Day 4- So today’s the day, I think my stomach had as many butterflies fluttering in it as the first day. Why am I so nervous? Surely I can pass a GCSE paper? Of course I can, Claire gave fantastic feedback, highlighting my strengths, but also looking at my key areas, which I needed to improve. This has made me realise, just because I have a degree in English, does not qualify me to directly go and teach in my own class. There is a lot more to teaching than textbook, the emotional intelligence also makes a massive impact on the way we teach students.
So the tests’ came back and ironically made sense to me, even if they didn’t necessarily to Claire. They showed that I was a rounded person scoring more or less equal percentages in the four domains. It highlighted my weakest area as self-confidence and optimism. Claire was shocked by this result because she thought I was a bubbly, enthusiastic and positive person. I suppose I am all of those things most of the time, but deep down I am nervous and shy at the start of new things. Has anyone felt like they own two faces? Not in a cynical way, but that the one face is your true emotions and the other’s putting on a show. I adapted these “faces” when I worked in the bank; an example would be, if an abusive customer would shout and swear at me. The majority of the time, there would be nothing that I could do; I had asked them to see my manager but some people just love to have arguments. I would never “bite”, instead I would turn off and put on the show. Hopefully this will help me manage my reactions with a class full of children.
Even though my initial reaction to the “tests” were a little uptight and anxious, I believe Chris has come up with a brilliant idea to let us know where we stand and what we can improve on. Without these tests, I think we would have glided through the course, not knowing our weakest areas. I don’t usually give praise for dishing out exams but I think it was very beneficial. Thanks Chris!
sarahkevans 