Welcome Back to School
It’s great to begin a new school term, especially when it is third term, the term when teachers make the last efforts to prepare their students for a higher class. It’s also a pretty busy term and our ultimate teacher’s guide will provide a few tips to make it easier to work smart. We can start by reminding ourselves of what we mean by working smart.
First of all, let’s establish that all teachers generally work very hard. Our role as teachers include physical development, academic development, moral development and the wellbeing of our learners. It’s a lot to carry on your plate, therefore the best way to approach your teaching role is by working smart, not harder.
Control & Organisation
Two teachers may have a different approach to designing teaching and learning experience. One of them may appear to be more organised and in greater control of their work, but the other one could be struggling. What is the distinction between both if they have a similar training and experience? It has to do with how they work and the approaches they use.
Working SMART
Let us decode the word SMART for the purpose of this discussion: Specific - Measurable - Achievable - Realistic - Time-scaled. How can this help with what we do as teachers?
For one, it cuts out wasted effort, when we set clear goals and test everything we do by these five factors. It is the same method used for lesson planning, to provide quality learning experience.
SPECIFIC
Your learning objectives should be constructed by being specific. This includes using very specific language to describe what you are going to teach. Be as exact as you can be, not vague. This applies for your personal and professional goals. So, saying the learner will understand verbs, for example, is a no, no. How can we know they will understand everything about verbs in that lesson. To know takes a longer time and is a curriculum aim. objectives must be specific, for example, to use past tense verbs in the context of a school holiday.
MEASURABLE
In constructing learning objectives you need to use measurable verbs to ensure that you can fairly easily measure the success of your lesson. So we use active verbs to construct these objectives so there is no iota of doubt about whether learning objectives are been achieved or not. The example given above about a lesson on past tense verbs has the word ‘use’ as an active verb that can be confirmed as being achieved or not. Use this same method when planning anything you want to do, especially related to teaching and learning experience.
ACHIEVABLE/ ATTAINABLE
If you are planning a lesson, you need to be sure that it is achievable, otherwise it’s a waste of your time. Why design a so called great lesson that requires resources that your school does not have or activities that your learners can not carry out? Here, the teacher who wants to plan a lesson needs to check to see if the lesson can be achieved, perhaps in the proposed time frame or with the resources available for use. You should also ensure that learning objectives are attainable.
REALISTIC/RELEVANT
Is your plan realistic? This cuts out unnecessary waste of effort. If for example students need IT knowledge to carry out a task, have they got these skills already or will you need to teach them in order to get learners ready to carry out designated tasks or activities? ? If not we will be unable to teach the lesson to the extent that is planned. As a teacher, do you have the skills needed or wherewithal to teach the lesson effectively? If not, you should change the plan. This approach will help you in your role as teacher. Lessons should also be relevant to lived experience. Let’s avoid being too abstract and create practical lessons with skills and know-how that learners can apply.
TIME-SCALED or TIME BOUND
Which ever terms we choose to use, they mean the same thing. Time is an important consideration for all teachers, unfortunately some teachers overlook this important aspect of planning. In the activities selected for the different stages of the lesson, we need to factor in time. Do we have have too many or too few activities? Do we have enough practice time?
By looking again at the approaches we take to planning, teaching, creating learning experience or supporting our learners we can work smarter not necessarily harder than what we are already doing. To learn more, watch this video.
A Plan for Learning
Now you are back in school, what’s your plan for learning? If it was to have a shape, how would you describe it?
In third term we need to focus on completing the curriculum for the year, encourage learners to engage and possibly close any gaps that learners may have. So here are some tips:
KYC. - know your customer (I mean your student)
Tailor make lessons to your learning group, consider age, likes, etc.
Use their interests, e.g. football for writing topics for boys who. love football
Integrate their lived experience. Illustrate points with familiar items
Motivate your learners
Develop independent learners who carry out research
Integrate students’ voice and choice in activities and exercises
Keep to learning schedules and time frames
Be friendly, students don’t like teachers who intimidate them
Allow collaboration and group work/discussions
Have learners do individual work after group work
Keep the above in mind when planning.
Remember to differentiate materials, in activities, teaching approaches, etc. Differentiate for strongest and weakest learners - increase the challenge for stronger learners, increase opportunities for learners to engage more easily for weaker learners.
DEVELOP YOURSELF
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Cambridge Teaching Knowledge Test (Preparatory Course) - On Demand
We are currently offering our online video Cambridge Teaching Knowledge Test Preparatory courses to school groups at N300,000 for each Module. For a limited time, in May/June we are offering a BOGOF (Buy one get one free) for any of the three Modules (Modules, 1, 2 and 3).
Teachers who want to take any of the Modules can do so for N15,000 and have a BOGOF in May/June for any of the Cambridge TKT Modules. Pay to our account and contact the programme leader on WhatsApp +447538544451 and we will add you to any of the Modules you want or for school groups we will give you a dedicated online classroom to use for one year.
Buy One Get One Free (BOGOF)
Cambridge TKT Module One (Background to Language Teaching & Learning)
Cambridge TKT Module Two (Lesson Planning & use of Resources)
Cambridge TKT Module Three (Classroom Management)
Cost N300,000 for school groups in an exclusive, dedicated online classroom
N15,000 for individuals in general online classrooms
Course Details
The course is recommended for schools who are CIE centres, for all teachers in nursery & primary school to JSS3 and for all English teachers at any level. Teachers who require teaching as an additional teaching subject can also take it. It’s a video course with several learning materials and past question papers to practice for the Cambridge exams that provide you a certificate from Cambridge. In the course we provide information on how to register for the exam with some of the exam centres in Nigeria. The exam costs N25,000 per Module which is paid to the exam centres. Each Module has its own certificate.
Trainer
Dr Timi Hyacinth is the trainer, providing excellent insight into teaching and learning using language teaching methodologies, some learning psychology, English language teaching, assessment types, etc. Training is clear and easy to understand and because you have access to the training for a year, you can plan to revise or take the exam at anytime within the year.
The BOGOF offer is limited to May/June 2022. Payment for any of the training Modules can be made to Afrisage account. Please contact me on WhatsApp after payment is made.
Payment Details
Afrisage LTD/GTE
GTBank 0169594988
WhatsApp +447538544451
NEWS
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Finally
Once again, welcome back to school. Keep in touch with me on any of my WhatsApp or Telegram groups designed for all educators & teachers, or the exclusive groups for school leaders or school owners.
Don’t forget to get the substack app for your phone in your play store or app store.
I will act rightly. Its really not too late to start again.
Great development.Will sure be part of it.