Practical Reflection

Good teaching practice requires reflection, and there is no better time to reflect than when you’re practicing teaching.

I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I had a great prac. This doesn’t mean it was perfect, but I learned what I needed to and achieved the modest goals I set for myself for implementing ICT in my classes.

The biggest goal for me during this prac was to use ICT to structure my lessons and keep me on track. I used PowerPoints for both my science and humanities lessons, which in retrospect were a surprisingly great opportunity to enhance my teaching.

The PowerPoints did a few things:

• They ensured that content was presented in an effective order
• They allowed me to display images and videos readily and at highly relevant points
• They kept me on track by forcing me to consider short points at a time
• Students were only presented with short amounts of notes and important points, which is a more effective way to present information… especially to younger grades
• They were fun.

As someone who readily reads large information at any one time and has no need for associative images or visual cues, it has taken me a while to learn that you can never underestimate the benefits of colour, pictures and funky transitional graphics.

~ ArualH