Teaching Practice Reflections: Week 4

List three successes of your teaching this week and state why you feel each point was a success.

• Lesson Pace: I utilised the iPad to maximise time spent on activities to enhance learning. Rather than student taking notes down from the board during precious class-time, I add the notes to Google classroom after class and give it as a homework task to complete in their own time. I find students write at a different pace, this disrupts the flow and some can be left sitting idle waiting on others. I do have extension exercises ready for early finishers but I find this can be disruptive. I prefer to allocate note taking as a homework tasks.
• ICT: I schedule posts to arrive into the Google classroom at certain times, so I have my ‘START NOW’ activities scheduled to drop at the start of a lesson, I have the exist ticket and homework assignment scheduled to drop into the classroom 5 minutes before the end of class. I do all my scheduling on a Monday for my week ahead. This helps me stay organised and in control during my lessons.
• Time saving activities in class: Some methods I have used to save precious class-time as follows; When they are presenting group work to their peers, I ask them to present from their table (standing) instead of from the top of the room. It saves minutes and avoids noise and unnecessary movement. I also use Google classrooms for homework, and just get them to pop a note into their homework diary to say for example: Geo: check Google Classroom, copybook needed

List three areas for improvement which you will focus on next week and outline an action plan that you will put into place for each area

• Tech: Teenagers are not as confident and tech savvy as we presume they are. I find that when using the iPads in class a lot of students struggle with basic skills. E.g. attaching a file, remembering passwords etc. Also, if the WIFI is weak it can change the pace of an activity. I think it's best not to rely too heavily on tech in your lesson. It’s best used when integrated with a variety of techniques.
• Resources: this week I had a bad experience with my external hard-drive. I was supervising a class and my laptop slid off the podium and I had my USB key attached. The USB hit the ground first and snapped on impact. I lost about two weeks of work, which is about 120 hours for me. It was a very humbling experience to have to start from scratch. I went to a laptop repair shop and got advised on the best methods for storing my work going forward, and will now save all my work on the cloud. However, every cloud has a silver lining. Starting from scratch on a topic can be refreshing and gives you a different perspective on something. I was able to create an innovative lesson using Google Earth which I hope to show the students next week.

Discuss one theoretical idea that influenced your teaching this week

This week, I applied Mary Budd Rowe’s (1972) “Wait time – Think Time” theory to my teaching practice. She claimed that periods of silence that followed teacher questions and students responses rarely lasted more than 1.5 seconds in typical classrooms. However, giving a period of silence that lasts at least 3 seconds increases the length and correctness of their responses. Using this technique together with my random name selector technique, means I can tailor a spin time to 2-3 seconds.

What was your most enjoyable moment while teaching this week?

The most enjoyable moment this week for me was creating a Geography wall display. I discovered through my lessons that a lot of students struggled with famous Geographical landmarks from around the world. As a result, I wanted to create something which would speak to the students from a digital perspective as they are digital learners. Thus I created a Geogagram wall, the format mirrors the social media platform, Instagram. This can also be viewed as cross-circular as I have asked students to engage with the wall by sharing their own images from around the world and add a tagline. I have shared a picture of the wall below. Students responded overwhelming positive to this initiative this week, as did the Vice-Principal. It was a great boost and I hope to continue the initiative throughout my time here.