Reemsaqer TP’s Weblog

When I arrived to the school I went to Mr. Muneer and he told me that I have an ICT class for grade four.  Then I attended Economics lesson for the first time in my life for grade 11 followed by two English lessons for grade 5 and 10. 

An Awesome website

Today I learnt more effective features of the website www.learning.com which enhance students’ learning which has a variety of activities about various lesson such as MS Word, technological symbols and Inspiration.  I was impressive when I noticed that some students had the ability of typing letters and numbers very fast without looking at the keyboard.  In addition, some of them were learning how to use shift-key letters via this website.  When I talked to one of the students, it delighted me knowing that she used the MSN to chat with her friends about studies which I believe is an important tool for sharing information and ideas.  Another advantage of this website is that it provides the results with real certificates and doesn’t move forward if the students didn’t complete the given activity which I think is important to ensure learners’ fully understanding. It also has an exit button that can eaisly be found and used.  I was overjoyed when I heared the sound effects when practicing typing that support music-smart students.  In my view, this web-based activities are fantastic which help the learners to play and learn at the same time.  It saddened me when Miss Rasha told me that there was a technical problem with one of the students which made one student do the activities again and again and made me realise one disadvantage of using technology.   I was amazed when I saw one student doing the Excel part which means she exceeded other students in term of mastering the tasks.   In short, I really remembered the Constructivist theory of Jonnason in which the computers is a mindtools which are ”Computer based tools and learning environment that have been developed to function as intellectual partners for learners to engage and facilitate critical thinking and higher order thinking skills.”  as Jonassen stated (2000, p. 9).  

Some screen shots from www.learning.com website (It is required to register from the company itself)  

An Economical experience

I attended Economics class with Miss Andrea and was delighted to see her eliciting information for the students and that she didn’t have to worry about controlling the class.  It surprised me that there were only four students in this class unlike our government classes where we have more that 25 students.  It came to my attention that she had a friendly relationship with the students and used her sense of humor when delivering the lesson which is necessary to make the learners have some fun than just being serious all the time.  I hold the belief in which relating to real world economical situations is important for the students to learn and remember the information afterwards.  For instance, she pointed out the importance of knowing who is the target audience (Is it profitable if we make handbags for men?) was what she said.   She encouraged them to think critically when answering text book and exam questions.  I was happy to know that the teacher comforted the students about their mid term exams and gave clear instructions.  I suggested if she used the over head projector (OHP) to explain the lesson with charts would be more effective and save time.

The students’ temporary class

English Classes experience

Moving to the English classes, it disappointed me to see that the layout of the room was horrible because the teacher had difficulty moving around the class as a result of the small size of the class.  However, Miss Taiba declared that it has one advantage in which she can spot the misbehaviour easily and quickly.  I was happy when she asked the students questions to re-engage them without interrupting the lesson.  I was amazed by her high voice tone which made her ensure that all the students listen to her explanation.  It came to my attention that she realized when the students are paying attention or not just from their facial expressions.  I was disturbed when the teacher kept writing the true/falso questions on the board which wasted time and created some noise.  As I see she better prepare the questions on a transparency and display them using the OHP.  Also, I think she would better use a puzzle activity in matching when revising the vocabulary or if possible use the smart board to present a saved Word documents with the matching activity via using the smart board.  On the other hand, I paid attention to the importance of giving reasons in true/falso questions to ensure that all the students fully understood.

Finally, I cheered me when Miss Ifteckar used the search engine, Google, to search for online poem of Shakespeare.   It made me realize that one disadvantage of technology is the too much time waiting for the pages to download.   In my opinion, it was helpful making the students listen to lovely poems which was “Shall i compare Thee to a summers’ day?”.  She pointed out how translators should be working honestly after understanding and feeling deeply before translating.  However, It would be effective if she let the students read the poem rather than reading for them.  I was proud of myself when I told the teacher to press F11 in order to make the screen larger. 

In the end of the day, I went with Miss Andrea to the photocopying room and I believe it is valuable job in a teachers’ life.  I am really looking forward my lessons and preparing materials for grade two Maths. 

Reference

Jonassen, D. (2000).  Computers as Mindtools for  Schools. Prentice Hall: London.