WEEK 2

1 April 2015

Today marks the second week of practicum for my classmates and I. The topic that I
chose to teach in class today was on Human Beings Reaction Towards Stimulus. I chose
the topic for I felt that it is a relatively easy topic to understand. I began the class as usual,
and then I continued by asking two students to stand in front of the class. While all the other
students were watching the two students, I asked Student A to pretend as if he was going to
slap Student B. I made sure that everyone watched the situation carefully. After that, I asked
one of the students watching to tell me on what he actually thought about Student Bs
reaction. His answer was as expected that Student B had dodged the pretend slap from
his friend. I continued on with my questions; asking the same student on what he thought
was the reason why Student B reacted that way. He then answered by saying that Student B
had dodged the slap because he was worried that his friend, Student A would hurt him.

After I confirmed that all the students understood what their friend was saying, I then
started explaining on how the experiment carried out on Student A and Student B was an
example of human beings natural response when they are presented with a certain
stimulus. Student As attempt to slap Student B was also a reaction to a stimulus, similar to
Student Bs attempt to evade his slap. Human beings; when given a certain stimuli, would
react using one or two of their senses. For instance, if we accidentally touch a hot object, we
would automatically remove our hand in reflex; to avoid the hot sensation felt on our
fingertips.

The lesson continued on as I elaborated and explained thoroughly on the lesson

content of the day. The students paid full attention to my explanation. At the end of the
lesson, I then gave the students a few questions to test their understanding of the topic.
Unfortunately, to my dismay, only a few of the students managed to answer all the questions
I had given correctly.

I took some time after class to think about and reflect on the situation. I was
disappointed and felt as if I have failed the students. After a meticulous reflection of the
situation, I came to a conclusion that the students lack of understanding on the subject
matter could be because of the non-interactive, unattractive and mundane teaching aids I
had used in the class. I was actually quite exhausted from the previous class and did not
have much time to prepare any interesting teaching aids for the class that comes
immediately after. As a result, I am very much dismayed and disappointed with the students
inability to answer the questions. Their inability to answer the questions proved that I have
unsuccessfully delivered the lesson and failed to achieve the lesson objectives.

Teaching aids are not only crucial for students understanding of a subject content;
they are also important to maintain students focus in class. Not only do attractive and
interactive teaching aids increase students comprehension, they also help students to
remember whatever they have learned in class and retain it for a long time. Most importantly,
teaching aids help teachers to deliver lessons well; simultaneously achieving their lesson
objectives. Without effective teaching aids, students would easily lose interest and lose
focus. I regret how I let myself down by not preparing a proper teaching aid to help my
students understand the topic for the day. I make it a point now to remind myself every now
and then to not ever undermine the importance of a good teaching aid. I will try my best to
ensure that this will not happen again in the future.

WEEK 3
8 April 2015

Alhamdullilah, all praise to the Almighty for I am now already in the third week of
practicum. According to the schools annual planner, it is already the thirteenth school week.
The topic that I would have to teach for the week is on Human Heredity. This week I
decided to do something different with my lessons by changing the venue. Instead of doing
class in the classroom as usual, I shifted the venue to the Computer Lab. As usual, I started
the lesson with my set induction. I displayed on the screen random photos of families. Based
on the photos shown, I then asked the students a few questions that eventually would point
back towards the class lesson objectives. The students seemed so excited and keen to try to
answer the questions.

During the brainstorming session, I explained to students on the topic of Human

Heredity. I conducted a group activity where each group were asked to access the Internet
and to find as many photos that show the similarities between parents and children within a
time limit of ten minutes. After they have finished searching for the photos in the Internet,
they would have to present their findings in front of the class to all of their friends. All of the
student groups overall presentations today showed that they truly understood the topic
content.

After we were done with the presentations, I then asked the students to answer a
quiz generated by each of the computers they are using. Ninety percent of the students were
able to accurately answer all of the questions, while the remaining were only unable to
answer one to two questions out of fifteen questions. During the concluding phase, I
selected a few students to write the conclusion on the main screen. All of the few selected
managed to guess and state the conclusion well, which goes to show that the lesson
objective for the day was successfully achieved. What was more important was that the
students truly understood the days lesson.

I cannot help but feel pleased that the class went as how I had planned it to be. The
slides I made as teaching aids were effective and fully functional for the class. I can now say

for certain that good teaching aids truly help assist lessons, attract students attention and
keep them focused in class. What is truly important is how teaching aids actually help
students understand the lesson and also help them answer questions that would signal their
overall understanding of the topic. Without effective teaching aids, teaching and learning
session in class would become boring and repetitive. Students would also face difficulty in
trying to understand or visualise whatever the teacher is trying to deliver. For instance, the
topic I taught today would be difficult to be digested without visualisations on the concept of
heredity. If I opted not to use photos to explain how parents with curly hair would produce
offspring with similar curly hair, students would have had a hard time imagining it. As a
conclusion, I feel that I am very much satisfied with my overall lesson delivery as well as the
students performance in class today, thanks to the effective use of teaching aids. I believe
that the teaching aids had truly helped the students understand the topic for the day. I feel as
if all my hard work had paid off, and that truly made me feel content.