My pedagogical journy

I would like to start my reflection by saying: “I made it”. This year has been a hellish roller-coaster, but within these 50 shades of red, I (and I think I could also say we) found some hiding pieces of a calming white. Throughout this year we were able to learn some amazing techniques, received many valuable tips, and shared numerous stories of our own classroom experiences. There is always room for improvement and different ideas for topics could be added, however, it is important to remember that we as students and our lecturers did above and beyond to make this year even come true.

First, I would like to mention the topics and lectures that were really helpful and opened my eyes to new ideas, tips and techniques. The primary lesson that I would like to mention is the reflection lesson. This lesson took place sometime after we started the student teaching process and some of us got the chance to teach (through zoom or frontally). I think that the most important part of the student teaching program in particular and teaching, in general, is to learn the ability to reflect upon each lesson when it ends. In the reflection lesson, we not only spoke about the importance of the reflection process but also about how to make it more effective and practical. We were divided into groups and each group had to write questions about a different lesson aspect such as lesson objective, classroom management, activities and materials, student’s engagement, cooperation, and diversity, etc. With these questions, our reflection process became much more efficient and helpful.

Another important key tip and topic that we talked about a lot this year is the significance of lesson planning. Our lesson plan serves as a map for us as teachers both at the stage of writing (thinking about the class environment, lesson timing, and lesson objectives) and during the lesson itself (remembering what needs to be done). We planned lessons and read about lesson planning together throughout the year in groups, we also read different educational articles about different topics and shared the ideas with the classroom in presentations. Hearing about other student’s experiences, tips, and lesson plans is an important aspect of the pedagogy course and should be preserved in my opinion. One person’s idea could inspire another’s, and one person’s mistake shared could prevent the same mistake in someone else’s lesson. In addition, the sharing process in itself acts as a kind of a brain-stormed reflection with peers and allows for a productive discussion to occur in class.

. I wished that during this year we could dive in more about the communication teachers have with students. We spoke about this topic in one of the lectures but I think that an essential part of being a teacher is to have high emotional intelligence and communicate well so as teachers we can get our point across but also recognize the student’s feelings. We discussed a lot about classroom management in this course and in another one – but I think that teachers today need to be prepared with tools for effective communication with their students and the student’s parents as well. Teaching is a job that firstly centers around people and only then material and knowledge – this is why I think that there should be more discourse and activities that will grant teachers tools for healthy communication in the classrooms.

In conclusion, I am glad that most of the hardship of this year is behind us, and now we are at least able to learn frontally in the next year. I am excited to go into the classroom and gain more knowledge about teaching, especially in junior high as it was (and still may be) my initial age group to teach when I enrolled into Achave college. I hope that next year we will learn more about the structure of the education system and what we should expect when entering it. I think that not only in the English department but also in all the other education departments, teaching future teachers about their financial rights and obligations within the system will allow teachers to make good economic choices and chose the educational path that really suits them. Not only financially, but also learning about the curriculum structure and how are teacher expected to use it is also important, especially since this is our last year before internship year. Overall, I am thrilled to begin my third year, learn frontally and be one step closer to gain my degree.