EPISODE IV: TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE ACTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Topics included in Episode 4:

A. Different Distance Learning Delivery Modalities (DLDM) in the New Normal

1. Face-to-Face

2. Blended Learning

- Face-to-face and Modular Distance Learning

- Face-to-Face and Online Distance Learning

- Face-to-Face and TV/Radio-Based Instruction

3. Distance Learning

- Online Distance Learning (ODL)

- Modular Distance Learning (MDL)

- TV/Radio-Based Instruction (TV/RBI)

4. Home Schooling

- parents/guardians as tutors

- private tutors

- para teachers

- other DepEd’s authorized learning facilitator

B. Fundamental Digital Skills for 21st Century Teachers

1. Record and Audio Clips

2. Create Personal Learning Networks (PLNs), connect, discover new content and grow professionally.

3. Create digital portfolios

4. Create interactive video content

5. Use blogs ad wikis to create participatory spaces for learners

6. Curate, organize, and share digital resources

7. Create infographics and poster

8. Create engaging presentations

9. Create digital quizzes

MY OBSERVATION

Class Observation Report

1. Observe the teaching and learning process the Resource Teacher is employing in the New Normal set-up.

A. The DLDM in the New Normal

a.1. Describe the type of Distance Learning Delivery Modality the Resource Teacher is employing in his/her class.

The type of distance learning that was used was not used and observed since MMSU - Laboratory High School is now having their traditional face-to-face learning where the learning delivery modality of the students and the teacher are both physically present in the classroom, and apparently this implies and during my class observation I observed the various presented opportunities the Resource Teacher is employing in her class - such as active engagement, immediate feedback, and the socio-emotional development of the learners within the learning environment.

a.2. Describe the different opportunities, limitations, and challenges the Resource Teacher has encountered in utilizing the DLDM in his/her class

During the mist of pandemic, distance learning became a far safer than in-person instruction to learners. As a result, learnings were more flexible, and class sessions and lessons were reduced; yet, the teachers always did their best to fill every student's mind with the lesson's suitable learning objectives. The teachers had several obstacles in her class, including the inability to see her students physically and the inability to observe what the students did while she was speaking. Understanding the various learning obstacles among students—regardless of the class or learners you are teaching, a diverse collection of learning abilities will always require your attention. Given the eight learning styles, a teacher must think outside the box in order to satisfy the requirements of each of their students. Different teaching styles fulfill and stimulate students in different ways, and as a teacher, you must put in extra hours and effort to match their demands, which has grown more difficult since DLDM was the sole method employed. However, this is the period of becoming a scientist, in which our teachers build techniques to intervene in the needs and actions of these difficulties, and as a consequence, they are rewarded with empowered and knowledgeable students who thrive as learners.

a.3. Describe the impact of the DLDM in addressing learning goals, enhancing the teaching-learning process, and motivating learners to learn;

Despite the usage of DLDM, learnings are dynamic and engaging due to the resource teacher's ideas and techniques such as PowerPoint presentations, movies, photos, online games and activities, and the like. And she didn't forget to align with the learning objectives and the teaching-learning processes.

a.4. Described other supplementary DLDM the Resource Teacher is using to carry out his/her instruction.

The resource teacher made a well-detailed PowerPoint Presentation that was presented to her students; the pertinent information about the topic was there, on point and easy to comprehend by the students; photos of the different examples of the appetizers and various other classifications of appetizers around the globe; an infographic about the history of appetizers; and the way she noted some important things were also presented so that learners could be able to understand more the concept the teacher was instilling and elucidating on them; with this, it will make the learners more analyzed the lesson.

2. Describe the digital skills present to your Resource Teacher.

A. Fundamental Digital Skills for 21^st Century Teachers

a.1. Did s/he use recordings and other audio clips in her lesson? How did s/he use/present these?

Apparently not, because she only used a PowerPoint presentation during her class discussion with her Grade – 9 HE elective class. However, she used a part of her presentation wherein she presented and flashed pictures of different tools and equipment in preparing appetizers and the students had to name them and explain the uses of each.

a.2. Did s/he create PLNs and use these as platforms in the delivery of instruction?

Unequivocally yes, a face-to-face learning and teaching was conducted, PLNS was not used during the conduct of class discussion.

a.3. Did s/he create digital portfolios to collect learners' performance?

Apparently not, she did not used one.

a.4. Did s/he create interactive video content and use that as one of the instructional materials in class? How dis s/he use/present the video in class?

As what I’ve stated in the first question, apparently not, because our Resource Teacher only used a PowerPoint presentation during her class discussion with her Grade – 9 HE elective class. Since a PowerPoint Presentation was only used during the class, it made the learners engaged, participative, and had a deep connection towards the subject matter that day. They analyzed their learning process well, with an eagerness to do something more and carved more passion for them to participate and improve more.

a.5. Did s/he use blogs and wikis to create participatory space for learners?

No, the learners just raised their hands wherein the resource teacher will choose who will answer her questions, and if there are no learners participate, she just picks who will answer it.

a.6. Did s/he curate, organize and share digital resources? What are these?

Yes, the resource teacher organizes her digital resources from elicit—where students will identify the types of appetizers shown by arranging the jumbled words—to explore—where pictures of different tools and equipment used in preparing appetizers will be flashed on the screen and students will have to name them and tell the uses of each; to elaborate and explain—where there is an information sheet (presented through a slideshow). The students shared their ideas to the class, which they elaborated on more about the concepts of preparing appetizers—showing PowerPoint presentations and participating in other activities.

a.7. Did s/he create infographics and posters to present a particular lesson concept or discuss the topic?

Yes, there was an infographic that was in the presentation where its content was the history of the appetizer, how it began, and what are the different types and origins of other classifications of appetizers in the world.

a.8. Did s/he create engaging presentations of his/her lesson? What are these? How did s/he use/present these in class?

Yes, there were presentations that were presented like she used photos from the internet wherein she presented what an appetizer looks like; the origin of an appetizer; how it began; the different types of appetizers; other classifications of an appetizer; and what are the three fundamental factors to consider in preparing an appetizer; and what are the three important structure parts of a canape appetizer. Additionally, the lesson content was presented via PowerPoint Presentation within the learning classroom.

a.9. Did s/he create digital quizzes or evaluations to assess his/her learners’ progress? What are these?

Absolutely not, since during the class proper, activities such as the elicit, elaborate, and extend parts were presented via PowerPoint Presentation and for the evaluation part – the teacher used a product-oriented and process-oriented activity to be done in the LHS practice house. Wherein the learners will perform mise en place in preparing appetizers and shall prepare `various appetizers. Furthermore, the students’ performance will be evaluated using a rubric. Their products will be evaluated by teachers using a rubric for the finished product.

MY ANALYSIS

Based on your observations, answer the given questions clearly and concisely below.

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages (the diverse learners, teaching-learning process, the teacher himself/herself) of the type of DLDM your Resource teacher is using? Explain your answer.

- As we were in the new normal of learning before, where learning virtual platforms are being utilized, teachers started and became well equipped with the new normal of teaching. Based on my observation in the class of Ms. Shaira, the advantage of the traditional learning modality she utilized in her class is that it made the learners active and productive in participating in the learning process because of the different platforms she used like links, videos, pictures, presentations, and games (in short, still taking advantage of captive media such as the 21st century digital tools to facilitate her teaching and learning process inside the learning environment). However, there are also disadvantages to this because not all learners can participate. Perhaps they have slow internet connectivity or they have limited gadgets to utilize. Despite the fact that she is now back on traditional face-to-face teaching, learning, and instruction, she is still using tremendous tactics in teaching and learning wherein she variously presents bigger opportunities for the instilling of knowledge, skills, and attitudes within her students—such as active engagement, immediate feedback, and the socio-emotional development of the learners within the learning environment or inside of their classroom. Moreover, all in all, she manages to have a blended hybrid type of tactic which has advantages and disadvantages for the diverse learners, teaching-learning process, and the teacher himself/herself equivocally.

2. What are the digital skills present to your Resource Teacher? Which of these skills is worth emulating? Why?

- She is an epitome of a 21st century teacher who is techie and a rabii leader of socio-economic development and beyond in digital skills. She used one media platform in conducting her lesson, but she's so amazing that with a simple click, the presentation shifted into a whole new world of teaching and learning wherein - it was redirected to digital quizzes, video presentations, and lesson presentations. As this happened, teachers had the ability to engage more with their learners because there was excitement about them.

It is worth emulating to be engaged with your students in order for them to not just learn but enjoy it as well in your class. Which implies that the teacher should be a model of a cultured man and, at the same time, an excellent professional. You should be ambitious to use ICT and computer software to support teaching and learning, to penetrate each student based on their abilities and needs, to further develop their skills, in short, to personalize teaching and learning. In addition, it is worth emulating to be an epitome of a 21st century teacher who is techie and a rabii leader of socio-economic development and beyond on digital skills since you are opening locked doors for bigger opportunities—such as active engagement, immediate feedback, and the socio-emotional development of the learners.

3. As a future TLE/TVE/TVL teacher, how can you become a digitally skilled educator? Propose an initial plan you will do to achieve this.

- Our field is more focused on skilled work that must be done physically, so any skills we have must be improved in order to be competent in the field we are assigned to. As a future TLE/TVE/TVL teacher, I must be a digitally skilled educator, but how will I do so if our field is dominated by literal work and practices? The best way, for now, is to create videos of myself and indulge myself in the vast performance of the different competencies, making presentations and collaborating working with others; utilizing different platforms; researching more on how I can improve more with these captive mediums, and many more; the 21st Century Skills. Technology is booming and continuously encroaching on every aspect of an individual's life now, and I know that in the near future, there will be more ways to make it easier, greater, and platforms and mediums to be utilized for more engagements to the teaching and learning process. Because as what they have said, “It takes gut to enter to the digital world. It takes perseverance to finish the same. When you indulge yourself with these captive mediums on these 21^st century days, remember that that there will be days where you would want to quit. It will test your brilliance and patience both at the same time. But do not stray away from the light. Instead, fight and always be guided with the trends.”

MY REFLECTION

Which of the Fundamental Digital Skills for the 21^st Century Teachers would you like to explore more for your work as pre-service teacher next semester? Why?

One of the fundamental digital skills of a 21st century teacher is to create a personal learning network, connect, discover new content, and grow professionally. As a learner and a listener, you are expected to continuously learn various types of lessons as a teacher to equivocally present and instill a well-equipped and on-goal perspective of learning to your learners. And as a matter of fact, I can say that not all the time I created a personal learning network, connected whole-heartedly, discovered more with these vast advantages of 21st century media and various tactics, and grew professionally by just simply doing things, because apparently I experienced this many times: there are times that I have good presentations but I am not a good speaker, nor can I connect and discover the things that I wanted so badly; there are bad presentations that I have, but I became a good speaker, and I discovered new content I tremendously wanted. Nevertheless, as a listener, you must respect the speaker and his or her presentation.

As a practice teacher next semester, I would like to explore more about this skill and to connect, discover new content, and grow professionally without thinking outside the box because it will make my personality, beliefs, culture, and lessons more engaging to the learners so that they are not bored, inattentive, and the like, and as a matter of fact, so that I do not feel guilty every time I begin to share things with them. Engaging presentations emphasize the message, the visual, and the delivery, causing your learners to interact, analyze, and understand your lesson; it is also memorable for the learners if you have a good presentation, but having a personal learning network, connection, passion for discovery skills and curiosity of new contents, and thinking outside the box to grow professionally will motivate you more as a teacher if they can remember an engaging presentation.

To sum up, engaging presentations and creating a personal learning network, connection, discovery of new content, and growth professionally and deeply, with a good speaker, heart, and dedication will make the discussion productive and interactive, and I want to possess those qualities when I am having my pre-service teaching.