How did your students respond to your plenary activity?

I took up a ‘Mini debate’ as a plenary to consolidate students’ analysis of Macbeth’s character, which would have otherwise been a boring topic.

Students responded well and presented strong arguments, which consolidated their learning and helped them critically analyse the character further.

 They were very excited to refute each other’s arguments and prove their analytical prowess. It was quite a pleasure to see the interest generated through a wonderful tool.

Was your lesson more exciting because you used a new starter activity?

Though I was using the starters and plenaries, but it is only after joining the CICT that realized their actual worth.

After a tiring Thursday when we all look forward to rushing home, a few of us look forward to staying back because of the immense excitement, enthusiasm and positive energy  generated during our CICT Training. I never thought training would be so much fun, but thanks to our Professional Development Head Mr.Rohan Roberts, learning has taken a paradigm shift.

The ice breakers, starters and plenaries used during our training charges every single soul attending them. It was then that I realized how much important these tools are in making a lesson more effective and interesting.

I had planned to take up 'Get In the Character' as a starter activity to get the students involved in the lesson, however the plan underwent a slight modification when I saw a student dressed as king and Ms.Nirmal in a dress for the Humanities Fashion Parade. Luckily we could get a soldier as well.

 A little briefing to the characters and a wonderful modified starter was ready with characters coming straight from Elizabethan Era.

Who can doubt the acting skills of Ms.Nirmal...... The king and the soldier acted well too. Later the students were asked to analyse the dialogues and the scene, discuss in their groups and express their views. Higher order critical thinking questions were used to help them generate more ideas.

 The starter was a success.

Questioning Techniques???????

                                  'All great ideas start with a question. What if ?'
 Questioning is a very important tool in the hands of a teacher. All teachers use this tool on and off. Effective questioning yields very different and positive results than simple closed questioning and this was proven true during my last lesson.
 I used a few techniques during my lesson with year 10 students. No hands questioning, Call the expert, phone a friend to be specific. The students enjoyed being the expert and coming up to explain the rest of the class. Phone a friend was also very effective as the students got an opportunity to feel confident enough to answer if they had a doubt.

                                                    How I plan to question differently?

I plan to use these active learning techniques in all my lessons as I can feel the difference both in   the outcome and in the students’ involvement and interest levels.I would choose from the various new questioning strategies mentioned such as bounce questions, phone a friend, think/share/pair and many many more, to ensure that I provide students with higher order questioning and to make them think a step further.

Evaluation and Feedback

      What are the different ways of obtaining feedback from learner?

Feedback is a very effective tool to check if active learning has taken place. It enables the shy learners to voice their thoughts, reassures the teachers about the effectiveness of the activities, creates a bond between the teacher and the learner, gives teachers a tool for reflection and helps the teacher make changes for further improvement. There are various ways of obtaining feedback from the learners:

v  Quizzes

v  Role Plays (students act as teacher and summarize the lesson)

v  Questioning

v  Written and Verbal Assessments

v  Educational Games

v  Formal and Informal Discussions with the learners

v  Indirect feedback from parents/guardians/family

   What are the different ways of evaluating your own teaching practice?

Evaluation forms an important tool to gauge how far one has been successful in imparting what he/she had planned. It also provides opportunities to identify the loopholes and formulate strategies for further improvement.

Teaching process could be evaluated by a number of ways:

Ø  Learners’ feedback

Ø  Self-evaluation

Ø  Peer Observation

Ø  Formal lesson Observations

Ø  Informal Observations

Ø  Observing Body Language

Ø  Plenaries

Why did I choose to be a teacher?

I took up teaching by chance and not by choice. Having nothing to do and no marketing jobs being available for women ten years ago in Saudi Arabia, I was left with few options, so I took the plunge into world of teaching . I thought it would be more constructive rather being a housewife, gossiping with neighbors and meandering was the last thing on Earth that I wanted to do.

Today I am so grateful to God for having helped me make the most appropriate choice of my career.

I had never doubted the fact that teachers work selflessly towards the fulfillment of only one noble aim-i.e the development of their students, shaping the society, the nation as a whole. There was no shadow of doubt that surrounded the fact that teaching is one of the most noblest and selfless professions in the world ever since times immemorial, however due to some earlier paradigms and mental maps I falsely conceived that there is no scope of any growth, development or progress in this profession.

During the last ten years that I have been in this profession, I have seen myself metamorphosised and completely transformed into a professional teacher, developing and growing every single day, during every single lesson preparation and delivering them. It has helped me to shatter the old belief system of perceiving the teacher as someone who would just come, teach and go, rather now I see teachers as counsellors, PR’s, managers, designers, leaders, mentors, contributing to develop better citizens  of the worlds.

The smile of a student struggling to get a concept right, the gratefulness of parents, and the achievements of your students, there is so much to motivate you to give your best…..

Every single day is a new learning experience.

Every single child looks at you with hope, hope that will either make or break his future. A simple smile conveying, “Go Ahead! You are right, You can do it” can change the course of someone’s life, he would transcend to higher success. And I feel proud to be a part of the community which brings about this change.

I am so privileged to be working at Winchester School which has given me innumerable opportunities to hone my skills and given a whole new meaning to the entire teaching learning process.

Today, I am so proud to be a teacher.