Introduction

Teaching practice occupies a key position in the programme of teacher education. It is a

culminating experience in teacher preparation. It provides opportunity for student teachers to get

socialized into the profession (Furlong et.al, 1988). Performance during teaching practice

provides some basis for predicting the future success of the teacher. Outgoing popularity and

centrality of teaching practice is an important contributing factor towards the quality of teacher

education programme (Trowbridge and Bybee, 1994; sharafuddin, and Allison, 1969).

Teaching practice is also the name of the preparation of student teachers for teaching by

practical training. It is the application of teaching methods, teaching strategies, teaching

principles, teaching techniques and practical training and practice /exercise of different activities

of daily school life.

The main aim of teaching practice are to provide the prospective teachers with

appropriate teacher pupil relationship, attitudes and ideas relative to teaching profession,

opportunity for self evaluation, skills and strategies. Opportunity to exchange of ideas and

methods between practicing school and teacher training college,

Moreover, the teaching practice also help to develop personal relationship with others

like administrators, teachers, parents and students, to provide with practical experience in school

to overcome the problems of discipline and enable him / her to develop method of control, to

provide with an opportunity to put theories into practice, to enable the student teachers to plan

and prepare lessons effectively, to develop skill in the use of fundamental procedures, techniques

and methods of teaching, and to provide an opportunity for self evaluation and to discover own

strengths and weaknesses.

We are given six months of teaching practice. The teaching practice tenure has been an

enriching experience and golden opportunity to explore and learn many things for personal and

professional development. It was a good time to foresee the future’s teaching and reflect on our

practical application on teaching skills and strategies during our micro-teaching. It is also a

special tenure for me to impart knowledge applying the skills and strategies we have learned in

the college.

First day to schoolWe reported to the school, Lungtenzampa Middle Secondary School on 10th February,

2011. The school was established in 1972. It is headed by Madam Pricipal Kinley Pem. The

school has one thousand one hundred seventy seven students (Boys: 544 and girls: 633) students

and fifty four teaching staff (Nationals: 43 and non-nationals: 11) and fourteen supporting staff.

The vision of the school is “Epitome of Excellence par Education” and the mission of the

school is “Enhancement of citizens who uphold GNH values through conducive and

meaningful education experiences.”

No sooner have we reported to the school we have met our focal person and mentors and

we were oriented about the school and resources available and so on. I was then attached with

Mrs. Namgay Lhaden and Mrs. Jigme Euden and given biology and chemistry of class nine to be

taught.

I have been mindful on the certain commitments and norms before I go into the real

teaching life. When I as a student, I could remember how very quickly we used to stereotype and

backbite our teacher as a ‘impulsive’, ‘frantic’, ‘strict’, ‘friendly’, ‘joker’, ‘boring’ or as a

‘good’ teacher and so on. These tags do remain with the students for a long duration. I personally

feel that children are in fact excited and curious to have new teachers. Mentally I have decided

that I do not want to earn a stereotyped impression as a boring, impulsive and a dull teacher. I

thought over the different prospects of the kind of teacher I wanted to be during my teaching

practice. The tag “good and interesting, frank and approachable” consecutively seemed to be the

dominant feeling.

Professional Development

Palmer, P.J (2005) stated, “If teachers are to become healers for their students, they must

first work hard to heal themselves. Our great need as a teacher is to acknowledge and reveal the

fears that permeate our own lives so that we can stop feeding the fear in the world and start

relieving it” (p.38). Frequent student-teacher interaction in and out of class is a vital factor in

students’ motivation, participation and involvement. Teacher concern helps students get through

rough times and keep on working. It also enhances student’s intellectual commitment and

encourages them to think about their own values, plans and belongingness. Learning is enhanced

when it is more like a team effort than monologue world. Good learning, like good work, is

collaborative and social, not isolated one. Working with others often increases involvement in

learning. Sharing one's ideas and responding to others improves thinking and deepens

understanding which promotes professional development.

Focus on Students

In the six month of teaching, I realized that learning is not simply a self spectaculation in

the sporting events. Students do not learn much by mere sitting in classroom listening to

teachers, memorizing prepackages from the textbooks, and vomiting out answers. They should

talk and analyze about what they are learning, reflect on it, relate it to past experiences/learning,

and apply it to their daily lives. They must make and model what they learn. Initailly, students

need help in assessing their existing knowledge and competence. Then, in classes, students need

frequent time provided to perform and receive feedback on their performance. In the various

junctions, and at its end, students need chances to reflect on what they have learned, what they

still need to know, and how they might assess themselves. Time plus energy equals efficient

learning. Learning to use one's time well is critical for students. Allocating realistic amounts of

time means effective learning for students and effective teaching for teachers. Different students

bring different talents and styles to school like different intelligence. Students rich in hands-on

experience may not do so well with theory. Students need opportunities to expose their talents

and learn in ways that work for them. Then they can be pushed to learn in new ways that do not

come so easily. Knowing the individual differences and knowing students is vital for the

professional development as we can know their differences and different learning style for better

adaptation and effective learning.

Teaching competencies

The instructional hours began on 28th February, 2011. Every day one lesson has been

observed by my mentors, sometimes focal person and peers as well. The observations have been

amazing and informative to learn that in every lesson we could at least practice two skills. The

introductory procedures and closures and classroom use of language, use of teaching-learning

materials, stimulus and interaction variations and giving instructions for organizing learning

activities could be used throughout the lessons. In such skills practice the positive comments that

I had been commented by my mentors and observers were audible voice, good flow of the

lesson, varied stimulation, good explanation, good lesson flow, clear instructions, good attention

gain, good introduction and outlining, good handwriting, good usage of board and so on.

Over the period of six months of teaching practice, I felt that there was great

improvement in my teaching and in the application of the skills and strategies. I felt that my

teaching was effective and efficient because student could understand my lesson and have no

doubts. There was active participation and interaction in the class that made learning very

interesting, effective and retentive. The interesting and effective lesson also enabled to maintain

a well classroom decorum and conducive environment.

To practice skills and strategies aptly was not an easy task. It was necessary to choose the

most appropriate strategies for a particular skill while preparing lesson plan and an apt skill for

the particular topic. Among the ten skills that we have learned in the college, I found

management of groups for learning, giving instructions for organizing learning activities,

teaching of skills and procedure, interaction and variation, use of teaching aids and introductory

procedures and closure and classroom use language were easier and most appropriate in biology

lesson. But skills like questioning and handling pupils’ responses and teaching of values and

attitudes were difficult to be incorporated in teaching biology lesson though I did. Framing

questions and planning lessons base on that skill was not easy as it requires previously learned

knowledge and experiences. Most of the topics are new to the students which really impede to

practice and frame different levels of questioning base on the Bloom’s taxonomy. Teaching of

values and attitudes demands commitments as a result of the lesson learned which is difficult for

biology concept like ‘fertilization’, ‘flower’, ‘external morphology of the plant’ and ‘cells’. I

realized, finding the outcome of values incorporated in lessons was immeasurable. It can be

observed over a long period of time.

After several round of micro-teaching in the college I felt like I lack something in my

teaching but my mentor commented that my teaching went well except the usage of frequent

words like “now, then, did u get me, all right and o.k”.The most habitual word that I used while

teaching was ‘all right’, whenever I wanted to introduce new lesson I used ‘all right.’ I

understood that it would have been better if I had used some other words or phrases than alright’

or ‘now’. My mentor has been advising me to use better option and made me put cautious effort

in using better options.

Classroom management

Class management was crucial to have successful and even lesson delivery throughout. I

learned to respect my student’s work and opinion. I gave them group activities. I use to check

and monitor their work regularly. My mentor cautioned me that at times students personify in

doing the work in front of us. I have respected student’s doubts. I use to consult my mentor and

other senior teachers and also search from library as and when I came across difficult concept.

Students were very curious in learning because they were asking many questions during the

lesson. I learned to design the lesson keeping in mind time, type of activity and capacity of

student and their interest.

Challenges

Teacher’s responsibility is not mere teaching but the task of educating, civilizing and

spiritualizing the children and to shape them into good human beings and good citizens is indeed

challenging. It was quite a challenging and enriching experiences professionally and personally.

Teaching practice made me to realize that teaching was indeed a challenging job. Some of the

challenges that I faced are as follows:

Lesson planning

A key aspect of effective teaching-learning is having a plan for what will happen in the

classroom every day. Creating a plan involves setting realistic goals in line with the skills,

previous knowledge of the students; decide how to incorporate course textbooks and other

required materials, and identifying activities that will promote learning. Lesson planning was

challenging because while preparing the lesson I had to choose the most appropriate skill and

strategy that was applicable in the transformation and comprehension of the lesson doubtlessly.

For example teaching of practical works requires teaching of skills and procedure and interaction

variation whereas teaching of theoretical concept demands lecture method and introductory

procedures and closure and classroom use of language and so on.

Incorporating values and attitudes was yet another challenge. I informed the students

about my lesson objectives. Student’s responses indicated that they understood the values but I

could not measure whether I could change their attitude. This was not realistic and I feel it would

take years for a teacher to understand the attitude of their students.

Child centered learning

I was commented by my mentors and even by my SL having a teacher dominant class.the

basic reasons are according to the curriculum the science subjects are given three periods in a

week irrespective of the vast syllabus coverage. I felt the period allocation was insufficient. In

these three periods, I could not organise more activities and therefore we did not have sufficient

time to make students learn through various activities. This was a major concern for us. We had

to create less activity to fulfill the skills that we were supposed to use while teaching the lesson.

On the other hand our school got disturbed many times due to different activities like school

rimdo, inter school basket and football competition, and inter house cultural competition, sports

day and meeting on GNH.

Therefore, many a times, I could practice skills that are a teacher dominant class to cover the

syllabus. In the rush to cover the syllabus, we could not focus on child centered learning. Later

on the with comments and suggestion from mentors and others teachers I could practice the skill

for child centered class.

Dealing with students

The pupils in Thimphu are vocal and have been exposed to different media. So it was

very challenging for me to comply with them in the beginning. For teaching a particular concept

I had to refer different sources like internet and references to prepare the lesson before going to

the class. We need to plan lessons regularly and read a lot of books to have sound knowledge on

the content to respond to student’s quarries. Since I was given two different subjects to teach I

had to read and prepare well to face every possible questions and doubts. However, dealing with

individual and catering to individual need was indeed challenging. Some of the senior teachers

and my mentor were of great help to me. They always lend their help to solve my doubts.

Initiatives and achievements cum responsibilities

My achievements and contributions that I have made to the school during the six months stay.

Academically, I could report that more 80% of my students could get through in unit tests

and mid- term in my subject (Biology and Chemistry) in the six section of class nine that I

taught. In an education system like ours, where it is an exam oriented, and examination best

reflects success and failure the teacher has in teaching the students. Better performances by the

students certainly mean that the teacher has worked well. Reflecting on the performance of my

students, I feel I have done justice to my profession.

I was school scout club coordinator and attached house master of Sernya House. During

the club hours on Saturday, I including my mentors and scouts masters we teach them the basic

thing required as scouts to work with the GNH values and used to do social service within the

school

Three of us were given opportunity to teach drill to the students to the class seven

students for the annual school sports day that was held in the Changlinmithang. The drill was a

mixture of aerobatic and martial arts. It was a very good chance to teach and learn from it as

well. The drill was a success. Students performed well during the sports day. We worked in

collaboration with class teachers of class seven in designing pompom for the drill. Guests and

parents extended their appreciation.

Moreover, on the annual sports day I and my tp mate were given to be the officials to

conduct all the sporting events. As I was naïve to such events I struggled to comply with. In

order to over it, I have consulted my mentors, games and sports teachers and even games captain.

It was a new and enriching experience.

As I was attached as a house master, I had the chance to guide them in playing inter house

basketball and volley ball competition.

TAKING ATTENDANCE DURING CLUB HOURS

Personal development

Society expects the teachers to be the role models and masters of the knowledge. The six

months in the school have been advantages for me. Beside the professional development, the

school culture groomed me to a better person and a better teacher. Attending staff meetings,

academic development, farewell parties and paying condolence to the bereaved teacher friends

taught me the importance of team spirit and co-operation among the members which also helped

to built the inter personal skills.

Working in the environment of teachers and students, I learned to be punctual and

hepfuyl in all the programs of the school. The school has a good follow up to track the

punctuality since regular attendance in all programs and assembly was taken.

As a student I wasn’t hard working. In the school I had to work hard to live up to the

expectations of the teachers and students. Teachers had to teach their subjects, they had to be

class teachers, house masters, coordinators for various programs, counselors and the second

parent. To fulfill the roles, teacher had to work hard. Teacher had no room to fail since we deal

with the life of students as real human beings.. I learned to manage time and complete the work

given. Thus, I feel I have become a hard working person compared to my college life.

ConclusionThe six months’ teaching practice is a time of total test where once perseverance and

mental adjustments, compromise and consensus are put to acid test. An absolute reflection on all

these issues with a good degree of wisdom and judgment could be beneficial in forming a

professional and personal attitude towards a teaching profession. It could contribute towards

professional as well as personal growth.

My stay and tenure in Lungtenzampa MSS are one of the most precious momentsand

enriching experiences that I shall treasure forever. I enjoyed my stay to the hilt. It inspired and

motivated me to BE a good teacher.

Teaching in the classroom is not only the objective of teaching practice, but also to

provide training in all activities and work which student- teachers go abreast to perform well in

future as teacher. For this purpose we had to play the role of the parent, coach, brother, guide and

counselor and so on. We had to participate in all the activities of school e.g. preparation of

timetable, preparation and maintenance of different registers, evaluation of class work and home

work, arrangement of tutorial groups, sports , games, morning assembly, co-curricular activities,

duty during recess, duty as day master, duty before and after school timing, decoration of

classroom, preparation and maintenance of attendance board, news board, information board,

look after and home economics room, science laboratories and library. I really came to

know about how to deal the students, school supporting staff and guests. Duties as invigilators,

preparation of question papers for examinations, evaluation of answer scripts and compilation of

results is also part of teaching practice. So I am equipped with those skills and techniques.

However I have few suggestions in order to make teaching practice more effective, that student

teacher should watch the lessons of experienced teachers or mentor for one week and write

evaluation report about them and supervisors should provide guidelines to student teachers in the

light of this evaluation report.

Finally, student teachers should have a lot of perseverance and restraints. One should be in

accordance with teacher code of conduct to conduct aptly. School administration, mentor,

supervising lecturer, even the problematic students, all would seem to have ganged up to devour

you alive or make the teaching practice challenging. One should not take them all too negatively.

Take it as a stepping stones for a better teaching and go on with the objective purpose in your

mind. We would have won heart of the students in the end without realizing until the farewell bid

when some students say in tears “sir you were a great teacher. You taught us many interesting

things--thank you and good bye”. Therefore, my teaching practice tenure has been absolute help,

befitting, well mentored and a personal and professional future.

Mentors Focal Person

Mrs. Namgay Lhaden Mrs. Karma Zangmo

Mrs. Jigme Uden