WEEK 4

16 April 2015

Today marks the fourth week of practicum for me. I chose to teach the topic Habits
Affect Human Beings Living Processes for todays class. As usual, I started the days lesson
with the set induction.

Based on my observation and evaluation of the weeks overall classes, I believe that the
students did not have a proper understanding of the weeks topic content. I made such a
deduction because all of the students had given delayed responses to my questions and
probes, as I shifted from set induction to the first phase of lesson delivery. Even at the beginning
of the lesson, I could see that only a few students really understood what the lesson was geared
for.

Not only did the students have delayed understanding of the lesson content, there were
also a few students who remained neither idle nor focused on the class lesson. This went on
from the beginning of the class up till the end. It was devastating for me to see my students
losing grasp of the lesson in class; so I constantly tried to pull them back into the lesson. I really
did not want them to miss out on anything.

Gracey (1972), divided teachers into two categories; namely the production teachers
and craftsmen teachers. According to him, schools generally have more productive teachers
than craftsmen teachers. Productive teachers are instructors who produce products in the form
of students; who are then perpetually tasked to master all the subjects predetermined by the
instructor. The students; passive by instruction, only need to replicate the facts given by the
instructor and do not need to actually work to earn their knowledge (Gracey, 1972).

I am not one to agree to being a mere productive teacher. Hence, seeing the situation
happening in my class, I tried to encourage the students to play lesson-based games although
the approach was not specifically stated in my lesson plan. Fortunately, the approach worked
and the students started to shift their attention back into the lesson.

Gardner (1943), a top education theorist and researcher from Harvard University
deduced that every single person on earth is given a unique sum of potential which differs from
others. These potentials can be measured using intelligence level tests. According to Gardner
(1991), human beings generally have seven inner potentials with different levels of acquirement.
These potentials are referred to as inclinations or intelligence; in areas such as music, spatial,
linguistics, logical-mathematical, body kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. Using this
study, I tried to observe the situation and identify the problems that could hinder the execution of
my class lesson. I was also keen to identify the causes for the students inability to understand
the lesson as well as their lack of focus in my class. A number of questions kept running through
my mind:

Do the students find me lacking or deficient as a teacher?

What made the students lose focus during my lesson?

How do I solve these problems?

What kind of reward system should I start to maintain the students involvement in my
class?

Do I need to change my lesson strategies in order to solve these problems?

I made the most of these questions, adding them up with my previous observations.
Accordingly, I managed to come up with a number of deductions:

The students generally understand most lessons with ease. However, they are easily

distracted when given lessons using the same repetitive teaching method. They would also tend
to lose focus and begin daydreaming in class whenever they get bored.

The students have different levels for each of the different intelligences, which have yet
to be discovered.

The class contains students of varied levels of skills and performance, family
backgrounds, social economic status (SES), and background knowledge of the

topic

content.

The teacher keeps on using repetitive teaching methods.

With careful deliberations on the problems that exist in the class, I decided that a
thorough diagnosis should be done on each of the students to identify their individual skills,
intelligences and inclinations.

WEEK 5
22 April 2015

It has been five weeks into practicum. Regardless of my previous teaching experience, I
do still feel nervous everytime I step into a class. My lesson for today is centered on the topic of
Animals Respiratory Organs. I have to admit that I do feel a bit pleased with my lesson
execution today. I believe that I have successfully obtained all of the lesson objectives.

During the days teaching and learning session, I found that I was able to identify my
strengths and lowpoints in teaching todays lesson. I feel that I was good in managing and
controlling the class. Other than that, I was also able to prepare a detailed and well-thought
lesson for todays class. As a result, the teaching and learning session was able to be executed
smoothly, just as planned beforehand.

Selecting a suitable teaching method helps to attract students interest and maintain their
attention in class. Consequently, the class can be executed smoothly without hindrance. I also
find that riddle-based activity at the beginning of the class during set induction would be able to
increase students learning motivation. Not only are riddles educational and challenging, they
are also entertaining and enjoyable for the students.

I also prepared lesson examples in the form of illustrations; for instance, pictures of
animals, cards containing cutouts of animal bodies, as well as replicas of animals in order to
ease the students comprehension of the topic. I also used a rewarding system and gave
praises whenever necessary to show my appreciation towards the students effort. These
teaching strategies also help to garner and retain their attention in class.

Other than that, I also find that I have quite a loud and clear voice. It is highly
advantageous for teachers to have a good voice projection as well as a strong voice as they are

in fact delivering knowledge. When a teacher delivers the lesson in a lucid and loud voice,
students would not have difficulties in listening to whatever the teacher is saying; hence aiding
their thorough understanding of the lesson. Students will be more focused on the lesson
delivery without being distracted by any external disruptions. A teachers commanding presence
and firmness also encourage students to be more respectful towards her. One of the most
important skills for all teachers to have is the ability to give clear instructions. This is because a
clear instruction and a clear lesson delivery go a long way in influencing students to be more
confident in learning.

Last but not least, it is also important for teachers to be highly articulate in their manner
of speech. Being articulate not only refers to having a loud and clear voice; it also speaks of
ones ability to use a standard and comprehensible language when teaching. A clear and
articulate teaching instruction would ease students understanding and allow them to follow it
accurately. If the students follow-up response to an instruction is accurate and fits the teachers
expectation, it means that the teacher has succeeded in giving a lucid instruction. In simpler
words, the success of a teaching and learning session highly depends on a teachers ability,
skill, and competence in managing the class and the activities that happen inside of it.

WEEK 6
30 April 2015

It feels like time goes by so quickly now that I am already in week six of practicum. For
todays lesson, I had planned to teach a topic that seemed quite simple but is actually quite
difficult to grasp. The topic was on Reaction of Plants Towards Stimulus. After I was done with
the teaching and learning session, I found myself being quite disappointed with my own
teaching performance. I had a few slip-ups and did a number of careless mistakes, and I felt
that I had given a rather weak teaching performance during the days lesson.

One of the weaknesses that I could identify during todays lesson was my inability to
relate the lesson content with current and authentic situations during set induction. I also did not
give the students any follow-up activity. Other than that, the in-class worksheet I had given the
students did not adhere to their skill level; for I find that most of the weak students were not able
to complete the exercise. I was also unable to precisely follow the lesson plan timeline. It is
highly important to follow the time and duration as stated in the lesson plan to ensure that the
lesson can be executed smoothly. My biggest mistake was the lack of uniformity between the
duration of time planned for an activity in the lesson plan, with the actual duration of the activity
done in class. A few factors contributed to this mishap, and in turn more time had to be taken to
solely execute a phase of the lesson. If the lesson delivery phase is disrupted, the whole lesson
would be affected. Thus, it is important for the time division to be fully optimized. Regardless of
the lagging lesson plan, I am grateful that the whole lesson was not that much affected by the
earlier mishap.

Another thing that I am quite concerned with was my lack of in-class supervision during
todays class. I only remained at my position which was at the front of the class and did not
monitor the activity of the students located far away from me. I should have walked and
monitored the whole class as they went on with their activities. A close and consistent
supervision of the entire class would ultimately help the teacher manage the discipline of the

students. Observations and monitoring also help teachers identify weak students who need
more focused aid and assistance.

Counteract steps

Every single mistake and weakness identified during the teaching and learning sessions
today must be dealt with by doing a few improvements. Improvements are crucial in order to
enhance the quality of future lessons. There are a number of improvements that I feel I could
attempt to in order to fix the weak spots in my teaching. One of them is on time precision in
lesson delivery, and another one is on my supervision of students in class.

In the future, I will try to plan the duration of activities effectively, taking careful
considerations of the factors of class and students condition; in order to ensure that the
teaching and learning can be executed as planned. I will also try to follow precisely the time plan
so that the teaching and learning process can be executed smoothly as planned. It is also
important for me to remember not to stand at only one spot or only in front of the class during
lessons. I need to always move around the class so that I would be able to monitor each of the
students and their activities when teaching and learning is in session.

For my future lessons I plan to do a proper enhancement on a few activities. For