Full day in control reflection.

Learning about children

On my full day of control I had the opportunity to teach two 20 minutes fitness lessons with
my class. For these two lessons I introduced the game Bottle cap football to my class.
This teaching experience taught me that Teaching and learning occurs inside fairly typical
classrooms, but also occurs in many different setting such as: computer labs, science and
outdoor facilities (McGee C. 2008). Because of this outdoor learning experience it allowed
my to interact with the children on a more un-formal tone. I was also able to see the
children's peer groups outside the classroom. This also displayed the childrens athletic
abilities to me. This also gave me the to interact with other pupils around the school. I
believe this experienced taught me a lot. I was able to make links between students
methods of learning between fitness and the classroom. I clearly saw who was hands on
learners wanting to get into the activity straight away learning through play, and who was
more confident listening to step by step instructions before participating.
When teaching the lesson social sciences it gave me the opportunity to further my
interaction with each child setting a formal relationship inside the classroom. This also
allowed me to relate to children which I had not yet had the opportunity to do so.
This is because our social sciences lessons involved working in groups creating posters.
Because this was a fun activity full of interaction between students I was able to have one
on one discussions with students and full group discussions.

By engaging in learning

conversations with the children it enabled me as the teach to gain awareness of childrens
prior knowledge and skills. One aspect that I learnt to take into consideration throughout
my previous placements and my current placement is the importance of open- ended
questions. Open-ended questions extend conversation between the teacher and learning.
This also allowed me to ask questions about there life and hobbies outside of the
classroom. I think this is important as knowing their family background also allows you to
learn about children.
Through group work in social sciences it also taught me a lot about what type of learner
each child is. It showed me who was able/ enjoyed working in group activities, who
preferred to work alone and who was a team leader. This is important to know so you as a
teacher can extend the children's skills and adapt lessons to suit all childrens style of
learning.

Learning about teaching

Over the duration of practicum I had the opportunity to work with both the full class and
smaller groups.. From having this opportunity I was able to further develop my
management techniques

and curriculum practice for the children. From observing

teachers it is evidently clear that each teacher has their own way of controlling and
managing a classroom. This can be methods such as hand clapping signals to notify the
children to stop look and listen where as other teachers I have previously observed have
used wooden whistles that play a tune also gaining the childrens attention. From this it
has taught me that every teacher has their own management techniques with different
techniques working for them and the classroom. Their is no right ways of teaching as long
as it meets the learning outcome. Throughout my day of control I used the management
techniques of clapping to gain childrens attention, counting down from five in Te Reo
Maori, and reminding children about the appropriate noise level in the class. In room 16
my associate uses a management technique where she has the letters of noise separately
on the board. When the noise level gets to high she will take one of the letters off
reminding the children what is acceptable noise level for this particular activity. Throughout
my lessons in my day of control such as social sciences and guided reading I used this
method to control the classes noise level. This worked successfully as children could
visually see what noise level was expected from them during each lesson.
Learning about themselves as teachers
From my day in control it showed me aspects of my own teaching, learning about myself
being able to identify my weaknesses and strengths throughout each lesson. For example
one of my weaknesses that I believe was evident throughout was rushing instructions. I
needed to give all students time to process instructions, also allocating time for
questioning at the end.

Another one of my weaknesses is my lack of management

strategies. This was one of my practicum goals which I a working to achieve by the end of
week two. One of my strengths throughout my day of control I believe was being well
planned and prepared for each lesson. When taking a group for guided reading and
mathematics I knew exactly what each students would be doing having a word for word
lesson plan in front of me as a guideline. After each lesson I taught on my full day of
control I have written an evaluation. This is looking at key questions such as: what went
well and what didnt go well. Being able to reflect back on what went well and what didnt

work well is crucial for a developing teacher. This is where I was able to learn about my
own teaching practice identifying my strengths and my areas of improvement,