We caught up with trainee Maths teacher Christobel to find out how she's getting on six months into her United Teaching training programme:
When you reflect on your teaching ‘journey’ since September, how do you feel?
I feel more confident in my subject knowledge and also in my ability to teach. The advantage I've noticed to this confidence is that I am now naturally seeking more creative ways to teach different topics, and I am exploring more in my practice... I just need to learn how to get over the guilt when I try something and it doesn't work.
What key lessons have you learnt since September?- Building positive relationships is key
- Questioning and 'Assessment for learning' are the cornerstones to effective teaching
- If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough
Lesson structure, and simplifying my content so that pupils can learn exactly what they need to know, and then I can work on discovery and dialogic-type teaching.
What has been your biggest highlight so far?The progress of my pupils - that they are able to learn and remember something I taught them - that's when I discovered that I could teach.
