- Lightened heart and enlightened mind- Overflowing lessons in life- Various cultures- Extraordinary teaching practicum-
Teaching Methods
William Ward
Our first week in practicum school was spent in class observation. During this period I was given an opportunity to observe not just the classes of my mentor, Miss Atjima Kosa but also the classes of other teachers. Through this, I've seen the differences in each classes that I have observed in terms of the student's behaviors, intelligence and interests. Each of the teachers have their own way of handling the class and delivering the lessons that's why I've learned a lot from each of them and the observation period was a big help for me in constructing my own lesson plan.
Usually, my mentor and other teachers used Open- Approach in teaching. They want the students to learn by their own and they as teachers only act as facilitators. They want the students to discover the concepts or facts and learned the lesson by themselves through giving them some open-ended problems to solve by themselves, providing more examples, games or activities and using the art of questioning, they asked some probing and evaluating questions. They believe that 21st century students didn't want a teacher who is just a dispenser of information, students want a teacher who can provides them an active learning experience. According to them they prefer to use the Open-Approach because through this the students learned better and they grasped new concepts faster. In addition, for them, this approach helps students to develop their critical thinking and creativity.
Teaching and Learning Materials and Innovation
I can say that Demonstration School of Khon Kaen University "Satit Modindaeng" was one of the schools with high technology. All of the classrooms have computers and projectors/wide screen tv. That's why the primary teaching materials that the teachers used was power point presentation, but they also used the magnetic whiteboards and chalk boards. The school also had free Wi-Fi that was connected in computers in the classrooms. The teachers used it in playing games and in showing some videos on YouTube that were related to the lessons. The students also have books that contained of various activities that were related to the topics. But the teachers didn't completely rely on students' books and workbooks, they made their own handouts and worksheets and the school provided copies for each students. Teachers also used pictures or cut outs, flashcards, boxes, big papers, markers, glue and other manipulative materials in teaching.
In addition, the teachers didn't only focus on visual aids but also in audio. They usually used audio clips in teaching vocabulary. My mentor said that English is not their native language and they are having difficulty in pronouncing some words that's why they used audio clip with English (United States) pronunciation and play it multiple times so that their students could master it by listening and by mimicking the pronunciation in the audio. They also maximized the used of technology by allowing the students to use their smartphones in a limited amount of time. Before the class started, the students put their smartphones in the box, but for some activities that it could be helpful the teachers allowed them to use it. For example they might use their smartphones only for 3 minutes as a dictionary and search the words that they didn't understand in the selection that they were reading. Sometimes for students' activity, teachers allowed one smartphones for each group to use for the google map and the like.
Learning Resources and Technology
Demonstration School of Khon Kaen University "Satit Modindaeng" had enough books that could used by teachers and students. Each of the students had student's book and student's workbook for English class. English teachers also had copies of it. They also have a teacher's guide book with Compact Disks (CDs) that contained audio/voice clips of vocabulary words, conversations, articles, stories and the like with English (United States) voice. Teachers maximized the used of modern technologies by using the computers and LCD projectors. They also used the free Wi-Fi connection by searching additional information in the internet about the topic, used video clips in YouTube and download additional voice clips using soundoftext.com.
Each departments have their own printers, bond papers and free teaching materials like big papers, markers, glues, pens, magnets and the like that the teachers might use to assist students to meet the expectations for quality learning. The school also had printing facilities where the teachers could photocopy the handouts and worksheets that they made for the students. They could get a copies for all their students for free. There are also library where the students could find variety of books to enrich their learning experiences. For the English classes, teachers usually used the English Laboratory because it had wider space where the teachers can execute the group activities efficiently, it was surrounded with speakers, it had wider LCD screen projector and a magnetic white board and chalk board. But the school also have various laboratories for different subjects like Science and Math laboratory with manipulative materials that support teaching and learning process.
Authentic Assessment
My mentor used paper and pencil test to assess the learning of the students. Every discussion, she provided worksheets for the students to answer or she let them answer the activity on the students' book or workbook to know if the desired learning outcome was achieve. When she had enough time she corrected it with the whole class so that the students would know their scores and mistakes immediately and the student would have a chance to ask questions. When she noticed that many of the students in the class got low scores she conducted a brief review or wrap up of the lesson. My mentor also gave unit test when they finished all the unit lessons to assess the retention of students' learned information. The students' final examination were also paper and pencil test. Aside from paper and pencil test, my mentor also used observation form to assess the behavior of the students and other performance-based or product-based tasks.