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Functional Skill Class Activities 16/01/2018

I had always had problems teaching the functional group maths class. The students in that class did not like to listen to me speaking and teaching maths. They would engage in whispering, play with their mobile phones and two male students isolated themselves from the rest of the class. However, through their behaviour, I found I could make them learn by introducing the active learning method. Professional standard 4 challenges me to find better ways of helping my students to learn, and so I used this to create an active learning activity that would help motivate my students. The class was on measurements and conversions, so I got some measuring materials, which included tapes, a pen, a scale, a ruler, a bottle of water and a measuring jug.

Before the lesson began, I decided to play some music for them to help calm them as they entered the class. Cosgriff said “Academic Music brings music into the classroom and gets children to learn math in a different ways that’s symbolic and not dependent on language" (T.B.S.M, 2012). This was very effective as I found that the students were more ready to learn when music was playing. I was having trouble connecting my phone to the computer system to play the music and by showing my students that I was also human and could learn from them as well and as part of professional standard 6, it brought me down to their level and they could relate to me more. I learnt from ( Sabornie 2010) that in order to maintain good behaviour of the class, I should always treat learners as able, valuable and responsible individuals.

When it came to measuring their height, none of the students wanted to volunteer. Once again, I got down to their level by measuring my height first and this encouraged all the students to start measuring their own heights. One of the things I have discovered through my teaching is that when a student relates to you, they are more willing to be taught by you.

As part of professional standard 16, I should encourage the use of English in my class, so I gave each student a paper, where they wrote their names and heights in centimetre and converted it into inches, feet, millimetres, and metres. Every student participated in their groups, including the two students who always isolated themselves from the rest of the class.

As part of professional standard 10, I have to evaluate my practice and then assess the impact it has on the students. I found that using this active learning strategy proved to be very effective in getting the students to work together in a group and engage in the class. I hope to continue to employ this strategy in future lessons to continue to keep my students engaged and motivated to learn maths. As evidence of how they improved their engagement, I have added a picture of a table made by the information from students and also pictures of the notes the students wrote their heights on in different measurement units.

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All the students asked me to measure their heights and after I measured all of them, I made the table and asked them to spell their names, as a part of professional standard 6 and convert their heights to different formats of measurement (meter to centimetres, millimetres, inches and feet).

Exam Review – Functional Skill Class(morning)

My mentor and I were reviewing the last functional skills mock exam, where we found that the students had weaknesses in solving the range, mean, median and mode. I realised that this gave me the opportunity to use the growth mindset method, as I felt that my students' fixed mindsets prevented them from doing as well on questions they felt were too challenging for them. A growth mindset is when people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work, with brains and talent just being the starting point (Dweck, 2015). My mentor and I came up with a strategy to help the students improve in this area. We decided to create four mock exams, where we would work with them to teach them the quickest and easiest way to find the answers to these. We decided on this method of teaching because the students would be the most comfortable with it and they would learn much better in this way (PS 6 - knowing your learners and what works for them). We also decided to bring past exam questions to the class and to give each student a paper to work on. We would then ask each of the students to explain how they got the results and the methods they used to get the result. However, if nobody in the class knew the answer, I would have to work with the students to get the answers. Focusing on a more method based as opposed to result based outlook to getting a solution is part of what helps students to develop a growth mindset (Dweck, 2015), and really tests their understanding of the subject.

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ADULT GCSE CLASS

Two weeks ago, I had to cover the first hour of the adult GCSE class because the lady who teaches usually comes from another lesson so she was late. I decided to do the lesson because I have been working with the adults for over a month and I felt like I knew them and had built a good relationship with them. They are very hard workers and have a very good level of maths. Some of them are stronger than others, which I noticed due to some of them answering questions much quicker than others. I made extra questions for these students to help stretch and challenge them. This method of teaching I applied shows equality, diversity and inclusion in my class (PS5). I was only able to do this because I was aware of their levels and could cater to them as individuals.

The tutor who teaches the adult GCSE class told me that after I had taught them, I had to do a face reading. That is, I had to look at the students’ faces and try to understand their reflections. This is something that comes with experience. Some students show they fully understand the subject, others look confused and some look really busy, trying to solve the questions. Using this, I can judge those students that I should give extension work to and those that I need to help and explain the questions to. With those that are still working, I can give them more time to solve the questions (PS14). According to Louise (2014, as cited in H.S.T., 2017), as a teacher, you should be “Paying attention to the needs of students from diverse groups within your course design…” and this is what I implement in my lessons.

I gave them some questions chosen from the previous exam papers, and asked them to work out the answers. I had a really good result because most of them could answer higher-level questions and solve the problems. When I discussed this with the class teacher after the lesson (PS10), she was happy and wrote down all the subjects that the students needed to know for the exam. We asked the students to tell us from the list of the subjects which parts they did not know and needed to practice more. They mentioned a few of the subjects (PS17). As a part of the student centred learning, learners can choose what they want to learn, while as teachers, we have to supervise and assist them (ISTE, 2018).

I started to work with the students one-on-one and explained the subjects to them. Working one-on-one with the students has given me the chance to build more of a relationship with them and to find out their weaknesses (PS1). In future, I will plan my lessons in a way that will support the weak areas of the students (PS4). After the lesson, I told them that if they still struggled with the subject, they could come to me and ask for additional help. I also asked them to give me feedback. Black (2000) explains that receiving feedback from students can help a teacher to improve their teaching. The students’ feedback showed that most of them were happy with my teaching. However, some mentioned that I should give them more time because they did not have enough time to go to other questions. A classroom should promote listening to learners rather than being authoritative (LSDA, 2008) and I promote this by discussing students' learning with them.

I believe with the adults, because they are more mature, it is easier to challenge their behaviour because they have an aim to be in the class and they want to reach their aims. Despite some of the students being over the age of twenty, I still have to challenge and manage their behaviour because they disturb other students in the class by not putting their phones on silent. Younger students have been noted to show more disruptive behaviour in the class (LSDA, 2008). I asked them to put their phones away and not talk in the class. I also asked them to listen when I was teaching and also not to interrupt other students’ questions. Gov (2016) permits me as a teacher to apply “a verbal reprimand” as a means of behaviour management in the classroom and this is what I use when I notice students that are not following the rules.

References

Black, B. (2000). Improving Your Teaching. GSI Guidebook (7th ed.). Centre for Research on Learning and Teaching: University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Gov(2016). Behaviour and Discipline in Schools: Advice for Head Teachers and School Staff. Available at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/488034/Behaviour_and_Discipline_in_Schools_-_A_guide_for_headteachers_and_School_Staff.pdf

High Speed Training (2017). How to Promote Equality & Diversity in the Classroom. Available at https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/classroom-equality-diversity/

International Society for Technology in Education (2018). Student-Centred Learning. Available at https://www.iste.org/standards/essential-conditions/student-centered-learning

LSDA (2008). Behaviour management: available at www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files/BehMgt_LSDA.pdf

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Introduction

To become a good teacher, it is very essential to use a good teaching practice. In order to become successful, teachers strive to meet the principles of good practice so that they can provide the best learning experience for their students. This teaching practice incorporates the values and principles that make a good teacher. A good teaching practice also influences the students’ learning (Cuban, 2016). When the teacher is properly trained, he/she can use those principles of learning effectively in the classroom and, as a result of this, the students are able to learn more effectively. A good teaching practice includes encouraging interaction with the learners, i.e. the students, encouraging good communication between the teachers and the learners, emphasizing time on task, providing proper opportunities to the students for active participation in the classroom activities, appropriate and timely response and feedback, motivating learning by communication expectations, and respecting diverse talents and ways of learning (Arends, 2014). A good teaching practice ensures high quality teaching by the teachers and successful learning by the students. An individual with a good teaching practice attains all the skills that are required in order to become a good teacher. It trains them properly before they are placed to take over classes. A good teaching practice enables the teacher to understand the students better and identify their needs so that they can teach them better ways of understanding the topics. Thus, a good teaching practice is essential for the teachers to become better teachers and for the students to progress well in their learning process (Muijs and Reynolds, 2017).

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Hi All

My name is Akram Amirhosseini and I am a student at Bcu studying a PGCE PCET, specialising in Maths and Numeracy.

I started this teaching course as it will help me to achieve my aim to be able to deliver my knowledge and experience to my learners.

This course started in September 2017 and it includes different subjects regarding rules and regulations and methods .

Every day we learned about different things, all of which is new to me and this encourages me to work hard and get the most out of the class time.

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PGCE PCT class 2017 Birmingham city university