Reemsaqer TP’s Weblog

Today, I went to the school and observe one KG 2 class and their learning Arabic and English.  It is important to note that the teacher didn’t use any technology when teaching because of the lack in the resources. 

First, I noticed that Miss Gadha used the repetition strategy when the children learn letters.  They also repeat the words with the same tone used by the teacher.  I think this strategy is very helpful particularly when the vocabulary is very new to the children so that they can easily remember them afterwards.  I obsereved her singing with the students beautiful songs to assist them learning the new letter which was G and I tend to believe that this is a fantastic way as the children enjoy singing and at the same time learning.  I saw her making happy facial expressions when teaching to encourage the students in learning.  It pleased me to see the teacher using flash cards including pictures which I think supported the different learning styles of the visual auditory students.  In terms of controlling the students’ misbehaviour, she changed the places of naughty students and warns them by using special voice tone that they won’t have break time if not sit quietly. This reminded me of Kyriacou (2001, p.89) “A reprimand indicates your disapproval of the misbehavior.”  I hold the belief that using the story telling when teaching is a very useful method with children as they feel more excited.  It saddened me seeing a student who was asleep during the lesson and suddenly his head went off to the chair suddenly when the assistant tried to awake him.  I later on asked the boy what he was doing in the last night and he said that he was sleeping.  Maybe it is the slow pace of the lesson that made him feel bored because the teacher told the students to come one by one and write the new letter in the board which I feel is very effective as the teacher touched students’ hand when writing.

Some flashcards used while delivering the lesson

In the next class, the children had English classes with Miss Nancy.  It made me happy seeing her using colorful flash cards to present the words that use the new letter A because the students would easily remember it in the future.  I paid attention to the fact that she wrote the correct and the wrong way of writing the letter to make the students recognize the differences so that they would avoide the wrong style.  I saw her changing a place of a students as a result of misbehaving and producing a lot of noise which distract other students’ attention to the lesson and I think It was a very practical strategy.  It cheered me that she used meaningful body language to show the students the meaning of the words such as the arms.  It is my belief that praising the students via stickers is an effective way for motivation and managing students’ behaviour and encourage the weak students to do their level best.  In other words “to build on extrinsic motivation include esteem related rewards such as form of recognition for effort and success” according to Kyriacou (2001, p.69).  In addition, she used the privilege to encourage the students complete their work and stop making noise.   For instance she made them played puzzle, jigsow and playdough. I was overjoyed when she counted down to settle the students down again after they had their short play time which make the students rapidly sit in their places.  I observed the layout of the classroom was in U shaped and a group in the middle of the class to support scaffolding and collaboration between the students.  I completely agree with Vygotsky in which the language plays critical role in learning.  To quote Trawik-Smith (2006, p.53) ”Using Language and social interaction to guide children’s thinking.  Indirect guide with hints and questions allow them to think independently.”  Most importantly is that I took part in distributing students’ workbook and helped them in completing the tasks in the books.

                  Students were very happy when playing with each other as a result of finishing off the work quickly

In my opinion, using technologies creates an interactive learning environment but the teacher has the control of making the lesson impressive and clear for the students even if the technologies are bot being used.  Some teachers use the technology but the students don’t benefit from it.  We all know the disadvantages of it especially when the system crashed or the computers are affected with viruses.  While it is true that technology is essential in every class, it is also right that the teacher should be using her skills when it is not provided. 

References:

Kyriacou, C. (2001) Essential Teaching Skills. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes.

Trawick-Smith, J. W. (2006). Early childhood development. USA: Pearson Education Ltd.