Positive Learning Experience
My positive learning experience was surprisingly in my adulthood and had a direct impact on my own teaching. I had voice difficulties from the start of my career, losing my voice frequently, which meant time off work. I was lucky enough to be referred to an excellent speech therapist, who also recommended singing lessons, something I had done briefly as a child. This would improve my understanding of how the voice works, and so combat any future problems. The teacher I found has left a lasting impression on my voice, but I feel more importantly on my approach to teaching. She was always positive, always encouraging, and she raised my confidence in an area that I felt very self conscious about. She would have me lying on the floor, jumping up and down, and reaching notes I never thought I could. She also would try to get messages across by helping me to visualise things. As a visual learner this helped!!!After sessions with her I felt uplifted, exhilarated, keen to practise and enthused to make sure that when I worked with children they felt like that too.
Negative Experience.
I feel I met many an incompetent teacher during my secondary experience; luckily they weren’t all like that!! The worst was probably my Maths teacher for GCSE. She was clearly a very good mathematician as she would write copious diagrams, formula’s, and calculations on the board, and never stopped talking, at a very fast pace. However I did not understand any of them and she had no time for students who couldn’t go at her speed. She wouldn’t take questions, and was constantly distracted by those in my class who wanted to misbehave. In fact, it was her lack of ability to control the class that frustrated me, as I felt I was constantly missing out. I also felt her communication skills were pretty poor and she lacked personality to grasp anyone’s attention. Her style was didactic and that failed, however she wasn’t prepared to try any other approach.
AnneMarie Kendal
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