How did rotation lessons rotate me

My practice at school is coming to its end. And, as a result of it, I had rotation lessons this week. It was intended to check what you had learned in span of several months at school. Rotation lesson is a lesson that you organize in another grades you never taught before. First, when I was about to have rotation lessons, I thought what it could give me. However, I couldn’t think so much about it.

I liked the result, though my lessons were not perfect. I understood that there were even many things to learn. As my supervisor said “Experience comes by years.” At first, I had my first rotation lesson with the eighth grade. Everything is different when you teach different-from-your-students students. Each class has own stars, little “hooligans” and really want-to-learn students. But if you teach the class for the first time, you will spend the whole lesson to find out who is who. That’s why it is difficult to keep a strong discipline among them. At least, for me. Why am I writing about discipline? For it was a thing I failed to control during the lesson. The teacher of the eighth grade suggested me to pay attention to that fact. According to her words, I gave a leeway to the students and that’s why some of them were relaxed too much and didn’t treat the lesson seriously. It is true, sometimes I could notice it myself. All is about the discipline, except it I liked my lesson. I should admit, it was a good experience for me.

Secondly, I taught the fourth grade. Again, different ages, different students and, consequently, different attitude to the lesson organization. It is a pleasure and difficult to work with primary classes. The first reason is they are small and need a lower flow of teaching with detailed explanations. A bit difficult. The second reason – they are lovely and it is a pleasure to work with them. While teaching different age groups, it is necessary to change your language accordingly. It means thinking and speaking their English language. There is no need to use your English for the ninth grade for primary classes. Sometimes, it is difficult to switch from your adult English to a simple one, but it is necessary.

As I have concluded for myself, everything comes with mistakes. We learn better, when we see our mistakes and not repeat them on and on.

One more thing I want to share with you is resemblance between an intern and supervisor. The people, who have observed me lessons and know my supervisor’s lessons, say that my teaching style resembles my supervisor’s. On my part, I want to say that I just teach the students the way I  and they like. As a matter of fact, all students like my teacher’s style of teaching. For our schools it is not the newest, but new ways of teaching.

However, it is better to create your own teaching style. Everyone is individual, and everything he/she does should be unique. As one English proverb says, “Experience keeps no school, it teaches her pupils individually.” That’s why people of the SAME profession are DIFFERENT.

 

Like the way they did

Today,as usual, I spent my first part of the day at school. I am getting to like this school more and more. As I have said before my teacher is so great and modern. She is open to people’s opinions, suggestions and comments. And she can listen to the students, she always pays attention to their voices. Today, I was surprised by what my future students and my teacher had done for me. I came to the first lesson with the idea of learning more new things from my supervisor. But, it turned out to be that we had other things to do at school today. So, I missed the first lesson. Actually, it was a pair of English. And participated in the second one. The teacher was about to check their hometask. I wondered why they didn’t do it on the first lesson. Usually, we, first, check the given hometask and only then move with forward according to the lesson plan. Actually, the students wanted ME to be there and listen to them. So, the teacher suggested to do it on the second lesson. I was pretty surprised. All of the students were divided into several groups, and each presented the poster they had prepared for the lesson. The posters were about different celebrities: Mike Kenji, Robert Downey, Eminem, Emma Watson, Will Smith, etc. They hang their posters all over the classroom and told about their star to everyone who moved to listen to them. I was also enrolled into their presentation asking several questions. The students were active, and I hope they liked to speak English with me, because the rest part of the lesson we were speaking English only.

They told me that on Monday, when I came to their class for the first time, they were guessing who I was. The teacher forgot to get me introduced.  In a word, I like my PDP classes and I like students and teachers at school.

 

Inspired and motivated. Freedom writers(I)

We watched Freedom writers today. Earlier I heard a lot about the film, but I didn’t try to watch it for myself. Say, I was little motivated to watch it. It was a pleasure to watch it in the classroom. I cried, though I hate people to see me with tears in my eyes. The film is touching. Since we are teachers, and since we are enrolled into PDP classes, the films, we watch, relate to school, teaching and student-teacher relationships. Freedom writers is about a motivation for change. A young and unexperienced teacher (Erin) comes to school to make a difference in the lives of the students. The students, who are exposed to danger and harm. The students, who are forced to fight each day for survival. Under the risk of being killed, they seem to graduate each day of their life. First, looking at these children, you think “Can they really change for better?” and ask yourself ” Could I make that change in their lives?” Erin is a teacher, I am also a teacher. The question is really difficult to answer at once. Especially, for us, who strongly follows the rules. My fellow-student got angry by watching those students attitude to the teacher. Each time they conducted themselves in a rude way, she exclaimed with reproach to their behaviour. She is sensitive and rather experienced in teaching and working with children. While watching the film, she, sometimes, saw the reflection of our Kazakhstani schools. She even resembled one character, an old teacher, with someone from school, where she works right now. I was sitting near her and noticed the notes she made for herself. She commented on the effectiveness of the methods Erin used. And she was open to try it in her classroom.

Erin made an effort to meet the challenge. And she succeeded. Though the success took much from her own life away. She lost her husband, love and support. She devoted herself to motivation for change.

However, it is clear that the film-makers wanted to present a teacher real in nature. Through the fictional character of Erin they tried to motivate teachers to meet every challenges they face. Personally, Erin had a lot of difficulties with those children, and she coped with all of them. That is a matter of fiction influence. It is rather doubtful in real life. Firstly, How can a young teacher with no teaching background deal such kind of serious problems? Secondly, How can a newcomer understand what is going on at school in a few days? And finally, How can she solve problems with no instructions and support, alone? According to the film, the answers are too easy to consider them veracious.

Do we have such teachers in our century?!

No! That’s why the film is not based on A SINGLE REAL STORY. It is a combination of various real stories in ONE FILM.

Yes! We have such teachers in our century. And the improvement and integration in education is a result of a huge work done by teachers.

Totally, I appreciate the film. I think it helped many teachers to conclude “My teaching problems are nothing compared with the difficulties Erin faced in her school experience.”

 

Ted.com and gapminder

Today the weather is much better, though yesterday it was stormy and frosty. A strong wind was blowing all the night as if he wanted to show the guests came for Summit how severe and astringent it can be. However, it seems to be only the beginning of asperity of capital city climate!)))Sitting in the library and looking at the window one cannot imagine -11 degree frost with the sun shining in the sky.

 As I have noticed most of my time at the university is spent in the library. If I am not in the library, I am in the cafeteria OR I am in our PDP classes (However, sometimes if I am at PDP classes I am in the library as well))). In addition, yesterday I planned to work in the library, unfortunately, it was closed earlier and a special guest visited me and was with me the whole evening. Boredom!(( I don’t like the state of abeyance. For a person used to do several things at a time it is…(I have no words)

By the way, I watched Ken Robinson’s speech on Ted.com and really got interested in the way he was stating the facts. Mainly Ken spoke about the education, he presented an arresting speech on the theme which seem to be dull at the  first sight. His manner of speech and informality is really absorbing, he can dwell on the problems and switch to the facts from the life to buttress the idea he is moving forward. He says schools kill creativity. At first, you wonder and try to think for yourself whether it is so or not. Immediately, I remembered Laura, my fellow student from NIS. She is leading research on the development of student’s imagination. If Laura, an experienced teacher, has chosen this theme, it is really problematic at school. But, killing their imagination, their creativity? NO! Not killing, rather ignoring! All the things Ken tells is true. Yes, there is a hierarchy in education, there is a demand for Bachelor, if you have no, for Master – if you have Bachelor and for Ph.D. – if you have Master. I can say nothing against. It is what we are talking every day! Lifelong education, that starts from childhood. Every child has a cornucopia of abilities, their fantasy does not know borders, they can sometimes say something to stumble even an adult. In his speech Ken mentions a story, rather interesting, about a girl, who liked drawing. During her usual classes she was drawing a picture, and when a teacher asked what was drawing. She responded “God”. To teacher’s remark that nobody knows how God looks like she says: “They will in a minute”. Pretend you are that teacher, what will you say further? I will nothing! What can I?

Creativity is a step to novelty. That’s why it is necessary to be developed. A teacher should not daunt a child for his wrong answer. Otherwise, he will be afraid the next time, frightened of giving a wrong answer. The answers they give may not answer your question, but it shows their flow of creativity. “The children should be developed into creativity, not out of it” Ken states. Moreover, we should not be afraid of mistakes. Mistakes help us to do the same better, to improve. “A great mistake is not to correct your previous mistakes.” (I do not remember the author). All in all, I liked the speech and I am eager to read the book Ken is working right now. “Epiphany”! People know everything about their idols, but not about themselves. Epiphany is a difficulty I faced while writing essays for a definite program. If you are not attentive to yourself, you will hardly realize what it is. I hope, Ted.com will show Ken’s speech on this book in future!

If you search in the internet you can find many useful things(useless as well)))). You are not making research, but you can see how other people succeed in it. For instance, let’s take Hans Rosling’s presentation on the statistics. With the help of gapminder he demonstrates the changes occurring in sphere of health and money all over the world. It is interesting to watch statistics moving fro and back. The presentation is so detailed that it involves global data of the countries. You can see the path of development of a continent and of a country taken separately. It is difficult to deal with large numbers, but it is easy to watch them. You needn’t read copious statistics done when you can watch them.

I want to draw your attention on statistical data of Kazakhstan with the help of gapminder. As an educator, I searched the data about  literacy. Youth literacy rate in our republic is 100% of all people from 15-24 who can, with understanding, read and write a short, simple statement on everyday life. However, only 42% of the same aged youth are employed. Another interesting data is average age of the first marriage of women is 24 in Kazakhstan, while in Bangladesh is 19, in Sweden it is 32. How huge the difference is!  Unfortunately, statistics sometimes makes you happy, sometimes disappoint you. Comparing the data on HIV affected among 15-49 year old adults I noticed that the highest percentage is still in South Africa(18%), the lowest is in Philippines, Japan and Bangladesh. Kazakhstan with 0.08% is somewhere in the middle. Working with gapminder you can state an endless amount of statistics. Gapminder is useful, if you travel somewhere and what to know the life conditions of a definite country. For more information visit www.gapminder.org/world