reflection

My enthusiasm for teaching was waning, and I was demotivated as I started this adventure. I was skeptical about whether this program would help me find the path to rejuvenation that I needed. I nevertheless completed the necessary steps, including applying and enrolling. The journey is over nine months later. It has undoubtedly exceeded my expectations in every way.

My perspective and perception of my responsibilities as a business teacher, and more significantly, as a person, have been altered and reshaped by it. There were difficulties and times when I wanted to give up, but my support network gave me encouragement. I have gained a depth of information and experience that have been worth it because I have observed both my professional and personal development.

I always compared and interpreted my role as that of a swimming coach transforming my students through different experiences on their journey of learning. In this journey though, the focus was primarily on my role and getting the students safely and successfully to their targeted goals. I would pause and facilitate comments and questions, but the aim was to reach that goal without going off course. My lessons would be very teacher-centered, and content-focused.

My function as the swimming coach, however, started to change when a new route opened up for me during the pedagogy sessions. My practice was significantly improved and enriched by my exposure to a wide range of instructional strategies, a detailed method and diversity of activities for teaching various skills, and a complete procedure for lesson planning and assessment.

One element that I truly valued was the lesson planning process. It encouraged me to be creative and truly think like the 21st-century learners with whom I deal, which led to some experimenting because it tested my ability to incorporate the course material I had studied. When choosing which exercises to utilize to teach specific abilities, I frequently put myself in the position of my pupils, with technology acting as my devoted ally. There were some trying times, but they quickly passed, especially after I realized how useful they were.

Another element of assessment caused me to think back on what I had been doing for all these years and how erroneous my strategy had been. My senior supervisors' actions served as my model for generating and marking evaluations, and the procedure was always perceived as being simple. However, while I was just concerned with getting grades to fill out report cards, my perspective altered when I was exposed to the various aspects of this field. The validity and reliability of these marks-two crucial terms that will always stick with me-were not widely questioned.

This training helped me build a reflective aspect of my position, one that aims to help me grow as a person and practitioner. My responsibilities as a swimming coach have become more complex; instead of concentrating on myself, I now prioritize my students and the importance of their experiences in the learning process. The different swimmers on the journey must veer off course since they are not all alike and do not process information in the same way. Since the journey is centered on the swimmers, adjustments to the schedule are permissible to accommodate their requirements. I am more prepared and driven to coach my team as effectively as possible.

My love for education has been rekindled by this program, and I now feel better prepared and more driven to be the finest swimming instructor. The fact that I made it through this and now have a thirst for more makes this Diploma in Education seem like just the beginning. One of my lecturers always said that post this Diploma in Education, we would return to pursue more because we would crave more. Although my coworkers and I laughed at that idea, I must confess that there is some truth to what was said. I want to actively contribute to the ongoing changes in how business education is taught. Now that my feet are practically at the door, preparing to enter the Masters in Education program, it is tough to stop. I am ready and as the song aptly says, "I've still got a lot of fight left in me". (Platten, 2015).