ITESS profile of a student teacher (Q1)

 

This profile describes characteristics of an ideal learner in international teacher education. It links student behavior to professional behavior.

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Eager: proactive, explorative, enjoying professional growth.
Student teachers actively seek insights and know-how that have personal, professional, local or global significance relevant to a life at international schools. They like to feel empowered by an increase in pedagogic and subject knowledge and skills that helps them grow into a cherished and competent professional in international education. They can learn autonomously and enjoy constructing meaning individually and together with others, enriching their views by different perspectives.

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I consider myself to be eager because I have always done my best to successfully complete the formative and summative assessments related to Educational Studies. I have often found myself working on them all night, because I really wanted to achieve perfection. I know this might sound unrealistic and fanatical, but it is the truth and I am proud of the results. I am, of course, aware that I still have much to learn, but I can affirm that I have enhanced my knowledge and teaching skills and am very satisfied with my work and growth at the end of the first quarter of ITESS year 1.

Strategic: purposeful, resourceful, persistent, resilient.
Student teachers can set challenging aims for themselves within the required learning outcomes of the ITESS curriculum. They can do the same for their students in the educational programmes of international schools. For themselves and for their students, they devise strategies and tactics to optimize learning, effectively organizing resources and tools. They monitor progress, recognizing strengths and weaknesses. They know how to sustain effort and uphold resilience, and they can cope with distractions and negative emotions that undermine the learning process.

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This is a point I need to improve on, because I fell into the panic zone (Vygotsky) more than once during this first quarter and, while the last time it happened I managed to quickly get back on track, there has been an episode in which I was in this zone for almost two weeks. The rest of the time, instead, I committed so much to carrying out my tasks that I lost a lot of sleep nights and endangered myself as I had to drive to university the following morning. I definitely need to work on my productivity during the day, but this does not change the fact that I am satisfied with the final results of my tasks and am aware that if I had done them exclusively at normal hours of the day, my tasks would have likely been of a lower level. Late night productivity has, in fact, been one of my main characteristics since I was a teenager and I am not totally sure I will ever be able to change this completely, since I have tried many times.

However, as I am writing this self-reflection, I can confirm that today is a remarkable day, because it is now 5:30pm and I have been productively working on My Best Lesson's motivation and this self-reflection all afternoon. This could be due to the stress of the upcoming deadline or the enthusiasm of finally seeing the end of this long task, but I am surprised about this improvement and I hope I can keep it up.

Creative: open-minded, flexible, inventive.
Together with fellow students or individually, student teachers show flexibility and imagination in optimising their own learning activities, adapting them to their needs and preferences. Student teachers use their creativity to turn (cultural) diversity at international schools into a valuable asset for the learning process in school subjects. They take an active part in finding inventive solutions to overcome traditional subject boundaries by helping to develop unifying concepts and new learning environments for international schools. They use their knowledge and imagination to combine subject learning with broader pedagogic and professional aims. They assist in making the curriculum flexible.

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Based on how I planned all my lessons, especially My Best Lesson, I can say that I do use my knowledge and imagination to combine subject learning with broader pedagogic and professional aims. In addition to this, I am creative in making a lesson plan, but I sometimes struggle to decide what the most effective active learning activity would be. Moreover, I have not had the chance to work as an international secondary school teacher yet, so I do not know to what extent I would be able to develop unifying concepts and new learning environments for international schools and to assist in making the curriculum flexible. Therefore, regarding this point, I am going to give myself some time to improve and I hope at the end of ITESS year 1 I will be able to say I am creative and to explain why.  

Balanced: thoughtful, reflective, cooperative, caring, principled.
Student teachers contribute to a safe, sustainable and effective learning environment for themselves and for their students. They work from carefully considered values appropriate for international schools. They can reflect on the congruence of their professional attitudes and skills with their personality. They use evidence-based approaches to learning that are suitable to international schools. They thoughtfully analyse and evaluate the quality of their activities as a student teacher, and they can do practical research to improve them. They carry out their daily work, help others and prepare new projects in good-humored and respectful cooperation with colleagues and students.

 

Overall I can say I am balanced, since I am always able to reflect on  my assessments and study behaviour, but also on those of my peers. I also work well in groups, because I am flexible and always willing to help. However, I have worked in a group project with two other girls who were not very altruistic when I was the one needing help, so I found myself feeling disappointed for helping them when they needed it. This made me realise that I should improve my communication skills, in order to make others respect me more.

I have been told so many times that I am too good to others and that is why people take advantage of me. As a future teacher, I would therefore like to learn how to be more assertive, so that students and colleagues respect me and do not take advantage of my kindness.

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