9th Reflection

Hello everyone,

This week has been such a stressful week with a lot of assignment deadlines but thank god I have submitted all my assignments. Now the only thing that makes me really stress and nervous is that tomorrow I am having an event for an assignment and I am going to perform. Hopefully I do my best tomorrow.

Now about today’s blog topic is ‘Which mock teaching I feel is the best? Honestly I think everyone did their utmost best during mock teaching and I congratulate everyone for their hard work.

In my opinion, I think Faiz mock teaching is the best because of his activity. He did multi-sensory learning and activity is each group will be given color paper to cut and shape it as a triangle, parallelogram and trapezium. Each group will be given one shape and that group has to do the shape using the paper-like 3D shape or using bottles or any other material they can find at the class. And after creating the shape we must measure the area and get the answer. For me, this activity was interesting as we have to create the shape ourselves and calculate the area.  

Also, he explains the topic in detail using PowerPoint in the simplest form where first he asks us to identify the shape and also he gave examples using the material in class to identify the object. I think there is the best method for a teacher to make their students understand the topic by allowing the students to experience the shape in hand and calculate the area by themselves. By the end of the class, I have learned how to calculate triangle, parallelogram and trapezium.

During my journey on pedagogy class, I have learned a lot of information not only based on the subject but also on how to do a blog, the first experience using Kahoot and brain rush. So many new knowledge I have gained in these semesters and for sure I will use this method and activity during my teaching adventure. Lastly, I would like to thank my lecturer Madam Ng for supporting and guiding us throughout this subject. And not to forget my friends who have been my pillar of support for this 3rd semester.

my motto

Thank You and Hopefully I will see you again. J

8th Reflection

Hello everyone,

Hope everyone had a great week as much as I had. I finally finish one of my toughest assignment which is mock teaching on 14^th April 2016. It’s actually not that tough, it’s easy if you had the experience of teaching students and doing paperwork. It’s my first time doing lesson plans, handouts and slides for teaching. It was hard at first, then when ma’am guide us until choosing the right teaching approach, it was easy after that.

To complete a mock teaching, first I had to create a lesson plan that includes the topic of choice, target audience, level of proficiency, learning objective and learning outcome. It was difficult to do but I manage to do with the help of my friends. From doing the lesson plan, I had learned that before starting off with creating the handouts and slides, we first must identify what are the learning objective and outcome for our students. 

Once I am done with the lesson plan, I move forward in choosing the teaching approach that matches my learning outcome. I choose Problem based solving as my teaching approach because I will be teaching Maths and I think in teaching Maths, the best approach is Problem based solving in my point of view. And not only that, but we also need to identify three activities to do in class. Mine is Kahoot, group activity and brain rush. Actually, brain rush doesn’t suit my teaching approach because of its mastery learning and mine is problem-solving, so I change it to brainstorming which I think is suitable for my teaching approach because you need to brainstorm on how you going to solve the maths question. I have learned that whatever teaching approach or activity we choose it has to reflect on our learning outcome. And for that, the learning outcome has to be good. 

Problem-based solving

After completing the lesson plan, I move to the next step which is preparing my handouts and slides. This material is very important for mock teaching because it helps you in delivering your message. I had a difficult time doing it because it has to be perfect because, in my previous class, ma’am had taught us how to do a good handout and slides. So, there is a lot of expectation on creating a perfect handout and slide. I hope mine is good enough and my students understood what I taught them. From creating the two materials, I have gained the knowledge on how to do a creative and understanding handout and slide. I will definitely use this knowledge when I am doing my practicum. And not to forget, I am blessed to have my friends and senior who help me in designing and guiding me in creating PowerPoint and handouts. They also gave me tips and confidence to do my mock teaching. 

For mock teaching, I taught my students Mode, Mean, Median and Midpoint. It’s a form 4 syllabus chapter 6 Statistic II. After teaching, I gave handouts and did group activity where each group will be given one question to do and finish it in 5 minutes time. After they finish completing the question, one person will come in front and do the equation on the whiteboard. Some of them had the confusion of median and midpoint because it’s the same definition but I explain to them again and make sure that they really understood the definition. So at last after finishing the activity, I pick a student to explain what I had taught them and everyone gave a good answer. I was really happy that they understood what I have taught them. J Happy teacher. 

This is me teaching

Explaining to my students

  * Thanks to ma'am for snapping the pictures. 

As overall, I have not only gain knowledge but also gain experience to teach. It was a great adventure doing the lesson plan and creating handout, it will always be my first teaching experience to be remembered.

Thank you all for reading my blog.

Stay tuned for my last blog. J

7th Reflection

Hello everyone,

So today my reflection topic is “If I were the classroom teacher, how many rules I’m going to enforce?” List and explain the purpose of the enforced rule. In my opinion, a teacher needs to enforce rules in class for students. So students can discipline themselves and be a good student. Teachers have to create rules based on the situation of the class and the character of the students. As for me, I will first analyze and get to know better of my students then I will enforce at least 2-3 rules for my students to follow in class not only for my subject but for all their other subjects.

Rules & Regulation:

1. Listen when others are talking.

-        Students should respect their friends while they are talking and not talk while they are conveying the message. It’s disrespectful for the person in front. To make students understand why it is bad to make noise while people are talking in front and the importance of listening. At first, I would explain to them what the reason is then I will inform them about the punishment if they ever make the mistake. It’s important to make students understand the value of respect not only in class but also outside school. The punishment is another way of teaching them not to do the mistake again. The punishment I will give is asking the student to repeat what the person is in front of is speaking. I am not doing these to give them embarrassment but to give them a lesson to learn from the mistake. To focus in class and respect while people are talking.

    2. Treat everyone equally.

-        Every human being has the right to be treated equally and with dignity no matter what race or color they are. In a classroom, all students should respect and care for each other without seeing race. In my classroom, I will first change the sits of my students where everyone will be sitting with the opposite race of them. So they won’t be any racial problem in class. And they will start treating and respecting each other. Also, students shouldn’t show off their status in class because they might be students who are poor and it will be a bad attitude for a student to show off. So, as a teacher, I will encourage students to not show off their wealth or status in the class. And treat everyone equally like brothers and sisters. Even, I am a teacher must treat my students equally with marks and care and not be bias.

    3.   Deadline.

-        Deadline submission is important for students so they could learn to take responsibility for their work and be punctual in doing their work. Also, students won’t be procrastinating their work. It will develop student's urge to finish the work before the deadline time to release stress and to focus on their work. In my class, I will give a deadline for work to be submitted but if they are any emergency, then it’s excusable. It’s important to teach students to be well prepared and punctual.  

That’s all from now, see you at my next blog.

Thank You, J

6th Reflection

Hello everyone,

WHAT I HAVE DISCOVERED?

In this week's class, on Tuesday (29/03/2016) we had to read an article entitled 'NAVIGATING THE BUMPY ROAD TO STUDENT-CENTERED INSTRUCTION' by Richard M. Felder and Rebecca Brent. These article has been posted in uniec the day before class and we were supposed to read it at home but everyone thought that our lecturer will be discussing in class. So as usual, when ma'am enters the class, the first thing she asks is "did everyone read the article about student-centered" and for instance, the class was quiet because no one read it and some of them even don't know they had to read an article. As for me when I enter the class, I saw everyone whispering to each other about an article then they told me about it, and I was like 'oh ya I totally forgot'. So I quickly on my laptop and open the article and start reading and before even finishing the first page, ma'am was already in. I was terrified as the others sitting around me because we never read the article and we were afraid ma'am will be shooting questions on us. But thank god, ma'am gave us 45 minutes to read the article and find points on 'why students think student-centered instruction will not work for them' and 'why teachers implement student-centered instruction. So let's come back to the article now, I have been talking too much on my expression and fear in class. It will be boring if I continue. Back to the article. 

OK, to clarify What is student-centered instruction, here is the explanation. SCI @ student-centered instruction broadly encompasses methods of teaching that shift the focus of instruction from the teacher to student. Focuses on skills and practice that enable lifelong learning and independent problem-solving. Felder and Brent (1996) point out that successful outcomes have now been widely documented in the educational literature, that in fact, SCI provides 'increased motivation to learn, greater retention of knowledge, deeper understanding and more positive attitudes toward the subject being taught'. 

After reading the whole article, our task is to list down 5 points each on why students think this method will not work for them and why teachers implement this method in the classroom. In my opinion, firstly, students think this method is hard for them because they never use it in class and they need teachers to be by their side to guide them step by step. It's a new method for them. And secondly, teachers want their students to think critically and solve the problem independently. Also, students will be able to learn and take responsibility for their own learning material. To create a wholesome student. This is my opinion based on the article.

Next, the same week on Thursday (31/3/2016), we had to post a teaching approach based on our learning outcome in uniec for our mock teaching session. So ma'am calls everyone personally to discuss our teaching approach. And I was the third person because I was the third person to post the teaching approach on uniec. I was really scared when ma'am calls my name but everything was OK with the teaching approach I choose which is Problem based solving, just that one of my class activity which is Brainrush doesn't suit the subject and teaching approach. So I changed it to brainstorming because students need to critically and think out of the box to solve an equation. I honestly hope that I can achieve my mock teaching session with a high score."FINGERS CROSSED".

That's all for now, stay tuned for my next blog.

Thank You for reading :)

5th Reflection

Hello everyone,


WHAT I HAVE DISCOVERED?

In Tuesday's (22/03/2016) class, I have discovered that designing a handout is a hardcore job. It's not just putting questions only, it's about creating a handout with an example, a picture, a direct instruction and mainly creating a question correctly and orderly. In class, our first task was redesigning a handout with a different subject which is English, Mathematics and Economics. So everyone was separated and grouped into three in a group so each would get to do one subject each. In my group, we three did together for all the subjects so each of us can give their opinion and points for all three subjects. 

My group 

After done correcting the handout, we were told to take a picture of the handout and post on our Whatsapp group so everyone could see each other work. Then, ma'am starting questioning each group and everyone starts arguing on each other's work. It becomes chaos as Sabri mainly and others were arguing for the right opinion. And while ma'am was questioning each of us, she strictly said "remember what you said" on why we corrected that way. So finally after the arguments, ma'am said they are no right or wrong opinion, each of us has different opinions and points from others. It was good to see all my friends giving out points regarding the handout. It was like cats and dogs fighting in a good way. I have learned that for one topic, they will be many many ideas and facts about the topic. And I have gain lots of points about redesigning handout from the arguing my friends had. At the end of the class, ma'am asks us to re-do the handout based on the correction we made and post it on uniec. 

Next, in the same week on Thursday (24/03/2016), I had discovered different types of PowerPoint. Also, an effective method to create a good PowerPoint for students. Ma'am asked for a PowerPoint slide from any of us to email to her. So I volunteered to email my previous class assignment slides to ma'am. And she showed it in the projector for everyone to see. I was scared that she's going to point out the mistake I made in the slide. But ma'am was only trying to teach us how to do a better slide with fewer words using my slides. Doing a slide doesn't need a lot of words or pictures, it just needs a good solid point and a picture that explains your topic. The things that need to be considered while doing a slide is the font, background color, font size, transition, pictures and many more. I have learned these before during my high school days and while ma'am taught us this, I recall back what my teachers teach us. It's the same method but in the future, I will be dealing with students whom I going to teach. And I will apply this method of creating a PowerPoint for my students. 

That's all for now, thanks for reading my blog.

See you soon. Have a good day :)

4th Reflection

Hello all,


Hope everyone had a great week as much as I had. This week's pedagogy class was really interesting as Madam Ng introduces us to new ways of teaching students in a fun way. There are Kahoot !, Brainrush and Heads up. It was quite fun as we could try it out in class. 

I was playing heads up with Irma....it was really fun as Irma was acting out the words and I was answering all wrongly. 

Within this three-way of teaching, I would prefer Kahoot! as a good teaching method as it's easy to answer and also colorful. Kahoot has a time period of 20 -120 seconds to answer a question and I think having a time frame in doing Maths equation is important. Also, not to brag about myself, I always get the highest mark in class when using Kahoot!. It simply because of just picking an answer blankly (maybe my luck) or sometimes thinking carefully and answering. But its really nice to answer the question in class with my friends as its fun to learn together. 

I did my own Kahoot! This is the link:  https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/206ce244-b47b-4514-9cb4-9736bf83f637 . It's a maths subject topic simultaneous equation for form 4 students. 

The learning objectives are :

a) To solve simultaneous equations by changing both equations. 

b) Algebraic solutions to systems of two equations.

c) To reinforce understanding of how to solve harder simultaneous equations by the elimination method.


I will give you the steps on how to solve it and the formula if you have forgotten. Don't worry, I myself forgot how to solve it then I look back on my maths notes that I have been keeping since my form 4 years. 

Steps......

Solution........

That's all for now, please do check on my link and answer it. And don't forget before answering the questions have with you a calculator, pencil or pen and test pad to answer the question. 

Thank You and Have a nice day :)

3rd Reflection

Hello again,

Hope everyone had a great week with a lot of surprises and happiness. Now let me tell you what had happened during my pedagogy class, we had to present one teaching method that we feel is the most effective teaching strategy based on what subject we teach. 

So I choose the Problem Solving method because I am going to teach Maths. And basically the objective of maths subject is to solve the equation in any way of the method. 

Now comes the part of my task. This week my task is to choose two of my classmate's teaching method that I think is effective and also choose one classmate teaching method which I disagree to be effective. 

Firstly, the Flipped Classroom was a new word for me because that's the first time I have ever heard it. But then after one of my classmates presented this method in detail then I got a rough idea of what this method is all about. I think this method is effective because now the 21st century we are living in a world where the internet and technology are as important as clothes and food for every individual. Honestly, they are people like that, to be honest, I am one of them when my dad bought me a phone when I started college and starting from that day I can't live without the internet and a phone in my hand.
Back to the flipped classroom, its actually the opposite of traditional teaching method wherein flipped classroom, students watch lectures at home at their own pace, communicating with peers and teachers via online discussions. And in class time students spent doing labs or interactive activities to illustrate concepts. This method will actually enhance students to use technology for learning and education-wise and also enable students to voice out their views or opinion during class time.

Secondly, the Socratic Learning method, the reason I think is effective because as I understood my classmate presented is that the method encourages students by asking a question about the topic studied to clear doubt and assumptions. Teachers use Socratic methods in a variety of subjects in order to challenge students to examine both contemporary and historical issues. They are steps in this teaching method that will help students enhance their thinking skills, organizing knowledge and helps them to monitor their own learning.

However, there is one teaching method that I don't think it's effective which is feedback because giving feedback is not really necessary unless they are a presentation in class or role play. It actually takes time if teachers want to give feedback on every student. And also some students may take it in a wrong way or misunderstood the feedback. It's better not to give feedback all the time maybe once or twice in the classroom is fine as well.

I think this comes to the end of my blog for today. Hope you all read my blog and do comment below if you have any doubts. 

Thank You and Have a good day :)