Journal Writing Experience - Task B

Task B - Reflective Writing Task

Today I have been writing some journals for the week (Wednesday to Friday) almost at an end. 

This week I mainly just went to work, went to University, went to the gym and taught a class last Saturday. I also went to a job interview and was phoned today and offered the job. Reflecting back on these events work was the same and I didn't really learn anything new there but I was put in a few situations where I had to think on my feet in face to face confrontations with customers. I had to be confident and speak informative to give the best customer service I could. I think doing these face to face talks with customers in complaint situations helped me grow as a person giving me more confidence knowing that in these situations I can act as needed. 

Going to the gym was what feels like a normal gym session but when reflecting back I did not run for my usual amount of time and this was because I was not wearing the right clothing which made my legs rub together and gave me a rash. So next time I will wear the appropriate clothing because I do not want my fitness levels to deteriorate because of a simple clothing error. I also did a spinning class and was aching a lot from the weights class I did the night before so it was probably better for me to give my body a rest that day because I couldn't commit to my class fully because my muscles ached. Next week my gym are putting on a Cardio Christmas Challenge, which is completing a certain amount of miles etc on different cardio machines including the stepper, rower, treadmill, crosstrainer and bike. It has to be completed before christmas eve but there is a competition for the first female and male to finish. I am having thoughts about trying to complete it first but not 100% sure whether I am going to yet. 

When I was teaching last Saturday I had the usual age groups I teach but then covered a class for a girl who was on holiday. This class was a younger class starting at 3 years old. For the first 45 minutes of the class I really enjoyed teaching them because they seemed really interested and were paying attention. Slowly their behaviour deteriorated and they just wanted to play games. I felt like if I just played games with them then they were not learning anything and didn't feel like I was doing my job. The principal of the school then reminded me that they are young and need to be kept happy and interested so games was a popular thing to do with them. This week their normal teacher is back from holiday but I am still going to go and help out in the class so I can see how other teachers are their pupils and to learn things from them and see what they do with the younger age groups. I think this will then help me more with ideas of what to do with that age group. I reflect back on this situation and think what could I have done better and I think I did okay but maybe I could of gone to a lesson before to observe how the teacher is with this age group and the things they do. I did ask friends who teach children of this age and they gave me some ideas of things and tips of what they do so I incorporated these but time seemed to go so slow and I had finished the ideas I was given way before my time which, I suppose is a good thing because then I was made to think on the spot. In teaching I think that it is good to think on the spot because when things change you can always produce something from the change.

I also attended a job interview earlier this week and was phoned today and offered the job which I was obviously pleased about. The interview process was a group interview which is not something i have taken part in before. We had to write down a word which best describes us, I said positive and we had to write down and share with the group which animal best describes us. I wrote down dog (haha) because they are said to be mans best friend and I think I am happy and friendly. Also they help people such as blind people they are their helpers and I class myself as someone who will do anything for anyone. I think group interviews are not as good as individual interviews because you do not get to know the person on a personal level and only find out things about them from their cv or from random tasks that they take part in in the group interview. In my interview there was many different people there and different ages so when I go for my induction it will be interesting to see who got the job. There were quite a few people in there that didn't have very much experience but in the job world you never know what they are looking for. It is like x factor, different people like different things.

Have you ever had a group interview?

If yes,

What was it like? and what did you have to do?

These events that I have spoken about above are the events that I have wrote about in my journal. I have to be careful when posting on my blog what I write because when speaking about events I could name companies, names of people but I should not do this because of ethical issues. I do not have permission from these people to write personally about them so shouldn't. In some companies that you work for posting about them online can be a sackable offence. In one of my jobs I had to sign a form to say that I would not post about them naming them personally online and I would not use Facebook to write status' about them that can make the company look bad.