1. Reflection Journal 27th May
I feel my teaching has improved over the last weeks teaching. I am much more confident in front of
the class, have better relationships with the students and also have better classroom management. I
feel my classroom confidence leads to better relationships and better classroom management but I
still have some things to work on. In my lesson reflection, I was told that my pace was a little slow
and that this needed to improve so this is an area where I am still trying to push myself. I am still
worried about moving on to fast and leaving some students behind. This is something that will
develop with my teaching as the students which would be left behind are not applying themselves
like other students so motivating these students to continue with their work could mean that the
pace of the class room could be picked up. In the subject of science, the pace could be picked up by
better preparing practices. I had my first full lesson class which involved a practical and this practical
took a little longer than expected. A way to increase the pace of this could be to prepare practical
kits for each individual group so they have all of their required equipment ready.
I set homework twice this week in a foundation class and both times less than half of the students
completed the homework. Maybe I need to give the students further meaning for completing their
homework other than detention. This could be a reward such as a fun lesson if the homework is
completed or this could be asking the students to take responsibility in their own actions. I will try
these techniques over the coming week.
I am again happy with my questioning used in the lessons. I feel this is one of my strong points as a
teacher. I believe giving the student an answer does not help the students to learn. I like to answer a
question with a guiding question.
I had my science lecturer Dr Anne Hume visit this week. I was reasonable happy with this lesson but
there were some key learning points taken from this lesson. This lesson had my first experiment
when I was the solo teacher of the class. The experiment took longer than expected and this was
largely due to the set up time and wash down time of the experiment. I made all the students come
and collect the equipment and then once this happened I went around each table and light their
burners and then added the potassium permanganate and this all took time. When I carry out
experiments in the future, I believe it is important to set up the equipment earlier. Another point
made in this class was that some students were not clear on the instructions. I gave verbal
instructions but some students were not listening in. The advice I received was to put instructions
onto a power point and I agree with this. This will make my job much easier as it is all written down
prior to the lesson and this will also make the job for the students easier as if there is any confusion,
I can direct their attention to the power point.
Last reflection I made the following notes on areas where I would like to improve
 Further improve my time management such that I am spending less time on starters and
allowing the students more time to complete tasks
o I have increased the pace of my lesson and I am now fitting more content into each
lesson. When a student finishes early, I try and have material for this student to go

2. on with. I have improved my time management by introducing technology into my
lessons to relay instructions
 Improve my relationships with the students and become more relaxed in the classroom
o My relationships with my students in the senior classes has become much more
relaxed and I believe the students appreciate this. I have relaxed my attitude a little
in my junior classes but I would still like to relax my attitude further. This will be a
case of relaxing my attitude for positive changes but I can imagine if I relax too
much, the class management may take a turn for the worse so it will be a case of
adjustments and monitoring.
 Tighten up on ill behaviour in the classroom, particularly if the student’s behaviour is
affecting other students.
o This is something which I would still like to improve on or receive further education
in. Generally, my classes are very well behaved and behaviour is not an issue but on
the odd occasion when it is an issue, There was an incident when I was not very
happy with the behaviour with my junior class this week. The students were up and
out of their seats and disturbing other students who were trying to work. At the
beginning of the next class I had a talk with the class. I said I am here to help you
learn to the best of my ability, but you are the main driver of your own education
and it is ultimately your own choice if you want to learn or not. This is your choice.
But when you start affecting other students education, then this is not acceptable
and this is what I will not tolerate in my class. I looked at a few key students while
giving this talk and the students knew that I was directing it at them. The attitude of
the class for this lesson and the remainder of the week was the best attitude from
the class since I had been in control. It appeared that the students who the speech
was not directed at appreciated this new classroom attitude as they could continue
with their work
 Change students perceptions on science
o Through making science interactive and a subject requiring involvement and
thinking, the attitude of the students has appeared to improve and when students
come to class, they appear to be more buoyant and ready to engage in learning.
 Create task which involve getting the students to think, even if this means they struggle with
the task
o This was undertaken with mixed results but I believe ultimately, the students learn
better from this even if they are struggling and get frustrated
 Get students to be interactive with one another and create activities where students work
in groups
o In my lessons, I have developed a few activities where the students work in groups
and interact with one another. Also if I have a question which I pose to the class, I
get the students to discuss the answer in groups before sharing with the class so the
students can bounce ideas off each other and develop an appreciation for multiple
ideas.
Next week I would also like to work on the following

3.  Clarity of the work for the students to undertake
 Have a more organised classroom which means there is little downtime therefore the
students are kept on task