Week 9: Pocking out one’s inner creativity

The initial part of the ninth class was reserved as another session for us to develop and improve our SMART board activity. I am thankful to Prof Maznah for giving us the liberty to spend our time wisely and constructively due to the fact that we also needed to finish other assignment from other subjects. The facilitators like Ms Chin, was also great due to the fact that they were willing to move around between two computer labs so that we would rest assured that help is just around the corner. She portrayed a soft-spoken and gentle demeanor which made us confident with what we have developed so far. I believe this is also one approach I could use when becoming a school teacher later in the future, so that each one of my pupils get fair assistance and attention they need so that they could benefit more from the teaching and learning experience.

The time came for us to come in front and present one of our SMART board activities to our friends. Each presentation was better than its predecessor which made me feel inferior in a way due to the fact that they did a good job and their work clearly display a deep thought about children’s nature when learning. Apparently, though we may want to believe that our work is the best, there will always be room for improvements from the view point of others. Though we may find it irritating or downgrade our credibility, we should always have a clear conscious that all these comments about improvements were all in the effort to impart greater chances for children to benefit from the activity. From my point of view, as future teachers, the needs of children are a priority. Some error that seemed petty to us may pose a huge difference in the eyes of a young learner. For instance, some slides consist of a combination of static and GIF-format pictures like a ratio of 1:4. Though I would close one eye on the issue, Prof Maznah mentioned that this was a fatal error made by us and that learners tend to believe that ‘moving’ pictures are always more interesting and therefore ‘MUST’ be the correct answer. Honestly, this triggered a whole new understanding to me about how sensitive a child can be and how their interpretation differs between us adult learners to a mind-boggling extent. While it sounds strange, this is just one of the important details that I must take into account in creating a better and more pupil-friendly classroom activity.

While my mind is set to add more interesting pictures and wording into the activity, this might not be such a good idea. From one presentation to another, I learned that it is true that wordings may be nice to view and attractive but it seems that this may yield a double-edge sword effect. Apparently, too much wording tends to make learners confused and at the end distort the learning process. Even the choosing of the background became a debatable issue as it must correspond perfectly with the current slide’s intended teaching points. I find that the way Prof Maznah allocates two groups as assessors to evaluate the good and improvement points that a group presenting in front possesses, as a brilliant idea. From my point of view, I should adopt such approach and apply it to my pupils so that they could practice to have confidence in drawing out their own private opinions. This is important for them not to only deliberate themselves from the clutches of inhibition, but also to give them a sense of purpose to use the English language to convey one’s thoughts and ideas lively and in a meaningful manner.