Evaluating the Effectiveness of Diverse Learning Environments into the School - Personal Statement Example

? Science Fair Project Science Fair Project After managing to conduct the three lessons activities in my I was able figure out several issues related all the children who participated in the project. One of the positive observations I made is that all children were eager to understand and pronounce various terms correctly. This indicated that they were gaining a deep and motivated long-term learning experience. Some of the learning materials I employed on the learning activities include pencils and papers. With the help of these two items, the children could write down several vowels and vocabularies as I guided them. I realized that through writing down, the vocabularies would stick on the students’ mind and they could manage to pronounce them correctly later. Writing down also offered the students a chance to practice and memorize while on their own. Most of the students who had difficulties in pronunciation as I figured out were non-English Speakers. Another issue that I managed to figure out is that students had a positive response related to their ability of pronouncing the terms when learning in groups. On this activity, the students would come up with several words in their group that they were unable to pronounce correctly. My main role was just to help them pronounce the vocabularies correctly and then allow them to practice on their own. Through independence practice, I observed that students were able to pronounce the vocabularies correctly in a faster way. I also managed to observe that students, who were not able to pronounce the vocabularies together with others, could understand quickly and respond effectively through direct instruction. On direct instructions, I could manage to teach the students either individually or as a group and emphasis on the problematic terms. I observed that on these particular children, repetition and drill work posed as the best method to help them understand quickly. Another observation I managed to make is that by giving the students oral and theory exams they were able to assess themselves of what they understood and which questions they need to ask. Oral tests, where each student could pronounce various vocabularies managed to give me an opportunity of identifying whether the student was making any progress or not. I also observed that testing the students contributed in enhancing a strong relationship with them because of the interaction I managed to make when correcting them. I also observed that it was easy to assess each student’s strengths and weaknesses through giving them a test. This assisted me in identifying the next strategy I should employ in order to help the students develop more skills. In order to improve on this particular activity, there are certain changes that I would like to make. One of the changes is questioning of the students during lecture. I managed to observe that some students feel embarrassed when they are not able to answer a particular question correctly. On this case, I realized that it is not advisable to correct an English Speaking Student mistake especially in front of other students. The best way to deal with this issue is to correct the students’ individual later after the lesson. However, in some situations I may correct the students in case the content of their information is unclear during their pronunciation. For example, in a situation where a student may say, I am here for one year. This information is unclear because the student may mean I have been here for one year. In another angle, the student may mean I will stay here for one more year. The other change I would like to make in order to improve on this activity is increase the material to use for experiment. I noticed that some students understand well while writing down rather than oral teaching alone. This call for more materials like text books, exercise books and pencils. This will help in assessing the students’ ability on understanding pronunciation of words by dictating to them while they write down. Second Assignment Students tend to have various difficulties in understanding math subject. I managed to observe that one of the main reason for this problem is the traditional mentality that math is a hard subject. However, this is not the truth in relation to the subject. The main aim of introducing math game in the activity was to help students have the mentality that the subject is easy as others. However, I managed to observe that students tend to develop a problem on math after a continuous fail. These make the students lose their confidence and rely on assistance from others. I came to realize that assistance the students’ gets from others only help them get through the current set of problems. However, the assistance is not re-teaching and therefore the affected students end up convincing themselves that they cannot perform well in math. After introducing the math game to the students, I observed that they were able to understand the subject much faster compared to explaining them on theory work only. I also managed to figure out that students were more interested on the math lesson because the game looked funny and they enjoyed playing a lot. These helped them to realize that math is not hard but becomes easier as one understands it. Moreover, the math game helped students in memorizing their skills. Students could be able to work out various problems according to what they observed on the practical session. Application of technology on the activity also provided a better chance for the students to understand the subject in a better way (Clements & Sarama, 2009). I observed that through use of computers, students were able to learn by themselves even after offering minor instructions. For example, when teaching them geometry, I managed to observe that they could manipulate on various figures and establish them accordingly. This means that the student could move, rotate and even stretch the figures. This opportunity helped them to observe and figure out what properties could stay the same. Use of drawing tools employed on Microsoft Word helped the students develop their ability to work on geometry related math problems (Clements & Sarama, 2009). Another observation I made from the math game is that I could be able to identify the understanding ability of the students. For example, the practical sessions gave me an opportunity to identify the student with learning difficulties. This helped in allocating more time with the individual student in order to correct the mistakes I could identify. Moreover, I managed to observe that the math game helped in strengthening the relationship between a teacher and the students. The interactions helped most of the students in getting away the fear they had towards their teacher. I could identify this issue by realizing that more students were able to ask questions as compared to any other period we had. Some of the changes that I would make in order to improve the activity include making sure there are more computers. This is to ensure that each students uses own computer rather than sharing. Moreover, this will enhance covering of more topics in a fast manner compared to when students share the same software. Some of the students who are slow learners will have enough time to try what they can do having ample of time alone. In relation to technology, there is a need to have a modernized computer lab. This will help in having a recommendable learning environment. Moreover, this will help in encouraging students to embrace the use of computers without forcing them. Another significant change to employ on the activity is to develop more math games. This will help the student not to get bored with one game. Introducing a number of games in the activity gives a room for students to acquire experience on tackling various math related problems. For example, when learning about probability, it is advisable to employ a math game like pulling out a yellow and a blue marble from a bag containing many of them and help the students to determine the likelihood of the marble being of one color than the other. Apart from the game helping students solve various math related problems, they are able to strengthen their brainpower, as they tend to think harder. Reference Clements, D. H & Sarama, J. (2009). Learning and teaching early math: the learning trajectories approach. New York: Taylor & Francis. Read More