Reflecting on Teaching Practice

I’ve been in a bit of a reflective mood lately.  Part of that has to do with the end of my term specific contract.  This past teaching assignment has been a good one; I’ve had good classes and a decent relationship with the administration and staff at the school.  It has afforded me the opportunity to consider my teaching practice and determine areas of weakness and areas of strength.  I am not going to bore you with the detailing of those strengths and weaknesses, suffice it to say that they are there and I appreciated the opportunity to explore them a little bit.  This assignment is the first in a few years, where I have not had to go through an evaluation and I think the lack of that particular stressor was helpful.  I do not handle the pressure of a formal evaluation well.  I get nervous and forgetful and caught up in the terror of it.  They scare me.  I do not feel comfortable and I believe it affects my practice. 

In addition, I found the general calm of the school to be somewhat beneficial.  I have had challenging classes in the past and not always managed them successfully.  I would say that this was minimal this past assignment, I enjoyed my time with my students.  There was only one student I could not find a way to reach this year, and I suspect that he was not interested in being engaged.  I do not worry too much about that any more.  Just because a child is not ready today, does not mean he will not be ready to learn in the future. 

At any rate, reflecting on my practice has let me identify some areas I need to work on.  I have already identified a couple of teachers who can help me and they have agreed to let me come into their classrooms to watch how they teach and engage.  I am looking forward to it.