Number of journal : 3/4

Week : Week 3

Date : 14th August 2015

Problems

For the third week of practicum, I had done with 2 major observation and one elective

observation by my supervising lecturer. In my opinion, even though I thought I have

prepared enough for the lesson, there were still so many things lacking behind. Thus, here I

encountered few problems on the third week:

i. Lesson input

ii. Punishment and rewards

iii. Time management

Analysis

First and foremost, teaching strategies. I have always thought that teaching one skill

is really about a skill. I usually forgot that I have to deliver the important parts of the lesson,

which is the input. For example, for my reading skill lesson; I was advised by my supervising

lecturer to always deliver input to students before giving any task for them to do. It means, I

should prepare an information-deliver session at presentation/pre-reading stage so that

students will get to learn some unfamiliar words or will understand what they will learn at the

later stage. This is important because this is how a teacher can help students in the lesson.

At first, my only intention to ask them to read aloud was to ensure that everyone would read,

not one will be left behind not reading, by that I mean I’d like all students to at least try to

read. But I was not aware that it is not a good idea because there is no point of asking them

reading but they don’t understand some difficult words (before teaching them the words). I

also believe that my students also had problem with pronouncing some vocabularies

correctly.

Besides that, time management is very crucial during the periods of teaching and

learning. Although I have estimated the time for every stage, still I always have problem

closing my lesson because students always could not finish the task on time. Its either the

tasks provided were too much or I was not aware of the difficulties of the tasks prepared that

they could not finish within time. On 14th of August, I was observed by my mentor teacher for

Language Art class. The students seemed to have fun during the lesson and objectives were

achieved. Just the problem was I didn’t close my lesson. Thus, my mentor teacher shared

the ways I can use to close my lesson. It is because by hook or crook, the lesson must or

should be summarised and closed properly. Otherwise the lesson wouldn’t be as effective.

Last but not least, punishment and rewards. On previous weeks, I didn’t use any

extrinsic motivation for students. Extrinsic motivations are one of the many ways to

encourage students to focus on the learning session. This week, I tried to use rewards as to

encourage them to participate actively in the lesson. I could see that once they see the

earliest group to finish will get the chocolate, they also would be so eager to finish early to

receive the chocolates. Same thing goes to the punishment. It is also one of the ways to

encourage them to learn. To be honest I don’t really like using punishment, so what I usually

do was to warn them that they’ll stand outside the classroom, or stand on the chair / table if

they don’t do their work. Gladly my students understood warning, and they start to behave

again. One day this week, I brought cane as a threat to them. I could see they acted all good

to avoid from being caned that day. I brought the cane not to punish them actually it’s just to

make them do their work and be attentive and focused throughout the lesson. My

supervising lecturer once advised me that once I have warned them and once I have spoken

the work punish, I should just punish them immediately because if I delayed the punishment,

students might think that it is okay to make noises/ do not do work because teacher would

not punish them at all, just a threaten. Thus, extrinsic motivation is something that a teacher

can consider doing to help smoothen the lesson and to teach students to behave well.

Suggestions for Improvement

There are several ways that could be done to overcome the problem mentioned above:

I must make sure that before I planned any activities for the lesson, there should

always be input-deliver session. It is to help them understand the lesson better.

Activities prepared also should suit their abilities and level. Not too low and not too

challenging.

My time management should be improved. I should follow the time I have estimated

for every stage and make sure the activities I prepared are relevant to be done within

time.

I must continuously remind myself that, punishment should be done immediately so

that students would think it is a serious thing and not repeat the same mistake again.

Rewards also can help boost their spirit to enjoy learning, to participate actively and

to pay attention throughout the lesson.

Time for Implementation

I will try to overcome my problem soonest possible. I realise if I am unable to manage these

problems immediately, my lesson won’t be as effective as planned.

Conclusion

It takes time to be a great teacher. Obviously, I need to increase my knowledge on how to

manage my time and my classroom as well as the strategies and approaches to be used in

the classroom and the attitude I should have as a teacher. I should also find more interesting

activities so my students would not feel English is a boring lesson to learn as it is not their

mother tongue, thus I must ensure they are enjoying it. It requires a lot of efforts, time and

money to be spent, but I believe “Hard works will be paid off”.

Checked by

Signature

Name

Miss Hannah Sim Phek Khiok Miss Dayang Nurashikin

Date