Monday, May 27, 2013

Managing people

A blog can be an great platform for showing visually tasks to do in class. This was done on very short notice for the Managing People course and served the purpose well.

What is your dream job?

1. Think about your dream job. What 3 areas would you need to develop to get the job? 5 min

2, Tell your partner about your dream job and what the three things you need to develop are. 5 min

3. Finally, tell the others what your friend wants to be and what the 3 areas your friend needs to develop. 5 min




Thursday, May 23, 2013

reflection 23 of May

Today I have felt like a student. It's a nice change after being mainly a teacher candidate during the last few months. It's not easy to be a student, quite tiring actually to put the whole year and VOC2 into perspective.

It has been a journey to all my studymates' whereabouts as well. We discussed in pairs about our study plans and looking back into particularities during the year. I got another lesson about the beauty and difficulty of listening, because we presented our pairs study plan to the others and ha-haa: it is not always so easy to remember a conversation that has taken place a few minutes ago.

Lots of feedback back and forth. About the different themes of VOC2 - it was nice to read and hear what the others thought about the theme and our course. It was better than expected.totally

Self-evaluation of competence related to Dreyfys model of skill aquisition was our last task. I quite enjoyed the task, but my brain seems breezed. Deeper analysis did unfortunately not take place.   

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Fourth block

South Korea. I want to go to Korea. I loved the class about Korea, mostly South Korea. I think I even started the class one minute before the set starting time. One reason was that we had a scheduled skype meeting with a trade promotion agency and I wanted to give the basics about the country before that. The other reason was that I had talked with my friend who has lived in Korea and had learnt a lot from her about the country. Especially Korea's industrial development and society is very interesting.

Skype went smoothly. Ok - that was an over statement. It was my first ever public skype so naturally there is some fine tuning. We did not get the sound right so we had to wait, but with the help from IT we got it fixed. I have learnt that there are always some technical difficulties, and the best solution is always to stay calm and try to find an alternative. This time, we did not need to execute the alternative plan.

We also watched a video about Samsung work culture which I found interesting. That has become my mantra - if I think it is interesting, students probably find it interesting too. Never underestimate the students and "this could be useful for You" is often not interesting to the students.

Monday, May 6, 2013

third block

I felt like I learnt a lot from the second block of lessons. I wasn't happy with the class, so it made me work even harder. This is to say that I already worked really hard, but now I realized that I want to prepare all my own material and that I need to be comfortable with the lesson plan and have interesting activities.

I had a bit more time to plan for the third block of lessons since there was one week between block two and three. This was great. Fact is, that I was teaching another course at the same time with 6 teaching hours a week so I could focus a bit on those. The teaching methods for the third block was further developed in between preparations for the other classes and in impulses. I stayed with the core plan to have my students to do research on computer in pairs and find answers to share in our Optima blog.

The class was a mix o lecture and research. Unfortunately we only had 90 minutes, I had previously planned it for a 3 hour block of lessons. But lessons never go exactly as planned. The students were working very well and felt it was nice to have time to find out things for themselves. I asked for feedback in the end, and most students had liked the experience. They would, however, have liked to have more time.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

learning goals - questionnaire

I made a learning goal questionnaire that the students are to fill in in the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the course. I asked them to write down three learning goals (what they want to learn from the course). I also asked them how the liked the first lesson/teaching methods and how well they would like to know Asian business culture.

Most students filled in the form that I made in google drive. Most goals were within the course syllabus, some were outside. I also got comments on the first lesson, many had liked it and liked getting to know each other better. By doing the learning goal questionnaire, I wanted the students to take more responsibility in their own learning. Let's see how it works! I really liked reading the results and I hope the students see a window to learn more about their own country.

Teacher practice - second block

Preparing for lessons is very time consuming but I thought that the preparations for the second block was lighter. I was wrong. The students had a questionnaire that they should fill in and I thought that we could just lightly go through it. I thought it is information that we do not need to go through line by line. But when the lesson started, I noticed that the students wanted to go through the information in detail and I had not prepared for that kind of work. I did not have the answers ready myself. If I would have been more experienced, I would have just gone through the questionnaire and trusted the students information. But I was doubtful.

Instead, I had prepared for presenting information on "average wage" that I had used 5 hours to find!!! When presenting it, it was poorly visualized and I realized that I did not ask for the information that the students had found out first. The lessons did this time not go so quickly and I learnt many new lessons.
1. I should only give tasks to the students that I think are meaningful to do and that I will support
2. If we go through some task in class, we should do it in depth
3. I should give time to the students to answer - I should not fill in the silent moments
4. It is important to have a desk at the school with computer & printer so I don't have to loose time with technicalities
5. Have lesson plans ready the night before - that will guarantee better success (and better sleep)

teacher training - first block

My teacher practice was quite hectic. At the same time as I started my teacher practice, I also started another job. It was rather challenging, but I managed. The unlucky bit was that I had no time for reflecting in my blog, but instead I made detailed teaching plans and made notes along the way.

I was very well prepared for my first lecture. I presented the course requirement for the group and informed them about what the students need to do in order to pass. The responsible teacher was not present during the first week of classes, but my guiding teacher was present. I was a bit nervous, but since I had made a detailed plan, it made me more comfortable.

Since teaching is new to me, I had no clear idea of what to expect from the first lesson. I emphasized on getting to know the students in the class and to let the students get to know each other. We made a round of presentation, where I asked all students what they are interested in. We had much dialogue, with some actual games and with the students having to pick a country by being quick = running.

I think it was the most fun lesson (3hrs) and the best prepared lesson. I showed maps, had technical difficulties, ask my students to put themselves on the world map, asked them to run to pick a country to follow.. The last task we did was a group assignment where students were to figure out and discuss in their groups how free/democratic a country is and put Asian countries into categories (free, semi-free, not free country). This was a bit difficult as a start when we all have different understanding of what democracy is and the groups were uneven. I learnt more about leading group assignments and how important it is to visualize and explain clearly.

I also realized that time flies. The plan worked quite well, but I made many changes during the class. I was eager, happy and realized it is hard work to be a teacher.