Reflective Overview of my teaching Practice - Essay Example

I always want my planning to be realised into an effective and positive teaching experience for the learners. I use Maslows Hierarchy of Needs as a basis for some of the teaching that I do. The first stage in his hierarchy is to ensure that the students physical needs are met. In my classroom, the way that I do this is to create a friendly environment where my students feel safe, welcomed and appreciated. In line with Maslows second level of needs, students need to feel psychologically secure in their learning, not pressured and they should not be compared to others, but be compared to their last performance of similar tasks I think that this allows students to find the psychologically secure place in my classroom.

The way that I run my classroom is different now because of the legislation that has influenced the way that teachers teach. The legislation suggests that teachers must be more student centred. This mandate came from funders and Ofsted and teachers must demonstrate their allegiance to these initiatives, and ensure the observers that excellent teaching and learning is taking place in the classroom. Teachers have always been student centred, but today, they have to find ways of clearly demonstrating the evidence of student centred teaching so that we can show that learning has indeed taken place.

I am a literacy teacher so my planning really begins with my Scheme of Work (SoW) which is a term/year plan. I use the literacy core curriculum as a set of standards for producing my SoW. In this way, I ensure my learning programme is well matched to individual learning needs. My SoW specifies the content and the intended outcomes with consideration of teaching methods, assessment procedures, learning contexts and curriculum references. In planning lessons, I transfer information to my lesson plans and expand on the information so that I have enough detail in my plans.

In my place of work, we are