Reflection🧠

For my first teaching practice, I mainly used the direct teaching method. As it was my first time teaching this class as a teacher, I also wanted to simply observe the students' abilities. In the class, I asked some students to imitate the characters and plots in the book, and some students were responsible for giving opinions based on the content of the book. While learning knowledge, they also developed social skills and learned to communicate through simple role-playing. At the same time, I also assisted these students in expressing and presenting themselves. There were also activities where students were paired up on the platform to bring the knowledge from the book into the real classroom. Compared to textual and oral expressions, this would help students better connect with the knowledge in the book.

I wanted to reduce the teaching mode where students just sit in their seats and listen. During my observations of other teachers' classes, I noticed that if the entire class was centered around the teacher, students would find it boring and gradually lose interest in the class. During my class, students were also very eager to raise their hands to answer questions. Especially during some small activity sessions, they were very enthusiastic about participating. However, there were also some unexpected situations. Even though I explained to the students how they should answer the questions and displayed the prompt words for the dialogue on the teaching presentation, they still couldn't answer completely according to the rules I mentioned. In the end, I had to guide them again on how to answer properly. From my own and other teachers' teaching experiences, I noticed that P2 students have difficulty understanding the tasks and operation processes the first time they are explained. They may get stuck on the tasks and need to ask the teacher multiple times to gradually understand the content. Therefore, I am considering using simple, direct, and repetitive language to explain the tasks to the students in future trial teachings, so that they can understand better without having to repeatedly ask the teacher for clarification. However, I am worried that I might spend too much time explaining and not have enough time for group activities and my own content teaching. During this teaching session, I also realized that I might have missed out on some important information for the students because I was worried about running out of time, so I chose to skip it. But I think what I should do is to better design the class content, distinguish the key points and secondary points before teaching, and control the class time well so that students don't miss out on the knowledge they need to absorb. In my first teaching practice, since it was my first time truly teaching primary school students in my life, I felt very nervous, which caused me to suddenly forget my words and my whole demeanor became stiff, feeling not in a good state. Learning from this mistake, I hope to be better prepared mentally and less nervous in the second trial teaching.

From the feedback of the school teacher, I also learned some things. She mentioned that the reason why the students had difficulty answering my questions at the end of the class was that my explanation of "dangerous sports" was not detailed enough, making it difficult for them to connect with what truly dangerous sports were. She also suggested how I could explain better to make the students understand. At the same time, I need to be better prepared to handle students' sudden questions. I agree with these suggestions and hope to provide content that can stimulate students' better thinking in future teachings. I also need to practice my expression and communication skills to teach better. The school teacher also reminded me that when posting things on the blackboard, I should first turn off the projector to avoid being affected by its light. And most importantly, I should speak to them in a language that children are familiar with, because they are only in P2 of primary school and have limited knowledge. They won't be able to understand overly complex vocabulary. 

The professor's feedback also has aspects that I can learn from. She mentioned that to ensure that all students in the class have an equal chance to answer questions, I can use popsicle sticks to make a draw bucket, and not put the sticks back during the drawing process to achieve fairness. I think this is a good idea. I have also encountered teachers using this method in my previous school life. During my teaching process, I often forget about classroom management. The professor also reminded me that this needs to be done simultaneously. But I'm worried that if I manage the students' behavior in the class, I won't have enough time to teach. So this is also an important part that I need to learn to balance teaching and management in terms of time.

In the second teaching practice, my focus was on using the group discussion method for this class, which also included some direct explanations from the teacher. In other lessons, I have heard that teachers currently hope to train the group discussion skills of P2 students to lay a foundation for future discussion-based learning. Therefore, I also hoped to use this class to gradually cultivate the group discussion abilities of the students, enabling them to help each other and communicate amicably. Before introducing the group discussion content, I told the students about the questions they would need to discuss and think about, all of which were from the textbook. The purpose was to give them a concept of what to think about during the group discussion, so they wouldn't be at a loss. At the end of the class, I invited the students to play a game, hoping that they could recall the content taught in class and reflect on it from their own perspectives.

During the group discussion, I noticed that the students in this class performed generally well. They all clearly knew what the task required. One possible reason was that I used simple, direct, and repetitive language to explain the task to the students. This was also mentioned in my reflection after the first trial teaching. They might not understand clearly with just one explanation and needed repetition. Before starting, I also reminded them that this was a group task, so everyone needed to participate actively and think. The students did all these things, and I was very grateful. When I asked them to divide into three big groups at the end and share their answers with the whole class, most of the students could read the Chinese paragraphs loudly and accurately, which was a good performance. Because their reading ability was limited, they often didn't recognize many Chinese characters in regular classes. For this task, I didn't read it with them in advance because I wanted to see if they could recognize and read the text independently, and the result was acceptable. I hope that the students can gradually do better in discussions in other lessons. However, during the teaching practice, I also realized that I didn't try to shorten the content I needed to explain while still grasping the key points. Although I could always finish what I wanted to say at the last moment, it was precisely because of this that I didn't have more time to ask the students questions or extend their knowledge. This is still an area I need to learn to "focus on the key points." Since I didn't ask the students many questions in this class, I also noticed that they felt a bit bored. I hope to give the students more game activities in the last teaching practice to perk them up.

In the feedback from the professor, she pointed out that my speaking speed was a bit fast during this teaching. Yes, I also felt that way. I was worried about running out of time, so I subconsciously spoke faster. This was also mentioned in the above content that I didn't make good use of the class time and just said everything I wanted to say. I should have reduced the secondary content so that I could both cover the key points and slow down my speaking speed. The professor also mentioned the need for diverse teaching tasks, which was something I had thought about. However, I believed that the students' levels in this class were roughly the same, so I didn't do this. Instead, I asked a few students to switch seats to help those who were leaening weakenss. But I also realized that this would lower the learning level of the entire class. In the future, when I enter the workplace, I will try to use diverse tasks to help students learn better.

There were also many points worth reflecting on in the feedback from the school teacher. She pointed out that I gave the students too few opportunities to think during the group discussion arrangement. I agreed. Because current education needs to cultivate students' critical thinking, but this content was indeed lacking. The reason also lies in the fact that I, in order to complete the content I needed to cover within the limited class time, simplified the group discussion process and hoped to explain it myself. I should have added more content for students to think about, not just providing a fixed answer, but offering more options for them to consider. Because this not only restricts students' thinking but also disrupts their ability to make choices when faced with similar situations. The teacher also mentioned that compared to my first teaching practice, I was slightly inferior this time, being too teacher-centered. In the next teaching practice, I will encourage students to think more independently.

In the third teaching practice, my goal was to encourage students to utilize their thinking and creative abilities to come up with different toys that could be made from waste materials. I chose to let the students think and speak first, and then I would share some examples, hoping to inspire them to come up with more unique ideas. I also hoped that through the process of making toys, students could experience the joy of creating with their own hands rather than just listening to and watching the teacher's explanations.

Throughout the entire class, the students' participation was extremely high. Since the theme was toys, which they like, I showed some toy pictures in the introduction part to capture their attention and make them more focused on the class. I also utilized the most familiar place for them - the classroom - and asked them to notice what waste materials could be used, increasing their awareness of the class theme. When discussing the waste materials in the textbook, I also showed and let the students try some toys I made to add fun to the class. They were all very happy and enthusiastic during the process, and the whole class was very eager to raise their hands to answer questions. I was very satisfied with this scene because they were willing to think and express their creativity. Besides the content in the textbook, I also brought some waste materials I found at home to school and showed them to the students, asking them to think of more toys that could be made from different waste materials. I also invited the students to play with the toys, and what I wanted to convey was that while making toys, they could also learn different scientific principles and enhance their scientific knowledge. However, due to the limited class time of only forty minutes and it being a new lesson, it was not sufficient for the hands-on toy-making activity. Therefore, I only arranged for the students to make toys with waste paper at the end, which could be completed relatively quickly. However, some problems arose during the process. Considering that some students might not know what to do or how to do it, I allowed the whole class to leave their seats to discuss and think with friends or teach each other how to fold paper. However, some students wanted to fold toys that no one knew how to do, and they didn't want to fold other toys either, which made them feel confused and helpless. Due to the limited time, I also couldn't teach the students to fold toys that would take a long time to complete. This was a bit of a pity. Additionally, I lacked leadership skills for this class. During regular class days, I didn't stop the students from being noisy like a full-time teacher would. In this activity, they were also in an excited state, and I had to spend some time and effort to calm them down and get them back to the seats. I also realized that for children, the first impression a teacher makes on them is very important. If you are not strict with them at the beginning, they may not be afraid or listen to you even if you try to be strict later.

In the feedback from the professor, she also mentioned that due to time constraints, it was difficult to achieve the goal of enhancing students' creativity in the hands-on toy-making activity, but the overall process was generally good. In this regard, I hope that if I have the opportunity to become a full-time teacher in the future, I can make good use of every class period and focus on doing it well.

From the feedback of the school teachers, I also gained some insights. Is the purpose of making toys by hand merely to complete the work and show creativity? Is it about uniqueness or fun? No, the key lies in the process of making. The successes, failures, and confusion are all experiences. I suddenly realized this. Yes, I didn't think of this and didn't convey this point to the students. Therefore, if I have the opportunity to teach in the future, I must think more about the insights that each lesson can bring out and convey more than just knowledge to my students.

Before the three teaching practice, I had already completed the lesson plans for the three lessons, and then continued to adjust and revise them. I have always been aware of a problem: my lesson plan on paper will be a little different from the real class. In terms of pre-planning, I will have an idea of the process in my mind, and I will think that these processes can be done and will have a good presentation. After designing these lesson plans and practicing them, I will learn some experience and feedback from friends or classmates, and then make some adjustments, hoping to show them in the real class. But I will find that when I come to the real class, it is difficult to predict what kind of answer the students will give you, and even need to use a lot of improvisation to respond to the students.

It does make me feel flustered or caught off guard when I don't anticipate a lot of unexpected answers during the midterm preparation process or when students don't follow my instructions. The first time this happened, I was very nervous. I controlled my panic and tried to immediately give them a return response or better instructions for the task. The biggest impact of these situations will be my planned class time. One of the deficiencies in my planning of the class was that I would cram everything I wanted to teach into forty minutes. This problem leads to the classroom should not allow any situation that is different from the expected situation, but it does not happen. For this reason, in order to complete the basic class teaching in the limited time, I have cut down some of the content to say. What's worse is that what I've cut is actually more important than what I've taught. And these circumstances, to some extent, make my teaching plan and my teaching in the gap. The written expression is good, but the actual action is inferior, and my performance is also a little nervous and afraid and not confident.

In order to avoid having more answers that I couldn't estimate or even time constraints, I chose activities that were based on the usual answers and didn't involve too many questions. As I had expected, the bright students were able to complete the task easily and come up with the right answers without taking much extra time, but this also limited their thinking and thought process. This is a big no-no for today's education model. I should have provided a learning environment for students to think critically and logically, but I failed to do so. Although the lesson was completed successfully, it was clear to me that the students were not as excited as they had been the first time, because they were a group of people who liked to raise their hands and answer questions. I really didn't give them much of a chance to answer questions on the second try compared to the first.

It seems to be a "dead circle". I want to avoid the same problem, but it involves all kinds of things. When I did not properly adjust the teaching content and time, in fact, this practice of "cutting toes to avoid sand worms", but also sacrificed the opportunity for students to obtain rich knowledge.

In the later stage of teaching, I tried to adjust my original teaching plan, try to focus on the limited time and give students and myself a time to adjust according to the actual situation. Fortunately, I was able to complete the main points that should be presented in the expected time, and also provided many opportunities for them to think and answer. Having encountered some interesting and unexpected responses from students, I was also able to bring their words back to the focus of the class in time, while also having time for the students to complete the tasks they needed to do. Of course, it won't be perfect, and there will be mistakes. However, I hope to learn from teachers' feedback every time, make timely adjustments in each class, and slowly make progress.

My school teachers and I also have a common point of agreement, that is, I should continue to learn to bring out the focus of the class, and do not put some things that do not belong to the second grade of primary school into the class. Some of the learning content that they have not received, if not instilled in them gradually, they can not absorb, but will cause them more confusion, these unnecessary things also occupy my class time. How to use class time effectively and rationally when writing lesson plans? May wish to find some "allowance" in the design activity. It can be adjusted according to the field situation, without having to lack some due classroom content because of lack of time. At the time, this required work on things. This requires the teacher to understand the learning situation of the students in the class, to know what is easy or difficult for them, and to better plan the class tasks and completion times for them. Therefore, continuous assessment is indeed a very important thing for both teachers and students to evaluate students and adjust teachers' teaching methods in a timely manner.

Unfortunately, it was not enough for me to have a better understanding and watch their progress after only three months of internship. If I have the opportunity to work as a full-time teacher in the school, I hope I can gradually find the direction and provide a good student atmosphere for students.