Communication skills
Throughout my time at the school I improved on my communication skills by using different techniques for the children. For example, when talking to lower ability children I would use language that was easy to understand and speak slower. As well I learnt to talk to the …show more content…
This improved my patience as I had to wait for them to finish before we could move on. This was extremely difficult when I was paired with two students of different abilities and I would often have to find extension tasks for the higher ability student to do whilst the lower ability student caught up. This helped me use my own initiative as I would set them tasks such as reading what they had written to make sure they understood it whilst the other children finished their work.
I improved my visual communication skills by using a whiteboard to employ visual aids to help the children such as drawing pictures so they can understand the words. I also became familiar with the computer program ‘Widget’ which puts basic pictures alongside corresponding words.
As well as assisting the teacher and pupils I had to perform menial tasks such as inputting data on the teacher training day. However this improved my information and keyboard skills as I was required to find confidential information on the school’s computer system and input it into a form. From doing this I learnt the importance of confidentiality as I was viewing very sensitive information.
Interpersonal …show more content…
However once I decided to get to school for 8.30am instead of 9am giving me extra time in case the bus was late I was able to improve my punctuality and time management skills. I used this extra time to attend staff meetings to get a better idea of how a school works and to prepare myself for the day such as seeing if there were any changes to my timetable or if there were any duties that needed doing such as photocopying. This immensely improved my self-discipline as this was my first full time job which forced me to act maturely by arriving on time and waking up earlier.
Professional Development
My career awareness developed as during this placement I learnt that I can cope very well in a school setting particularly a SEN school. However I also learnt that whilst parts of the job can be rewarding such as long holidays and seeing a child improve their abilities, I wouldn’t want to work in a school for my career as it is exhausting and I think there is too much work for too little pay. One of teaching assistants I knew had two other jobs because they didn’t earn enough.
My environmental awareness improved as a result of my horticulture lessons where the children would learn and discuss ways to help the environment. I found myself learning just as much as the children in our