This document contains a reflective self-evaluation from a student teacher's practicum experience. It discusses what was learned about teaching, the values that underpin the teacher role, and strengths and weaknesses identified. The student teacher learned that being a teacher is difficult, requiring skills like organization, good rapport, flexibility, and entertainment. Their vision of teaching values responsibility and organization. Strengths included developing organization skills and accepting feedback, while weaknesses were grammar-focused classes and time management. Professional development needs identified were finding new teaching approaches and realizing the broader role of teaching values for life.

1. Universidad Católica De La Santísima Concepción
Facultad De Educación Departamento De Lenguas
English Pedagogy Programme
Professional Practicum
MDD 6: Reflective Self-evaluation
Name: Gerardo Valdivia Zavalla
Professor (s): Theresa St John

2. Universidad Católica De La Santísima Concepción
Facultad De Educación Departamento De Lenguas
English Pedagogy Programme
Professional Practicum
Reflect on your learning in practice and how they learned helped better understand what it is "to be a teacher" and the values that underpin his teaching. Identify your strengths and weaknesses to exercise that role, and professional learning needs that emerge from them and its conceptualization of teaching.
1. What learning about teaching work did you obtain from your practical experience? How this learning helped to change, refine or complicate your understanding of "being a teacher''?
The learning I obtained from the teaching work is that being a teacher is hard. A teacher must have some skills that need to be present in order to meet the requirement he faces in the daily life. A teacher must be organize, must have good rapport, must be multifaceted, must be fun, must be entertaining, and many more characteristics.
These learning change my understanding of a teacher and made me remember the teachers I had when I was a school student and I realized how they worked so that I could learn in the past. To be a teacher is hard because you work with different students personalities, who have different needs, different views of the world, different learning styles and the teacher has to try to reach all those students differences. That makes the teacher profession hard.
I can say a lot of beautiful things about being a teacher but in Chile, in my opinion, people do not see the teacher profession as important as it should be considered. And also the Chilean system based on numerical results, and the belief that every student learns at the same speed makes it even harder. The only thing people want from the educational system is results not learning, only numbers.

3. Universidad Católica De La Santísima Concepción
Facultad De Educación Departamento De Lenguas
English Pedagogy Programme
Professional Practicum
2. What values underpin your vision of work and professional role?
In my opinion, what underpin my vision of work and professional role is responsibility and organization. Responsibility makes a teacher to meet all the requirements he has to face, the teacher must be responsible with his students, with his career, with his innovation, with his knowledge, use the knowledge winsomely, with his peers, with the feedback and what he shows to the society in general.
A teacher must organize his time. Time goes by and never comes back, so a teacher should make the most of it. Plan the classes is a good way, managing the hours of checking tests, assignments, etc.
3. What are your main strengths and weaknesses to exercise that role?
In my opinion, the main strengths and weaknesses to exercise the role of a teacher are:
Strengths: I had to work hard in order to become organized, I was not an organized person but I learnt through the process of being a pre-service teacher that I had to be organized and I think I achieved that. So that is why organization is a strength to me.
Another aspect I developed while being a pre-service teacher is the willingness to accept criticism. I was at school where my guide teacher used to give me a lot of feedback and I liked that because I learn from somebody who is actually a teacher. I accepted her criticism towards my work, I felt comfortable with the guide teacher’s feedback.
I have always tried to be objective while assessing assignments. I used rubrics, checklists, etc., because I believe that students must know how and what they are going to be assessed.

4. Universidad Católica De La Santísima Concepción
Facultad De Educación Departamento De Lenguas
English Pedagogy Programme
Professional Practicum
I think I have great rapport with people, but I think I need to master that social skill better in special with students. I am good at maintaining good relations with other people. For example I had good relation with my colleagues and with the administrative staff. I have always tried to be respectful with everyone.
I am willing to learn new things. I love to learn things from students, from the language, from elder people, from researches, from peers etc. I think that is crucial in order to innovate. If you want to innovate you need to learn something new. I usually criticized that at the university we studied authors with theories proposed many years ago. Those theories did not fulfill what I believed of education, although some theories are currently valid.
Weaknesses: My classes are too grammar focus, I am aware of that and I would like to change it. I will try to work hard to overcome this problem. My classes need to be more communicative.
I have problems with managing the time. I have realized I cannot give a whole hour to finish an activity.
I have problems with the outcome and the closing of a class. This does not happen all the time, but sometimes I do not know what to get as an outcome from students and I do not know how to finish the class. I know what to do but I usually forget how to make a good closing. I will overcome that with experience I believe.
4. What professional learning needs do you identify based on the strengths and weaknesses identified and your conception of "being a teacher"?
The professional learning needs that I identify based in the strengths and weaknesses and my conception of “being a teacher”, I would say that finding new ways of teaching. I believed that every student learns in a different way and we should find the way to reach the whole class with what we are teaching. We need to know the context of our students.

5. Universidad Católica De La Santísima Concepción
Facultad De Educación Departamento De Lenguas
English Pedagogy Programme
Professional Practicum
Other professional need is that we usually believe that teaching English is what we do, teaching a second language and that is all; however, we forget that we also teach values and prepare students for life in general. I believe that we have to be aware of that. In my opinion, the absence of those characteristics of knowing what to do and what to say to students is an opportunity; I must develop those skills in order to be a better teacher.
In conclusion, my experience at the school was enriching. I think I actually met with the reality of being a teacher. I realized that being a teacher is a hard activity and that I need to be organized and responsible. I found my strength and weaknesses in order to improve and overcome them. Finally, I realize that we can change the Chilean system, improve it and that the changes are in our hands.