Practical Active Learning Strategies:

CICT members had to choose and apply one/two Practical Active Learning Strategies in their lessons.

 I selected three strategies and combined them together to gauge the understanding of Year 6 students about Triangular Numbers they learnt a day before. I chose the following strategies.

Think/ pair/ share; Students making notes for sharing with the students.

• Think/Pair/Share (with Robin Rally)

Students were asked to think and make notes on their mini white boards. They took instructions very well and as individual task recalled what triangular numbers are and how can a triangular pattern be increased. They made notes including explanation of concepts, drawing Pascal’s triangle and writing formula. In pairs then they discussed all the points they wrote.

• Reciprocal questioning:

Then the students were asked to make three challenge questions for each table. I gave them examples such as, What is a sequence? How can a pattern be identified? What are Triangular numbers? How can we use triangular numbers in our daily lives?

Students made the questions in their respective groups. They felt very enthusiastic and made really difficult questions for their friends. But then I introduced the twist that challengers have to solve their own questions as well.

• Numbered Heads Together:

I asked the groups to give their challenge questions they made during Reciprocal questioning to one another. I gave limited time to each group and asked them to join the heads together to work out the answers.

By using these strategies students were completely engaged and in very little time they recalled, revised and presented their learning.

Theories on Human Psychology

·         Multiple Intelligences,

·         Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains,

·         Kolb’s Learning Cycle,

·         Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs,

·         Piaget’s stages of cognitive development

When all the CICT members were asked to read the above mentioned theories and in next session present it I assumed that it would turn out to be a very boring class. Interestingly to my surprise the whole activity that lasted for one hour turned out to be really effective and learning based. All the groups explained their assigned theories in different ways. Through power point presentations, hand outs, evaluation forms and explanation the theories were understood by all of us nicely. Moreover, I grasped new presenting ideas and learnt how a subject like theory can be made interesting and simpler for the students. By breaking the bigger complicated subject into small portions and dividing it amongst the students to reflect upon it for the whole class can make it an easy to understand for all in shorter time.

Let us Debate

There are many different ways of debates. However, objective of every debate is to provide a platform for the participants to share their view point in support of their topic. As a CICT class members we had a very effective debate session on the topic of writing Lesson Objectives in class. It was very nice group work and enhanced a sense of competition among the groups. 

I then used the debating activity with my Year 6 Students in their PSCHEE class based on the topic of Friendship and Dependence on Each Other. I distributed the whole class in to two groups and asked one group to support and the other one to speak in favour of “We can live alone”. I gave them some time to discuss and make notes in their respective tables. They were working as a team and coming up with good ideas that was welcomed by the other team members. After the preparation time I posed a notion and the debate began. This 15 to 20 minutes activity turned out really well and students were very enthusiastic. However, the challenge remained to refrain the extrovert students from speaking or commenting when opposing team member was giving his view point. But everyone soon went with the flow.  At the end of the debate everyone was clear that as humans we cannot remain alone. The debating strategy enhanced the learning capability of students more than what they could extract from teacher talk and share mere experiences. I completely enjoyed doing this activity with the students while listening to their views they also shared a very positive feedback about the activity. 

My Reason for Being a Teacher

Growing up children have many aspirations, some want to be astronauts, some doctors and others want to be pilots. As for me I always wanted to be teacher, from a very early age I used to love spending time with children younger than me by helping them with activities and studies. I used to gather the small children in my neighbourhood and would give them extra coaching classes before exams and also help them out in studies during the summer holidays. When I started my professional careers, for the first couple of years I tried a desk job but always felt my calling for the teaching profession and eventually I decided to quit my 9 to 5 job and joined a school as a full time teacher.

There I found that full time teaching was not as romanticized as I had imagined. There were daily challenges and hurdles like temperament of children, pressures of completing the courses, homework checking, exam-paper markings and try to meet expectations of parents. If Hercules really wanted a challenge one of his 12 tasks should have been to become a teacher.

But where teaching has its challenges it also comes with its own set of rewards. Teaching gives you sense of deep satisfactions when as a teacher you see that you may have had an impact on a child that would last them a life time. At the end of the day you stand there with a beaming smile on your face much like a gardener who has toiled the entire day under the sweltering heat, knee deep in dirt to plant seeds and then standing there imagining how beautiful the garden will look when all the flowers will eventually bloom.     

The whole idea of bringing about a positive and sustainable improvement in a child in terms of education as well as personality is my reason to be a teacher and I am determined to keep on improving myself with time. After all teaching is all about learning twice. 

Learning through Art

During initial sessions of CICT class I learnt that for a teachers adaptability is key. It is very important to be ready to learn and keep on improving your skills with time. Only then can teachers encourage the students to use their multiple abilities to accomplish tasks assigned to them. To further exemplify the fact that a teacher in him/herself is a master of all traits we were given the enjoyable activity of making a radio jingle. The objective was to deliver a short message in an exciting and catchy way so the listener is attracted to the jingle and gets the message in an interactive manner.
The topic given to us for the jingle was to encourage fresh graduates to join the teaching profession. The highlight of the activity was the immense level of excitement we felt whilst making the song. We had a glorious time using simple musical instruments and making sounds with various objects in order to make melodies. The activity also brought forward different talents and skills of the group members, some were good in rhyming words while others could sing very well. The challenge was to use art for the purpose of enhancing the learning experience of the students. It was a very motivating and fascinating idea of engaging students through active learning.

Developing a New Teaching Approach

For the practical learning portion of my CICT course we had been asked to choose from a variety of teaching methods, for my study I have selected the Practical Work approach. Since I am teaching Maths and Science lessons which are mostly fact based hence I feel that the practical learning portions can easily be incorporated into the classes. Practical Learning includes various techniques like experiments, field studies on measurement, craft or other handbook and surveys.

I am looking forward to use these inductive methods which will enhance active learning amongst students. 

My First Post

Hello people, my name is Nida Naz and I am a teacher for Grade 6 and I have started this blog to share my experience in teaching kids and also to share tips and tricks that I have picked up along the way.

So hang on because ... class is in session :)