STUDENT-TEACHER’S SELF-ASSESSMENT

Performance Assessment—Student Initiated

GRADE LEVEL(S) Teaching: Grade 2

Student teacher: Naw Hla Hla San School: Adventist International Mission School

Mentor teacher(s): Tr. Rose University Supervisor: Dr. Nalton

Instructions: A common student-teaching concern is that the student is often not fully informed
of his/her strengths and weakness during the student-teaching experience. It is suggested that the
student teacher ask these questions of the mentor teacher and/or the supervisor in a conference
session. Specific instances and observations will assist in making this evaluation more helpful.

1. What strong points characterize my teaching?

Regarding my overall teaching performances, the strong points that I characterize in my

teaching are
a) I attempt to review the classroom rules that I have introduced since my first class of
the school because basically the first day of a class impacts overall tones for the rest
of the term. Reviewing the classroom rules is significantly essential because it helps
remind the students what appropriate behaviors are expected from their teachers.
b) I usually review the previous lesson in order for the students to recall what they have
learned; able them to connect the previous knowledge with the new knowledge, and
allow them to transfer new knowledge and skills from short-term to long-term
memory.
c) I encourage the students to be creative and innovative by letting them work
individually. E.g., create the “sentences” using “Linking verbs – To be: Past Tense
(was & were)”; summarize the story in their own words into three or four sentences;
identify and draw vertebrate and invertebrate animals; construct butterfly life cycle
 using clays; and pick three vocabularies and create questions for your patterner to
answer (e.g., champion, issue, responsivity).
d) I also involve collaborative learning. In this case, I inspire the students to help one
another. For example, students who finish the task earlier can help their friends. This
particular method does not only help the students understand the lesson deeper but
also enhances their collaboration and social interaction within/among peers. Plus,
when teaching Math lessons, I usually mix “Thai students and international students”
to work in a group because international students are weak in Math, thus, they can
seek help from Thai students regarding the parts that they do not understand.
e) Most of my lessons (Math, Science, Grammar, Reading, and Vocabulary), I usually
include practice and drill. I believe practice and drill are significantly important in
teaching and learning, thus, I motivate the students to practice and drill the task
relating to the lesson to help them master the content of the knowledge.
f) Moving forward, I usually organize quiz worksheets for the students to assess their
understanding.
g) I summarize the lesson to help remind the students of what they have learned and
develop a concrete base for their learning.
h) Last, not least, I also end up with “Integration of Faith & Learning (IFL) that related
to the lesson content.

2. Have I been making the best possible use of school materials, the available facilities,
and professional opportunities? Illustrate.

I sometimes rely on materials provided by the Education Learning Center in my teaching.

Indeed, there are many best possible resources to use especially when teaching math and
science. For example, I use clay from “LC” to demonstrate how to create a Butterfly Life
Cycle, so that the students have better and clean ideas regarding what they are supposed
to do. On the other hand, sometimes, I do not rely on school materials for some of the
lessons. However, I attempt to use and search for the learning sources that are related to
the lesson to help the students understand well about the lesson content. Interestedly,
there are no grammar and math textbooks in teaching grammar and math at AIMS,
 instead, I just have to figure out by myself what learning sources I should find and teach.
The learning sources such as “Online School for Kids, and Liveworksheets.com” are
significantly helpful sources to teach, strengthen, and master the students’ understanding
of the lesson content because there are sufficient available practices, and quiz worksheets.
Thus, I attempt to use the worksheets for practices and drills, and quizzes to assess the
students’ understanding and facilitate mastery of content learning.

In a similar vein, I include the activity such as creating/constructing sentences using “was
and were”. The students do not simply learn from the teacher, but also, they are required
to perform tasks that demand thinking and reasoning. For example, which appropriate
subject (singular or plural) they should use if they form a sentence using “was or were”.

Like grammar, I also plan for an interesting activity in teaching science. For example, I
let the students watch “Video Short Clip” about Butterfly Life Cycle. The students need
to concentrate on the “Video Short Clip” because I stop the movie every 10 seconds to
assess the students’ understanding regarding what they have learned from the video.
I believe that the students learn the important information regarding the Butterfly Life
Cycle because the students do not only learn through hearing, but they also learn through
seeing which helps them better in understanding the content of the lesson.

3. Have I shown evidence of ability to learn from experience?

First and foremost, everyone learns from their experiences. Indeed, I am one of them.
Learning from experience is one of the most fundamental of learning available to
everyone. I strongly believe that I have shown evidence of ability that I learn from my
experience. For example, I confidently claim that my homeroom teacher usually reviews
the previous lesson before she starts the new lesson. Therefore, I attempt to develop the
“review strategy” in my teaching because I believe that a review of previous learning is
one way to strengthen students’ retention of knowledge.
 In a similar vein, a few students are difficult to manage/control. They are talking and
moving around unless the teacher increases the tone of their voice. Based on what I have
learned from my experience, I attempt to rise up my voice in managing the students who
do not listen, pay attention, follow the instruction or behave well. For instance, I also
count down from 10 to 1 to keep the students remain silent.

4. Do I appear to relate well with and be accepted by students?

I strongly believe that I appear to relate well with the lesson contents that I have planned
and taught. I also ensure that the lessons are not too hard or too easy, but just moderate in
order for all levels of the students to catch up. In this regard, some students may finish up
the task earlier while others are still left behind. I confidently claim that the lessons are
not hard for the students who are left behind, just because, they do not just pay attention
to the lesson.

In addition, I would exclaim that on the very first day of my lesson, I do not appear to be
accepted by students. I still could remember that when my homeroom teacher introduces
me to the students to teach, one of the students refuse to learn with me. It is just normal
because it is my first time.

However, I vigorously believe that I appear to be accepted by all the students because I
attempt to build a good relationship with all the students. I confidently claim that all the
students listen and respect me. For example, when some students appear misbehavior, the
moment I rise up my voice, all the students are quiet. Plus, when I ask them to construct
the sentences using “was and were” or create “Butterfly Life Cycle” using clays, all of
the students follow the instruction and do their tasks. At the same time, if they don’t
understand what they are supposed to do, they eagerly ask me to explain again, and I
patiently explain it again. At the end of the lesson, I also feel appreciated when they all
said, “Thank you, teacher Hla Hla for teaching us today”.
5. Is discipline too strong, too weak, or, about right? How could I improve in this
area?

I fully believe that the disciplines that I have applied in all my classes are about right.
Basically, I discipline the students to manage their behaviors during lessons. I attempt to
obtain three types of discipline which are preventative, supportive, and corrective. For
preventative, I review classroom rules for appropriate behavior and establish my
expectations before I begin the lesson. That helps the students remember how they should
behave as they progress to the lesson. Regarding the supportive and corrective, as I
perceive to the lessons, I also stop for a while if the students are talking/disobeying. The
stopping method is significantly important because it reminds/warms the students that
they must be silent and pay attention to the lesson.

In addition, I also rise my voice to make the students listen and focus on the lessons. I
personally believe that shouting is not similar to rising the voice. Shouting can be done
when the students do the task in a slow manner while rising the voice is mainly used
when the students do not perform the task or listen to the instructions at all.

Third, I apply a method called “Stop Teaching for A While” when the students are noisy.
This certain method is appropriate in managing the students’ behavior because when I
stop teaching, it means that they should listen and pay attention to the lesson. Aside from
“Rise Up the Voice or Stop Teaching for A While” in monitoring the students, I also
count down from 10 to 1 to keep remain the students quiet.

Indeed, there are many strategies in terms of how to manage the students who misbehave.
For example, I can either raise my hand or use a website called “bouncyballs.org” to
make the students quiet and pay attention to the lesson.
6. What specific improvements or suggestions, if any, need to be made concerning my
mannerisms, speech traits, idiosyncrasies of personality, or appearance?

Indeed, although I have teaching experience before or feel confident with my teaching,
there are still many things that I need to improve to be a better teacher. Although, I am
doing fine with the pronunciation parts for some of the lessons, generally I have difficulty
with the pronunciation. Certainly, since I am not a native speaker, I have to deal with
language problems because I sometimes do not pronounce the words correctly, especially
in science classes.

However, there are many ways to improve my pronunciation. In this case, I can get help
from my homeroom teacher by letting her listen to my teaching before I start to teach. So
that she can correct me whether I pronounce correctly or not. Plus, I can also search the
pronunciation for the unfamiliar vocabulary from Google. It will significantly essential
because I do not only hear but also, can repeat after the sound.

Further, I personally feel that I talk quite fast since the time is limited. The students might
not fully understand or follow up the lessons when the teacher talks too fast. Thus, it is
crucial to slow down my speech to help the students catch up and fully understand the
lessons.

7. What additional things do I need to learn or do to become a better teacher?

Indeed, learning is an unending journey. When we stop learning, we stop growing.

Doubtlessly, there are always things to learn as we move forward to our professional job.
The additional knowledge or skills that would make me be an/a effective/better teacher
are
a) Listen Well: to be a good teacher, listening well is one of the most important
skills that is highly needed because being an effective listener can help the teacher
understand their students better regarding their strengths and weakness, and how
they learn best.
b) Collaboration: working in the teaching profession means we will never work
alone. Instead, we need to work within/among our colleagues including teaching
assistants, other classroom teachers, and school principals. Effective teachers
always refer to working in a group. Therefore, focusing on collaboration is
significantly important for me as a teacher because it does not only enhance my
social interaction, but also, keep an open mind and learn from my colleagues.
c) Engaging: being a good teacher is not about sitting back and just lecturing, it is
about engaging with the students by providing a humorous environment, and
creative lesson and encouraging them to think outside of the box.
d) Show Empathy: being a good teacher means being observant, attentive,
empathetic, and always maintaining a positive attitude toward each student as an
individual. Showing empathy and understanding is highly essential as a teacher
because it does not only help the teacher to build a strong connection with the
students but also, it can positively impact the students’ learning process. Plus, as a
teacher, I should keep in mind that paying close attention to each student is the
most important track that every student demand.
e) Have Patience: patience is one of the most important components to practice as a
teacher, because as teachers, we will definitely deal with different people
including working with different colleagues, communicating students’ issues, and
progressing with different parents. Indeed, I, as a teacher, have to be patient and
understand all the parents when they are complaining about the school or any
concern about their children.