Professional Resources in the Field of Teaching - Essay Example

Running Head: PROFESSIONAL RESOURCES IN THE FIELD OF TEACHING Professional Resources in the Field of Teaching Affiliation Theessay discusses and describes 4 different resource types that a teacher might employ in improving teaching quality. Each resource is explained in the light of its specific utility and purpose to both the students and teacher. As teaching learning is an integrated process, the success of the teacher lay in reaching out to his students and provide meaningful information to them. Being resourceful is 1 criterion that helps him meet with the umpteen curiosities of his students and at the same time helps him grow in his profession. The essay also tries to project the newly acquired professionalism in teaching and its claim on teachers to be resourceful as professionals. . Professional Resources in the Field of Teaching We have moved a long way from the old school of teaching which meant hammering down of information into pupils. The 21st century is witness to the reconstruction of teaching as the teaching–learning experience. In keeping with the humanistic trend in teaching, the role of the teachers too has undergone a metamorphosis. Teachers are mentors and not preachers. They are functional in providing proper guidance to the students. Teaching has attained professionalism like never before. Teachers are professionals who are entrusted with the task of offering a holistic educational ambience to the students and therefore, need to be highly resourceful. The given essay would describe and discuss the professional approach to teaching on the basis of four resources. Teaching Resources Teaching resources are most important in planning out teaching strategies. A teacher must be able to explore and exploit resources to provide optimum learning experience among students and at the same time brings variety that catalyzes student’s interest. I have selected four resources based on their diverse utility and purpose that I have found most effective for the growth of both teacher and students in a healthy teaching-learning situation. Lesson Plan Though it is the basic resource that a teacher has to fall on to, its role in creating a meaningful study atmosphere cannot be denied. A lesson plan is a step by step lay out of the entire lesson topic. It covers every detail of the teaching procedure that includes a summary of the lesson, categorisation of the lesson into sub-topics, explanation, discussion, interaction by question-answer sessions, and conclusion by wrapping up the highlight points, evaluation both verbal and written and test assignment. It mainly emphasises on a threesome approach to teaching-learning which are Description, Understanding and Application. It is assumed that the teacher would provide a thorough description of the lesson topic, an in depth comprehension of the problem areas like new concepts and themes and encourage skill of application among the students by assigning tasks. The main purpose of the lesson plan is to ensure a wholesome teaching-learning experience. (California Standards, 1997) The better structured and innovative it is the more it grips student attention. However it has to be successfully followed by the teacher in a real classroom situation. A lesson plan also helps to give direction to the teacher from aimless rambling and to the teaching to generate positive feedback from the students. It aims to engage students in reflective and critical thinking independent of the teacher. (California Standards, 1997) A lesson plan forms the backbone of teaching. It makes the teaching process organised and goal oriented. (California Standards, 1997) It helps in keeping track of the day to day progression of the lesson and also points out places for improvement or re-analysis. Based on the lesson plan a teacher can take decisions related to the introduction of a new lesson or the revision of the older one. From the evaluation module in the lesson plan, a teacher gets to assess student performance. The student feedback is most essential in self appraisal for the teacher to further his professional development. Technology Based Teaching Teachers must resort to technology as an important resource through which other resources could be accessed. It helps in updating the teaching learning scenario. The teacher can use it to brush up his knowledge and skills, be garnered with plenty of information and data beyond the text but relevant to it. He can use it to set test assignments. But most importantly he can make his students computer literate and buck up their learning aptitude by involving them in web based research work. The current fad in education among students is web based teaching learning and knowledge accumulation. There are student communities and network sites that come to a lot of help in comparing notes between students and teachers. Such facilities could only be afforded only if we are computer literate. And education institutes are the best places to help individual build knowledge about computers and develop the skill to manoeuvre it. Eleri Merrikin, Science Teacher at Brockton High School in Massachusetts points out “Students today learn with media and technology because theyve grown up in a multimedia world, so these resources are something they relate to easily," (Digital Media, 2008) It is still a belief that technology is anti-student development as it makes them machine dependent. The issue invites much debate but the fact remains that technology especially the internet brings the world at our doorstep and is a vital resource that the teacher can use for veritable purposes. Technology based teaching makes the teaching learning process highly resourceful and interesting. It attracts students by initiating them into a new and challenging medium of learning. Decision making becomes easier and advanced with the help of technology. The teacher would get all the data available at one go and can take prompt decisions. It would contribute considerably to the professional growth of a teacher by keeping him updated about new developments in teaching, education, and student psychology. By being tech savvy he would be able to perform in a more concrete and disciplined way. It would also add to his skill and enhance his credentials. Excursions Educational excursions could be extremely resourceful in teaching subjects like social science, English language, history, and geography along with others. The schools in the U.K are banking heavily on school tours to various local sites for the students to have an understanding of the aboriginal culture, the history and language. The teachers are providing the students with worksheets to fill up with their first hand knowledge and experience. (Tourism and English, n.d) This technique leaves the students to themselves and promotes self-learning. Students too find it a welcome change from the monotony of classroom teaching. They show enthusiasm for such learning experiences. Excursions are real experiences and have memorable impact on student mind. Teachers can point out examples to the theories taught in class. This is of great help to the students to have a thorough feel of the topic. Teachers can use each individual student’s accounts of the experience as tools of assessment. It helps teachers to gauge the effectiveness of the particular strategy as well as student performance in taking educational decisions. A teacher who has successfully carried out excursion based teaching incorporating it with classroom teaching has surely miles to go in his profession. Community Classroom A community classroom is an innovative mode of classroom teaching catering to ends beyond bookish knowledge. It’s a way of teaching the students their responsibility towards society and towards each other. It involves healthy and cheerful interaction between students in a positive atmosphere under the guidance of the teacher. The teachers strategically use language of cooperation like ‘friends help friends’, ‘we all work together’ (Hittie, 2000) to foster community feeling among students. Teachers can encourage group discussion, problem solving, form play groups, mobilize students seating arrangement so that everybody gets to know each other, assign a student to help and guide a new student, put up posters on social and moral values and read books that speak of community bonding. (Hittie, 2000) Community classroom is a way of reinforcing and restoring the decadent values of brotherhood and compassion in the students. It is a wonderful method of driving home the abstract emotions and makes the students live, perceive and learn them. Such a classroom set up and interactive climate help the teacher in observing students more closely and discover facts about them which might otherwise go unnoticed. This contributes in making appropriate decision about each student depending on the child’s development of interpersonal skills. Professionally the teacher gets to prove his management and collaborative abilities. Conclusion In conclusion it could be said that each and every resource that the teacher adopts has to be in tune with student-centric mode of teaching. The ultimate aim of teaching is to help in the overall personality development of the students and an effective teacher is the one who understands the pulse of students with their diversity and difference in perception level. (Ormrod, 2008) Reference List California Standards for the Teaching Profession. (1997). California Department of Education. Retrieved 4th September 2008 from http://www.ctc.ca.gov/reports/cstpreport.pdf Digital Media & Touch Screen Technology: An Increasing Trend in Education. (2008). WGBH Teachers Domain Expands Digital Media for use in the Classroom. The Wall Street Journal Digital Network. Retrieved 4th September 2008 from http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/digital-media--touch-screen/story.aspx?guid=%7BE0D70EAD-69DF-43D2-B7E0-B3A353CDB9E2%7D&dist=hppr Hittie, M. (2000). Building Community in the Classroom. Retrieved 4th September 2008 from http://www.coe.wayne.edu/wholeschooling/WS/WSPress/CommBldgMH.pdf. Ormrod, J. E. (2008). Educational psychology: Developing learners (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Tourism and English a powerful combination. (n.d).Tourism and English Language Learning. Retrieved 4th September 2008 from http://www.intstudy.com/articles/ec184a12.htm Read More