SMSU Student Observation
I spent 3 days in my 3rd classroom of 30 students. While I was there, I involved in doing various activities such as correcting, stapling, cutting and sorting homework review among other routine activities. I also gained presentation and leadership skills through engaging the students in different classroom activities. Working with this group of people also expanded my knowledge as I was involved in various research activities in diverse fields. The different composition of people reflected diverse cultures and through our interaction we got to understand, learn and appreciate the different societies from all around the world. This position creates employment opportunities and I would really appreciate chance to work here. This is a better opportunity for me as I am multi lingual and therefore communication among the different groups of people will be good for me. I am well informed and I believe that I have the information that is needed for this group of people.
Teaching has always been something passionate for me as I am well able to identify the characters and behavior of these children just by interacting with them. I am always focused in ensuring that what is taught to the children is of great importance to their growth and development. I believe that a teacher should be very understanding to these children as they are people who are curious about life and ensuring that they are molded to become intelligent and responsible people is a great accountability of the teachers. It is also vital to ensure that the students see much aspiration and confidence in their educators. This can be achieved by ensuring that the environment is clean and safe for the children, ensure that they embrace all the challenges that come along with new learning and also offer them solutions, opinions and ideas that will catapult their thinking capacity to a higher level. Creating a plat form where these children are able to comfortably share their ideas and opinions is also of great importance as it will create a sense of belonging and appreciation to the children.
I also learnt that children are prone to crying for no good reason. This requires someone who is understanding and can identify with the children’s needs. I also observed that children may not be able to explain themselves properly as they may be limited in speech; this will require teachers that able to get inside the mind of the child and understand what they are trying to communicate.
I really enjoyed my stay here because I got to learn a lot concerning children to a point I wish I would be one of the educators. Playing with these children brought much excitement in me as I got to realize that life is not all about the serious bit of fit. There is a social life that people need to embrace. I also understood that children are always ready to learn from anything from games to literal learning. This also made me realize that one is required to know exactly what they are teaching to avoid laying wrong foundations in children.
I believe that I need to improve my teaching skills because they are very critical in this system. This is because in life one may be required to stand before a group of people and explain something to them. When one stands before people, the children normally look beyond the language. This is to mean that they normally see the farfetched emotion behind the physical. Body language, voice tone and use of gestures are very critical as they pass a message. I learned about the philosophy; it is to teach the student in different but appealing ways and being friendly too like reading books, games and engaging the class.
During the first days, I was really struggling to remember their names but within a short name I knew all students’ names and personality and this made it easier for me to communicate. The class was so interesting to appoint I wished the hours of learning would have been increased so that I could spent more time with the children. We educators have the power in our classrooms to actually increase our student's intelligence by providing education that keeps our students engaged and motivated.
I believe the education system would be made more appropriate if the children were divided in relation to their ages. This is because the different age groups have different understanding capabilities. It would also ensure that the children are taught according to the level of understanding and also ensure that the children feel free with others of their same age. Forum should also be introduced where the children are allowed to express what they have learnt in class through poems or plays. This will create more in depth understanding of a particular topic and also make learning more interesting.
However, I really enjoyed my time in the laboratory and I strongly believe that if these recommendations are put in place; efficiency and effectiveness in teaching will be attained.
