As a future teacher what do you see as your main weakness (or weaknesses) and how will you work on improving this (these)?

Originally I shied away from answering this question. I know it is very important to know and recognize my faults, both as a teacher and an individual. Understanding that there are always things I can, and should, be doing to improve myself both in and out of the classroom will be crucial for my students as well as career. Having said this, and while it is easy for me to pick out and recognize many of my own faults, it is still not an easy task for me to openly discuss and expose them to others.

I would have to say that one of my main weaknesses is in my time management skills. Don’t get me wrong, I usually accomplish everything I need to by the time it is necessary to be completed. But, I often find myself waiting until the last minute, or pretty close to it, to finish. I am a procrastinator. I usually have every intention of starting a task early, and sometimes do, but I seldom complete the task far in advance. Perhaps this behavior is due to the fact that I try to do many things all at the same time and can have a lack of focus on just one thing. While I am a busy person with try to balance school, activities, work and leisure, I think that occasionally I use this as an excuse for not accomplishing things sooner. When I do work on a task I want it to be done correctly and done well. Sometimes I also think that the perfectionist in me comes out and won’t let me be fully done with something until I think its good enough. I know I can manage some of my time better; I don’t just want to accept that this is the way I am and the way I work. I will have to continually work to improve in this area to become a better SLP. In order to provide clients with the best services I can offer. We have a limited time to spend together; I will have to be certain before each session that I have devoted adequate time to each and every case and come to every session prepared in advance.

Another weakness that is geared more towards my professional interactions with my peers has to do with the way I perceive things. Sometimes I have a difficult time looking at information from other, or multiple angles. I tend to look at things one way and assume that is how everyone else sees them as well. By taking this class I have already become more aware of ways to acknowledge other points of view. I hope to continue to develop this awareness throughout my career. This way of perceiving things can also be applied to the approaches I will use in therapy. For example, I may think that the best way to learn a desired skill is one way, but my client may benefit more from learning another way, or taking a different therapy approach.