Christine, Wondering

Random Musings of a Human Becoming

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Unabashed Bragging

In an unashamed foray into self-promotion, I want to share some of the comments from the reports on the two lessons I taught this week. Bear in mind that these are my first classes EVER, after only two weeks of coursework.

From the report from the regular teacher of the class I taught (~25 kids aged 10-12):

"Christine has made a very successful introduction to teaching. A confident manner and engaging personality are positive qualities in good teachers and is clearly evident in her presentation."

From the report by my university superviser, who observed me teaching a group of 6 kids:

"Christine showed a genuine interest in her practicum. She was well prepared and involved herself in the ongoings of the classroom - well suited for the teaching profession".

The classroom teacher's report again, on the 40-minute lesson I took:

"A very effective soc-environ lesson, planned and presented confidently and competently".

Supervisor again, her private letter to me about the small lesson:

"Christine you were well prepared and at ease with the students. You were polite and interested and acknowledged their answers. You use lots of eye contact and positive encouragement which is great to see. The students really enjoyed the small group session. I wish you all the best for this year."

And finally from the classroom teacher's report:

"Related very well to children in this age group. A positive engagement with both students and teacher."

And best of all . . . there were no negative comments anywhere on either of the reports. The classroom teacher even said that while there were plenty of things he could have suggested, they were only other ways to do things, not corrections to the way I had done them. Overall, the opinion was pretty much that while I still need to learn the curriculum stuff, my actual teaching ability leaves nothing to be desired.

I'm overjoyed . . . I've been waiting to do teaching for so long. Even when I'd decided not to do teaching and was doing archaeology instead I still thought regularly about being a teacher and never really gave up thinking that I would be one oneday. Finding out that I'm really good at it is such a wonderful vindication of my decision that I feel like laughing outloud and crying all at once.

Although, as Mum (a former teacher and current uni lecturer) pointed out, I learned the 'teacher voice' from her when I was a small child, and used it expertly on my dolls . . . and my brother . . . from about age 5. So I've really been building up to this my whole life :-D

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