepared for them.

To conclude, I know it is very hard for girls to behave like boys and for boys to behave like girls, but if this belief is going to be continually practiced in young life, then they will remain and will repeatedly practice it when they grow up and most of all they will not get matured in their decision making. 

Week 10 Reflective Journal: - 24th - 28th Jurly 2023

 This week is an assessment week for Ngaon Te Rabakau JSS students. However, the first 2 days were used as revision days to prepare the students before the common assessment task. I continued on with the revision activity and approaches from last week. 

During the assessment, I supervised them to make sure they did not cheat and did their work, properly. I arrived at their classroom and assigned them to organize their seating arrangement separately and clean their classroom.

The most misbehaving students sat next to each other, and I found out that they also had time to disturb their classmates with their cheeky behaviors. Therefore, I let them sit properly and separate from each other to avoid any disturbances they may have when they sit next to each other.

It is believed that students prefer to misbehave at all times, so it is also the duty of a teacher to control their misbehavior in ways of applying any teaching approaches such as classroom management, student-centered learning, and others.

Week 9 Reflective Journal: - 17th - 21st July 2023

 It was the beginning of the week after the Independence holiday, and students were fresh and eager to learn. They engaged effectively throughout the lesson and did their tasks wholeheartedly. They did this only on the first and second day. Then, the rest of the day they began misbehaving. 

As an effective teacher, I would try to capture the attention of students in learning as well as their curiosity in learning. Therefore, I would apply or integrate the lesson with educational activities or games to make the lesson more fun and engaging.

This was also the revision week before the common assessment task 2 in the following week. So, I prepared their revision and made it a game. For instance, I write the questions on the board and allow 2 volunteers to answer the questions. The one who finished their answer first and it was correct, then it was the winner. I also let the other 2 volunteers stand in the middle or at the back facing backward. Then, I write the question on the board and after finishing writing the question. The one who finishes his/her answer correctly will be the winner. 

Overall, I found out that students were engaged in the lesson or revision activity which is a game, and learnt a lot from the game or activity. Those who got bored from the normal lesson seemed interested in the lesson or activity integrated with educational games. So, I confirmed that the majority of students were prepared well before the CAT 2 and would gain good or pass marks. 

Week 8 Reflective Journal: - 10th July - 14th July 2023

 This week was an independence holiday that occurred from the 10th to the 13th of July. However, the 14th of July was supposed to be a cultural day event but due to very bad weather or rainy days, the principal postponed it to August the day before the youth day.

Week 7 Reflective Journal: - 3rd July - 7th July 2023

 This week was less challenging and more fun to work with students. I applied the classroom management approach that I learned in the previous week, and I found it effective for some students. This happened because students did not want to be far behind and not complete their notes. In this approach, I put up their task or note and require students to complete the task or note by the count of 1 or 2 minutes.

This was helpful for some students as they engaged effectively in the learning process and finished their tasks on time. It also benefitted them as they achieved the learning outcomes at the end of the lesson. However, there were also some students who were very cheeky and naughty during class, but I also found other methods which are applying appropriate disciplinary measures to them. In this method, I report them to the principal for counseling and punishment and the other one is writing their names in the discipline book to be disciplined.

Those students who had their names recorded in the discipline book for more than 15, would be on suspension for three days and they would not attend school these days. It was expected that those students who faced this situation or were on suspension would be afraid and would manage to finish every task and be obedient at all times as they were observed that whenever they committed any offences would be terminated and removed to other schools.

Overall, I have learnt that it is important to adopt any disciplinary methods to make them afraid and obedient and at the same time, have the desire to learn. 

Week 6 Reflective Journal: - 26th - 30th June 2023

 This was the most challenging week where students knew me well and they treated me as one of their classmates. They were very obedient and engaged effectively in the first place. However, as they knew me well, they were not afraid of me as they were free or had the courage to do their work or any other things on their own.

These experiences were the most challenging ones where students could misbehave anytime and were not afraid of me. I tried to be firm and strict, but they did not bother to show respect to me and did anything they preferred. The year 8 KKT students were becoming more disrespectful while only a quarter of their 37 rolls were obedient and had a desire to learn.

I was almost fed up and gave up, but I tried not to. Therefore, I seek help and assistance from other teachers to give me some encouragement especially the classroom management approaches to tackle the misbehaviors of my students. I was grateful that I got one approach in which I would set up timing for students in every task I gave them especially to make the learning environment and lesson fun and engaging for students.

Overall, I discovered that working on your own could discourage you in your path. Therefore, seeking the help of others in times of hardship and overload stress would keep you on-track toward the finishing line.

Week 5 Reflective Journal: - 19th - 23rd June 2023

 This is week 5, and I found it more fun and challenging as well. Students of year 8 KKT were smart and fun to work with but there were times that they got naughty and misbehaved. This happened because they prefer to play around all the time. As a teacher trainee, I will apply any teaching approaches that could cater to both the learning needs and the needs of students. In this case, I will try to integrate the sport and learning while teaching them.

Recalling back to the preparation of lesson plans and teaching aids, it was easy as I have been practicing and doing it in 2 terms and 5 weeks. I was grateful that I managed to do my lesson plan and teaching aids without any hesitation. However, if there was any confusion about the topic and whatever related to the lesson and teaching aids, then I sought advice and assistance from my associate teachers and colleagues.

This is also a week where I was assessed in Te Kiribati and Social Science. Fortunately, I passed this assessment but there were also other weaknesses in some parts of the plan especially the delivery that need improvement. I was excited that I had time to discuss weaknesses and gain some improvement advice from my assessors. I will apply it or make improvements to the next assessment and hopefully, it will improve.

Overall, I was grateful for the past 4 weeks of teaching training and I am looking forward to gaining more teaching experiences that would contribute to the development of my teaching and especially to the learning of students.

Week 4 Reflective Journal: - 12th June - 16th June 2023

 This week is becoming easy for me as I enjoyed teaching year 8 KKT students. I was stressed last week but as day went by, I managed to cope with misbehaved students. As well as managed to adopt any teaching strategies that could engage students in their learning processes. For instance, the naughty students remained obedient and did their work when I scolded them and asked them to go to the principal if they misbehaved in class.

Moreover, I applied teaching strategies in order to engage the students in their learning processes. I applied presentations, field trips, and skit activities for them to be more engaging. However, there was some student who did not participate in these activities as they preferred active learning activities which is discussed in class. so, I prepared both of these activities the next day.

Overall, at the end of this week, I discovered that the cause of students' misbehaviors was caused from the boredom arising from the teaching approaches and learning activities used. Therefore, I will try to adopt any teaching approaches and learning activities that are fun for students. In doing these, students will not misbehave but will be interested in the learning process. So, they will learn effectively and achieve the learning outcomes at the end of the lesson.

Week 3 Reflective Journal: - 5th June - 9th June 2023

 During this week, I found it fun and enjoyable as I worked comfortably with students because I already studied their behavior and found strategies that would meet their needs and solve their misbehaviors. 

While delivering the four subjects of KCS, Moral Education, Te Kiribati, and Social Science). I always started with a warmer game to attract their attention, then continued on with the lesson delivery. The year 8 KKT students, were smart but troublemakers at times. I saw this in the previous weeks. Te Kiribati lesson was achievable for them as it was their own language.

Moreover, during morning sessions, they were all active and enjoyed doing their tasks, but the afternoon sessions seemed very boring for students, and they did not want to do their work while others kept on asking to go home.

Overall, this third week of practical teaching has helped me to be patient. Teaching was tiring and annoying at times but was fun as well. I am very grateful for the experience. I achieved this during these three weeks of practical teaching. 

Week 2 Reflective Journal: - 29th May-2 June 2023

 This is the beginning of week 2 where I did not observe but begin the delivery in the 4 subjects of KCS, Moral Education, Social Science, and Te Kiribati. However, I carried out 2 tasks where I observed the year 8 KKT and taught them these 4 subjects at the same time.

Furthermore, while I observed the year 8 KKT I noticed that they have different qualities. Some are quiet and always having their classwork done. However, only a few of them especially the boys preferred to disturb others and did not want to do their work. This, I noticed students were misbehaving in class because they got bored with the lesson delivery delivered to them. I assumed that they like fun lessons that allow them to play an educational game related to their topic.

Moreover, as I taught them on the first day of this week, I realized that I was again nervous which caused me to forget to introduce the learning outcomes. Therefore, I was grateful that my associate teachers were available at all times to assist and advise me about my lesson plan and delivery.