This is actually something I should have posted weeks ago but I just had no time.
It's about a seminar I attended together with some colleagues. Actually, I believe I was just forced by our principal to attend. Being the youngest in the faculty really is a pain. With all the bullyings, they always work for me. The seminar, which was held in another school about 18 kilometers from us, was about the introduction of what the trainers call "Learning Intervention Materials". Not really a super-unique, stellar idea, but this is just worth a try. This so called "learning intervention materials" are actually teaching aids that are targeted basically on the most difficult parts of the lessons taken from each grading period. Before you would make such teaching aids, there are some things to identify first. The steps if you would:
#1. Identify the question from the periodical exams that got the most mistakes.
#2. Associate the basic learning objectives from the curriculum upon which that question falls.
#3. Subtask the particular objective or in other words, further break down the objective into subtasks. For example, if the objective is adding monomials, the subtasks would include grouping like terms etc.
#4. From the subtasks, create an interesting teaching aid which would be the "Learning Intervention Materials". In that case, it could be in the form of Comic books that hasten the learning, or a workshop at that.
This wasn't easy. Maybe it would have been easy for other subjects like English or Science but not in Math. Anyway, it took us some time to discuss on how to do our materials. First of all, we never had concrete exam results that time since the exams are still off schedules. Later we agreed on choosing by ourselves what topic or particular objective we should choose, not relying on exam results this time.
I chose multiplying monomials. It's not because it was easy, but because in my experience, it was really something my students in the past have gotten much confusions. After the day was over with much discussions and hoopla over the individual assignments, I went home but not after passing by a store to buy some materials that would include a clear book, glue, some color pencils, scissors, and some art paper. After arriving at home, I took some sleep (that was a 30-km trip!). After a while, I positioned myself on the computer and searched for ideas on the Net. What would I do - a comic book or a magazine? That's hard. Later that evening, after looking for some ideas, I got Marvin (the lazy robot from H2G2) and "Deep Thought" as my Math Comic Book Heroes. Yeah, they'll love it.
Ok, I admit. I believe I am one of those lucky few to have gotten a heavenly gift of drawing and sketching. I was a skillful artist from way back high school so it took me 5 hours (5 hours!!!) to make that "Learning Intervention Material".
I don't like bragging, but eventually, my work got flying stars the next day. Our seminar leaders borrowed my work for another seminar schedule on the South. "That's lovely," I smiled thinking I've got my signatures all over that comic book. Seemingly, the seminar was a success and we've had so much fun.
Really? Not really. Well, in the first place, not all teachers were as artistically inclined. Browsing through their works in the gallery, I could pinpoint some from the colorful works. Some that were just too plain boring, some that were just soo stupid, some that were just there for the sake of the Certificates we receive afterwards, and some just well done too cheap. At least they tried.
It's just not being productive after all. I mean, why does the Education Department make seminars like this? Maybe the Department was just expecting much from its teachers to be comic-editors, or publishers? I was lucky to be skillful but it took me 5 hours to do such a material. Why can't the Department just take some Master Teachers and fund a seminar like this of which the results would be published and delivered right to our classroom doorsteps. Could it be that the Department is just putting much load on us teachers by not spending on materials like these which could have been done by publishers with comic artists on the sketchpad? I believe it just wouldn't work that way.
It's about a seminar I attended together with some colleagues. Actually, I believe I was just forced by our principal to attend. Being the youngest in the faculty really is a pain. With all the bullyings, they always work for me. The seminar, which was held in another school about 18 kilometers from us, was about the introduction of what the trainers call "Learning Intervention Materials". Not really a super-unique, stellar idea, but this is just worth a try. This so called "learning intervention materials" are actually teaching aids that are targeted basically on the most difficult parts of the lessons taken from each grading period. Before you would make such teaching aids, there are some things to identify first. The steps if you would:
#1. Identify the question from the periodical exams that got the most mistakes.
#2. Associate the basic learning objectives from the curriculum upon which that question falls.
#3. Subtask the particular objective or in other words, further break down the objective into subtasks. For example, if the objective is adding monomials, the subtasks would include grouping like terms etc.
#4. From the subtasks, create an interesting teaching aid which would be the "Learning Intervention Materials". In that case, it could be in the form of Comic books that hasten the learning, or a workshop at that.
This wasn't easy. Maybe it would have been easy for other subjects like English or Science but not in Math. Anyway, it took us some time to discuss on how to do our materials. First of all, we never had concrete exam results that time since the exams are still off schedules. Later we agreed on choosing by ourselves what topic or particular objective we should choose, not relying on exam results this time.
I chose multiplying monomials. It's not because it was easy, but because in my experience, it was really something my students in the past have gotten much confusions. After the day was over with much discussions and hoopla over the individual assignments, I went home but not after passing by a store to buy some materials that would include a clear book, glue, some color pencils, scissors, and some art paper. After arriving at home, I took some sleep (that was a 30-km trip!). After a while, I positioned myself on the computer and searched for ideas on the Net. What would I do - a comic book or a magazine? That's hard. Later that evening, after looking for some ideas, I got Marvin (the lazy robot from H2G2) and "Deep Thought" as my Math Comic Book Heroes. Yeah, they'll love it.
Ok, I admit. I believe I am one of those lucky few to have gotten a heavenly gift of drawing and sketching. I was a skillful artist from way back high school so it took me 5 hours (5 hours!!!) to make that "Learning Intervention Material".
I don't like bragging, but eventually, my work got flying stars the next day. Our seminar leaders borrowed my work for another seminar schedule on the South. "That's lovely," I smiled thinking I've got my signatures all over that comic book. Seemingly, the seminar was a success and we've had so much fun.
Really? Not really. Well, in the first place, not all teachers were as artistically inclined. Browsing through their works in the gallery, I could pinpoint some from the colorful works. Some that were just too plain boring, some that were just soo stupid, some that were just there for the sake of the Certificates we receive afterwards, and some just well done too cheap. At least they tried.
It's just not being productive after all. I mean, why does the Education Department make seminars like this? Maybe the Department was just expecting much from its teachers to be comic-editors, or publishers? I was lucky to be skillful but it took me 5 hours to do such a material. Why can't the Department just take some Master Teachers and fund a seminar like this of which the results would be published and delivered right to our classroom doorsteps. Could it be that the Department is just putting much load on us teachers by not spending on materials like these which could have been done by publishers with comic artists on the sketchpad? I believe it just wouldn't work that way.
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