a. INTRODUCTION
Describe the approach/strategy used.
b. DEVELOPMENT
What were the challenges encountered during implementation?
What were the tactics employed to resolve the difficulties met?
What further improvements can be suggested?
c. PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
What new insights/discoveries have I made in relation to my role as a teacher?
How will I make use of this new knowledge in future?
What further information or knowledge should I seek to expand my knowledge in relation to this context?
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Started teaching alone in Week 3 (12 Jul - 15 Jul). Have taught 3 classes. I would say it was a very good start, despite that there are still AFIs.
ReplyDeleteOne lower sec science class:
When I was observing the lower sec science class the past 2 weeks, plus the teacher's feedback, that class is very quiet and "dead". No response to teacher's questions.
So when I took over the class, I created powerpoint slides to introduce myself and let the students know a little bit of my background. I also passed a piece of the seating plan around for them to write their names on it. I let them know that this is to allow me to know them. I am trying to connect with the class by showing that I care to know who they are. I also told them my teaching approach - to guide them to discover.
There was a boy sitting right in front who was very sleepy and put his head on the table, did not do worksheet. He told me that he did not have enough sleep because of the football worldcup so I allow him to go to wash his face.
The next day I was surprised to see this boy coming to the science class so fresh and alert. And he responded loudly to most of the questions that I posed to the class! This has helped to changed the mood of the class a little bit. Yah, a small step at a time. I will continue to find ways to encourage students' participation in this science class.
2 Maths classes (sec 1 and sec 3 express):
I adopted the same introduction to let the class know who is that teacher teaching them. Then for the sec 1 class, I asked them to create their own name tag to be placed on the desk. The students were very excited doing this ice breaking activity. Through this name tag designing activity, I am able to more or less see their characters. This will help me manage them better.
During my last 2 weeks' observation, this class is always doing the textbook drill and practice type of work. For my lst lesson with them, I was thinking of assigning them some hands-on class activity (pair-work) but then on the other hand I was a bit reserved because I was not sure whether the class will go chaotic or not (my CT not present in class). After some thought and the CT's encouragement, I gave it a try. This is to test whether students can understand concepts better and enjoy learning maths or not when they are allowed to have some hands-on class activities. From students' eagerness and active participation, I can sense that they like this type of thing.
From this trial run, I have learned that I need to WRITE DOWN very clear and step by step instructions for students. Otherwise if I just verbally tell them what to do, some of them cannot follow.
In summary, the feedback from CTs and through my own experience, I know that I need to tell students very clearly what they have to do or what I am going to teach before executing each and every key move. This is especially important in lower sec classes.
20 Jul (Tue) was an important day. My NIE supervisor came to do her first round of assessment on my teaching on Lower Sec Science. She was slightly early that day so we had a chance to chit-chat a bit before students arrived. She told me that teaching secondary students are very different from teaching adult learners, which I had been doing for the past decade. Teachers have to give very specific and clear instructions; else those secondary students might not know what to do and just sit there doing nothing.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder a common feedback given by all my CTs on my last week’s solo teaching was that if the teacher is writing or saying something important, do not expect that most students will listen and take note themselves. They told me that the teacher MUST tell students specifically what to do or what to copy, and must also tell them very clearly how to present their answers. I should not expect them to behave like adult learners who are self-motivated and eager learners. So I remembered this and made a conscious effort to improve in this aspect this week. Before I want to mention something crucial, I would say “May I have your attention”, or “This is very important. I want all of you to copy down.” Also, while teaching, I had learned not to just focus on the computer or visualiser. I was more at ease and was able to observe the entire class’ reaction and behavior.
Another AFI was that I should not continue teaching and talking for too long. I should not adopt lecturing style to teach secondary students with short attention span. Some activities or assessments need to be incorporated in between the lessons. I will think harder in how to achieve this next week onwards.
This week I tried to give students clearer step by step instructions and directions verbally before asking students to carry out any activity. Besides, I also used the visualiser and write answers onto exactly the same worksheet location where students are supposed to work on instead of verbally explaining or writing on the whiteboard. In doing so, most students were more focused and certain of what they should be doing. However, I found that even though I have repeated some instructions more than twice, there was bound to have a few students who did not do accordingly. Those students usually are those with attention problem. After analyzing the situation, I think next week onwards I should give multi-modal presentations – both visual and audio.
ReplyDeleteOne of the decisions I made this week turned out to be good. I used a physical manipulative – an Algebra Balance, to teach the concept of linear equations. I could see that students were captivated by the plastic balance! They responded eagerly to my questions. However, due to the big class size, I was not able to let students play with the balance one by one. I need to think of some other manipulative that all students can play with to help them learn the solving equations concepts well.
Over the last weekends I did some research and created a “home-made” manipulative for all students in the Sec 103 Algebra class to manipulate. They did pair work using very simple materials – real red packets and paper strips to represent simple linear equations in one unknown. Before I gave them the materials, I used Powerpoint with both textual and graphical contents to show them the detailed instructions. After that then I handed them the manipulative. The colourful Powerpoint presentations greatly improved the students’ understanding and they were on task pretty fast. I also observed that majority of the students were more responsive and showed eagerness in solving problems when I made use of the Powerpoint slideshow (spiced with humorous cartoons and animations) to do presentation and explanations.
ReplyDeleteNow, I also started to sample some students’ work with mistakes to show the class using the visualiser. I think it is a good way to let students learn from their peers. I also tried appointing peer tutors but somehow it did not work very well. Most tutors did not attempt to explain the workings to the weaker students. They just show their workings to them. I think one reason must be that they have not been properly trained and briefed by me prior to the tutorship appointment. Thus in future I will work on peer tutor training.