Teaching practice reflection where we had to outline our most significant learnings.

Student Teacher Relationships

I was informed by another teacher that in his first week of working in the school he was taken aside and told to stop trying to change the students, because in the end, the students would change him. I nonetheless started my role this year as a teacher with great optimism and how I might change some of the students for the better. Since these thoughts entered my mind however, I have noticed times when this optimism changed to frustration. This was particularly around occasions where my resources failed to engage the students or when I was faced with defiance while trying to change some students attitudes. It felt as though a barrier existed between me and the students. Exhausting myself over designing strategic resources to engage the students and change their attitudes towards school and their subjects was getting me nowhere. My biggest breakthrough came when in a supervision class of only five students I spent some time engaging in conversation. These students, who had earlier been very troublesome and uncooperative saw me in a different light, and I them. I now try to incorporate their likes and interests into lessons, and where I cant do that, we donate a few minutes to having a chat. This particular week has proven to me Freires idea of Education always involving social relations and from which it allows us to connect to the larger realities in which people live (Palmer, Cooper, & Bresler , 2001). My most significant learning this week is the importance of acceptance. The students act the way they do from their social backgrounds, upbringing and outside influences and as Cohen, Mannion and Morrison (1996) state these factors are clearly beyond the control of the teacher and have therefore to be taken as a given when interactions occur (p. 351) . Accepting this fact, I have found allows one to think of ways with which one can work with them, rather than go against them or confront them. The formation of a good, strong and trustworthy student/ teacher relationship built upon mutual respect as Geoffrey Petty (2009, p. 96) mentions can have an extraordinary effect in the classroom. For me, the development of this relationship is still on-going, but from what has been established, I have found it makes the task of dealing with a whole range of issues including discipline and motivation much easier. Admittedly there are times where large portions of lessons are necessarily lost to side tracking on my part, but my cooperating teachers and the principal both agreed that this is needed for students to see you as a trustworthy human being as opposed to an authoritarian robotic teacher. This approach to difficult or uncooperative students is widespread in the school and I found it took me somewhat out of my comfort zone to adapt to. Trust has to be shown on all sides. Flexibility, creativity and having a plan B, C and D to cope with the unexpected are essential.

Bibliography
Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (1996). A Guide to Teaching Practice. New York: Routledge. Palmer, J., Cooper, D. E., & Bresler , L. (2001). Fifty Moern Thinkers on Education: From Piaget to the Present. London: Routledge. Petty, G. (2009). Teaching Today A Practical Guide. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd.