What have I discovered from this course. (#Reflection9)

 

During this course what have I discovered?

Before answering to the question, I am going to share my experience I had during this course. At the very first day of this course that’s the day when we meet our lecturer Madam Ng Huay Zher. Let me tell you something, after meeting the lecturer I had this weird feeling that this class is going to be the most difficult class for this semester to deal with . That’s because Madam Ng from my perspective she portrayed herself as someone who is professional in her job, she had high confidence level, and was very well organized about her work and I think that’s what fear me the most. But as day passes by, there was no room for fear or weird feeling that I had earlier because the environment of the class was interesting. Meaning instead of just doing the usually thing ‘teaching’ where the teacher continues talking and student who acts as if they are listening (at times), but this class was different because Madam Ng knows how to engage all her students to participate during her class because the class was more towards student centered where she gave us the opportunity to speak up and share our viewpoints and that’s what makes it interesting. So I thank Madam Ng for that.

Now moving on the question stated above, what have I discovered about this course? I would say that this course helped me realize about what needs to be done as a future educator, meaning it showed the preparation that needs to be accomplished by a teacher before conducting a lesson such as preparing a lesson plan because a lesson plan is very much important for a teacher in order to have a smooth teaching process and also how to prepare your own teaching material such as preparing a powerpoint slides (referring to reflection 5).

Besides that, it also helped me discover the methods in organizing an effective classroom management, the problems a teacher might face during their working life and how to overcome them. All those information that I have discovered personally about this course would eventually help or ‘GUIDE’ (is the right word I would suggest) me in the coming future and might help me shape myself to become a well qualified teacher.  

Things I would like to 'Avoid'. (Reflection 8 #B)

   

Things I have noticed during the mock teaching presentation which I would like to avoid are?

I would say that most of my classmates who presented their mock teaching completed just fine but as they say nothing comes in just perfect, meaning there is always something that might not work out well as we expected. Since this is the very first time that we engage ourselves in teaching so there is always a room for unexpected errors. In that case, I had noticed that all my classmates had a good way presenting their mock teaching but there were times when they just blank out not knowing what to do next, run out of words and even at times there were grammar errors. I can take myself as an example, because during my mock teaching presentation I actually ran out of words and was trying to search for a word that helps to fill up the sentences so it was a blank out situation as well.

These are the few things I have noticed so far during the mock presentation and would like to avoid them in the coming future that’s because as an educator it is ‘IMPORTANT ‘to portray ourselves as a well defined and educated individual. By portraying that attitude it resembles the dignity of an educator.

  

Especially when you are on the Language era it is emphasized to use proper grammar because if a teacher who accidentally applies grammatical error during the teaching and learning process, learners this days are more independent and are fully aware about things so they might tend to correct you for using wrong grammar which would be an embarrassing moment for the teacher. To be safe, as a teacher it is important to maintain the dignity and self esteem by upgrading ourselves towards betterment.

My Choice of Preference In M.Teaching (Reflection 8 #A)

Previously I had mentioned about the preparation that I personally went through for mock teaching. Today I am going to share my perspective regarding which mock teaching style that attracts my interest out of all the classmates of mine who presented.

The person that I prefer would be my friend Maziah. I have chosen her not because she is my friend, but because of the way she delivered her mock teaching. She conducted her mock teaching about Economics, as her majoring is on Economics so she had to conduct her lesson that reflects to her background. The reason why I have chosen her is because she delivered her teaching not in a different way but more to an effective way of teaching I would say, that’s because she chooses a specific topic about Economics and in that topic itself she divided into few subtopics. What actually she did was, she created her own slides and once she completed each subtopic there would be some worksheets given to the learners and we are required to answer them and each of the question is based on the subtopics that she completes, meaning once she is done with that particular subtopic she provides exercise for the learners to complete and than only she proceeds to the next stage of the learning.

                                                             

                                                

                                  
That would be the reason why I picked her because to me I find that it is a effective way of teaching because preparing leaners with exercises actually enables them to participate and enhance their learning and it is quite a common thing for learners not to complete their assigned homework, in that case filling up your class by including exercises in between the lesson is a good way of teaching that is beneficial for both the teacher and the learners.

Preparation for Mock Teaching (#Reflection7)

What is mock teaching? Basically from my perspective, it is a small activity that is done in order to prepare one to become a teacher, meaning it is a process in which one engages themselves in a scenario where they are required to assume that their own group of classmates as their own students and conduct a lesson. That’s the very particular stage where we tend to put ourselves in the shoes of a “Teacher” and that’s what actually happened to us where we were actually assigned to complete our pedagogy assignment and a part of it comes the mock teaching. Even though, I was fully aware about it, but it was still an unexpected experience I would say. Meaning it all happened within a split of time because I was generally not prepared for the mock teaching and as we all know as a teacher it is very much necessary to design a lesson plan before proceeding with the learning, so for the pedagogy assignment it was all about developing 3 lesson plan and selecting 1 out of the 3 lesson plan for the mock teaching.

The reason why I mentioned that it was an “Unexpected experience” earlier because we were divided into few group for the mock teaching session and my name was listed under the first group that would be actually conducting the mock teaching. To make it worst I was not prepared at all. Unfortunately, when there are times we face difficulties, that’s when one will realize that life is full of challenges and they need to just overcome it with great confidence and that’s what I applied during the preparation stage for the mock teaching session.

It took me at least 3 days to prepare my planning, handouts, and lesson plan for mock teaching. I barely had no clue what to teach and since my background was on language era, the topics related to English was sort of large + too much of choices. But at the end, I decided to teach something that I have personally experienced in learning and that would be “ SUMMARY WRITING”, so I browse through the net just to retrieve information’s that can help me to create my own handouts for my lesson which took almost a day just to complete my handouts and worksheets.

Furthermore, that’s just the beginning stage of preparation, the actual preparation was when I locked myself in the room and practiced throughout the day by imagining myself that I am actually conducting a lesson. By doing so, it helped me to visualize what I should do in each stage of lesson from the very beginning until the end of the lesson. I still can recall back that I remember using the dressing table mirror as a white board to write down the relevant notes from the handouts that I had prepared. It sounds crazy but as they say practice makes perfect.       
                                      

All those preparation for mock teaching to me it’s an experience that will be remembered throughout my life, I mean the small things that we do now creates memories that can be carried along and who knows one day I myself as a teacher would be sharing this experience to other young educators.

                                       

! Classroom RULES ! (Reflection 6)

 

Why do we set rules and regulation? Well, rules and regulation is a consistent system of abstract rules which have normally been intentionally established and it is designed in order to maintain and ensure the uniformity and stability of people’s action. From my perspective, I would suggest that it is very much important for a classroom teacher to design or set their own rules because by doing so it enables the teacher to maintain the stability and the discipline of the classroom. In that case, what would be the rules I might set for my form 1 class as a classroom teacher?

These are the rules:

• Students are required to ask permission from their teacher if they need to use the washroom. This is because by seeking permission it shows the respect the students have for their teacher. 

 

• Students are required to provide evidence such as letters from parents (maximum three times) if there is an emergency, doctors prescription and many more if students are not able to make it for school. By doing so, it might reflect the student’s honesty.

• Students are not required to bring hand phones in class, and if students seemed to bring it to school they are required to hand it over to me at the very beginning of class and collect it from me at the end of the day. This is because, it prevents students from engaging themselves in distraction during the teaching and learning session.

• Students are expected to take good care of the school books and return in the same manner it was when they were given, because by doing so it makes them a responsible person.

• All given worksheets or homework’s are required to be completed by the students without being reminded.

This would be the few rules that I can think of as a classroom teacher and that I believe it has the possibilities to help me to manage my classroom effectively the way I prefer it to be.

Elements for an Effective PowerPoint Slide (Reflection 5)

 

A presentation means a process that involves presenting a topic to an audience. It is typically a demonstration, lecture, or speech meant to inform, persuade, or build good will. A presentation generally involves one speaker or presenter who transmits information’s to a large number of audiences. Basically, presentation is what performed by teachers in their daily lives, meaning they actually deliver knowledge or information during the teaching and learning process in a classroom with a large number of learners by using power point slides more often than textbooks now. We had learned about how a teacher should come up with their own slides and what are the element involved for an effective powerpoint slides for teachers during my Pedagogy class. These are the few strategies that was thought to us by Madam Ng regarding how to prepare an effective power point slides:

1) Avoid using colours that is too bright or flashy, meaning try to keep the slides simple by using  white colour as the background.

2) The slides should be interactive, meanings do not add in too much of information’s that might show you as if you are reading. If can, use keywords or points and try explaining.

3) Select proper templates. Try to bold certain information’s if required, adjust the size of the information’s so that learners are able to have a clear picture of the message presented in the slides.

4) Avoid adding too much of information’s or details into one slides, meaning try to use extra spacing between the details and also try to use more slides to deliver information’s in order to help the learners to understand the message in a easy manner.

5) Try using creative strategy by adding pictures into the slides as well as with the title and ask the learners about their opinion before producing the actual meaning or definition to the learners, by doing so it enables them to have a better understanding.

6) Try to relate the lesson with examples so that it allows the learners to understand the message even clearer by relating the information’s with the examples provided.

7) Try using real life clip arts rather than cartoon clip arts because it reflects the professionalism of the teacher.

IMPORTANT Part in a LESSON PLAN ! (Reflection 4)

 

Previously, I have mentioned about what is a lesson plan. Today I am going to share my viewpoint regarding what is the most important part in the entire lesson plan. Well as we all know, a lesson plan is a complete set that involves “the induction part”, the “while part” and lastly “the closure part”. The induction part, basically from what I understand is that it includes the information regarding the beginning stage of the teaching and learning process, meaning it states the activities happening between the teacher and students at the early stage of the lesson. For example, teacher greets the students, a small conversation between the teacher and students, teacher mentioning what will be thought for today’s lesson and many more.

Moving on to the while part, this is the stage where it involves the explanation about the entire activities or process related to the teaching and learning session, meaning it provides the brief information regarding what the teacher actually is about to do, what are the lesson to be thought, the activities held for the students and so on. To be clear, this is the stage where it includes the information regarding the entire purpose of the lesson and also the entire scenario or process that is related in the teaching and learning process.

The last stage of a lesson plan would be the closure part. In this particular stage it actually states the ending of the teaching and learning process where it includes the information regarding what the teacher has assigned their respected student to do at the end of the class or teaching session. For example, such as providing homework, recapping what we have learned in today’s lesson, and many more.

Alright from my perspective, the most important part in a lesson plan to me would be “the while part” this is because as I mentioned above the while part is like a blueprint that shows the entire process involved in a teaching and learning session and it reflects the purpose of the lesson and also provides a brief knowledge in what actually happened during the teaching process. In that case, that is why I find the while part or stage is more important than the other parts in a lesson plan.