Teaching Journal

Inspired by the Quality Teaching Elements in NSW Public School(2003) . I realized there are some basic guideline to produce quality teaching and learning. Thus, I am using this guideline to reflect and evaluate my programme plan in details. According to the research, there are three dimensions of quality teaching elements including intellectual quality, learning environment quality and significance of the knowledge. Intellectual Quality Deep Knowledge -knowledge is deep when it concerns the central ideas or concepts of a topic. Deep Understanding -Deep understanding is evident when students explore relationship, connection and draw conclusion in relatively systematic and complex way.   In my programme plan, the big idea (Key concept, significant concept, Area of interaction) is the main core of the entire programme plan. My learners were given different approaches to develop their understanding of the significant concept. For instance, they read “The little prince...

Grade7 facing difficulties in conceptual learning not only in visual art, but almost all subjects. Two weaknesses: 1) Basic knowledge of all subject area are not in depth. 2) Passive learning attitude, lack of motivation. I was using pyp key concept to explain myp unit planner in their first lesson, compare and contrast the pyp and myp elements in detail in order to instil the basic understanding of the framework. Although we had a orientation workshop on the first week of the semester, they are still in the fog. Compare to Grade 8, they were whole bunch of enthusiastic intellectual learners in their Grade 7 last year. Macro If we observe the present pyp learning structure and activities, the UOI as the main core of each inquiry unit interweaving with all content need to be taught in all subject area. Fractual knowledge The main misconception of most of the specialist teachers is that they are not intergrating the content to the UOI and expend the knowledge to the sp...

The Philosophy The concept The SAMPLE framework 1 Inquiry cycle as the basic framework to plan your UP and assessment task Concept—Macro concept, Key concept, Significant concept, Guiding question/unit question Content—SOW, specific subject skills and knowledge Context—Area of interaction, Interdisplinary unit as platform Teaching strategies--Differentiated pedagogies ( Multiple Intelligences, Different learning styles) Learning experiences--Assessment as learning ( formative task), activities. The SAMPLE framework 2  

History of mind map dating back to the third century. Philosophers used graphic diagram to interpret concept, words and thought. Mind maps are visual perception of ideas, it boosts memory retention of information. We had a closure discussion of the unit: " Change" today. unit question: Is destruction a path of creation? Significant concept: Meanings are always different. Lesson started with " The Important Book ". Students were to observe and write down the structure of the poems in the book in relation to their development process of the photomontages. Word splash was written on the whiteboard included all the content and context we have learned in previous lesson. Students have to make connection between content, context, unit question and significant concept, and write down their thought on the board. Yuen Ann was able to capture the abstract perception of "metaphor " when he was analysing connection between Dadaism and Duchamp's...

Grade 9 had their first lesson of new Quarter today: The butterfly effect. Key concept: Change Significant concept: Tiny variations create recurrent impact AOI: Human Ingenuity After briefting the unit title, significant concept and AOI. I wrote down the unit question on the whiteboard, surrounded by different areas of investigation. A number of six highest ability students were being called and stand in the front of the class. They were to choose their members based on my requirement. Leader A(boy), can only choose 2 girls, Leader B(girl) can only choose 2 boys, one with spec, one without so on and so forth. They were given 6 different theme to answer the unit question: How does little things change the world? A. "What is the origin of butterfly effect?" B. "What is Lorenz system? What is chaos theory" C. "How does butterfly effect relate to weather prediction?" D. "What is collective bahaviour? What constitute popular culture?" E. "H...

SC: Tiny variations create recurrent impact unit question: How does little thing change the world? Narrative approach --Concrete example Tuning in Review the SC,AOI and unit question, write down on the whiteboard. Short briefting about the definition of "The butterfly effect." Task Guiding question: How do initial ideas drive creativity? Students to watch a video clip of Janet Echelman: Taking imagination seriously. http://www.ted.com/talks/janet_echelman.html Inspired by the video, answer the unit question and elaborate the understanding of SC. Class discussion before they accomplish the task Knowledge:Students take turns to create a flowchart based on the storyline of the video on the whiteboard. Analyse: Teacher to explain the changes of ideas affected by the environment and materials from one to another stages. How does the initial idea being carried out? How big the impact can be? Sythesize: Based on the narrative example, students to make connection ...