Erandi Hansika Rajapaksha

A teacher's personality can affect their teaching and therefore the students' learning process. I always try to be a teacher with positive personality traits to build up a good rapport with the students. I had 3+ years experience as a government school teacher in English as a foreign language and had one year experience as a teacher trainee in English language. I am reading in my Bachelor of Education in English at Lincoln University, Malaysia. Through my experience both as a teacher in a government school and as a tutor, I recognize that any level of students need empathy, patience, compassion, self-discipline, and flexibility. Therefore, I always took the time to make each student feel valued and always projected a positive demeanor. Also, I was patient with students with special needs and helped them to achieve good grades. When I was planning my lessons, to manage time effectively, I plan my lessons in four or three 10minute blocks for primary and secondary students respectively. I leave an extra 5 minutes per block for questions and conversation. I find this method gives me enough time to control where and when the lessons ends. Normally at the beginning of the lesson, I recap the previous class and give students a chance to ask questions they might have before moving on as a brainstorm activity. But, according to the lessons, I uses different methods like games oriented learning, collaborative learning and spaced learning methods to break the monotony of the students. Also, I think a positive relationship between teachers and parents helps to improve the student's academic performance. I like to take every opportunity to meet parents face-to-face to discuss questions they have regarding their child's performance and progress. At the start of a school year, I invite parents for an individual meeting and give them an overview of what is being accomplished in the classroom and that keeps the parents up to date with the current curriculum, projects, and tests.