Reeba Sara Koshy

Block Teaching Practice

Roll No. IX-609

There are times when most of us wish we could replay a difficult moment when we believe we acted inappropriately in a social or work situation. Sometimes our problem lies in not knowing what to do, and under stress we do the wrong thing. I f we had one more chance to get it right, we would be sure to know what to do, know what to say, know what to ask, or perhaps know not to say anything at all. I feel the same thing for the first few days of my block teaching. The confidence acquired from the peer teaching days in the university had given me a false hope on how a real classroom would look like. The group support of my group which helped in an effective learning process was suddenly pulled out and on my first day the first few moments I could feel the control draining from me. The friendly approach which I had planned and executed effectively was pulled back since I realised that the students have started to take advantage of this new gained freedom and that too with a new teacher they know they wont be dealing with for long. The interactive sessions which were planned earlier were cut short and I started commanding and ordering which I found very effective. Like an operant conditioning process, when the students started behaving how I wanted them to be I started to be more cheerful and pleasant with them. I thought this would be an effective reward for them. Gradually I came to realise how the students are thinking and could plan my lessons more effectively. While it is true that many hands make light work, it is also true that too many cooks spoil the broth. The pressure of a supervisor who pressured me to follow some patterns which clashed with my own objectives acted as a nagging conscience which sometimes took me out of control where I found myself targeting my lose of temper towards the innocent students. But I thought of this shameful act and I realised that this sort of behaviour from my teachers have hurt me as a school child in my past. This realisation awakened and helped me to get control of myself and it never happened again in my classes.

While planning some lessons I felt a triangular push between three objectives. One was from what I had derived from the B. Ed methodology lessons, one from my own experiences and the other from the concerned supervisors in the school. I cannot choose one as the best so in future I have decided to follow my instincts supported by what I have learned from my block teachings days and B. Ed lessons. When I look back at my own experiences I realise how valuable the suggestions provided by my supervisors, my friends and my teachers are in the my learning process. Most importantly I realise the part of the learners in an effective learning process. They can change your plan, adapt to them quickly and can help even help us in improving our skills, techniques, ideas and teaching. Every successful outcome in my teaching process is not my own effort. I have learned many techniques on how to teach and more importantly many techniques which I should never follow in a classroom.