Week 9

It is the 9th Week and we carried on with micro teaching today.I didn't do mine of course because I did it the previous week but let me tell you my thoughts on my friend's micro teaching.Today in class,Razdi,Rita and Stanley did their micro teaching.

Stanley went first.He taught English and he was really nervous.He was sweating a lot but you cannot blame him since it is his first time.We all start from somewhere and you can see that he really is trying his best.He taught us about adjectives and started by asking us to give examples about adjectives and form sentences with them.I find this a good way to warm up.He continued by showing us various examples of adjectives in a book he bought.There is one constructive criticism that I was to give him and that is that he should really use Powerpoint or the white board to teach his students.I couldn't see what those examples were from the activity book he bought and I wasn't too far from him.In an actual Malaysian classroom,you're going to have 40 students in a classroom and you cannot show them an example with an activity book.He even gave us exercises to do which is a good thing because we need to reinforce our knowledge but the answers were never discussed.We wouldn't know where we went wrong or where we went right.All in all,I think he did put in a lot of effort into his micro teaching and I believe he would one day be a really good teacher with more practice.

Razdi was the next one and he taught my most hated subject,Sejarah.He used a video to start his class and he continued by using his slides to teach us.He was really confident but majority of what he did was reading from the slides and he did not try to relate what he was teaching with what we knew.I think he should try to relate the topics taught with the latest news or anything young people are into these days.I think he did not teach to many things and it was just enough for the students to absorb.He also gave us some exercises but it only had 3 questions which was too little for me and he also did not discuss the answers with us.

Moving on,we had Rita.Rita taught Bahasa Malaysia.She was a really active teacher.She constantly asked us to give examples of what she was teaching and that was good.It keeps the class alive and students active but my she taught way too much.She had 35 slides and I could not absorb everything she was trying to teach.Not many students have very long attention spans and I think her one lesson should be divided into many lessons because there was just too much to learn.I couldn't cope and she too did give exercise but did not discuss.

Mr Wan was sick today.Hence,he only briefly went through the classroom management topic with us.Classroom management is the provisions and procedures necessary to create and maintain an environment in which teaching and learning can occur.This is what my slides said and it is true.I have been in a noisy classroom before and I could not concentrate when the teacher was teaching because the students were making so much noise.It was not a good environment for me to learn.According to my slides here are the guidelines for good classroom management practice:

1.seating patterns which affects peers interaction

This is something very common done even in primary school and it actually helps but sometimes not entirely.I used to sit next to a friend of mine who we discussed everything with even schoolwork but teacher said we talked to much to each other.Hence,she switched our seats.I did talk less to my new seat mate but whenever there was a question I wasn't sure about or did not know how to do my homework.I did not ask my new seat mate for help but it did make the class a little bit more quiet for the other students to concentrate.

2.seating patterns which affects interaction between students and teacher

There a few students who are very talkative in my class,and they were often placed in front so that the teachers will be able to catch them talking.When they were placed in front of the class,their behaviour changed because teachers were able to keep an eye on them.They did their homework,paid attention and spoke less.Sometimes they even participate in class.

3seating arrangement for teacher mobility

This is a good idea so that teachers can keep an eye on all the students to make sure they are doing their work

4.equipment and materials

5.rooms arrangement

Moving on,there are also ways of establishing the psychological environment through voice tone.Mr Wan mentioned this before.He said that we need to speak loudly in order for students to hear what we are saying.None of them are bionic people who have the capability of listening to really soft sounds.This reminds me of the time I was studying in Segi College.The lecturer spoke so softly,we couldn't hear what he was trying to say and there were so many students in class,not everyone could have sat in front.Furthremore,organisation is important.I love Unitar but sometimes the slides given to us and the notes given to us regional centres are all over the place.It isn't concise or concrete and sometimes there were grammatical errors in the notes.Other than that,respect is extremely important.As I have said in my numerous posts,I hated my secondary school.One of the main reason was that I did not get the respect I wanted from my teachers.They saw me as a slow and weak student who did not have much of a future but this gave me the motivation I needed in order to succeed and prove that wrong.The main reason why I have decided to do my practicum in my former school is because I want to prove to my former teachers,how much I have improved and how talented I am in my field which is English and then they will be sorry for ever looking down on me.Every student's achievement is also to be valued in order to create a psychological environment.My Physics teacher,Mr Kent once told me that he did not care if I did not do well in my SPM.How could he say that?As a teacher you are suppose to care for your students.Full inclusion is also needed for good psychological environment which is not what every teacher did.I had a Sejarah teacher who made me feel so excluded in class.She handed out our test scores from the lowest to the highest and she read our marks in front of the whole class.I was at the bottom of the class and she made me feel so inferior by doing what she did.

What exactly is good classroom management then?A good teacher is one who is a good classroom manager.She must have a set of rules maintain discipline and arrange the classroom carefully to minimise disturbances and provide students with a sense of confidence.I have complaint a lot about my secondary school teacher but I want to tell you about teachers I really love who have changed my life and how I saw myself.First of all,my piano teacher.She is an amazing woman that I hope to be like one day.I am a slow student and I do not catch up as fast as other students but my piano teacher told me to never give up and not to compare myself with others.She always told me that I am capable of anything I put my mind to and is extremely patient with me.It has boost my self-esteem and given me the confidence to actually sit for music examinations.Same goes to my vocal teacher who has always encouraged me to sit for exams.She will always tell me whenever I am making improvements and she always believes in my capabilities.Other than that,teachers need to know the names of all the students in class.My add maths teacher did not even know my name.It made me feel as if I was not important.He told us that if we want him to remember us we have to either be extremely smart or extremely terrible.It sounded like he did not care about the average students like me.

In conclusion,I think a teacher needs to organise an academic content and instruction well through having a clear instructional plan,creating an environment to learn at the beginning of the lesson(don't be like my secondary school teachers who have created hell on earth for me) and generate motivation and provide clear introduction.