It seemed just like yesterday when I had to bid goodbye to my NIE peers as werted ways and enter a new phase of our teaching career.
1.5 weeks into Junyuan Secondary School, I must say I am starting to get used to the lifestyle of a teacher and the workings of the school. Week 1 was mainly observations and I have gotten a pretty good idea of my students' learning abilities from all the three different classes that I will be undertaking.
Today marked my first teaching lesson and it was a 3N double period class. The topic was on Pythagoras' Theorem. Generally, this bunch of 3N2 students are well-behaved and require a lot of scaffolding. Most of them have the intrinsic nature to want to learn, which is something that I really admire from their Maths CT as she continually affirmed and encouraged them.
What happened?
The lesson went pretty well at the start. Students were engaged in the derivation of Pythagoras' Theorem which required them to cut a composite figure and arrange them to form a square. However, there was a slight problem as there were quite a number of pairs who did not bring their scissors despite given instructions a few days back. As such, my intended plan of doing pair work could not be carried out. Instead, some had to drag their chairs to form groups of 4. I wasn't prepared to do group work as my Maths CT has not tried out group work with this class before. But when I was thrown into that situation which I should have pre-empted, I had to break them into groups on the spot. Thankfully, I think the purpose of the activity went through and most groups, or if not all groups, manged to see the relation between a2 + b2 and c2 through areas of the squares.
Unfortunately, the last part of the lesson was a bit rush as I was running out of time and I was trying to complete my lesson plan. I should have realised that I was going too fast and students were not able to catch the method of solving the problems as it was a new topic for them. Hence, there were some students who have not managed to grasp the concepts and the presentation required for the solution.
Why did it happen?
The reasons for these could be because the instructions given to the students to bring scissors were done through facebook. I should have done it verbally as some students may not have accessed facebook. Reminders on the day before should also have been carried out.
The consolidation part of the lesson could be too rush because I have over-planned my lesson. I should have considered the learning ability of the students and dwell deeper into coaching and guiding them for a few questions first before allowing them to do other questions independently. I should have been more flexible and work around my lesson plan rather than trying to follow it.
So what?
I realised the importance of slowing and pacing my lesson better for these lower ability students. More time is needed for these students to do these questions and more examples should be modelled before assigning questions to the students. The topic needs to be scaffolded even more, especially when it comes to solving questions.
Instructions delineated should be clear and taken seriously by the students. I should have reminded the Maths rep to announce it to the class the day before the maths lesson and write it down on the whiteboard.
Now what?
To ensure that the students are able to grasp the topic, instead of following my next lesson plan that has been pre-prepared, I would need to spend the next two periods going back to the basics by modelling more examples and guiding the students in solving more questions. I would need to show the solutions in a clear and consistent step-by-step manner so that students are able to follow.
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