Goal setting is very important on a professional as well as personal level. It gives you something to work towards which helps us grow professionally as well as personally. The three goals I set for myself during this internship are to become a good classroom manager, to become more confident teaching in the classroom, and also to become more familiar with the curriculum. I think these are all important goals that need to be achieved in order to become an effective teacher. Below I will describe how I have worked and am still working to achieve these goals.
To achieve my first goal of becoming a good classroom manager, I have observed the management techniques that my co-operating teacher uses and have implemented them myself. This has been successful as the students are familiar with these techniques. My co-operating teacher and I have found that keeping consistency with what we both use to manage the class is important because consistency helps not to cause any confusion for our students. I have also been trying new techniques that I have learned myself to better manage the class. Some things worked while others did not. The things that did work have been working really well and as a result, my co-operating teacher and I have continued to use those techniques. I like to be able to bring something new into the classroom that my co-operating teacher can use when I leave. I have also tried to talk with other teachers in my school at different grade levels to get an idea of how they manage their classroom because I am aware that things work differently with different age children. This has given me some ideas of things I could do at different grade levels. I know that classroom management is one of the most important aspects of teaching because if the class is not in order and students are not listening, learning cannot occur. Through the things I have done and am continuing to do, I feel that I have achieved this goal during my internship. This makes me very happy as well as confident that I will be a good classroom manager in my own classroom someday.
My second goal was to become more confident teaching in the classroom. I have achieved this goal rather quickly. As I got to know the students and my co-operating teacher, I soon became really comfortable teaching the classroom. Also as time went on I became more confident that my lessons were effective as the children grasped the concepts and enjoyed the various activities and lessons I prepared for them. My co-operating teacher has also helped me become more confident through her positive comments. I love teaching my students. I enjoy every minute of it. I love acting silly in the classroom and seeing my students smile and enjoy themselves while learning at the same time. As I said in my first journal entry I thought this goal would be achieved with time and practice which is what happened for me. I am so comfortable and confident with my students and my co-operating teacher at this point that it will be very hard to leave them in a few weeks as I am sure is the case for most people during their internship.
My third goal was to become more familiar with the curriculum. To achieve this goal I have been reviewing the curriculum guides quite frequently. This is not only beneficial to my teaching in the classroom but also for future job interviews. I have also talked with my co-operating teacher about the curriculum and observed how she plans out the whole year with certain outcomes to cover for each month. As a beginning teacher this is something that I was nervous about, but I think the key is to plan out the whole year in advance to ensure you have every outcome planned in to cover at some point during the year. As well, I have learned that creating lessons that are cross-curricular are a good way to cover multiple outcomes. I feel that I have effectively achieved this goal and I am happy to be more familiar with the curriculum guides as they are what all teachers have to follow.
I feel that I have effectively achieved these three goals as well as many more that I have personally set for myself during this internship. While there is still more for me to learn, I feel I have gained so much knowledge to help me be an effective teacher. I am having a terrific experience at my school; it’s hard to believe that it is almost over. I feel sad that I have to leave all the students that I have became so attached to but on the other hand happy that I have almost completed my degree and will soon be out there teaching myself.