Flashcard Making and Reflection

Have you played the video above? if you haven't, please do so!

It is yours truly, me making a flashcard for my demo.

In the video, I made flashcards for the formulas in my physics demo. I made it to make it easier for my students to memorize. The only thing that I wished to improve is the font size. I wished I had made it bigger since it is a bit small. But maybe next time, I will improve my font size. Anyway, how much do you know on flashcards?

What is a flashcard? You can google it yourself, but to save you time, here is its meaning: 

Flashcards are small note cards used for testing and improving memory through practiced information retrieval. Flashcards are typically two-sided, with the prompt on one side and the information about the prompt on the other. This may include names, vocabulary, concepts, or procedures.

There you go! That is the meaning of a flashcard. Well, now I will share to you my experience in making it. First of all, I have to prepare my lesson plan and then I have to buy materials for it. After buying materials, I can finally start my quest in making nice flashcards. 

Here are the things to consider in making one:

1. Must be relevant

2. Must be clear and concise

3. Must me clean and must have a right color combination

I think those are  the top 3 things we should consider when we make a flashcard.

It was fun to make flashcards though it's time consuming. We just need to have ample time and make sure to properly housekeep the flashcards so that we won't add waste to the world. And so that in our next lesson, we can still use it and we can save time since we already prepared it. 

Teacher Van's Thought on Digital Instructional Materials

During my elementary days, digital instructional material was very expensive. That's why I cannot remember how we learned my lesson without youtube.  

How wonderful it is that today, almost all parts of the world have access to technology which helps elevate our educational system. The digital instructional materials help the teacher in explaining more clearly to his/her students. I am glad that technology is progressing and becoming a tool for learning.

I am very grateful that we have reached this period of history where the teachers have options to use technology in their lessons. What a dream come true for our planet. It has always been a dream of the educators before us to have made the lesson more interesting and finally in our time, it was very easy to use technology. As a future educator, I would like to take the opportunity to maximise the technology in my lessons. I would like to use it as a tool to make my class discussion fun and interactive. 

For sure, digital instructional material will be my partner in delivering my lesson well. As of now, I have 3 favourite digital development tool that might help the educators in preparing its digital instructional materials. Here it is:

Recently, I really adore the website named “CANVA” because it helps me achieve the style of my taste in preparing presentations for my lesson. Another one is, “YOUTUBE” which never goes out of style since it has so many educational videos and so much useful information. Lastly, google workplace whic includes classroom, site, drive, meet, docs and many more. I love it, it helps connect educators and learners in a new way. What a miracle!

What a dream, a dream come true! Thankful that all of this was developed through the years and aid us educators and learners in our road to better learning, better education, better community and a better world. 

Reflection on Lesson Plan

 What is a lesson plan? A lesson plan serves as a teacher's armour in her battle field: the classroom. When the teacher enters the classroom, he/she must be fully equipped with the right amount of Preparedness and Presence of Mind.

 

Recently, I have made 3 lesson plans in my life and so far it was not easy. It takes time. I have to master the topic in order to relay a good lesson to my students. As I prepared my lesson plan. I have researched good books and internet sources to make my lesson easier.

 

Upon making the lesson plan, I made this guide questions for myself:

1) How can I simplify the lesson?

2) What are the right instructional digital/non-digital materials for my lesson?

3) What is my goal?

4) If I were a student, how do I want my teacher to deliver the lesson?

5) How can I make the whole class participate?

These are the guide questions I set-up myself whenever I make the lesson plan.

 

In the end, I realise that there is no perfect lesson plan, only perfect intentions. In making the lesson plan, I always make it to the point that the lesson will shape my students mind and will help them become a better person and so as a teacher, my role is to help them reach their full potential and to provide a good venue for learning.

 

Lesson plan preparation is my way to show my dedication towards my calling which is to guide my minds of the young. May I improve my skill in preparing my lesson plan someday. 

Reflection on Non-Digital Instructional Materials

I have mentioned in my previous post on lesson planning (click here if you have not read it)

that in order to make a good lesson, specifically a non-boring lesson, we need to have instructional materials and the following instructional materials should support us in delivering our lesson objectives. 

What are these non-digital instructional materials?

According to google there are a lot of it but the top non-digital instructional materials commonly used in the classroom setup are as follows:

White board, chalk board, sticky notes, calculator, Drawings, Kits, Textbooks, Posters, Magazines, Flip chart, Newspapers, Diorama, Pictures and many more

Instructional materials are a great help in stimulating and aiding the learning of the learners. That is why it is very important to choose the right one and to maximise it.

During my demo, I used: Calculator, Textbox, posters, blackboard and 1 digital instructional material. I was able to used all my instructional materials but did you know that there is a proper way of using them? One example that I learned during my demo is that the posters should be posted in a systematic manner in such a way that the student will not get distracted. I also learned that the font size should be bigger so that the students ta the back can see the poster clearly. 

Those are some of my realisations while using my instructional materials. Thanks to ou dear instructor who criticised me during my lesson plan demo. 

As a future educator, I will make it a point to choose the right instructional materials for my students in order for them to learn more and i will consider my strategy in how to post them systematically. 

Lesson Plan

What is a lesson plan? A lesson plan serves as a teacher's armour in her battle field: the classroom. When the teacher enters the classroom, he/she must be fully equipped with the right amount of Preparedness and Presence of Mind.
 
Recently, I have made 3 lesson plans in my life and so far it was not easy. It takes time. I have to master the topic in order to relay a good lesson to my students. As I prepared my lesson plan. I have researched good books and internet sources to make my lesson easier.
 
Upon making the lesson plan, I made this guide questions for myself:
1) How can I simplify the lesson?
2) What are the right instructional digital/non-digital materials for my lesson?
3) What is my goal?
4) If I were a student, how do I want my teacher to deliver the lesson?
5) How can I make the whole class participate?
These are the guide questions I set-up myself whenever I make the lesson plan.
 
In the end, I realize that there is no perfect lesson plan, only perfect intentions. In making the lesson plan, I always make it to the point that the lesson will shape my students mind and will help them become a better person and so as a teacher, my role is to help them reach their full potential and to provide a good venue for learning.
 
Lesson plan preparation is my way to show my dedication towards my calling which is to guide my minds of the young. May I improve my skill in preparing my lesson plan someday. 

An Overview and Reflection on: SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO TEACHING

Last month, the class where I am currently enrolled learned about a model which is called the "systematic approach to teaching". This model is a teachers guide to make a student-centered lesson. In this system,  the focus is the learner/student. 

The reason why future educator needs to familiarize, memorize and apply this system is to have goal-oriented, systematic and efficient lesson for the learners. 

AMAZING INST IT? There is a system that is dedicated for the students learning!!! 

Now, let us learn what are the composition of this system. As shown in the photo below, there are 8 steps that must be followed in order to create a student-centered class room experience: 

 First we need to define the objective - in this step, as an educator, we really need to be specific and apply the SMART objective setting.  Personally, as a future educator this is the step where I will use BLOOMS TAXONOMY MODEL, if what kind of DOMAIN I will target in my students development; will it be cognitive, affective or psychomotor. And in whatever target I will decide in the future, I have to always make my objective as SMART as possible! 

2nd-3rd-4th- STEP

To choose an appropriate methods/experience/material- is a must! And we must base it on our objective, what is best way for the learners to learn? Is it align with my objective? Will this material help my learners? Is this applicable to my lesson? Such questions should be answered while we are in this steps. A future educator must consider what are the capabilities of his/her student, the materials and equipment available and the cons/pros of  a chosen method to be used. 

5th step is  Assign Personal Roles - in this step, the educator must define the roles of the persons involve in his/her teachings.

6th step is to Implement the Instruction - this is where the teacher execute the plan beforehand. For me in order to properly implement all the plans of the teacher, the teacher must PRACTICE! and practice takes time. But it pays of to rehearse and practice before implementing the instructions. I believe it will work because practice makes everything close to perfect! 👏🏼☺️

For the 7th and 8th Steps… 

This is where we find out if our educational objective was attained. And this is where we decide to proceed or to recap again our steps. 

EIGHT STEPS . Eight steps that must be practice over and over again in order to be an efficient  in our teaching. 

As a future educator, my role as a teacher starts not in the classroom but in my planning stage. And failing to plan is planning to fail as an educator so I am hoping that that I will walk my talk as I become a legit educator. 👩‍🏫 

Thank you for reading. 

- Teacher Van - 

Reflection 1 - EDUC 3

Technology and Learning

Technology plays a big part of our learning in todays world. 

A) Here are the Top 3 Role of Technology in Teaching and Learning:

1.Support learners to learn on their own.

2.Technology enhances learner’s communication skills through social interaction.

3.Technology upgrades learners’ higher-order-thinking skills: critical thinking, problem solving and creativity

B) The Future Me and "The Technology"

When the time comes that I will become a teacher, I plan to maximize the use of technology by using applicable programs/application that would help me and my learners to interact well in expressing our thoughts, learnings and knowledge. I also would like to use program of specialization for simulation activities that I plan to conduct someday.  

C) The Influence of Technology in My Life (Before and Now)

Growing-up I started to use computer when I was still in grade 1. There is not much of a use back then, I am just playing solitaire and mineswiper during those times. 

But as I grow older there are a lot of improvements, from reading encyclopedia using the program "ENCARTA" to reading facts in google and watching videos for learning. Just WOW! I am so privilege to have an access to technology growing-up and even now, I am amaze of how computers and technology helps us simplified our work.

D) How to Utilize Technology as a Teacher

In any discipline, the only way we can utilize technology very well is to get to know it. Learn and grow from it. As a teacher someday, the best way that I can maximize the technology is to choose a program that suites my need and to get to know it very well through tutorials and exploration. Explore and learn. That's how we can maximize our technology usage.

Thank you for reading... and see you on my next post!