Week 1 Theory to Practice Essay

Week 1 Theory to Practice

The day started off with my thoughts on what I bring to the mix. This set my thoughts to focus on my learning and what set my mood in the right direction at the beginning of the lesson.

The activities for the day were varied. We began solo followed by paired-activity and then teamwork. The change of partnership or membership was necessary to sustain focus and motivation because in each grouping we had different activities and they were platform for learning from different team members. The activities had clear objectives, which were repeated and double-checked by the instructor to ensure that everyone understood what was required of us. That is an important pedagogy that I learnt which I would utilize in my class as a teacher.

Another method the instructor employed in getting students to answer questions was by nominating the students and not allowing any particular students to control the classroom discussion. This I think is a useful tip for classroom control during group activity. The instructor also played the role of a facilitator by circulating and listening to students’ discussion. In this way, the instructor could contribute or assess the direction of the discussion as well as assessing the students’ input.

The instructor assessed the students during individual presentation and participation during whole class discussion. The group discussion based on the reading articles is one way to assess if students' have understood the reading texts. The instructor also had very good time management, which I should emulate when I work as a teacher. Time allocation per activity is important for effective teaching and learning.

I learnt that data collection of the students were necessary to understand the students better. The instructor carried this out by asking essential information during whole class and pair activity. Such data is important to avoid from being judgmental.

I like the fact that as students we are given the freedom to be comfortable in the class without strict rules but at the same time the instructor optimizes our time that we did not have time to deviate from our focus towards learning. This is important to keep students on their toes all the time.

Modeling is one method that proved to be effective in today's class. Providing concrete examples to the students before embarking on activities is important and this would avoid a teacher from having to explain many times to different groups individually.

T2P statement from list

If a learner needs specific and detailed directions for each task, but does not receive them from the teacher, then the teacher will have the tedious task of repeating the directions each time a task is given because no student should be deprived of learning just because he or she missed some directions or require more help in understanding the directions. Some times students are capable of doing the tasks but are not able to do so due to the complexity of the instructions or lack of familiarity in the content area or the teaching approach. This does not mean the teacher has to repeatedly give directions throughout the year but employ a strategy on what works best for all the students in the class. Sometimes another student could be appointed to help the student who requires help in understanding the directions. In this way, the student would gradually learn how to understand directions.

New Teaching to Practice

If students feel comfortable and emotionally safe in the learning environment, then learning will occur because students will feel motivated and excited about being able to grasp new information. This means that the teacher has created conducive environment for students to be able to communicate in the classroom to clarify doubts or to share findings without the fear of being admonished if their responses do not meet the expectations or criteria the teacher has set. Also, an approachable teacher will encourage or motivate students to be responsible for their own learning. The students know that they have a partner in the teaching and learning process and this inevitably promotes positive environment for learning and students may be able to perform better.