Standard 6:

REFLECTIVE SELF-EVALUATION

Standard: The pre-service teacher reflect about his/her understanding of teaching role and the values that support it, recognize his/her strengths and weaknesses and establish priorities for his/her constant learning as a professional.

Task 1 Reflect about your learning during the professional practicum and how what you learnt contributed to understand better in what’s the meaning of “be a teacher” and the values that support your teaching activities. Identify your strengths and weaknesses to take this role, and the learning needs that appear from them; moreover, your conceptualisation of the teaching activities.

Orientation of the task

1. What kind of learning about the teaching activities you obtained from this experience (professional practicum) how this learning contributed to change, polish or expand your understanding of be a teacher?

During my professional practicum, I was exposed to different issues which were part of my overall performance. I had to develop not only techniques, knowledge or different perspectives about pedagogy, moreover, English but also intrapersonal and interpersonal attitudes that are neccesary as a teacher. At the end of my process I could mention that to be competence in your area, in this case English, is not at all that you need to face your career. There are a lot of personal skills which are relevant in each day at the school and also with people who we work.

In my case, the idea about how to be a teacher was too simple at the university, in comparison with the reality. Obviously, those knowledge which were thought are the base in order to teach at the school; nonetheless, administrative work, assessment, discipline, counselling and orientation, methodology (planning-material among others), meetings with parents, area department, UTP etc., and finally work with 40 different people per classroom make teacher´s work more complex than it appears.

Nevertheless, for me to be a teacher is a wonderful and demanded work which it is neccesary for all the rest of careers. Besides, in a teacher there is a power that could be used to transform a life in two different ways, one of them in order to motivate a person and the other to stop dreams. Hence, those huge things that I learnt will help me in a future in my own classes, for instance, how to manage the discipline or how to follow a planning without look it and just do it as a simple and natural process, how to change an activity because it was not appropriate or adjust to the time, listen to my students and motivate all the time because I strongly believe that they can do everything! Thus, this experience will be unforgettable for me.

2. What values support your view of the work and professional role?

The principal values that support my view of work and professional role are:

-Responsibility: to be responsible with the different tasks, punctual and work in time with administrative areas at the school and guided teacher (They required planning, assessments and other type of work

-Love: to do everything with love could change a life. Show interest in other provokes a good reaction and it is easier to teach a person who has disponibilidad*. However, you will be tired in several moments but if you do your work with love and passion you will have an extra motivation to continue.

-Honesty: to be frank with myself, my colleagues, students and parents. I consider this value very important for example to be honest with myself helped me to know my limits, strengths and weaknesses. With my colleagues when a made a mistake or I did not know something I could accept this and ask for help.

These values were the principal support in my experience I based myself on the last area of the “Graduate Profile” especially with D1 “Evidencia honestidad y rectitude moral en su comportamiento personal, social y profesional”.

3. What are your main strengths and weaknesses to take that role?

The main qualities in myself show my strengths and weaknesses and these are the following

Strengths:

- Creative: During some years ago I worked in theatre so I have knowledge about techniques and also an outgoing personality which help in the classroom besides in my planning.

- Responsible: I try to do everything on time and accomplished with the goals in the learning process and also in the high school. To be punctual. Wear appropriate clothes.

- Empathy : I never forget that I was a student and it requires time, hard work, less sleep among others so I tried to comprehend to my students all the time in the process, nonetheless; I assessed them with the same exigencies*.

Weaknesses

- Pronunciation: the most difficult issue for me is pronunciation. I know that I have to prepare and look it before the class, but sometime there are some extra words which appear in the class and I do not know its pronunciation. Obviously, it is quite relevant in my area. Hence, I have to work on it very hard.

- Lack of experience: it is part of the process. At the beginning I did not know what to do when my students have a bad behaviour or just other things related to counselling work.

4. What professional learning needs you identify based on the strengths and weaknesses found and your conception of “be a teacher”?

On one hand, I consider that I need to improve in pronunciation because it is so neccesary in English and of course, if I speak badly my students too. Moreover, I need to prepare in discipline. In this period I worked with a difficult class who the majority of the classes had a bad behaviour and also bad marks etc. On the other hand I need to work more in my strengths and develop them.