Below are some of the reasons why people become RTC teachers.

Think honestly about why you applied to this College and choose the correct reasons from the list. Add any other reasons you may have.

1. I enjoy teaching.

2. I want some further training or education.

3. I want a job to earn money.

4. I want to help my local community.

5. I want to encourage young people to stay at home in the village.

6. I did not have the opportunity of further education and this is one.

7. I did not have the opportunity to get a job in town.

8. I was encouraged by other people - relatives, priest or pastor, teachers,

principal.

9. I did not want to go back and be a farmer in the village.

10. I could not find anything else to do.

11. I went to an RTC, enjoyed the life there and wanted to go back.

12. I am already teaching in an RTC and want to improve my teaching skills and

get a qualification.

13. I am looking for a wife / husband.

Other reasons:

Write briefly, in Pijin or English, the story of your own education: where you went to school, to RTC etc.  Describe

            a.  any personal strengths which made you a good student (we all have some strengths);

            b.  the main difficulties you had in studying or attending school or RTC.

 

Make lists of

a.      Your strengths as a teacher.  What experience, knowledge, skills, personal characteristics, attitudes or beliefs do you think will help you to be a good teacher?

b.      Your weaknesses as a teacher.  What difficulties do you think you may have to overcome in becoming a good teacher?  These may also be your personal weaknesses or your lack of knowledge, skill or experience.

c.      Things that you can do to try to build on your strengths.

d.      Things that you can do to try to help you overcome your weaknesses

 

You may like to work in pairs and compare each other’s ideas, or you may feel you would be more honest working on your own.  This will give you some personal aims on how to develop yourself while you are on this course.  This can be private to you.  You do not need to show your tutor.

Start a diary or personal development journal of your life on this course. Try to write daily or every few days:

• Things you personally learnt which may help you to be a good teacher.

• Problems you found on the course and how you might overcome these.

• Ideas you want to remember to help you to improve your teaching.

This is not a place to write notes on what you learn during the course. It is a place to record your personal experiences and ideas during the course.

For example you would not write down the types of food you learnt about in a Life Skills class. You might write: “Lesson enjoyable because all girls cooperated in cooking the same thing. Remember - cooking in S.I. is always a cooperative activity.”

This Personal Development Journal will be looked at each week by your tutor. It will not be ‘marked’, but it will show your tutor what progress you are making with the course and what problems you may be having. The tutor will then be able to advise you each week about any problems you may have, or about how to continue successfully with the course. The Journal is to help you, so you should try to be as honest as possible in it, and not be frightened of talking about the problems you are having, if any. You can write in Pijin or English and can use note form and abbreviations if you wish.

Guidelines for the Journal:

You might use these as guidelines:

1. Need: Weaknesses in your teaching or learning which you think you need to overcome.

2. Action: How you intend to overcome these?

and later

3. Result: Whether you were successful in what you did.

For example

1. Need: to ask more questions to individuals in class.

2. Action: make plan of class to show student names and where they sit.

1. Result: worked well, but encourage students to sit in same places until I

know names.

-- page break --