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Since I remember I have always been thinking about becoming a teacher. At the end I decided to study on the Technical University, however the idea of teaching experience was still on my mind. I have not finished pedagogy, so teaching was for me just a hobby (since I was not a certified teacher). First experience with teaching that I have had, was during my studies. It was a private class of mathematics, the student was in the middle school. The experience was very good, I started teaching mathematics, then also other technical subjects. I was very satisfied because the student was progressing. Since I was preparing the student for a specific tests, that time we were using the material from classes of my student. The only challenges that I have faced was the fact, that sometimes my student forgot his notebook. In this kind of situations I needed to create some exercises in order to prepare him for the specific test. I tried to be always creative and flexible so that was not a very big issue. Second experience was more challenging. I have had a student who were an ,,artistic soul’’. I was teaching her also mathematics, but for the matura exam, which is obligatory to pass in case of starting any studies. I felt very responsible for her result. This time I had my own book with exercises and before every lesson I was choosing the most relevant exercises. Sometimes, during the lesson, she was asking me questions, but sometimes I did not know the answers straight away, so I was loosing my self-confidence. That is why before the lesson I was refreshing my knowledge and also completing tasks by myself. By this situation I have learned that even I am a teacher I do not need to know everything, but I should learn as well to be more confident as a teacher. Then I was teaching an eight years old boy, mostly we were doing his homework together. I know how different is teaching teenagers and children, that is why I was trying to be aware how to react in case of some challenges. Actually, the main problem was to get my student concentrated and interested in lesson. At the beginning of the lesson, he was complaining that he is very tired and asking every five minutes when we will finish. I needed to be very patient with him and creative to keep him interested. I noticed that he likes football that is why I started asking him about his favourite football player, giving him some examples when English is needed in sport. I saw he was interested sometimes, but then we were back to the starting point. He did not want to learn, he did not feel that he needs the lessons. That was one of my worst teaching experience, I felt that the problem of his laziness is much deeper. That is why I have talked with his parents, I felt that it was beyond my capabilities and responsibilities as a teacher. Unfortunately the parents were forcing him to attend many classes and he was just too tired for all. I decided to quit, since the situation was very unsatisfactory and uncomfortable, clearly giving my feedback to the parents in polite way. As written above, most challenging situations for me as an unexperienced teacher were: unprepared student, defining your responsibility as a teacher, preventing loosing self-confidence as a teacher and being flexible make students interested. The most difficult for me was to understand that I am a teacher, not a parent that should educate a child. Also very important moment was giving a constructive feedback to the parents, in a way to not offend them. I think a good teacher should be prepared for these challenges and also ready to face the next one in the future.
