Hey all,
So I have now nearly come to the halfway point of my first placement. I've been teaching the past two weeks! I have one S1 class (gr. 7), two S2 classes (gr. 8), and two S3 class (gr. 9). I am observing an S4 (gr. 10) class, however, not able to teach it as they are preparing for preliminary exams and the teacher is already behind schedule.
Regardless, my plate is pretty full with the 5 classes. I'd have to say that the S3 classes are my favourite, they are for the most part well behaved, but also quite funny. I started Diffusion with them, and have worked my way to Osmosis, and soon will be starting Enzymes. My tutor from university will be coming to one of these classes next Friday to evaluate my teaching...I am definitely nervous! However, I lucked out that my crit is with an S3 class. They are all nice kids, and I know most of their names! They (for the most part) actually listen to me when I tell them to quiet down...haha this doesn't really work well with the S2 class. One thing I have noticed about these kids is that they don't really want to know what they're learning until they are going to be tested. Not really a surprise, but it still shocked me to see that they had copied out a diagram and written notes on it, and didn't know what they were writing. I don't even know how many times I have said the sentence "moving from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration." They can repeat it and fill in the blanks for me, but when applying that knowledge to actual living cells, they are dumbfounded. Regardless, I spent some time today going over diagrams on osmosis in plant cells and red blood cells, and I think more of them understand now.
As for the S2's....they really seem to have a bad attitude problem. Lots of poor ability kids, as well as most of them not wanting to be there or do anything at all. It saddens me to see a lot of young girls in full makeup, checking their faces every 5 minutes, and refusing to participate in class. I'm working on being more strict with them, as they pretty much do as they wish and don't listen. I'm going to try to make their lessons more hands on and relate it to things they like. We're doing a lesson on mixing coloured lights, and seeing what resulting colour is created. My idea is to relate it to X Factor (UK version of American/Canadian Idol). I'm going to say that a producer from X Factor is looking to hire someone to do the lights at the next show. They only have red, green and blue filters for their lights, but they need a series of other colours to be created for each performer. The children will figure out which combinations of red/blue/green filters create these colours. In the end, the children who get the correct results will be "hired."
While this may not be insanely exciting, hopefully it will pique a little more interest than usual. I'll let you know how that lesson goes!
My S1 class is really nice. There are some great kids, but I think i'm more suited to teaching the older kids. I am finding it really hard to give directions for every little thing, because in my mind I think that they can handle it. The teachers at the school are really helping me, and giving me feedback everyday. I'm working on my questioning techniques, to try to lead them on the right path instead of using open questions. Open questions seem to be leading way off topic. But they are really keen, and most of them are actively participating in class. There is one kid in the class who is extremely inquisitive. He asks about 30 questions per lesson, all slightly related to the topic, but not relevant. I don't know most of the answers, and am starting to think he finds me stupid. However, the other teachers have all said that he does that to everyone and seems to be trying to trip them up. I'm going to relax a bit, and let him know when it isn't relevant to the topic at hand, and if he is interested to look it up and let us know.
Anyways, I think that should bring you up to speed on my placement so far!
Catch you on the flip side,
Anusha
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