MY TEACHING PRACTICE
tara at mag-turo sa Kendari, Indonesia!
I always start my class with a motivating activity that has a connection to the day’s topic. Usually, the motivating activity I provide requires physical movement like going out of the classroom since I have taught in grade 4 most of the time and the grade 4 students are too quiet but get excited when given physical activities and of course, rewards!
After my motivating activity, I make sure to capture their interest by showing pictures and videos and asking about it afterward. Every time I ask my students a question, I make sure to give a reward to the one who answered. Sometimes, to be fair, I give all of my students a reward for participating well in the day’s discussion.
Since I am teaching the students their English subject, I also provide my own short story to enhance their vocabulary and pronunciation. For each topic discussion, I make sure to have a reading session with them.
To also ensure that the students' mind and body is with me in class, I give them short games before and after the discussion, which greatly helped me to know if the students are following the discussion or having a hard time catching up.
For the time management and organization of activities, I make sure to strictly follow the lesson plan I made. When making my lesson plan, I keep in mind the minutes I allot for the activities and discussions I have added to the plan. I also show the students whom to follow in class and why should they follow the teacher by being thorough and strict with my instructions.
The flow of the PowerPoint I have made also serves as a guide for the organization of the activities since I tend to have short-term memory. Having PowerPoint be a guide for my class is a huge help in maintaining a good flow of discussion and activities in class.
For classroom management, before the class starts, I always keep in mind to remind my students why should they listen to the teacher and what will they get for listening and studying in class. It is a good introduction before formally starting the class discussion since it helps the students to be ready for the day’s topic/class.
I also make sure to go around the classroom especially if it is reading time. I go beside the student who’s not reading properly and help him catch up with his classmates. Since there are therapists, there were really not much of behavioral problems encountered. It was just the students having a hard time reading and being too shy to answer.
When those problems happen, I make sure to make my students feel comfortable. I smile at them, I go closer to them, and say that they can whisper their answer or thoughts to me. Because what’s important is we’ll both know if she’s on the right track in class. I do not like forcing my students to speak out loud when she’s already showing that she is too shy to do so. The students in Lazuardi were very easy to give instructions to and very friendly.
Lastly, when my class ends, I always make sure to ask the feedback of my mentors, Ms. Dhiyah and Sir Perdie to know how to further improve when teaching my students.