Week 6: Reflecting one’s own work

Having much task so far raised the attention whether the given work to us achieved their goals or otherwise. In respective, the sixth class revolved around the idea of evaluating or reflecting back on the completion of assignments and tasks that were instructed to us, particularly to address any issues, problems we have faced before, during and after the process of doing it. I felt it was not only a good idea to look back at one’s own work and also of others as it was the time for sharing experiences, reviewing the skills mastered, the ups and downs one has to go through, but also important as to provide an overview of feedback necessary for the facilitators to analyze and think upon, in hopes that there is always room for improvements. This would surely not only increase their teaching efficiency but also help them to understand our needs and difficulties better and for making appropriate adjustments when the time comes for our juniors to be their students.

The discussion were concerned about the applications the facilitators provided, or whether they were of any benefit to helping us complete the task such as the tutorials, converting, hardware manipulation and so forth. Of course, I believe that the process of completing one’s task is as important as its product. Thus, it is crucial to gain in depth insight and understanding of the situation so as to avoid us from repeating the same mistakes on other assignments in the future. We also touched about the soft skills that we have acquired along the way such as teamwork, leadership, tolerance and so forth. Each skill plays an important aspect of molding us one step closer to the ideal teacher personality.

As a result, this post mortem period made me realize that in order to become good teachers, one must learn from their past, listen to other’s opinions, address their needs and be flexible to make immediate changes to our initial plans to suit the ever changing demands. This was all in the effort of making sure that we would plan ahead and hopefully can direct the flow or learning experiences in the favor of our future learners.

Week 5: Making the board smart for you.

Today we were introduced to a board, a SMART board. It is said to be the board of the future, a board that will help ease the burden of teachers, energizes presentation and motivate learners. Sounds too great to be true… But, to what extent is the statement true? Hmm..I wonder…

What is this so called mysterious SMART board? The idea was to make learning a fun and interactive process, to allow learners to interact not only with teacher and their peers but also with the input provided by the board. In short, referring multiple interactions. But the concept remains a concept if the captain of a majestic vessel is incapable of steering it with great mastery. What I meant was that if the teachers themselves are not critical and creative enough to utilize the SMART board, then the board is no different than any other board.

The key factor that drives learning is the teacher themselves. If they are willing to move away from laziness and are enthusiastic to learn, they can even create ‘magic’ with it. That is why we failed to create a good work during our first attempt. Lacking in interest and spirit did not make us go far, which end up being critic by our facilitator. But that did not stop us to rise up from our failure and try again and again until we succeed!

Here is a video on how we as future teachers can make a difference on teaching and learning process.

Week 4: Exploring the net of resources

In general, fourth class introduced us about the various websites which are closely related with the aspects of teaching and learning in and outside the classroom. The websites are like eduwebtv.com, cikgu.net, tutor.com, and so forth. Basically, these are all websites that are meaningful as they focus on the Malaysian educational context and conditions. The discussion and information they provided were always updated and kept the same pace as the latest technology advancement in education come by. Apparently, there are countless of videos I can watch in order to gain more visual input and deeper understanding. I believe as a future teacher in Malaysia, it is of my responsibility to prioritize the need to equip myself with such knowledge for building the basic foundation for teaching later in school.

There was also a website called ETeMS that centralized the importance of mastering the English language well enough so it could be effectively used to administer the teachings of Science and Mathematics in the English medium. Since my study course will not only determine myself as an English teacher, I am also fated to become a Mathematics teacher as well. Therefore, by reviewing such websites, I can gradually develop to the confidence to enhance the English language skills of Mathematics to enable myself to reach effectively using English as the medium of instruction. This is crucial since though I believe I am quite comfortable speaking English, the case is very different in terms of applying such skill in teaching Mathematics. The reason is that the subject is heavily-laden with a diverse number of unfamiliar terms that are only present in the subject and not in the daily conversation. Therefore, I will need to strike more effort into mastering the teaching processes of Mathematics. The advent of such website is at par with the proper teachings in Malaysian context because from there, I can view the achievements of fellow teachers which in return granted me with the hopes there are many approaches that can be practiced as a teacher in Malaysia. I hope to benefit more from all the resources I come by in the future!

Week 3: New theories, refined understanding

Week 3: New Theories, Refined Understandings.
The third class was different from the two before it. It was somewhat complex to me as it was about the introduction of a new theory or models related to the teachings of primary school pupils. Though I am not a big fan of learning about theories and all, it falls back to me the responsibility of gaining optimal understanding on how to make my future learners benefit from the classroom experience. With my mind set up straight, I knew the importance of what I must learn on that day.

The topic raised was about instructional design principles which had a significant impact on the teaching and learning processes in the classroom. The model introduced to us was named the ASSURE model where each word stands for different meanings. This model demonstrated the teacher’s ability to write a quality comprehensive cohesive lesson plan that includes ALL elements of the ASSURE Model. For more information, here is a link about an overview of the ASSURE model; http://itchybon1.tripod.com/hrd/id15.html

In addition, an extra instructional model was brought up called the ADDIE model. According to Wikioedia.com, the ADDIE model is the generic process traditionally used by instructional designers and training developers. The five phases—Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation—represent a dynamic, flexible guideline for building effective training and performance support tools.
Here is a link that tells more about both models in further detail;
http://www.oswego.edu/~burrell/addiemodel.htm

As a whole, there is much understanding I need to acquire behind the theoretical work frame. I guess there is no other way to do that other than implementing extra readings and stop being lazy from now on. I believe that knowing the models will ultimately lend me to the door of better giving suitable guidance that is adequate to all learners’ level and learning conditions.

Week 2: Making Adjustments

Since the beginning of the course of learning how to become teachers, I have always relied upon the usage of traditional teaching aids. I have become fond of them as they are I belief they are effective and useful when practiced in the classroom context. But as time flows, my reliance towards them has anything but decrease. This was due to the fact that as I merge myself from college students to undergraduates of a university, the responsibilities I carry and the workload I face made it inefficient to attempt the processes of creating these traditional aids. This was due to the fact that such teaching aids were time-consuming and expensive to begin with, and as a university student, time was what I do not possess much. I had to be resourceful and find other alternatives to create new teaching materials that is fast to construct but also effective in the classroom at the same time.

As if the ray of hope had dimmed and fade away, effort to attend the second class turned the tide the other way around. I was introduced with the idea of creating video clips. Initially I thought it was a great idea because research have shown that human, especially young learners, learn at a better rate when ‘moving’ visual materials are available, as suggested by Jean Piaget. I guess the idea was good at one part, but also I feared about other which was about having the skills to create for myself the video clips. There was also a growing concern among us about the need to create a storyboard. Of course I had no idea on what to do and where to begin with but luckily I do know how to operate and browse the internet on how to seek information related with video clip crafting. The basic one of course was to use the one that has already been provided by the Windows application, which was Windows Movie Maker. Luckily, the facilitators provided us with a basic yet user friendly work frame on how to create our own video step by step. But I see more potential in other applications such as Cyberlink Power Director and Free Video Editing where more special effects and clearer organization of video clips can be born. Here I have uploaded a video I got from YouTube.com on how to use cyberlink power director. For more information, here is the link

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+use+cyberlink+power+director&search_type=&aq=1&oq=how+to+use+cyberlink+
I also learnt that you can take the URL address and paste it to keepvid.com for downloading the videos.

The project was a group one and I guess this was also a great idea because five heads are better than one. It was great to have other people to judge the credibility of my own work so that I can practice open mindedness and making suitable adjustments to it. Of course, the process goes the other way around and at the end everyone is a winner. I hope to be making a lot of exploring through the internet about the project and enjoy completing it!