Week Journal 6 (23 May 2014)

Significant Situation
Learning aims:
-To make class assignments that students can make independently during my lesson.

This week was a very different type of style of teaching for me, it involved a lot of careful planning. I did not teach in front of the class, but the students were present in the classroom and they had classwork. I made assignments that students could do on their own while I was busy doing the orals at another location. An example of such an example is given above.
I asked one student to be my Teaching Assistant that day in order to help me out. He or she wrote down who was present, made sure students were busy with their classwork and kept students in the classroom. This worked out quite well.

Reflection

I decided to ask the student who always attends my lessons, who is serious and who is taken seriously by his/her fellow classmates. I did this in order for students to not misbehave while I was busy with the orals. This helped me a lot since I didn't have to worry too much about the other students. I only checked in on them several times and they were busy working or if they were done with the assignment they were silently watching a movie on their laptops, which I allowed them to do.

The effect is that students knew exactly what they had to do and what they could do if they were finished with the class assignment. It was a very relaxed setting every time I checked in on the class (2IGH1).

I think the students really liked this type of 'lesson', because it was a very relaxed class and they didn't have to do too much if they were already finished with their classwork and their previous homework.

I asked the students at the end of the class if this setting was working for them and about the TA per lesson and they said that they really liked it because it was quiet and very mellow.

This situation is important to me because I was a bit worried that students would misbehave or skip class and not attend the lessons after my class. I didn't want that to happen so I was really happy when I saw that most students showed up to my lesson and attended the other lessons after my English lesson.

I am a teacher who likes to plan carefully by looking at the type of students I have in my class, their behavior and their level in order to pick a good TA.

To sum it up, sometimes a teacher needs to try out new ways of 'teaching' and let students help out when it necessary. Students need to be able to show that they can be responsible and teachers need to be able to give students the opportunity to show how responsible they can be.

My learning aim for next week is:
-N.A

Internship Progress

Next week, I only have two lessons on Monday. The rest of the week I'm off.
Until next week!