For part of our programming here we have to reflect on our team teaching and interaction with students at our respective schools. So if you are interested in teaching and learning, enjoy! If not, don’t bother reading :)
Week 1 & 2 Reflections
My experience team teaching this week was challenging. I am still navigating my way in terms of discovering more about the school culture, my partner teachers and their practices, and my purpose for being here. I have had a chance to dialogue with my partner teachers about “What is partner teaching?” They have described it as conducting lessons together, sharing areas or assigned parts of lessons, and planning the lessons together. I hope our team teaching evolves into something even more. Team teaching is about reaching and engaging students in a way that can not be done alone. It’s about synergy. One teacher alone is just one teacher. Two teachers collaborating together is much more than two professionals simply taking turns in the classroom. It is about sharing ideas and reflecting on our teaching practice together. The end result is something much greater than could have been achieved apart.
I have not had ground-breaking successes in my teaching collaborations this week. I feel like each lesson taught together is a practice at improving our partnerships. To be honest, I am still feeling stuck when it comes to the lecture/dictation part of the lesson. What can I be doing in these moments to reinforce learning? I’ve been writing down observations and questions to discuss with my teachers after the lesson, writing up notes on the board, or walking around to ensure students are copying down the notes; however, nothing I’ve down has made me feel particularly useful. I hope to keep working on this over the remaining weeks here...
A simple success I did have in one class was using the available textbooks from our library. We brought the textbooks to class and used them in our science lesson. My partner teacher really liked that the students had a chance to develop their literacy skills and reinforce the science concepts at the same time. The science teachers that I’ve had a chance to observe often spend a great deal of time drawing out complex diagrams of a subject being studied. Using the textbook is a time efficient way for students to better visualize the science concept and promote reading! [Bonus marks for promoting reading at my school!!] Using the textbook during class is a simple technique that I know my partner teachers will feel comfortable using long after I leave.
My experience relating to the students the first week has also been challenging. I would say the language is the greatest barrier. It is a continual struggle to speak in a way that the students understand. My partner teachers often restate what I have said to the students after I’ve finished my part of the lesson. This practice allows me to listen to how I could better phrase my statements so that the students can understand.
In teaching science concepts I have been thinking very much like a North American. I assume each student understands the concepts of swimming, ice cubes, airplanes, and skyscrapers in my explanations of matter and density. Not so much. I am getting better at running things by my team teachers first to see if they think a student will understand a certain example I hope to use. As someone who does not particularly enjoy science when it is only notes and diagrams, I am starting to think of what would engage me if I was learning this? Sometimes it is difficult to spice up the gas laws or the study of reflected light in a prism. In these situations I try to engage students in discussions about why these science concepts are important to study. How do they apply to our daily life? Or is it simply a way to pass the time in class?
Week 3 Reflections
My experiences team-teaching this week were pretty amazing and pretty frustrating at the same time.
One of my partners and I had a chance to teach the same lesson to two different classes. One class was able to perform an experiment to learn the concept. This lesson was probably one of the most rewarding lessons I have taught here; the students collaborated together in their groups and critically thought about how to calculate the density of their objects. At the end of the lesson, the students were able to clearly articulate how to calculate the density of an irregular object. Because the lab assistant had not arrived at school, our other class was only able to learn about the calculation theoretically; this group was not able to explain the process very clearly. My partner and I were able to see that once students have had a chance to experiment with the science concept, they understand it in a more meaningful way. “When it comes to a test now you will be knowing how to explain the calculation of the density of an irregular solid. Yes?”
Teaching with my second partner this week has been very frustrating. I feel as if I am a student teacher in his classroom. When we are planning together, he does not seem to like any strategies I suggest and continues with his rigid scheme for the lesson. He will assign me a part of his lesson. After I have taught it he will jump in and re-teach the concept. I have become very discouraged with this practice; I am not sure if the students are not understanding me or if I have not taught the concept clearly enough.
One Wednesday of this week, I had a break down. Did I fly half-way across the world so I could simply sit through/teach incredibly disengaging science lessons? I am bored in class so I can only imagine how the students are feeling. After a great discussion with the exchange facilitator, I took her advice and planned a chemistry lesson for the next day. I asked my teacher if it was ok if I taught the lesson and he observed it. I included activities I would use at home in Canada if I were teaching a similar topic. Students had to T-W-P-S as many examples of combustion in their daily life. I had each group share their ideas and it went well, but it was extremely time consuming. Because of the language barrier, many students were reluctant to share their ideas.
In terms of experimentation, I had the students make and record predictions in their groups, share their predictions with the class, and then test these predictions. In this process I saw many students engage with the content in ways I have not previously witnessed in chemistry class. Also, my partner teacher came in and assisted me with the experimentation, further explaining a few concepts, and checking in with groups as they completed the assignment. I felt as if this was the best experience we’ve had team-teaching so far. It came very natural to come in at different times to explain the concept in a new way. After the class, we had a rich dialogue about the strategies we used, and how they work differently in Uganda and Canada. We brainstormed ideas about how to have students work more successfully in groups and how to encourage them to share their ideas in class.
My experience relating to the students has improved this week. I feel as if I’ve finally had a breakthrough in terms of being able to speak in a way that the students understand. One technique I’ve tried is having the students show me thumbs up or thumbs down whether or not they’ve understood. I also ask if there is a student who has understood who can restate for the class. There is still much work I need to do to ensure that I am being understood, but I am improving.
Another simple thing I’ve been doing is asking a student’s name before he or she shares an answer. The students seem to really appreciate the effort to get to know their names. I feel as if I have gotten to know the S1 streams fairly well, as I teach them both chemistry and physics.
Week 4
This week has been the best so far in terms of team-teaching! Our school is starting exams next week so this was really the last opportunity to teach together.
I feel as if a lot of progress was made in terms of my partnership with my chemistry teacher. He seemed much more open to different strategies I suggested while we were planning for the week. We were studying a topic that students had covered in another subject, so we used a K-W-L chart to find out where the students were at and what they wanted to learn about further. I was surprised at just how effective this strategy was in the chemistry classroom. My partner teacher was able to tweak his lesson after hearing what the students knew and what they wanted to know about the topic. We used a football to toss around to students to get them to share their ideas and they seemed much more eager to speak than in previous lessons.
My partner teacher and I also had a great success with students working in groups. We assigned very specific roles to each student in the group: reader, recorder, and presenter. The students worked together to create a summary of a section of the textbook they read together in their groups. I looked around the room and was impressed at the quality of work that was happening. It’s taken four weeks, but we’ve finally had success in having students work together on a project!
The best part about team teaching this week was my partner teachers really taking ownership of the new strategies. They seem to like passing the football around to get different students to talk. One teacher also uses the football to throw at students if they start to fall asleep. We had a chance to critically reflect on the techniques that worked best in our classes together. Continued use of the textbook, prediction and forming hypotheses about experiments (even if we can’t perform the experiment in class), and strategies like K-W-L charts to evaluate students learning are what we found to be most successful in our teaching together.
I was able to observe two different fine art classes this week. In one class, I was able to relate to the students in an unique way. The lesson was on the anatomy of the female face. Seeing as the class was only males, the teacher asked if it would be ok if the students drew me. I was impressed by the quality of portraiture the students created, especially since I had not washed my hair in four days! The quality of the critique the students were able to make about each other’s artwork was excellent. I often struggle to engage students in critical discussion about their work in Canada. I have observed a few practical techniques to ease students into these types of conversations that I look forward to using back at home. I had a chance to dialogue with the students about fine arts in Uganda and Canada. The students seemed eager to see the pictures I had of my students and their artwork from home. One thing they noticed about my students’ work was the use of colour. Here in Anaka, there is limited availability of paints and colours, so much of the students’ artwork is in pencil.
I’ve related to the S1 students the most over the last few weeks as I have the most lessons with them. My partner teacher and I are eager to continue our partnership after I leave. We have planned to match up his S1 students with my grade nines back home so we can maintain a cultural exchange between our two schools. I am really looking forward to the continued dialogue with my teacher and his students about teaching and learning.
