1. Reflection on my Experience as a Commerce Teacher during internship.-
As part of our B. Ed curriculum, we had four months internship
programme. My school internship was at Emmanuels Higher Secondary School,
Kottayam. I was asked to take class in plus one Commerce batch. It was a
wonderful moment for me to engage with the students and teachers in that
school. It gave me an opportunity to link the educational theory and pedagogical
concepts with school settings.
The student teaching experience allows you to put everything that you
have learned about education and you subject matter in to action you get to test
the learners under the supervision at an experienced teacher who can guide you
along and help you become the kind of teacher that you want to be. I thoroughly
enjoyed my internship.
As a freshman in the school of education I am so excited to get plugged
into real classrooms soon and get even more training and insight on what it really
like to be a teacher. Though elementary education is not what I am majoring in
this teaching Experience gave me a view at what it is that I could potentially be
doing a few years from now, and I am more than excited to explore this amazing
field that is education.
I got an opportunity to conduct Business quiz competition for the students
as part of club activity. They participated in the competition with great
enthusiasm. Students also prepared an album on types of Business enterprises.
It gave them a space to showcase their works. I analyzed that Commerce club is
useful in arousing and maintaining interest in Commerce. Gifted students get an
opportunity to satisfy their needs and interests by actively participating in the
activities of such clubs and associations.
My four month teaching experience has been the best, I had great time
with my students. It gave me a good experience as a Commerce teacher.
Through this programme I got a chance to work with experienced teachers and
their constant support helped me to extend my pedagogical practices and beliefs.
More specifically, there were three parts of my student teaching experience that
stick out to me as the most important strengths or “wins” for the semester:
relationships, planning and time management. Throughout the period, I was able
to create a really great atmosphere in my classrooms. I was a little worried about
a few of my classes early on, but as I got to know the students better and
establish relationships with them, the problems mostly vanished. Once I
established those connections and relationships with students, it was easy to tell
that they bought into what I was teaching them considerably more. They started
to ask more questions, be more interested in the topics and generally have fun
2. with learning history. However, my relationships with students were not the only
relationships that went well this time. I would also say that my relationships with
the staff here at Emmanuels Higher Secondary School went very well. I
sustained a great working relationship with my cooperating teacher, as well as
other teachers in the department. There was other staff in the building of which I
grew very fond of as well; specifically, the ladies in the library who have been
very helpful.
Another aspect that went well for me this time was planning and time
management. Throughout the period, I was almost always a week ahead in my
planning. My schedule was a great help; due to the block schedule I was able to
have three consecutive off periods. This allowed me to plan, grade, and make
copies, etc. in a timely manner. Also, I taught a study hall, which gave me more
time to plan and grade assignments. The actual process of planning my lessons
went smoothly as well. My cooperating teacher took the time to show me how he
goes about planning a unit, and I gathered very valuable advice from him.
Therefore, I was able to plan my units. My time management skills have definitely
improved over the course of the semester. While I never found myself seriously
overwhelmed with grading or planning, there were still a few days where I wished
I had spent more time on a particular task. However, towards the end of the
period, I was able to get everything that I needed to all done, and work ahead of
myself.
In the beginning, I was a little timid with my students, even while
presenting them information that I know backwards and forwards. After a couple
weeks, however, I was more comfortable in front of the class. This experience
has taught me that students are much more likely to buy into your class and
listen to you when you come in with a positive and confident demeanor. Once I
gained my confidence in the class, I had more fun with teaching, and my
students had more fun as well. My increased confidence levels definitely
translated to the students doing better in class, and even worked to stem some of
the problems I had with classroom management. Respect for myself and my
students ties into this as well, and is closely related to the relationships you have
with students. I learned that respect and confidence will go a long way in terms of
connecting and maintaining relationships with your students, which does help the
classroom atmosphere and performance.
Classroom management was another area which I learned a lot about
during student teaching. My biggest take away about classroom management is
the relationship piece. When I started building better relationships with my
students, there was an obvious correlation to classroom management
improvements. The students listened and respected me more, so there were less
distractions and negative behaviors. Another effective strategy I learned to
3. implement was walking around the room. At the beginning of the semester, I was
glued to the front of the room. Although part of this was because I needed to be
close to the computer to change the slide, I felt most comfortable at the front.
Throughout the semester, once I had relaxed and gained confidence, I was able
to move smoothly around the room. This greatly helped with my classroom
management, because of proximity to the students. When I stood right next to a
student, they would immediately put their phones away or stop whatever
negative behavior. During classes in which I walked around constantly, the
students were more attentive to the lesson, and listened more actively as well.
Although my practice went very well, and I have many positive
experiences to share, there were a few things that I would do differently. First, I
would like to start implementing some quick classroom management tools for
attending skills. For the most part, I was satisfactory at getting the students
attention. However, there were some days when I would spend several minutes
trying to get their attention. When I teach in the future, I would like to establish
some quick technique to get their attention such as “clap once if you can hear me
[claps], clap twice if you can hear me [claps]”. That is an example of one
technique I have seen used in the classroom, and it seems to help. I would also
like to work on giving clear directions in the future. I created classroom
management problems for myself when I did not give clear directions. Students
would be confused, chatting to their neighbors to try and figure out what to do, or
they would ask a million questions all at once so I could not hear them. I would
like to work on spending more time frontloading information so that I do not have
those issues in the future.
Lastly, if I were to redo student teaching, I would participate in
more activities outside of school. I have a busy life outside of school, and it was
hard for me to make any events. However, I wish I would have made the room in
my schedule to fit those events in. There are several reasons why I wish I would
have participated more. Going to student events is a really great way to make
relationships and connections with the students. They respect you when you
show that you care about them. Also, it’s a good classroom management
strategy as well. If you go to a student’s event, you can comment on how they did
in class and they will most likely behave positively and react well to you. They
appreciate that participation.
Overall, my student teaching experience was very positive. The things I
would change are small and easy changes to make, and the things I have
learned are invaluable. I could not have asked for a better cooperating teacher or
students, and I will miss Emmanuels Higher High School very much.
