WEEK 6: Reflection

“Where there is a will, there is a way”

The large number of students has been an easy excuse for many of the “teachers” in my context when they fail to show desired performance and bring expected outcomes in the teaching learning process. 

Week 6 is another milestone in my learning and has been indeed insightful. I’m feeling blessed and renewed. There are tools, there are technologies to help you combat with all the frustrations you have been living with what we call “Chalk and Talk” methods. After reading “Teaching Large Classes II – Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students “ by Rick Finnan and Donna Shaw, (http://oregonstate.edu/dept/eli/osu-hedp/large-classes-engaging-students.html  I have been familiar with Think-Pair-Share, Concep Test, Quick- thinks, Minute paper, Scripted Cooperative Learning and Concept Maps  and will certainly experiment them in my classes for students’ motivation and critical thinking as I do believe and agree “The more you vary your methods, the more interesting the class tends to be” (Beating the Numbers Game: Effective Teaching in Large Classes by Richard M. Felder). I know I will be learning with my students side by side.

Something unexpected has happened this week! I had never thought of INTERACTIVE PowerPoint presentation. I really worked harder going through the articles and finally I was able to make interactive PowerPoint slides for the lesson “Arati and Neelalm’s Plans” from Grade IX textbook. I have used brainstorming activity, Think – Pair- Share to get the students involved. These are my first PowerPoint slides where students not only listen and read but also involve themselves more. The use of hyperlinks and the actions buttons to make quizzes based on the text was an amazing experience for me to enhance real learning.  I really liked it and wish to learn more in the days to come.

So far the implementation of the technology is concerned, after the introductory sessions and discussions with Grade IX students, I have created a blog learnenglishsos.blogspot.com and my students have started submitting their homework assignments through the comments and some of them have been doing wonderful jobs with great excitement.  I have been continuously encouraging them and convincing some the parents as well. It has brought a wave at my school and my colleagues have started talking about the pros and cons of using blogs for the homework assignments. I strongly hope that I will be able to convince them all.

Looking forward to experiencing more learning next week,

Kiran

Nepal