PRAC 2002 SUNITA EJOURNAL

Feb 1st, 2017

Entry 1: Observation visit.

The school far exceeded my expectations. The surroundings was far from being unkempt.

Initially, I assumed that the layout would be disorganized and have low maintenance, however I was pleasantly greeted with an abundance of flora surrounding the entrance to the school. The vice principal kindly welcomed us into the school. The most outstanding memory of that day, was the dedication the vice principal had towards making our stay most pleasing and enjoyable. I and my partner were assigned to his class, and Mister Gopi (vice principal) went back and forth gathering all the documents required for us. What was most shocking was the tone that our cooperating teacher used to address the class throughout the lessons, granted that this was the most feasible method for effective learning in this classroom. At first I taught to myself, he was being harsh with the students, but after carefully analyzing the students and how they responded, I came to quickly understand that these students learn best by fear as appose to gentler methods of teaching.  At that moment, I learnt that as a prospective teacher, you must adapt to your class and their learning styles. Mister Gopi was greatly feared by the students but in a respectable manner. The noise level during lunch and break was high, but that was expected for a primary school. The upper block, of standard 1 to 2 was relatively quiet, with the exception of the standard ones. The students of the standard 4 class were charming, and very eager to learn, but there was a clear distinction between the intellectual spectrums within the class, with one students being capable of answering all questions posed correctly. Some were averagely smart while others didn’t pay attention or misbehaved. I was placed in a real life classroom context without prior experience, and gained a lot of information about the variety of students in a classroom in addition to teaching strategies based on the type of classroom given.

Feb 8th 2017

Entry 2: Field teaching day one

Early mornings are usually used to teach mathematics, which encourages the children’s brain to be engaged for the morning session. Personally, I taught this was an excellent technique to kick start their brains. At first I was nervous to pair teach, since it was my first teaching experience. After talking to the students who were quite welcoming, I summed up the courage to teach.

The content of the lesson was accurately taught, resources such as charts and worksheets were interactive and fun and relative to the topic being taught. I didn’t anticipate how much I was required to project my voice with the noise coming, not necessarily from my classroom, but others around. The class was quite attentive, and most were eager to learn. The second lesson was not taught since the cooperating teacher had taught that topic already. Overall the class was pleasant and the students were very friendly.

Feb 15th 2017

Entry 3: Field teaching day two

Today was quite eventful, since it was zonal in the school, and the majority of children went to participate in zonal. In my class there were about 6 out of the 10 students resent. The first lesson on pronouns was taught well, but finished quickly. On that day, due to lack of supervision by our cooperating teacher who went to zonal, we were left in a classroom unattended too, for the early half of the morning. Supervisors came to visit the school, and we were moved, together with out standard 4 class to the standard 5 classroom. My partner and I taught pronouns to the entire class for the morning period. Due to the unanticipated large number of students we didn’t have enough resources to distribute to students. We tried to incorporate most of the class, with special attention to the standard 4, who the lesson was intended for. The day progressed, and my partner and I taught many lessons to keep the class preoccupied. After today, I learned that as a teacher u must be prepared for unforeseen circumstances, and must be equipped to tackle these obstacles than can occur at any given moment.

Feb 22nd 2017

Entry 4: Field teaching day three

Today being the last day of practicum was quite tiring. I was not fully prepared for the amount of prep work that had to done when teaching a class. Our first lesson to be taught was parts of the flower, which was well taught and students thoroughly enjoyed the lesson. I was pleasantly surprised that the students were able to recall many of the names of the parts, before the topic was taught. Fractions was taught afterwards by me and my partner, and that concluded our two lessons for the day. For the rest of the day, our cooperating teacher taught the class the quota of work he had to finish, while we sat an observed.

PRAC 2002 E JOURNAL

PRAC 2002 - EJOURNAL - JAVED JUMAN

JANUARY 25TH - FIRST FIELD VISIT

The school lay nestled between 2 pillars, a pillar of health and a pillar of god. My initial impression was one of calm, as the trees on the grounds filtered a cool breeze, and almost sounded like the ocean when they swayed.

The school itself seemed small enough. 2 main buildings and modest parking. The walk down the hill to the main entrance illuminated the once dark interior, as i got closer, seeing bustling shadows become conscious beings.

The Principal was not there that day, and as the group waited, it seemed that the passers-by were not too keen on having us there. I would later realize the heavy burdens that teachers already bare, and having us to chauffeur around only meant more work for them. 

The vice principal was nice enough, in fact, he could even be described as overly accommodating. Yet all the while, amidst the soiree of administrative get-to-know-yous, the children were always the star of the show. Always saying good morning, very polite and curious at first. My first memory was one pupil exclaiming the adjective "kakasplash" when describing another. At least their polite and courteous facade was only skin deep and as thick as a strand of hair.  

In the classroom they refused to show their true colors initially. As my partner and I sat at the back, observing like observers do, they put on their best behavior. Yet the teacher (our VP) remained strict and stern, and often spoke in a loud and harsh voice, as if his voice box had been stuck on high through countless years of over use. We thought that his aggressive tone was disproportionate, and that maybe he might be over-reacting. Soon we realised that the propensity to keep the atmosphere slightly tense was intentional, as the teacher often had to walk a very fine line between friend and mentor, and most kids don't have great balance.

In the end we didn't observe any of the Colorossos, or the Curwins. We saw some Piagets and Vygotskys but we certainly missed their influence in the teaching process. The teacher stayed strict to direct instruction, in the way that an old fashioned veteran would, slicing through lesson after lesson, knowing every reaction and every confusion before it occurred. It was as if he had been teaching the same class of children for 40 years, stuck in a perpetual time loop, and witnessing the slow decay of moral society along side notions of his own morality.

Sadly I was quite happy for the 3pm bell. Not that I didn't enjoy the experience, but considering my own prior 15 years of teaching experience, I shared a morsel of the teacher's disdain. The real journey was in the weeks to come, where my partner and I would have our 15 minutes in the spotlight, playing teacher.







FEBRUARY 8TH - FIELD TEACHING 1

The first session was quite entertaining. The topics themselves were minor, synonyms and fact versus opinions, however my partner had never taught before, and having a squeaky little voice found the notion of ventriloquism quite intimidating. Nonetheless my experience took over the lesson, and whilst I was happy that the lesson went smoothly, I soon realised that my partner had been robbed of having her own first experience. Yet still it was good to put on the training wheels before throwing her in the deep end of the pool, where she would prove herself to be quite a good swimmer. 

In essence I took over the lesson. Trying to fill every gap, and smooth-en any lulls of transition, in an effort to keep their attention. You know how kids can lose attention quite easily these days. She could barely get 2 words in, and seemed to be speaking to me more than the kids. However it was me who did not allow her the space or opportunity, certainly I would have to keep that in mind next time.






FEBRUARY 15TH - FIELD TEACHING 2.

The second day was quite interesting indeed. Because my teacher was out on a zonal sports day, our standard 4 class was joined with the standard 5 class. And so we taught our lesson to the combined classes, which required improvisation as our resources weren't enough for everyone. In the end our ratching skills proved seasoned and  the lesson was a great success. I consciously decided to let my partner take the lead, and she did a beautiful job.

Overall it was a fun day. Because the teacher wasnt there meant we could do what we wanted, and ended up teaching them all day. Just pulling cool topics out of our heads to teach them, and they were eager to learn. I started them on an investigation to find hidden patterns in their multiplications tables, and they were amazed to find that each table actually had hidden patterns.

We also taught them how to draw fractal shapes, which introduced the advance topic of fractal geometry without them even knowing it. The coolest improvised lesson came in the afternoon, where we did a 'casual' creative writing session. It was the first time the class ever created a story as a group, where each student had to continue the next sentence, to see the story unfold. It seemed like mindless fun, but it was evident how profound the basic applications of pronouns and synonyms were in creative writing. By the end of the day my partner and I were quite satisfied, believing ourselves to be super teachers.




FEBRUARY 22nd - FIELD TEACHING 3

The final day came with a eerie feeling, it was as if I myself was manifesting negative vibrations. The teacher was present on this day, but hardly around as he was busy with administrative duties. In the morning my instructor came to judge our flower lesson, which I hoped went well. I think it did. Afterwards we immediately taught our fractions lesson, which didn't go as well as we had hoped, namely because of the distracting efforts of one attention seeking little boy, who continuously disturbed the lesson until I had to confront him, and after he ignored any semblance of authority I could display, and totally disrespected my presence, I decided to defuse the situation by apologizing for my aggressive affront. He too apologized and calmed down, and the situation resolved to an uncomfortable tension, as the kids saw the unfriendly side of me.

Thank god that was the only negative vibe, that I had anticipated from the scent in the air earlier that morning. And after an extended lunch to celebrate our last day, came back to the afternoon session to find our teacher busy at his lessons, that we would finally have the opportunity to observe once again how an experienced hand claps.

PRAC 2001 CRITIQUE

Art can be seen as the mirror that humanity holds up to itself. It allows us to see who we truly are. It stems from the depths of human passion and is the product of the soul's expression. Art differs from science in that it is not procedural, it asks for no explanation, it is affective and requires a truly relational and conceptual understanding of the content for it to truly be art. 

The duality of the left and right brain presents the clear distinction between science and art, however, it is the intersection of both that forms a good teacher. 

A good teacher must have the left brain procedural, logical sense which would encompass techniques, skills, formulae and content knowledge to a competent capacity, whilst having the right brain flexibility, versatility, and creativity to be able to communicate concepts and ideas to a diverse community of learners. 

This macroscopic perspective has been made clear throughout the Practicum 2001 course. 

In executing the lesson plan, it was easy to observe the demand on the whole brain when attempting to present a lesson to a diverse classroom. 

For this lesson, we chose the topic of '3D shapes' out of the Primary school Math syllabus, specific to the standard 3 level. Efforts were made towards having differentiated instruction via the use of differentiated worksheets coupled with inquiry based instruction, cross curriculum development (literacy and numeracy) and thematic integration. Though thematic integration was considered, it was difficult to present its relevance in just one lesson. 

Inquiry based learning seemed a very natural approach as it lowers the pedestal often worn by teachers, it brings the teachers to the level of the students where they all can discover the knowledge together as a community of learners, making the teacher a true guide on the side, where pretending to 'not know the answer' can prove to be more effective to the learner than the teacher 'spoon feeding' them with information. Instead, the use of guided questions increases interest in the learner, as well as intrinsic motivation, which increases the authenticity of the learning experience. 

It was found that through inquiry based techniques, the execution of Marzano's ten questions was virtually effortless. Inquiry based approaches allow the student a deeper more conceptual understanding of the content, is more engaging, and allows the teacher to learn more about the students' individual thinking processes. 

The presentation of the lesson itself went smoothly, with little critique only that the use of the phrase "I don't know" by the teacher should be uttered a lot less. However, the inquiry based technique worked well when used with interesting and engaging problem solving activities and differentiated assessments. 

In reflection, the Practicum 2001 course did a lot to emphasize and focus on some of the finer points of teaching. From the administrative differences between syllabi and curriculum, to the more affective nuances of interpersonal development, it showed that teaching is truly a science, and an art. 


Javed Juman 
59900  

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