T2Wk6-Open Book Test

3E2

I am almost shouting out loud 'Hallelujah Praise the Lord!' Except for a few people who continue to NOT pay attention to what I'm saying, most of this class have been quite cooperative. There are a handful who are really serious about wanting to do well and I am heartened.

They continue to be the class I think of most in terms of how to engage them and make learning more meaningful. I know many do not bother to read and study the wonderful notes prepared and printed for them. Yesterday, I decided to administer a surprise test on coordinate geometry. It was an open book test and they could discuss their solutions. I am glad I did this. For one, they were forced to read and go through their notes! It was a great sight to see some of them pouring through the notes, discussing the various formulae that were taught and deciding which they should use. Peer teaching in my humble opinion does serve a good purpose here, those who didn't quite know were helped by those who knew, and those who knew reinforced their learning by helping those who don't.

More than 1/2 the class passed the test, about 6 just failed (9-9.5 out of possible 20 m marks) and the rest failed badly. This last lot are neither slow nor unable, they seem to lack a certain amount of motivation and discipline. My immediate challenge thus is to move this lot up in their level of motivation....Tall task indeed...

Praises go a long way sometimes..:)

Coming back to the classroom after a long absence presented some surprises and shock. But I'm slowly adapting and getting the hang of things again.:)

Since my last post, I have been doing lots of thinking. One of the things I have decided is to stop thinking negatively of any one in any of my classes. No matter how challenging anyone can get, think positive, even the toughest of criminals break down in tears with a little love and concern, what more young teens who are still feeling their way around a world where they are neither kids nor adults...

Being a mom for a number of years has been helpful too in the classroom. The skills I picked up mothering my own kids can be put into use in the classroom. How wonderful! One of the things I'm mindful of doing in the midst of all the disciplining and chastising is to add a dash of praises and compliments here and there. I found that to be very helpful indeed.

2N1/N2

There's a boy in this class who was a little challenging and I wasn't able to engage him much. I found myself giving him a telling off quite many times. For some reason, he was very early one day last week for my lesson. In fact he was the 1st one outside the classroom when I got there. Surprise no.1! I said to him, "Hey you are very early, that's really GOOD! Well done!" He actually paid attention the whole time in class and even voluntarily came up to me to point out a mistake I made on the white board!-Surprise #2!! I am so glad to find him outside the classroom the earliest for every lesson since then!:))

Another boy in this class was very surprised when I asked about his basketball game. I followed up with the games he played for the North Zone competition. From zero eye contact and "bo-chap" attitude, I am getting eye-contact and really neat work from this boy:)

Workwise, most of the students in this class have been attentive hence enabling them to follow my lessons. This can be seen from the assignments handed up and the recent test on graph drawing in which everyone passed. Lets hope they can retain all that have been taught.

We have a few more periods to do some revision for this class. Phew!

T2 Week2

3E2

Only one word to describe this class: ANNOYING!!!!>:(((

Someone needs to teach them some manners, respect... if I go on it will fill the entire page!

I first need to get over my shock...

Next I will need to think about strategies to overcome these challenges....

I refuse to teach without cooperation, I left them to do their own stuffs while I sat down staring at each one in turn. The class turned quiet. A few attempted to check their answers with me. Majority worked on the questions in the worksheet... I left the class without saying anything more. Perhaps tomorrow will be a better day........

T1Wk10 Maiden Post:)

Ok, this page is finally set up in an attempt to share my reflections on teaching of maths. And for the record my favourite colour is purple!:))I've read my colleagues' blogs and Wow! I think this is a great tool to help one another. I think it is also good to do reflections and evaluation so I can improve in the ways I present lessons. Reading the reflections of others help too since everyone's quite generous about sharing tips on how to teach better, explain clearer etc.:)

I've met and taught all my classes except one. This one, 3E2 seems to be the most challenging in terms of behaviour, attitude and omg the noise level! Do I do old school or new school? It's easy to shout and try to outshout them, but it may not work. Lets see how it goes in about 10 minutes.

2N1/2 are a bright lot except for a few. They were able to follow the lesson on ' factorisation by grouping' quite well as could be seen from the work done. There were about 4 of them who were still not able to grasp the concept of 'factorisation by trial & error'. Probably have to take them out separately to teach them.

4N2 is probably the most fun class for me at the moment. They are generally keen to learn and quite motivated, again except for a few. Most could follow the lesson on Standard Deviation well. This is the first time I'm teaching this topic at this level, am trying to help them see the significance of knowing this topic although it would probably be many more years before they can really appreciate this when they are in the university or doing research in the future.