Post 10

Throughout my blogs I have focused on teacher-student relationships a lot. Looking back at my previous blogs I seem to have put significant emphasis on teaching styles and the way teachers interact with their students. I think that this is because I believe that being connected to your students is really important for a students learning. The teachers that have been best for me, and the peers I have talked to, have always seemed to be those that connect to the students on a personal level.

This is particularly obvious in my blogs from my field observations, the teachers I focused on most and praised most were those that engaged personally with the students. This is especially the case for teachers who employed several different learning methods, such as by writing, hands on practical work, etc, as this engaged the students better than just using one style. The other thing I discovered through my observations was that I preferred laboratory lessons than lecture lessons, I thought they were more interesting and there were more opportunities to interact and connect to the students. Also the students seemed most engaged in these because they were actually discovering and seeing things for themselves. This engaged them in the topic better and therefore aided their understanding and learning.

My favourite blog was the one I wrote about what makes a good school because it shows me a core value I believe when teaching: every student is unique and must be taught as such. We cannot expect all our students to act and think and learn the same, therefore we cannot teach them the same. And I maintain the good school is the one that fits the student. It's a very subjective process.

I am not very good at reflective writing, because I don't really enjoy doing it. But I was impressed with myself because in most of my blogs I wrote a lot more than I thought I would. Having said this, I don't think I will continue this or use it in my own classroom. However, I know that some people do find it useful and as such if a student is struggling at all or I believe that they may benefit from this process I know I will have something that they can use.

Throughout writing these blogs I have discovered that although I love teaching I don't like worrying about the issues in teaching. I do like knowing the different options available but I am very person based, therefore I want my teaching to be solely student based. As such I find it important to know the different ways I could help my students but I do not find it important to worry about a lot of the issues because they are more institutional worries and I care more about the students I will teach.