Week 10: Presentations again

At the beginning of this week's class, my classmates and I were given the opportunity to share our three week practicum experiences firstly with our team members, and then with our classmates. I must say, this debrief exercise was quite enlightening. I actually had an epiphany after hearing some of my classmates speak about the challenges they encountered during the three week period.

One of my classmates indicated that at the last minute she was challenged to teach a lesson that she was unprepared for on one of the days during this term's practicum. Despite the challenge she encountered at that moment, she indicated that she delivered the lesson successfully. She was able to assess the situation and quickly think of a solution to her problem. As she shared her experience, I actually began to think of the things that I would have done if I was in a similar situation.

As a relatively inexperienced teacher, I must say if I was in her position at that point in time, I would have been panicking and I would have felt so flustered that I would not have taught the lesson. I'm not sure if many people may share similar views but I am one of those individuals who cannot function efficiently if I do not feel as prepared as I should be in certain situations. Especially when it comes to teaching a lesson or doing an oral presentation. The fact that she was able to pool together the appropriate and available resources at the very last minute even though she did not initially planned to teach the lesson, is commendable.

Based on the experience she shared with the entire class, I realized that in the event of any challenge we might encounter during our teaching career, we must have the ability to respond to a particular situation with practical solutions that will work in the classroom using the available resources. She made a smart move by working with the resources she had and drawing from her previous knowledge of the topic. Thankfully she was knowledgeable in the content and this I think was an important factor that aided in the successful delivery of the lesson.

Therefore, with that being said, every chance I get, I must think of ways to refresh my memory in certain content areas where I may be lacking. So in the event that I am challenged to teach a certain topic, I will be prepared because I will have the content knowledge and I will make use of the available resources. I also have to constantly remind myself to keep up with current events to related information to students using real life examples which will also aid in the successful delivery of any lesson.

Another experience that was shared by my other classmate, really got me thinking. She indicated that the class she was assigned to consisted of students who had low literacy rates. Therefore, it was difficult for the students to grasp certain concepts. This for me sounds quite terrifying, knowing that some students may not have the ability to read or understand a concept. However, the ticket out of a situation like that, is using the appropriate strategies and techniques in a lesson that will allow students to understand the content. Her experience made me realize that as prospective teachers we must cater for all types of learners with learning disabilities. Therefore, I have to put in the extra effort to find different strategies and techniques that will appeal to the different types of learners I may meet throughout my career as a teacher.

After sharing our experiences, it was time to present our working models as part of our course assignment. I must say that the presentations from all my classmates were excellent. The working models that they produced were so well constructed. It gave me inspiration to construct the different model's that can be a useful and interactive teaching resources for their students. My team members and I also produced a working model which was selected from the module Caribbean Weather Systems, particularly hurricanes. Although my team members and I put effort into the construction of the model, there was room for improvement.

At the end of the presentations our lecturer instructed us to walk around to each group's model and allocate a mark to the different criterion on the rubric. This exercise made feel like an examiner, critically assessing the working model produced by my classmates in order to allocate a fair and deserving mark. I think it was good practice for my classmates and I to carefully inspect the work produced by each person, since we will soon be doing the same with out students.

After we were finished with that part, we did a quick overview of hurricanes which is one of the Weather Systems that affect the Caribbean region. The brochure that was produced by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and  Management, had sufficient information about hurricanes. The information helped to remind me of the main points that I need to know about hurricanes, and to re-emphasize that hurricanes are a serious threat to the people living in the Caribbean region. I think that brochures are a great way to summarize critical information on any topic. If I were to give an assessment for students, I may instruct them to create a brochure that will summarize the main points of a unit topic.

Overall, at the end of this week's class I was able to learn from my classmates practicum experience, get inspiration on ideas of working models that can be constructed as a teaching resource, practice allocating marks to students work, and refresh my memory about key elements about hurricanes.