Pedagogical Contents
Teaching Methods
It can be a great challenge to sustain the attention of young learners as they tend to get easily distracted, but nothing a teacher’s power can’t handle. “Claaass?” just like what my foreign cooperating teacher utters every time the class gets noisy; “Yeeees?” in response to the teacher. The louder the ‘ýeeess’ means the more attention the teacher catches. As simple as it is but a really effective way to let the pupils know that they are kind of getting loud.
As a college student, I might find it boring if my professor repeatedly uses the same energizer every meeting, but not for the primary level students. At least, not for them.
This was an “Oh, I see” moment for me because I observed that they enjoy and look forward to playing “Teacher Says!” and “Hangman” in their Math class every single time. These two are what the teacher plays before or in the middle of the lesson and they’re pretty effective. Not only are the students enjoying it but they are also learning because the concepts to be taught are integrated in these games - hitting two birds with one stone, right?
Amazing! Beautiful! Great job!
Nothing flatters me more than my teachers’ compliment; it’s such a confidence booster.
Well, maintaining a positive energy in a class is one way of making a positive impact on the students. If we can make a way to inspire them, then we can also help them inspire others.
Learning Materials and Innovation
As someone who grew up with the traditional instructional materials in school, I was amazed at how updated their materials are in teaching primary levels. In Grade 1 classes, they already use projectors and scanners. The room is also surrounded by books on shelves, printed materials, and other supplementary things. Teachers provide worksheets for students to practice the skills and they also bring devices, like weighing scales, in teaching topics that need one.
With all the materials and technological devices, teachers can be as creative as they can in delivering their lessons. These resources allow them to explore different teaching strategies that can facilitate deeper and more meaningful learning for the learners. It is clearly manifested that the schools provide whatever they can to make teaching-learning convenient, efficient, and effective.
Sources of Learning and Technology
Teachers in Ban Pong Sanook are provided with printers, paper, and ink supplies. In the classrooms, there are computers that are connected to the internet, microphone and speaker, projector, and scanners. In each classroom, students can access books through their mini library nook, charts, and other printed materials.
The use of technology in teaching and learning really makes a difference as it increases students’ interest in the subject while improving their technology literacy, one of the 21st Century skills.
The role of the teacher should not and cannot be replaced by technology which is why knowing how to use them to the benefit of the students is necessary. I remember our topic about the TPACK Framework which puts emphasis on the integration of technology in the pedagogical and content knowledge. Technology itself won't be as effective compared to the collaboration of the three.
Authentic Assessment
A moment where I really witnessed an authentic assessment used by a math teacher was when she used the traditional weighing scale to evaluate students’ mastery of the weight concepts. To help students understand the concept of estimating, weighing, and reading scales, she allowed the students to personally use the device. It was a great learning experience, especially for young learners.
However, just like in the Philippines, authentic assessment is still not as often implemented as we want it to be because of many valid reasons. It can be inefficient to do authentic assessment for some instances though it is ideally the best type of assessment. Hopefully, in the future, we can implement this assessment regularly without compromising anything for the teachers and students.
Extra Curricular Activities
In Ban Pong Sanook, I noticed that they really invest on extra curricular activities. They put high importance on experiential learning thus activities like field trips and camps are being spearheaded.
1. School Field Trip
- students visited the dinosaur museum where they were able to observe and examine different rock formations, artifacts, replicas of the fossils, etc.
- they were provided a worksheet during the trip, so they weren't only enjoying but also collecting knowledge.
2. Camps
English Camp - students had fun games and activities inside the school.
- they were also taught how to do basic skirting.
- students visited a restaurant where they were taught table manners and dining etiquette.
Science Camp - students had fun science games and activities: experiment shows lead by students, fairs and business expo, and performances.
