A New Teacher

Final Assignment – New Teacher’s workshop – 2023.

Instructor: Dr. Widad Sleiman.

Written by:Danielle Edri Sason

Date: April 2023.

My Story

Try being a new teacher with two young children… I found my first years as a new teacher very challenging to say the least.

At first I was very unsure of myself. When I got home after a day’s work I was tired and didn’t have much energy for my kids.  I think that what helped me the most is my ability to learn from others and get support from my friends and family.

I formed good working relationships with the other English teachers and got a lot of support from them as well.

During the workshop we learned  three  main subjects:

1. classroom management

2. communication skills

3.  leadership skills.

Class management

From the management unit, I learned that it is very important to keep the pupils focused  during the lesson. When the pupils are engaged and interested, classroom management is less of an issue. In order to do so, a teacher must be creative and use different tools.

To get the pupils attention and manage the lesson well I can use a “what is it” activity (link to activity) In this activity the pupils have to guess what they see. They can ask me questions such as: Is it an animal? Is it an object? Is it food?

After a few questions I show them the answer.

Communication skills

communication skills are very important in order to be a good teacher. A new teacher must work on developing good communication with the pupils, parents, other teachers and among the pupils.

The activity I liked from this unit is  “introduce yourself”. I changed this activity in my class and played a game called “snow ball”.

The pupils sit in a circle.

Each pupil gets a page with three questions:

1. My hobby is _________ _____________
2. My favorite food is _____________________
3. My favorite song is ______________

After the pupils fill in the page I collect them and randomly open each page. The pupils try to guess who wrote each page. This activity helps to strengthen the connection between the pupils and between the teacher and pupils.

           Leadership

A teacher must be able to lead the pupils to success. To inspire them and help them develop and learn.

Self reflection is a great tool  to teach your pupils. One  way to do so is to use SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. An activity that I will  use in my class is to give the  pupils a page divided into 4. On each part is one of the SWOT categories. After a unit they completed the pupils will fill in  each category and reflect on the work they did.

         My personal experience

Being a new teacher has been challenging but at the same time a great experience. I learned so much about my self. My strengths, weaknesses , how to better myself and how to be a leader and inspire my pupils.

I feel very lucky to be part of a very supporting staff and thank my fellow teachers for helping me through these challenging times.

Today I can say that I have more confidence and feel more at ease. I always try to learn new activities and make my lessons engaging and interesting.

The workshop and the different tools I learned also helped me to become a better teacher.

I love teaching and building meaningful relationships with my pupils and co- workers. I wish for many more rewarding years as a teacher.