Staying and Getting Ahead of the PLAN
On the 29th day of January, I woke up early as usual because I am supposed to conduct my observation until the next day. I first attended their flag ceremony together with the other faculty of CRMS6 Junior High School and after the ceremony, I came across to a news that the classes of both M2 and M3 are suspended due to certain circumstances. M3 classes are suspended for the whole week because the students were preparing for the national examination. M2 classes, on the otherhand, conducted class fieldtrip in Chiang Rai Rajabhat University. At first I was surprised but I’m not the only one who’ve been surprised with this, even the International faculty in which I was belong weren’t inform at all. But they mentioned me that this kind of happenings are natural with the school. My mentor told me that we don’t have anything to do for the whole week.
But instead of doing nothing, I started making my lesson plan since my mentor gave me topics to be taught and the classes that I’m going to handle. He gave me the all classes of both M2 and M3 and each levels have 4 classes or sections. The topics that I’m about to teach are as follow; for M2 classes I need to teach them about Chemical Reactions in Daily Life, and for M3 classes, I’m about to teach Galaxy and Solar System. I was completely surprised because I’m about to handle eight classes for the whole week, but then I realized my teaching practicum was very short and I think I couldn’t learned much within the given timeframe, so I accepted it.
First, I looked for reference materials for the given topics. I found some but then I found them not enough. I looked some information in the internet and meticulously selecting the information to be used for the class. Furthermore, I look for other learning materials like video clips and pictures.
After finding the necessary information, I started to construct my lesson plan. I’ve planned to use Inquiry-based method of teaching. I prepared several questions about the topics and somehow I’m afraid that my plan would not be successful since that students are used to lecture discussion. I also prepared a powerpoint presentation for each topic. I’ve work with my lesson plan until the next day. I presented my plan to my mentor and he approved after I explained thoroughly how things will go during my class.
On the 31st day of January, after the flag ceremony, my mentor told me that I’m going to start my teaching practicum because the M2 classes do not have any affairs to attend for the rest of the week. I have class with at 12:40 in the afternoon.
As a summary about my M2.11 class that day, I can say that it is somehow a good class, for they are not noisy compared to the previous classes that I have observed before. I knew that they were aware of my presence and they want to build a good image on me. I started my class with a greeting initiated by the students. I’ve introduced myself as soon as I replied to their greetings and proceeded into asking them about their previous lesson which is about physical and chemical changes. Afterwards, I proceeded into discussing the new topic which was about Chemical Reactions in Daily Life, I start my discussion by asking them examples of chemical reactions that are evidently observed on nature. Few of them have the courage to answer my questions. But most of my questions I gave, I answered for them. I knew on myself that they now the answers somehow, but they had a hard time expressing themselves in English. There are concepts in the lesson that I was required to discussed it thoroughly and it tolls me a great amount of time and as a result I haven’t finish my lesson, nor haven’t gave them assessment.
On the next days, February 1 and 2, I conducted classes with M2.12, M2.9 and M3.11 classes and I’ve implemented the same method of teaching that I’ve used before on both levels and discussed the same content among M2 classes. I’ also used video presentation to further strengthen learning and understanding. Furthermore, compared to my previous class on the other day, M3.11 class were in ruckus and can‘t be controlled. I tried to
lessen the noise by loudening my voice and showing some authority, but then I failed. I also observed that the method that I’m using is quite ineffective since it’s more of asking questions and student’s prior knowledge and Thai students were having a hard time expressing their answer on English. I decided to alter the plan, from inquiry-based method to lecture-discussion.
