My Practical Training Journal: Week 3
Sunday, August 21, 2011 9:55 am
Week 3
24 July 2011 – 28 July 2011
I had quite a bad week this week. I was implementing my first trial of teaching and learning activities to my classes. I had no problem with Year 5B for Science subject. They have been behaving very well in the classroom. I do not have to yell or shout to control the class. So far, they behaved well. In fact, I can give challenging activities and questions to them. Most of them are capable of performing challenging tasks. Only a very few of them are having problems in performing those tasks as fast as others. I do not see that as a major problem. Perhaps I need to focus on them in person more than the others. I might need to approach them and guide them to perform the tasks that seem difficult for them.
On Monday, I asked the pupils of Year 4B to enter the computer lab for English teaching and learning activities. I have prepared some slides from Microsoft Power Point for shared reading, vocabulary, and picture labelling. The topic was “Living In Harmony” which was about family, friendship, and neighbourhood. My class control failed.
The pupils were touching, playing, and pushing the computer and the other hardware and gadgets. Some of them were also playing with the spinning chairs. Some of them walked and even ran around the lab. Most of them did not pay their attention to my lesson. Most of them were talking with each other. Some of the boys were standing on the chairs.
At first, I cursed them from deep in my heart. I blamed them for not giving cooperation to me during my lesson. But then, after discussing the matter with Ms. Lim when she observed Shahera and me on Wednesday, I have to admit that it was all my fault, ignorance, and weaknesses. I was advised by her to create a teaching and learning activity that is more attractive and involving all of the pupils.
According to Ms. Lim, my teaching and learning activities are all teacher-based activities. I was still considered as a classic and conventional teacher who used the chalk and talk method. Ms. Lim has given me some tips and recommendation on how to improve my lesson to more interesting and attractive ways.
For instance, one of my thousand weaknesses was using a lot of Malay words in my English class. As a very novice teacher, I thought that that was the only way for me to explain new vocabularies to my pupils. Sometimes, they do not even understand simple instructions given by me and I ended up explaining it to them in Malay version. I did that during Ms. Lim’s observation and she was very concern about that matter.
Ms. Lim has given me a very useful suggestion regarding that matter. If I was going to teach my pupils with new vocabularies and I could not explain them in English, I could use pictures as my teaching aids. Pupils are very attracted with pictures and colours. It could be very helpful in gaining their attention and to make them clear with the new vocabularies as well. Other than that, I can use realia or using the pupils to explain the new vocabularies.
For instance, during Ms. Lim’s observation, I was trying to explain the difference of shirt and T-shirt to the students. I was just using explanation with words. Ms. Lim said, I could call upon pupils who actually wore those clothes during the class. I could call a boy who was wearing a school uniform to explain them the meaning of shirt and a boy who was wearing a white T-shirt to explain the meaning of T-shirt, and at the same time I could easily show them the differences of those clothes.
During Ms. Lim’s observation as well, an unexpected incident happened. An announcement was made for Year 4 pupils to go to the assembly site to collect 1Malaysia chocolate milk. The announcement was not even finished, and all of my pupils sprinted out of the class to the assembly site. I was surprised with their dash and could not do anything to stop them. Ms. Lim and Shahera also were in shock with the incident. Ms. Lim told me to have them advised, warned, punished and reprimanded for their behaviour. I did. I was grateful that the pupils admitted their mishaps and apologized to me.
After the observation session, Shahera and I discussed quite a lot of things with Ms. Lim regarding our progress and performance in our classes. She has given us a lot of tips, ideas and suggestions on how to manage our class better. I believe I can improve myself by being more analytical and creative in the future.
24 July 2011 – 28 July 2011
I had quite a bad week this week. I was implementing my first trial of teaching and learning activities to my classes. I had no problem with Year 5B for Science subject. They have been behaving very well in the classroom. I do not have to yell or shout to control the class. So far, they behaved well. In fact, I can give challenging activities and questions to them. Most of them are capable of performing challenging tasks. Only a very few of them are having problems in performing those tasks as fast as others. I do not see that as a major problem. Perhaps I need to focus on them in person more than the others. I might need to approach them and guide them to perform the tasks that seem difficult for them.
On Monday, I asked the pupils of Year 4B to enter the computer lab for English teaching and learning activities. I have prepared some slides from Microsoft Power Point for shared reading, vocabulary, and picture labelling. The topic was “Living In Harmony” which was about family, friendship, and neighbourhood. My class control failed.
The pupils were touching, playing, and pushing the computer and the other hardware and gadgets. Some of them were also playing with the spinning chairs. Some of them walked and even ran around the lab. Most of them did not pay their attention to my lesson. Most of them were talking with each other. Some of the boys were standing on the chairs.
At first, I cursed them from deep in my heart. I blamed them for not giving cooperation to me during my lesson. But then, after discussing the matter with Ms. Lim when she observed Shahera and me on Wednesday, I have to admit that it was all my fault, ignorance, and weaknesses. I was advised by her to create a teaching and learning activity that is more attractive and involving all of the pupils.
According to Ms. Lim, my teaching and learning activities are all teacher-based activities. I was still considered as a classic and conventional teacher who used the chalk and talk method. Ms. Lim has given me some tips and recommendation on how to improve my lesson to more interesting and attractive ways.
For instance, one of my thousand weaknesses was using a lot of Malay words in my English class. As a very novice teacher, I thought that that was the only way for me to explain new vocabularies to my pupils. Sometimes, they do not even understand simple instructions given by me and I ended up explaining it to them in Malay version. I did that during Ms. Lim’s observation and she was very concern about that matter.
Ms. Lim has given me a very useful suggestion regarding that matter. If I was going to teach my pupils with new vocabularies and I could not explain them in English, I could use pictures as my teaching aids. Pupils are very attracted with pictures and colours. It could be very helpful in gaining their attention and to make them clear with the new vocabularies as well. Other than that, I can use realia or using the pupils to explain the new vocabularies.
For instance, during Ms. Lim’s observation, I was trying to explain the difference of shirt and T-shirt to the students. I was just using explanation with words. Ms. Lim said, I could call upon pupils who actually wore those clothes during the class. I could call a boy who was wearing a school uniform to explain them the meaning of shirt and a boy who was wearing a white T-shirt to explain the meaning of T-shirt, and at the same time I could easily show them the differences of those clothes.
During Ms. Lim’s observation as well, an unexpected incident happened. An announcement was made for Year 4 pupils to go to the assembly site to collect 1Malaysia chocolate milk. The announcement was not even finished, and all of my pupils sprinted out of the class to the assembly site. I was surprised with their dash and could not do anything to stop them. Ms. Lim and Shahera also were in shock with the incident. Ms. Lim told me to have them advised, warned, punished and reprimanded for their behaviour. I did. I was grateful that the pupils admitted their mishaps and apologized to me.
After the observation session, Shahera and I discussed quite a lot of things with Ms. Lim regarding our progress and performance in our classes. She has given us a lot of tips, ideas and suggestions on how to manage our class better. I believe I can improve myself by being more analytical and creative in the future.
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