Reflection
Reflection
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Throughout the week, one of the English topics being covered in class was to have the kids be introduced to persuasive writing. On Monday through Wednesday, the kids were working on creating a wand that they would like to sell to Tesco MY on Zoom. They worked out the different features of the wand, drew what their wand looked like, and lastly tried to use persuasive language to get other people to buy their wand. On Thursday, it was time to finalize the week's lesson, so my mentor thought it would be a great idea for students to create a poster. We took a look at different kinds of posters from popular brands and talked about the different features that make a poster great. The students were also given two platforms on where to create their poster: online or by hand. Then, it was time for the students to create their own poster. Suddenly, there were a lot of questions from the students regarding what to do. They asked questions about how to create a poster, what to write in their poster, and even where to draw the poster. Unexpectedly, this continued for more than 15 minutes of the classtime, until my mentor decided that they can draw their posters at home without being on Zoom. So, she let the students leave the Zoom to freely create their posters at house. Each student was expected to complete a poster by the end of the class and then upload their work onto Phoenix.
Throughout the week, one of the English topics being covered in class was to have the kids be introduced to persuasive writing. On Monday through Wednesday, the kids were working on creating a wand that they would like to sell to Tesco MY on Zoom. They worked out the different features of the wand, drew what their wand looked like, and lastly tried to use persuasive language to get other people to buy their wand. On Thursday, it was time to finalize the week's lesson, so my mentor thought it would be a great idea for students to create a poster. We took a look at different kinds of posters from popular brands and talked about the different features that make a poster great. The students were also given two platforms on where to create their poster: online or by hand. Then, it was time for the students to create their own poster. Suddenly, there were a lot of questions from the students regarding what to do. They asked questions about how to create a poster, what to write in their poster, and even where to draw the poster. Unexpectedly, this continued for more than 15 minutes of the classtime, until my mentor decided that they can draw their posters at home without being on Zoom. So, she let the students leave the Zoom to freely create their posters at house. Each student was expected to complete a poster by the end of the class and then upload their work onto Phoenix.
Before the English lesson, I felt very excited for the students. Today, all their hard work from previously would pay off because the lesson objective for the lesson was to create an advertisement poster for their wand. Since many of the kids in Year 3 are very creative people, I figured they would enjoy a creative English lesson, but I was dismayed at the amount of questions the students asked. It felt like they really did not know what to do, and it was shocking to me because my mentor had explained to the students what they needed to for quite a while. I could tell that even the other teachers were exasperated by the kids response. After a while, I began to feel frustrated because at their age group I had thought that they would be able to do this. At the same time I also felt frustrated at my mentor because I felt that we could have avoided this drawn out Q&A.
Before the English lesson, I felt very excited for the students. Today, all their hard work from previously would pay off because the lesson objective for the lesson was to create an advertisement poster for their wand. Since many of the kids in Year 3 are very creative people, I figured they would enjoy a creative English lesson, but I was dismayed at the amount of questions the students asked. It felt like they really did not know what to do, and it was shocking to me because my mentor had explained to the students what they needed to for quite a while. I could tell that even the other teachers were exasperated by the kids response. After a while, I began to feel frustrated because at their age group I had thought that they would be able to do this. At the same time I also felt frustrated at my mentor because I felt that we could have avoided this drawn out Q&A.
Throughout this experience, I learned how difficult teaching online is. As a student, I love online learning. It allows me to sit back and relax, as well as listen to the speaker. It was an easy process to have, but I realized online learning is a whole different challenge if you are the teacher. When you teach in peson, you have so many different teaching strategies to use to figure out what works best for the lesson you teach, but with online learning, especially with students who don't know how to navigate their technological device, there's really only one way to teach students which is explicit teaching. In the long run, especially on Zoom I discovered that this is not the most effective way to teach, and I think this is what contributed to the students not understanding what to do. As I mentioned previously, we've been working on this the entire week and I realize now that although my mentor tried to add a new topic each day, so the kids can build on what they've learned previously, it was still the practice of repeating content over and over. Therefore, when the students did manage to do so, it only gave us an illusion that students understood what they needed to do. It didn't help that the students never submitted their work, so it was difficult to assess whether or not they were understanding what to do (Wormeli, 2014). Due to this reason, students were unable to build connection between the work they did previously to what they needed to do during that main session, thus leading to the whole confusion on what they needed to do. Another
Throughout this experience, I learned how difficult teaching online is. As a student, I love online learning. It allows me to sit back and relax, as well as listen to the speaker. It was an easy process to have, but I realized online learning is a whole different challenge if you are the teacher. When you teach in peson, you have so many different teaching strategies to use to figure out what works best for the lesson you teach, but with online learning, especially with students who don't know how to navigate their technological device, there's really only one way to teach students which is explicit teaching. In the long run, especially on Zoom I discovered that this is not the most effective way to teach, and I think this is what contributed to the students not understanding what to do. As I mentioned previously, we've been working on this the entire week and I realize now that although my mentor tried to add a new topic each day, so the kids can build on what they've learned previously, it was still the practice of repeating content over and over. Therefore, when the students did manage to do so, it only gave us an illusion that students understood what they needed to do. It didn't help that the students never submitted their work, so it was difficult to assess whether or not they were understanding what to do (Wormeli, 2014). Due to this reason, students were unable to build connection between the work they did previously to what they needed to do during that main session, thus leading to the whole confusion on what they needed to do. Another
Although, what was good about the experience is that it really made me respect all the teachers during online learning, and what was bad about the experience is that it really deterred my interest in teaching. I remembered feeling so frustrated at everyone, and it made me question whether or not I could see myself doing this for years on end. What went really well was that my mentor had exercised extreme patience. The students kept asking my mentor the same question regarding what they needed to do in different wording, and some even began to nitpick on the answers my mentor had given and focused on things that were not even relevant. My mentor didn't discourage their questions and instead kept asking if there were any more questions. In doing so, she was able to try to bridge the disconnect the students have based on what they learned previously. In fact, it seemed like her patience was dedicated to building and instilling the prior knowledge in students, and with every question she answered it seemed like she was using it to assess the students' readiness in tackling the lesson objective as well as the missing concepts and skills in the students (Best, 2020). This was evident, when after the lesson ended, my mentor informed me that she was surpised that the students did not know how to create a poster and it was something she will try again when the students are back in school
Although, what was good about the experience is that it really made me respect all the teachers during online learning, and what was bad about the experience is that it really deterred my interest in teaching. I remembered feeling so frustrated at everyone, and it made me question whether or not I could see myself doing this for years on end. What went really well was that my mentor had exercised extreme patience. The students kept asking my mentor the same question regarding what they needed to do in different wording, and some even began to nitpick on the answers my mentor had given and focused on things that were not even relevant. My mentor didn't discourage their questions and instead kept asking if there were any more questions. In doing so, she was able to try to bridge the disconnect the students have based on what they learned previously. In fact, it seemed like her patience was dedicated to building and instilling the prior knowledge in students, and with every question she answered it seemed like she was using it to assess the students' readiness in tackling the lesson objective as well as the missing concepts and skills in the students (Best, 2020). This was evident, when after the lesson ended, my mentor informed me that she was surpised that the students did not know how to create a poster and it was something she will try again when the students are back in school
In retrospect, this was also one of the reasons why it did not go so well. My mentor kept entertaining the students' question, no matter how irrelevant it was, which led to the delay of the class agenda. Usually in the Zoom main session, other teachers are discouraged to take over, as the teacher in charge was responsbile, and we don't really contribute to anything unless the main teacher asks us a question, which, looking back, I realized had contributed to the frustration of the situation. To this day, this was one of my biggest regrets during the practicum. I had a thought that we could break off into our usual breakout rooms and eliminate any fires in a smaller group, so that it won't interrupt those who did understand what they needed to do. I think why it didn't go well is because there were too many students in the Zoom and my mentor tried to cater towards all 30 of the kids and did not seek help from the other three teachers in the Zoom. There were some kids who were still confused, but the rest were ready to go. But since they were waiting for the questions to be asked they didn't really start. Also, since students were asking some questions, it pushed other kids to ask questions building on what was previously asked. Therefore, this really delayed the process. When it comes to managing a class with a large number of students many factors can emerge such as "lack of flexibility, minimum attention to students and limited monitoring of students' learning" (Fortes & Tchantchane, 2001) which was what happend in this situation. As a result, it was very difficult to teach effectively and to produce learning. Whereas in smaller groups you are able to not have any of that and provide a much more fruitful learning experience.
In retrospect, this was also one of the reasons why it did not go so well. My mentor kept entertaining the students' question, no matter how irrelevant it was, which led to the delay of the class agenda. Usually in the Zoom main session, other teachers are discouraged to take over, as the teacher in charge was responsbile, and we don't really contribute to anything unless the main teacher asks us a question, which, looking back, I realized had contributed to the frustration of the situation. To this day, this was one of my biggest regrets during the practicum. I had a thought that we could break off into our usual breakout rooms and eliminate any fires in a smaller group, so that it won't interrupt those who did understand what they needed to do. I think why it didn't go well is because there were too many students in the Zoom and my mentor tried to cater towards all 30 of the kids and did not seek help from the other three teachers in the Zoom. There were some kids who were still confused, but the rest were ready to go. But since they were waiting for the questions to be asked they didn't really start. Also, since students were asking some questions, it pushed other kids to ask questions building on what was previously asked. Therefore, this really delayed the process. When it comes to managing a class with a large number of students many factors can emerge such as "lack of flexibility, minimum attention to students and limited monitoring of students' learning" (Fortes & Tchantchane, 2001) which was what happend in this situation. As a result, it was very difficult to teach effectively and to produce learning. Whereas in smaller groups you are able to not have any of that and provide a much more fruitful learning experience.
What I learned from this experience is that when it comes to online teaching with younger students, having smaller groups of students is much more effective and that when students ask too many questions, you need to step back and try to provide a much simpler explanation. Before my mentor instructed the students to create the poster, I realize now that she had actually given the students too much information. This came from when my mentor informed them that they could also create their posters online. If it were with students in a higher age group, or with those who were more technologically savy, then this task is quite reasonable, but because these students are not familiar with how to navigate the different features online at that moment, it caused quite a lot of confusion. My mentor should have stuck to having the students do things by pen and paper. In the futre, I should definitely develop a little bit more communication skills and practice putting myself out there without worrying about how I would be perceived. If I had to do the same thing again, instead of worrying about disrupting the class, I could have sent my mentor a private message regarding my suggestion to see if that would be okay because I realize that when you're teaching, you sort of have a one track mind and any other solutions are not as visible to you. In my future teaching practice, if I am responsible for an online class I will definitely take into account the size of the classroom as part of my lesson planning. I will also try to assess their technology skills to see if implementing an online assignment is manageable for the students.
What I learned from this experience is that when it comes to online teaching with younger students, having smaller groups of students is much more effective and that when students ask too many questions, you need to step back and try to provide a much simpler explanation. Before my mentor instructed the students to create the poster, I realize now that she had actually given the students too much information. This came from when my mentor informed them that they could also create their posters online. If it were with students in a higher age group, or with those who were more technologically savy, then this task is quite reasonable, but because these students are not familiar with how to navigate the different features online at that moment, it caused quite a lot of confusion. My mentor should have stuck to having the students do things by pen and paper. In the futre, I should definitely develop a little bit more communication skills and practice putting myself out there without worrying about how I would be perceived. If I had to do the same thing again, instead of worrying about disrupting the class, I could have sent my mentor a private message regarding my suggestion to see if that would be okay because I realize that when you're teaching, you sort of have a one track mind and any other solutions are not as visible to you. In my future teaching practice, if I am responsible for an online class I will definitely take into account the size of the classroom as part of my lesson planning. I will also try to assess their technology skills to see if implementing an online assignment is manageable for the students.
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