Day 1
- Feb 11, 2018
- 3 min read
New experience as a student teacher begins today at Al-Qimma primary school where I came with an opened mind to enhance my teaching skills and confronted with all circumstances. I realized that this teaching practicum would be different as it seems less organized than what we used to have in previous semesters. However, I decided to have an excellent beginning regardless of any external factors because I believe in what Plato once said, “The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
As my information about the school day was limited, I arrived to school at 7 o’clock where I found later it is too early because their day starts at 8. I waited for my colleagues to enter our work placement as a group and present a good image about our department. Then, we met the academic principle where she took us on tour around the school, and we met other school personals. I was excited to get information about the grade I will practice with and my MST as well. Our names still not divided into specific classes that why the principle allowed us to choose what grade do we prefer. My first choice was grade four. Unfortunately, it wasn’t available because all places been taken by students from another college that why I ended up with grade three.
I met my MST where we had a quick chat as she was in the middle of a class and I gave her the file that includes all necessary information about teaching practice and myself. The first thing that caught my attention was students’ behavior; it had me concerned because there were a lot of challenging behavior especially from the boys. Another important thing, I noticed that my monitor teacher relied on students’ books and the whiteboard to teach math, science, and English lessons. There were a lot of working on students’ books and copying from the board. I was shocked because it reminded me of what I experienced when I was a child before ages. Also, it was completely different than what I learned through my education courses. For example, the learning was a teacher-centered instead of student-centered which decrease the chance of learners to be fully engaged. I’m not pretty sure that my MST always followed the traditional way and I can’t judge from the first day. I hope it will be different tomorrow.
During the first break, I asked my MST about her weekly plans and copies of teacher’s guidebooks and students’ books to be prepared for my teaching sessions. My monitor teacher was helpful she answered all my questions and provided all documents I need. Also, I had an opportunity to discuss her behavior system where she used ClassDojo as the main strategy. Unfortunately, I didn’t have ample time to fully understand how she exactly applied the application in managing the classroom. I aimed this semester to improve my behavior management skills and find my own strategies because in previous experiences my MST’s system didn’t work as perfect as I want with my teaching style.
At the end of the day, I joined my MST in her bus duties then to a meeting, and I realized that teacher day is full of responsibilities. However, I enjoyed my first day in the school, and I’m looking forward to having a great teaching practice that will prepare me for my future career. The most interesting fact is that in each teaching practice I ensure that I’m walking in the right path to building my future.
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