Reflection on Perceived Strengths and Weaknesses at Start
What are my areas of strength in teaching at the start of the course?
One of the best characteristics which I hold is that I come from a sports background. In fact, I have been taking part in different sports from the mere age of six on a constant basis. This enabled me to participate and be exposed to diverse sports and not on just one particular sport discipline. This was very beneficial for me to become a Physical Education teacher since it allowed me to deliver sound and adequate knowledge and demonstration to all pupils during my teaching practice experiences. I will carry such knowledge throughout my whole teaching career.
Moreover, I regard myself as being a good leader, possessing good leadership skills. I believe that a good teacher should always have good leadership skills in order to lead his/her students towards the set objectives. Having decent leadership skills may increase the possibility that students regard the teacher as a role model. Leadership skills will ultimately contribute to the lessons’ overall effectiveness and flow. Additionally, I consider myself as being a flexible teacher since I am capable of adjusting activities I set up according to students’ needs. In fact I have implemented a number of differentiations to some of the exercises I presented during the past teaching practice experiences.
Finally my thesis was about the physical activity levels and the time on task which learners experience during sports. In fact, I consider highly these two particular factors and I always make sure that my students have a high degree of time on task during the lesson. This helps them to be more active throughout the whole lesson, getting more hands-on experience during the process.
What are my targets for development and what actions do I intend to take to work on them?
The areas which I surely need to address in order to further develop them are the following:
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Not giving my back to class even whilst offering teaching cues to individual students. I should roam around the whole class and provide the needed teaching cues while making sure to keep an eye on the rest of the class so as to minimize misbehaviour and further induce learning.
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Asking more questions during my explanations and demonstrations in order to enhance students’ attention during the lesson. This will additionally increase student participation and involvement in the lesson.
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Finally, I should attend more courses and seminars so as to widen my spectrum of knowledge regarding my profession, other sports and overall teaching. Participating in informative courses and conferences will eventually help me in further developing my strengths while working on the areas which need development.
What are my relative weaknesses in teaching?
One aspect which may be listed as an area of development in my teaching is, that at times I tend to give my back to certain learners while giving feedback to a particular group or to an individual during the lesson. I should work more on placing myself in a better position on court so as to observe all students all the time, when giving individual feedback as well as when observing an activity. This may eventually help me in avoiding unwanted situations which may arise during lesson.
Another area of development in my teaching which I should work on is to ask more questions to students to keep them focused, to further promote student involvement and participation in the lesson and to guide learners to come up with the answers themselves rather than providing them myself.
