REFLECTION ON MY EXPERIENCE AS A PHYSICAL SCIENCE TEACHER DURING INTERNSHIP

REFLECTION ON MY EXPERIENCE AS A PHYSICAL SCIENCE TEACHER DURING INTERNSHIP

Education is considered as the most powerful weapon of life to get victory and success. This great responsibility and job is given to the teachers to nourish and shape up the lives of young ones and future of their country. The teacher plays great role towards education and shape up both present and future of a student. Teachers are specially sent by god to lead pupil on right path in the life. They make them able to take decisions throughout t their life.

EDUCATION AND TEACHER

  science teacher was my best teacher who always keeps a big smile on her face and make us active. She added lots of creativity in her teaching. We were very much impressed on her style of teaching. She influenced us by sharing her own experiences in life and the way she overcome that. She was our guide who knows our feelings and interests well. She has been trying to keep in touch with our parents too. She always advised about the way of effective learning methods not only for her subject but also other subjects too. She always tried to nourish the scientific attitudes and curiosity among us.

Physical science encompasses a broad range of scientific subjects from eighth grade and early high school. Integrated science classes entitled physical science, the material includes an introduction to a broad range of scientific principles. The topics include physics, chemistry, astronomy, environmental science, biological science, atmospheric science and earth science. Physical science teachers introduce these students to these subjects in order to prepare them for more in deep study later in high school.

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL

A reflective journal is a personal record of student’s learning experiences. It is a space where a learner can record and reflect upon their observations and responses to situations, which can then be used to explore and analysis ways of thinking. Journals, generally written can also contain images, drawings and other types of reference materials. A reflective journal [reflective diary] is the perfect place to note down some of life’s biggest thoughts.in a reflective journal you can write about a positive or negative event that you experienced, what you means or meant to you and what you may have learnt from that experience. A well written journal can be an important tool

. As with any tool, to get the most benefits .you need practice and enter as soon as possible after the event. This way the details will still be fresh in your mind, which help later in your analysis .thus the focus is on writing that is not merely descriptive .the writer revisit the scene to note details and emotions, reflect on meaning, examine what went well or revealed a need for additional learning and relate what transpired to the rest of life.

REFLECTION OF INTERNSHIP TRAINING

An internship is an integrated component of practice teaching at advance level of teacher education program .the main objective of internship program could be pointed out to be as the behavior modification of student teachers with special reference to develop teaching competency and positive attitude towards teaching profession. An internship program where a trainee complete their training in direct or indirect supervision of experts of related field. This program has important features with reference to its uniqueness of practice teaching other than earlier stages. This is a stage where student teachers him/herself get permission of practice from school, they own self make a timetable for same ,in absence of teacher educators  they practices lessons, conduct co-curricular activities ,follow the instruction of subject teachers ,collect the copies of all documents  which are related with school administration. In short we stay for a short period of time with school as real employee of that school.

The N C F T E 2010 states that “the school internship is visualized by situating the practice of teaching in the broader context of vision and the role of teacher and sustained, engagement with learners and schools N C F T E 2010, in its layout of curriculum, conceives the curricular areas of initial teacher preparation as comprising of three broad areas.

As a part of b. Ed curriculum, i have done my school internship training from July to 8^th November 2019 at G.H.S.S. Edathala. It was really a blessed time for me which filled with lots of meaningful memories. The charming and loving faces of pupils of G.H.S.S EDATHALA welcome me and helped a lot to wash out all the fears in me. I got priceless experiences from there which would be helpful for my future. It was necessary to boost up my confidence which was very low at the beginning. My mentor Mrs. SUJA helped me a lot to make my internship really meaningful. Her guidance and support helped me to meet the goal well.

During this period i had to complete 6 chapters for both chemistry and physics for classes 8a and 8b.we prepared lesson plans earlier provided with much importance to the child oriented activities. I was trying to make the subject more attractive as well as effective. Preparation of lesson plans also helped me to manage the time well. Students were cooperated well on my classes. The activities and simple experiment i included in my classes really helpful for retaining their interests and involvement. We prepared 55 lesson plans for this teaching practice session. I used i c t [video , pictures, slides]for making my classes more effective. From the beginning i got both the negative and positive feedback from students about my teaching styles. Gradually i polished my way of teaching to make it more effective. I always tried to maintain the friendly atmosphere in the classroom by providing an open space for raising their ideas and doubts. The chapters allotted for me was force,   spherical mirrors, sound, metals, properties of matter from both physics and chemistry. Some of them were easy but some were difficult to understand for average students. I could ensure the active participation of most of the students through the implication of activities and group discussions.

UNIT PLAN

A unit plan is a plan of a unit with a clear and well defined aims and objectives. Unit planning is a middle stage between year planning and lesson planning. It should provide activities for students, flexibility for individual differences, correlation to life and other subjects. It has to be a complete integrated whole in its organization with the provision for evaluation and follow up activities.

I prepared a unit plan of the unit ‘force’. We got the instructions about the steps which need to be included in to the unit plan from our teachers. From this previous knowledge i prepared the unit plan with following the steps of content analysis , objectives and specifications, learning activities, testing procedures. It helped me to understand the way of organization of whole topic by keeping the relationship with each lesson plans.it helped me to choose effective activities to meet the curricular objectives expected to achieve by the students.

SUBJECT CLUB / FORUM ACTIVITIES

A properly organized science club will be a valuable aid to teaching science and also means of motivating the children for learning science .the successful working of the club depend on the person who organize it and also on the interest and enthusiasm of students.

The first activity which we conducted was a ‘drawing competition’. It was conducted on September 20 based on the topic ‘oil-conservation’. Increasing rate of consumption of natural resources leads to the scarcity in future. That is why we conducted the same for make them aware. Above 40 students were participated on this. They expressed their views through drawings. Master Sangeeth of class 10 won the first prize.

We conducted a quiz program based on the topic ‘ozone’ on 16th September ozone day. Students were really engaging for the activities. They itself prepared a notice and published in the notice board. There were 15 students participated at the level 1.master ARUN of class 10 won the first prize. By conducting all these activities under science -club , i got the clear  picture about how to organize a club for extra activities and how to conduct these activities in a smooth manner.it also helped me to realize positive influence on students.

SELF ASSESSMENT

Self -assessment is the process of looking at oneself in order to assess aspects that are important. It is one of the motives that drive self- evaluation. After completing one unit i conducted a self -assessment using a self -assessment tool which i prepared by myself.it was mainly intent to understand the level of perception of each of them. It helped me to reflect on myself to identify both weak and strong points.it opens a way to improve my own style of teaching, thoughts, attitudes, expectations.

PEER EVALUATION

Peer evaluation is a process of collegial feedback on quality of teaching.it is a purposeful process of gathering information and evidences about the effectiveness of teaching process. I evaluated the classes of two of my friends by using evaluating criteria. We were practicing at the same school  g.h.s.s. edathala.one of them was taking mathematics and the other physics. Both were possessed differences in the styles of teaching. Both of them were tried to maintain child centered atmosphere in their own ways. They possess differences in time management, appearance, consolidation, classroom management etc. I could provide the feedback for both of the classes which may be helpful for their further improvement.

ACHIEVEMENT TEST

A test designed to assess the achievement in any subject with regard to a set of predetermined objectives is called an achievement test.it helped to evaluate the level of skill at the given moment. I conducted an achievement test for the chapter ‘force’. I prepared a question paper by following the steps. Then i conducted the achievement test for 20 marks. The test was provided with 45 minutes. All the students were presented on that test. I evaluated the answer sheet using scoring key and marking scheme after the test. After that i prepared mark list for the same. Students cooperated well for the smooth administration of the test.it helped me to measure how much they achieved in that particular chapter.it provides me the review of my teaching and opens a door to self -reflection also.

DIAGNOSTIC TEST

Diagnostic tests are those designed to identify and investigate the difficulties, disabilities of the pupil in specific field before they become serious problems to themselves and the teachers. After analyzing the result of the achievement test another test called diagnostic test was conducted in order to find out the exact area of the difficulty and the reason behind. The students were participated with full of interest. I prepared a specific type of question paper for the same with objective type questions arranged according to the difficulty level. I could recognize the exact area of difficulty after conducting a pretest. Then i implemented the remedial teaching in most effective way.it was done after dividing the potion into different subtopics. Then i selected different methods for teaching. Then i conducted a post- test with the same question paper .they showed very good improvement on the posttest which shows that the remedial teaching hits on the target.so the scope of the another remedial teaching nullified.

LANGUAGE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

Language across the curriculum is a curricular enrichment program that provides students with opportunity to use their skills in language other than native language. I prepared two lesson plans of the unit ‘force’ from physics subject using English as the medium of instruction. I added certain activities to promote the specific language skills like read, write, listen, communicative skill etc. The classes were taken by including various activities which ensuring the maximum students involvement. The students were seemed really interested to use english language to express their ideas and concepts.

We had a practical work for conducting an action research based on our particular subject which we were teaching during induction. I was taking the ‘problems related with lack of interest and difficulties faced by the students in the concept formation in physics subject’ in action research. Initially i made an action hypothesis followed by an action plan. Then i executed the action plans in order to get rid of the problems. More than a practical work i could motivate them on studies. Another practical work was to conduct a case study of a child who are suffering from any of the learning problem. I selected a child with ‘a d h d [attention deficit hyperactivity disorder]’ for the same. I used the techniques of observation, psychological test, sociometric-test  for data collection. I could suggest various remedies and instructions to parents as well as teachers to make him better.

The internship training was a great experience for me as a teacher trainee. It helped to reduce the gap between the theory and practice. It was a great chance for us to mold ourselves as a good teacher. We got an opportunity to work with eminent teachers with lots of good qualities which can copy in our life too. I can ensure that it would be the meaningful time of my teaching profession. It will be helping for my carrier definitely.