Pedagogy- final assignment

During the last year, I learned many different, interesting, and very important topics in pedagogy classes. Moreover, I learned a lot of things about myself as a future teacher.

One of the first topics I learned, that in my opinion is important for a teacher is to know how to correctly plan a lesson and write a good lesson plan. In our lessons at the beginning of the year, I learned how to write a lesson plan. In the beginning, it was not easy to understand how to make a perfect lesson plan. I had to understand what to do and how. As time passed, I started to write better lesson plans and even did not have to make corrections after submitting them. I had a very good experience writing lesson plans. The fact that I learned how to create a good lesson plan made me a better teacher and made my experience in school this year very efficient and easier. It made me realize how hard it is to think about different lessons that will be efficient, and also will be engaging for the students. I believe that knowing how to plan a lesson will serve and help me as a teacher, and maybe I will use one of my lesson plans in the future with my future students.

This year I got to make a presentation in front of the whole class about an article I chose to talk about. When I first heard about this assignment I got scared. It is really hard for me to present in front of the whole class. However, I enjoyed reading and learning about the topic I presented. I made a PPT and practiced for a few days the way I will present, what I will say and how. I practiced on my friends and family, and even in front of the mirror in my room. Eventually, I presented my presentation in front of the class, and I had so much fun. Everything I was scared of turned out to be not scary at all. I even got to prove myself that I am capable of doing all the things that I was sure I will never have the courage to do. I also got to learn a lot about the topic I talked about, and I remember it till today.

Another wonderful day I got to experience during my Pedagogy courses is the ETAI conference. I heard different interesting and enriching lectures from educators in Israel. The lectures were important to hear, and I really loved the fact that I had the opportunity to experience the listening of Bari and Aharona. It was amazing to hear a a small piece of their huge knowledge and to get to understand how many aspects there are in the educational world. I listened and enjoyed so much to hear everything they had to say and talk about.

On the second semester I learned about different lessons of listening, speaking, writing, and reading comprehension. Those lessons were very efficient, but on the other hand I found it hard to learn in the theory different things that are not implemented these days in the classes. For example, when a teacher today teaches listening comprehension, it is taught in order “to pass” the Bagrut exam. However, we, as teachers, must teach in different methods in order to make our student good listeners in general. I really will be happy if next year I can learn deeper about the different methods of teaching those skills. It is important for me to know how to approach my students in order to make their English the best it can be.

I remember very well one sentence that my lecturer told us when we learned about listening comprehension, and it was about the fact that students today are used to hear the questions that will be asked after ay kind of conversation, and it is not the way people really communicate with each other. I believe that this sentence is perfectly correct. I feel that the most important goal is to make the kids pass the final exam. The only problem is, that learning a whole new language and its rules is way more important than getting a 100 in a test. I really would love this to change, and to make my students pass the exams out of love to the language. For that, I will have to make a change in the process of the teaching itself.

The most important thing I learned this year is how to implement the different lessons and topics I learned into a real classroom. I admit that I couldn’t implement everything, but I took with me a lot. The different games we played at the beginning of each class, the usage of games and videos in order to engage my students, etc. I am thankful for having the opportunity to “jump into the deep water” and to teach, and make connections with pupils, learn how it is really to be a teacher. I am thankful for all of it, and I had the best experience I could have this year.