The Sweet Spot 2.7.4

I organized the lesson in such a way that the senior eight geography class which had not studied the topic faulting had to use the Internet, gather up the information and teach fellow senior six students on the next day of the week in a way of making presentations on power point on.

Eight students were made to share one computer and they were a total of 62 students. The computers were networked on the Internet by the computer lab technician who was co-operative.

I first explained briefly what faulting was and then I instructed the students to open www.nationalgeogrephic.com or you tube and explore, then make a one and a half  pages notes about the origin of faulting.

It was after the lesson that they were to be joined with the senior six group the next day for the presentations.

Students surprised me when they gave out vivid explanations to their fellow students that I would probably fail to give if it was me doing it.

They even gave out more sites like www.mywonderfulworld.org, in which they explored more links.

The challenges we faced were:

An intermittent Internet connection and the slow computers when it came to video clips.

Noise from the students was too much in the lab.

The time for the lesson was between 7:20 am-9:20 am (EastAfrican standard time)-a tripple lesson but was not enough.

Some students never knew what exactly to do with the computers ( saw no connection between the internet and our lesson.

Students enjoyed the lesson and wished that if it could be always like that. Unfortunately it was my initiative to buy the Internet bundles. So, lessons can become too expensive on my side if I make it the way students wished.

When We Are Trained As Teachers And Started Working In Schools

When we were trained to be teachers	While at school and our advise
Learning takes place at school	Learning can take place anywhere.
The teacher is the ultimate source of knowledge.	Any knowledgeable person can be a teacher.
Writing is a must to the students.	Experiences can be used in learning without necessarily writing down.
Assignments are directed to individual students.	Group work is encouraged both among students and teachers as colleagues.
The assessment program is structured on a time table.	The assessment is a hands-on activity and at any desired time by both the teacher and the learner.
Based on a rigid curriculum and assessment is based on the same subject content.	Every situation is a learning situation and not necessarily based on a rigid subject content.
Learning is structured in either semesters, terms or quarters.	Learning can take place even at home or in field tours and not on structured time table.
The teacher is always right in whatever he says.	The teacher also makes mistakes and some students are more knowledgeable in some fields than their teacher.

Semayobe's Inforgrapic

Teachers should use pictorials in order to condense the voluminous data and information for their learners.

1. In this lesson I found a lot difficulty in finding where to get the most fit pictorials.
2. It was also hard to choose the most appropriate Pictograph site for the lesson.
3. The formation of the pictograph consumed a lot of time when trying to get the most striking pictorials. 

How did you enjoy having to do a more creative kind of task?

1. A creative task made me feel good after constructing it.
2. It forms and promotes originality.
3. As the teacher feels contented, then the learner can learn more with out many explanations

How did you feel at having to tackle something with which you were unfamiliar?
          Tackling some thing unfamiliar is quite challenging-but educative.

If you experienced negative emotions, try to explore those more deeply. What was it that led you to these feelings?

As a matter of fact, negative emotions come in when one forgets to save the work, or sends it to a friend first to check out the accuracy but only to be informed that the URL fails to open.

 How did you feel when you submitted the assignment?

• I felt so relieved.
• Here is the link to my pictograph
•  https://magic.piktochart.com/output/5019087-semayobe-and-the-socratic-way- 

Reflection 2.4.4: Importance Of Experience In My Own Learning And Teaching

Question:

• If you are a traditionalist in your educational practice, and would like to adopt more progressive approaches, what are the hurdles and roadblocks in your way? What can you do to overcome these?

• I studied in Uganda all through in my elementary and High school. By now I am a High school teacher and a CCTI student; I went through a traditional way of learning and teaching even though a blend of methods of teaching was taught to me while at the university which included the progressive way of teaching; but the traditional way was much more discouraged.To my dismay, the same tutors who discouraged the traditional methods of teaching were also using the same method while lecturing to us (their students). 
• The traditional method included;
• Arranging students in rows and columns with their desks/benches 
• Use of the Chalk and talk method
• lecture method
• I stand before them and unfold the topic of study, then I start the dictating of notes while explaining.
• Drawing maps on the chalk board as students copy the same (some times inaccurate)

I have been also using both methods unknowingly.

How I use the progressive method

 Since I am  Geography and History teacher:

•  I group up students and then as a whole class we design a fieldwork topic for investigation together with our study objectives. We decide upon which methods to use in the field.
• Each group is given two (2) objectives of the study which they are to use to collect data-they ask respondents questions in the field as they record down the answers on paper.
• I even allow them to come with cameras for recording videos or still photographs.
• After the field trip we come back to class and each group presents its findings from the field, as I guide them on how to arrange it meaningfully.

How I use the traditional method still

• I usually use this method when teaching History or some topics in Geography.
• I organize up students in a class (desks in raws and columns)
• Students get their note books and write down notes as I read to them. 
• After a given depth of paragraphs written, then I explain to the students as they also rest from the speedy non-stop writing.
• I usually refer them to the library for their further reading about a topic that I unfolded to them already.

The hurdles I find to fully adapt to the progressive method.

• The syllabus is too heavy/big to be covered in a short time of the study term.
• The school is result oriented since it is a private school and therefore mounts a lot of pressure on me to complete the syllabus earlier
• There is a multiplicity of students with varying experiences and capabilities; some only wait for a command from the teacher and operate only on command.
• The nature of our examinations is structured to test how best a student can recall facts and be able to write it on paper.
• Technology resources are not enough.Even the newly published text books are not enough.

What I can do to solve the problem

• Grouping up students according to test score in my class
• Use of analogies when giving explanations far a covered topic or a topic to be covered.
• Giving them topics to read about together with the titles of  textbooks which wrote about a given topic from the school library.
• Give regular assignments which I can check on from their note books.
• Use of a projector to cast simulated videos gathered from various site like National Geographic Channels.

Note: In the mean time I blend both to my learners and History teaching mainly makes me go for the traditional method

Feelings About Teaching

At this stage, I feel teaching in the classroom is becoming easier. Because my role as a teacher is centered on identifying information sources which are in with my teaching syllabus, unfold it to my students and the give them freedom to explore it in a group at free will, then later I guide them.

I have tried the various approaches to teaching and learning inclusive the constructivism approach even before this course but precisely I never knew exactly what I was doing and it was done on a try and error basis. How ever after this exposure to the theory is self and the healthy debate with my ccti course-mates, I have discovered many advantages of the constructivism theory which I feel any teacher should adapt to:

First, it makes learners discover answers to problems by themselves which makes them actively involved in the learning process and not just going in for rote learning.

Secondly students are always challenged to think of new ways of solving problems by reading a head of the teacher and to discover their capabilities by themselves. this speeds up the learning process.

In the debate, one of our colleagues mentioned it that it is likely to breed job creators than job seekers because the hands on solutions to the problems at school does not differ much from the field challenges in the job market.

The Constructivism approach creates permanent to an individual because it is that student who finds solutions to the challenges at hand.

Moreover students can like their studies more if they choose what to learn about , compared to when they do study because they are commanded to go to school and study by their parents, and also their teachers begin the rote teaching.

On the other hand, a blend of both the Victorian way of teaching and a Constructivism approach are both needed in the Ugandan curriculum because it is quite difficult to change instantly a system of teaching and learning which is deep seated in the education system of Uganda where a student has to be assessed basing on the correct answers given to a structured question on paper which is in line with the pre-set curriculum.'the Bureaucratic Automatic Machinery'.

Also, It is difficult to cater for some learners who are intra-personal since learners have to work in a group and collectively find a solution to a given task.

 

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