creative teachers! - Mauritius Institute of Education
Transcription
creative teachers! - Mauritius Institute of Education
Who is s/he? A Let’s be drastic! A creative teacher is one who loves being a teacher, who loves pupils and the school. If such is not the case, then we constantly put barriers to our own potentials and limits, and creativity becomes something which is left unexplored. Which brings me to say that creativity is something innate, but to a different extent in each of us. I think its passion that drove writers like W.Shakespeare or J.K Rowling. er h c a e T e Creativ ethods s and m new idea ts p e c c a ind; s/he open- m • Has an and teaching. g ids. aching a of learnin er own te h / is h s ate be. ative: cre s like to • Is innov his pupil re e h w m classroo itator. attractive as a facil • Has an and acts s il p u p tion of his participa ss. • Seeks of his cla ll control fu in his is lities of der; s/he den qua id • Is a lea h e th lores s/he exp xplorer; • Is an e ils. pupils. g his pup ect amon p s re l nd a ategies a ges mutu r new str • Encoura fo g in n plan on; busy ys in acti a lw a Is • yable! activity. and enjo hing fun c a te of d n a 2 covers learning alls and w • Makes 4 to lf imse t herself/h ot restric n s e o D • uation to every sit d n a a book. h c a ses e rtunist; u ate oppo im lt u n a • Is mething. teach so arner! active le erself an /h lf e s im • Is h ally Z. Being creative also lies in our perception of situations and things around us. It is the way we look at our environment, with some projections of what it could be if changes are brought. It is also to dare changes, for most of us like things to stay as they are. Hence, being creative is a blend of feelings, and the magic works when we let this blend express itself… it is the art of extroversion! Mr. R. Ubheeram Picture: Internet 8 Mr. H e oo,Mr. B r. S.Bunn M Safety for the school lab In a science lab, safety is a vital aspect. Teachers, being the role model, should set up the example by doing what is stipulated in the laboratory rules and regulation. Here are some general lab safety guidelines: • Wear disposable aprons during experiments • Wear non-synthetic clothes whenever open flame is to be used • Be careful when using stuffs like scalpel or Bunsen burners • Have adequate safety equipments near, such as a first aid kit and a portable fire extinguisher • Adequate supervision is recommended all the time pupils are in the lab ehary N, Eath . K, Ms. oolass V MAURITIUS INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION How to set up a school lab • Ask for permission • Find a suitable room. Some requisites are: • Good ventilation • Proper lighting • Temperature control • Working surface • Set up the place • Buy items such as microscopes, test tubes, jars… • Buy safety equipments such as fire extinguisher, respirator, gloves • Set up a recorder keeping system. • Look for devices such as terrariums, aquariums, Petri dishes…. Ms. Hunsranee Sanmuthiya C R E AT I V E T E A C H E R S ! MAURITIUS INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION Volume 1, Issue 1 December 2009 mie Issue Winners of the TESSA/MIE competition Inside this Creativity for Teachers by Teachers Poem: A teacher’s prayer 2 Celebrating teachers on Teachers’ Day 2 Parcours d’un combattant 3 Let’s fit that extra bit which is 3 lacking in the big jigsaw puzzle Water Pollution 4 A song for you and me 4 Early Intervention 5 Message to young teachers 5 The Flower 6 Activities you can do 7 Snakes and ladders and Maths 7 A Creative Teacher 8 Safety for the school lab 8 Educational innovation and empowerment of teachers to take up pedagogical lead is now a common feature at the Mauritius Institute of Education. In the context of the 35th Anniversary of the MIE, the institution coordinated a regional competition with the TESSA (Teacher education for Sub Saharan Africa) with the participation of 35 educators from different schools in Mauritius.11 best entries were sent to the TESSA for the regional competition and at our first participation, four Mauritian educators were awarded the best winning entries whilst all the entries were praised for the quality of the preparation, creativity and use of local resources. Ultimately the adapted lessons have been be put on the TESSA website. You can access them at: http://www. tessafrica.net But what is Creativity and how do teachers perceive its manifestation? Throughout this project, creativity has been expressed in a number of ways. While some of them have invented new games, others have redefined activities, produced pedagogical clips, indulged in team teaching, involved headmasters, or even parents to boost up classroom based teaching and learning. Their entries related to life skills, science and the environment, literacy, numeracy, social studies and the arts where many of them have started by altering a simple way of doing things in the class – a first step towards bigger changes. This first newsletter is another outcome of teachers’ creativity. It is also available on the MIE’s website, and is another step in MIE’s pedagogical leap towards its empowerment of teachers through teacher led initiatives. Congratulations to all the participants of the competition and the newsletter team! Watch out for more to come! Ms. P. Auckloo Lecturer, MIE MAURITIUS INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT A Teacher Leadership Initiative Educators from Primary schools Participants - Call for Creative Teachers Competition Academic Support Unit, MIE CODL, MIE Teacher Education for Subsaharan Africa (TESSA) Designed by: MIE Graphic Section Are you out there? Our newsletter is online. Visit us at: www.mieonline.org Project Coordinator/Chief Editor: P.Auckloo, MIE Poem: A teacher’s prayer h my pupils I want to teac ok ssons in a bo more than le er ep h them de I want to teac ; ok lo ople over things that pe of friendship, The meaning th in life peace, and tru ple g arin and sim The joy of sh things in life e beliefs, To respect th religions of cultures and others d other Earth an To care for M e th be happy in Nature and to joy of others h my pupils I want to teac ok. ssons in a bo more than le o Ms. S. Ramdo 2 Creativity inside the classroom and outside the school I am Reshmee Ganga teacher from Cascavelle GS and I am presently working with Standard Three pupils where I interact with 24 pupils of different abilities. My (Tessa Activity) project was on Animals and their homes. I used the following steps to set up the project: Song and mimes, Group Work, Parent’s Participation during visit at Casela Bird Park, Construction of models of animal’s homes, Use of IT and making of a Big Book. It was a project where I tried to make teaching and learning process enjoyable with pupils. It helped me to develop my creativity and new strategies which I use to conduct my classes nowadays. Involvement of Parents in the Project. Through the Tessa Activity I wanted to make parents participate in the activities. They usually do not do any follow up at home and do not feel concerned about their children’s studies. During the outdoor activity at Casela, parents were of great help in supervising pupils. Involvement of parents in the learning process make pupils more interested in what is being done and better monitoring of the work is also done at home. True we cannot get all of them involved at all times, but if we can do it with some of them, why not? Activities you can do • Nature game • Standard environment Free writing activity Each pupil takes out a sheet of 5: Animals in the • Pupils are made to sit in a circle. • Instructions are given by the teacher. paper and writes his/her name on the paper. The teacher explains to the pupils what they have to do and sets the rules of the activity. The pupils will have to circulate the papers so that every pupil gets • A ball is placed in the centre of the circle. the chance to write something • When the teacher says ‘start’, one pupil will pick up the ball and pass it around. is written on the paper. They will Ms. Reshmee Ganga • Music is played. After each 30 seconds, the music stops. written. The game/activity stops Celebrating Teachers on Teachers’ day • The teacher then starts a story based on animals and the one holding the ball after the music has stopped will have to add a sentence. Right from the time we embark on our education trip, we come across different types of teachers. Some are friendly, some are strict, and some are the ones we idolize. We also know a few, who fail to impress us positively. Students can soon begin to like teachers, according to their own individual preferences. They even classify their teachers into different categories, such as Friendly Teachers, Lenient Teachers, Perfectionist Teachers, Strict Teachers and Funny Teachers. All these classifications for teachers are based on some typical personality traits of the teachers. For ex - some teachers academically encourage students, or act like friends, some are fun to be with and so on. Teachers are responsible for moulding a student’s personality and shaping his/her mental orientation. Teachers deeply impact our lives and direct the course of our future. One cannot deny the influence of teachers in one’s life. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that, until a certain age, our life revolves around our teachers. They are MAURITIUS INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION our constant companions, until we grow old enough to come out of their shadow and move ahead on our own. A true teacher is not someone who just teaches academic lessons to his/her students. Rather, he/ she is like a guide, who helps the students in each and every sphere of life, by giving the right advice. None of the achievers in this world has attained a feat without the guidance of a teacher. It is a very challenging profession too. One has to act responsibly, be mature and knowledgeable. It is also the duty and moral responsibility of the teachers to recognize the talents of their students and develop cordial relationship with them. When a teacher and his/her students share a very strong bond, their relationship grows up from just being instructor and follower. The relationship becomes even stronger, a long way beyond the four walls of classroom, which is bonded with mutual understanding and respect. Ms. H. D. Boodhooa • The game will be continued until the story is completed. • Each pupil will be given the opportunity to say something. NT PA R E E N T LV E M INVO good about the pupil whose name have to write complete sentences. No negative comments should be when everybody has written a sentence on everybody elseís paper, that is if there are 35 pupils in the class, on each paper there should be 34 complete sentences written. Then pupils can chose 5 sentences and read them aloud. Ms. Ashweena Ubhee Snakes and ladders and Maths The snakes and ladders is a common game for children. Since it also consists of numbers from 1 to 100, it can be used to explore numbers in a fun way. Here is how I innovated the game. The game consists of a board, with numbers from 1 to 100 arranged similarly as in the original snakes and ladders game, however with no snakes and ladders. Now, instead of playing with a die, there is a pack of cards, on which different instructions are written, for instance, add 5, move to next prime number, skip back to last odd number, etc.. any suitable object can be used as pawns (here I used shells). More than two players can play. However, if the pack of cards (mine being 60 cards, but can be increased with suitable instructions) ends, it can be shuffled and put back in game again. The winner is the one who reaches 100 marks. The aim in this game is to help pupils learning the different types of numbers through fun. In fact, if thoroughly observed, the different numbers have been coloured differently, which makes them easy to recognise, and colourful at the same time. Mr. R.Ubheeram MAURITIUS INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION 7 WORK S L I P U P Lesson: Water pollution Reinforcing science concepts through poetry The Ludo and Domino game made from cheap and readily available materials were designed. I also designed a game on the same topic using Microsoft Powerpoint. The TESSA activity was important as it paved the way for more effective teaching and new experiences gained have enabled me to use a more creative approach as a teacher. It allowed me to think, focus and reorganise my system of teaching and made my teaching for meaningful and fun. Ms. Nazia Peerun Picture: Internet W A T E R For my Tessa Activity, I integrated numeracy and literacy and my lesson was based on the concepts ‘heavier and lighter’. Simple balances in the form of a weight scale were used which were readily available materials to enable practical group work and active learning. Water – how essential you are To man, plants, animals and car Limited in our reservoirs, and rare you are Sometimes polluted too, even in a jar House waste, Industrial waste Hotel waste and insecticide all of them you taste High time it is to stop this case Our water bodies need pollution chase To stop polluting… but how? For fertilizers, go to your cow For house waste, send it to the dumping ground For dyes, set a treatment plant around. Mr. M.C Bayragee r you an A song fo 4 d me e(2) i que j’aim n, mon am ai m la oi aires. Donne-m yons solid la main, so 2) oi -m ne Don la la la la.( res.(4) La ns solidai 2) yo e( so im s, j’a e Soyon mon ami qu tes yeux, le progrès. Donne-moi ns so vi , tes yeux la(2) Donne-moi ) La la la la progrès. (4 le ns so e j’aime(2) Visons, vi on ami qu s pieds, m ix. te oi m vers la pa Donne marchons la. (2) tes pieds, la oi la -m la ne ) La Don la paix. (4 rs ve s on e. (2) march i que j’aim Marchons, ur mon am cœ n e. to l’ile Mauric Donne-moi ur, aimons cœ n . (2) to la oi la la Donne-m e(4) La la l’ile Mauric ) s (2 on e. m im ai e j’a Aimons, on ami qu e. ta voix, m bl oi m -m se ne en Don antons tous ta voix, ch la la la oi la -m La ) ne (4 on D ble. us ensem ime. (4) dansons to ami que j’a Chantons, on m , de mon le ut to revoir. Saluons disons au le monde, ut to ns ) uo Sal voir. (4 sons au re Disons, di Mrs.L.Sab Early Intervention Most reading and writing disabilities can be prevented MAURITIUS INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION apathee Our main role as teacher is to promote quality learning among pupils. We act as a guide so that pupils participate actively in the process of learning. A teacher is just like a doctor. Our objective should be to prevent a child to fall seriously behind at any point since early school. It is very important to diagnose and prevent reading and writing disabilities (as from) standard I. To ensure effective learning and to improve the quality of education, we should move to ‘a preventive’ model of intervention rather than ‘remedial’. Once a child is left behind in early primary, it becomes difficult for the child to catch-up in upper classes. Then intensive interventions also may not help the child. From standard I a child starts learning how to read so that by standard 3 the child is ready to read to learn. If the child is not able to learn to read by standard 4, the child will remain a poor reader and will develop learning difficulties. If a child is not learning at the pace of other children, the child is labelled as a ‘slow learner’. Our attitude towards such pupils are ‘give him/her some more time’, ‘wait a little longer’, ‘when the child will become mature, he/she will learn by himself/herself’. Are we honest enough? Action is taken when the child becomes bad enough and his future becomes bleak. Instead of providing immediate intervention we adopt the ‘wait to fail’ system. Deficit in phonological awareness, autographic awareness, rapid automatised naming of objects, difficulties in gross and fine and coordination is often misinterpreted as psychological deficits. Difficulty in naming alphabet letters, difficulty in pronunciation, word retrieval difficulties are early warning signs of reading and writing disabilities. In fact, with early intervention, most reading and writing disabilities can be prevented. Our aim is to provide stimulating environment where every pupil in class will feel valued, want to work hard, enjoy the fun of learning through our creative interventions. Here are some measures and activities to facilitate reading and writing in lower primary: • Handwriting difficulties must be remediated, early awkward hand positions can be remediated. • have children trace letters of their names • use a multi-sensory approach • focus on letter formation • teach lowercase alphabet before uppercase letters • play the memory game to help those pupils who have difficulties remembering letters • provide a ‘talking letter’ chart in class • play rhyming games • pair letters with pictures • play the ‘take away’, game. Ms. Moushimi SENEE – TAUCKOOR Message to young teachers A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. Teachers have the power to hold up a positive mirror to teach-one that will reflect how wonderful he/she is. A teacher’s words and encouragement helps a child feel worthwhile and capable of learning. If you have commitment, dedication to students, and perseverance there will be little trouble getting students to succeed. You can never give up on anyone; these children need us in their lives. And when the one out of 30 students thank you for not giving up on him or her and helping them , the fact is confirmed that there is nothing in this world you would rather be doing, than teaching. Always remember, their future brightens with each lesson you teach, each smile you lengthen, and each goal you help them reach. L’avenir des enfants se trouve dans les mains des enseignants Ms. L. Sabapathee, Ms. S.Ramdoo & Ms. H.D. Boodhooa teacher A creative who someone Teacher is e is is w students about the Who cares sguise. di no rs and wea A Creative honest teacher is A creative en mind. op an s and ha the ares from teacher sh heart books, ssons from Not just le ion from at in ag and im but truths oks. no d ers an every corn A creative ODHOOA HA DEVI BO Ms. HANS MAURITIUS INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION 5 Parcours d’un combattant The Flower The Flower is a very simple strategy to make pupils recall or revise concepts. Elaborated on bristol paper, pictures also can be included to make it more interesting. This strategy will develop questioning techniques that can support students to develop deep understanding of both concepts and their own learning. It will engage students in their learning and lead to higher order thinking. A brief overview of how it can be developed Chers collègues, en essayant d’écrire quelques mots pour ce premier numéro de notre bulletin d’informations, j’ai tout d’abord buté sur plusieurs titres et finalement opté pour celui de ‘Parcours du combattant’. En effet, pour moi, le métier d’enseignant pourrait être comparé à celui d’un soldat qui s’engage, sentraîne et mène divers combats sur le front. Il tombe, se redresse, essuie de multiples tirs d’en face et de tous côtés, vacille, titube, relève la tête, se bombe le torse, ajuste son tir. Il souffle un peu, prend sa gourde, se rince le gosier et reprend sa place. Fidèle à son poste. Malgré le temps, malgré les tirs, bon gré, mal gré. S’il y a bien une médaille à nous décerner, ce serait bien celle de la perseverance, elle même intimement liée au courage. Car nous sommes determinés à aller jusqu’au bout de nous-mêmes, des autres, de ceux qui nous sont confiés. Notre métier s’est transformé en vocation sans que nous ne le réalisions, sans y prendre garde. Et si ce n’est pas le cas pour tout le monde, et bien, tant pis! Ne nous leurrons pas; nous ne vivons pas dans un monde parfait. L’éléphant rose n’existe pas – du moins, pas encore… Nous ne sommes pas là pour montrer du doigt. Au contraire, faisons tout pour réunir nos doigts différents pour mieux nous entraider dans cette difficile tâche que nous avons, d’éduquer ces jeunes têtes et coeurs sensibles à ce lendemain fou qui les attend afin qu’ils soient préparés efficacement à bien le servir pour que notre belle Ile Maurice montre la voie aux supposément pays ‘bien – développés’. L’arsenal de Maurice – c’est nous. Le pouvoir est entre nos mains. Sachons l’utiliser pour le bien de tous. Bon courage, soldat! Ta médaille, tu le mérites. Continue le bon recompense, tu l’as au fil du combat. Bats – toi et prouve aux autres que ça vaut la peine d’enseigner! Bien humblement, is Un deux tro i ro le Dit six Quatre cinq e lic A Répond uf ne it hu t Sep oeuf Achetez un uze Dix onze do ouse! ép tre vo r Pou Ri ri ri is e d’une sour eu qu La ra ra a R un gros rat La queue d’ ro Ro ro Miro qu La eue de ru Ru ru la grue La queue de re Re re un chat bleu La queue d’ Ré ré ré éré”! “Madame C de e eu qu La bhujun Patricia Ram Soldat Patricia Rambhujun Let’s fit that extra bit which is lacking in the big jigsaw puzzle “Gone are those days when the teacher was the sole dispenser of knowledge. Why is there an erosion of respect towards the teaching profession? True to say, nowadays any Tom, Dick and Harry can be a teacher if the only requirement is academic knowledge. What then completes the puzzle? Such questions are often asked by teachers and may times these are unanswered. I believe that some of our schools and teachers should reinvent themselves. The school should be a place where pupils get that extra bit of knowledge that they will not get elsewhere. Those extra bits that may be some of us do not question, that some of us lack… or which we consider to be a waste of time. A waste of time to make our lessons more activity-based and student-centrered. Being in the computer age we can no longer afford to miss the wagon. If we want to survive in this competitive word, it’s our duty to equip our kids with the best life survival skills. Let’s not do a disservice to education by suppressing the talents of our kids. Instead let’s make them blossom into creative thinkers by giving them the opportunity to express themselves. 6 Mr. Jhankur MAURITIUS INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION Mr. Y. Sunnassee MAURITIUS INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION 3