My Reflection on Alternative Curriculum

 

I carried out an outdoor education as an alternative curriculum program. There were lots of my students who gets bored easily when doing their lessons inside the classroom. Thus, I had a chance to introduce alternative curriculum to them by taking them outside and teaching them a lesson in a different learning environment. My students with lack of interest in the usual classroom were engaged and active during our lesson which was carried as an outdoor lesson.  

Our topic was on the "safeties in short distance running" so I taught students some of the safeties such as: wearing spike shoes, warming up muscles and running on a lane. Instead of using the backboards and charts, I used demonstrations and other resources from outside to help my students learned the topic: such as: collecting stick and stones for our teaching aids refer to appendix 1 to view 

  

My Reflection on Inclusive education

During my block teach I was delivering a lesson which implemented some aspects of Inclusive education. I was a bit confused on how to deliver my lesson which will carry out inclusive education at the same time, it was kind of new thing for me and so I had to do some internet search and also asking teachers about how can I apply inclusive education when for my students. 

 

Firstly, I prepared my notes written in large fonts. This was a way for me to deliver an inclusive education to my students because I know that student sitting in the front can see clearly the written note, but those sitting at the back will not see clearly what is written when the note is written in little fonts. Refer to appendix 1 to view my lesson note written in large font. I found out that doing this was treating students the same since every student in my class had the chance to see and write down their notes and were not complaining about not seeing clearly what was written. I knew that there might be some of my students with sight issue so it is important for me to use large fonts to help these students to also be included in our lesson.

 

Moreover, I used a clear and loud tone of voice. This was a way for me to deliver an inclusive education which I tried to let all my students to hear what I was saying, everyone heard me in explaining our activities and our notes. I knew that there were lot of students in my class and those sitting at the back will not hear clearly what the teacher is explaining, so I had to speak loud and clear to let all my students hear well what I was saying. I knew that there might be some of my students with hearing impairment so it is important for me to say things in loud and clear tone of voice to help these students to be included in our lesson. I even let students with hearing issue to sit at the front in order for me to communicate well to these students. My students all felt included because they heard everything being discussed and explained during the session. 

 

Furthermore, I helped all my student who needed help. It was a way for me to show inclusive education by helping everyone who come and told me for help in their activities and other explanations of the lesson. It was important for me helped everyone in my class because that is showing inclusive, there are some teachers who did not help some of their students, and that shows the teacher is not practicing inclusive education.

 

I received a good feedback from my associate teacher showing that I cater every need of my students, I practiced inclusive education which was beneficial for all my students in experiencing an equal participation. All of my students enjoy my teaching because they know that they feel safe and wanted in a type of inclusive education which I created for all my students.

Appendix 1: 

My Reflection on NCAF

 The content of my teaching journal will identify and explain on how I implemented some of the indications of NCAF during my teaching experience at a junior secondary school (Animarao JSS) year 7. The NCAF is a curriculum document prepared and established by the Government of Kiribati to help teachers in Kiribati for sustaining quality education. It is essential for teachers in Kiribati to follow every requirement indicated in the NCAF in order for children to receive quality education and become successful citizens in the future. Therefore, in this teaching journal, I will show how I implement the NCAF in order for me to establish quality education for my students. 

 

Firstly, I used student-centered learning as part of implementing the NCAF. During my teaching experience, I created a 5E lesson plan for student-centered learning which was to allow students to construct and build their own knowledge. It is clearly stated from the NCAF that student-centered learning is one of the best ways and approaches to help students become independent learners, it gives children the chance to participate more and learn through communicating and helping each other. Most of the activities that I gave the children were where the group works and where they can communicate and share ideas among themselves. I also use inquiry teaching where I asked a lot of questions for the students to give their prior knowledge in answering those questions, that is part of student-centered learning because children create their knowledge to learn from their answers rather than I explain everything for them to learn. Moreover, through part of my lessons, I allow students to participate by standing up and doing a presentation, it was part of student-centered learning because when students stand up it means they are confident to speak and communicate in front of other people. At that time of my lesson delivery I witnessed a very fun and engaging learning environment as children construct, explore, and discover what they want to learn. I also learned my responsibility which is to facilitate and help the students in their learning. 

Secondly, I used the policy of language teaching as part of implementing the NCAF. To make myself familiar and ready to speak in my teaching experience I look over the NCAF and found out that I must use 30% te-kiribati language and 70% English language. I explained and taught everything using the English language, even my written resources were written in English. From the beginning to the end of my lesson I used English to define new words, asking questions using English words, I even told the students to speak English in class. Furthermore, I created an activity to boost English speaking in the class, the activity was a presentation, and they must speak in English when presenting their activity. It was a fun English-speaking activity used by the students. 

Lastly, during my class, I use ways that students can relate their learning to their real-life experiences. Our topic during that time was ICT so as part of their exploration of the topic I let them look at the pictures of Laptops and other technologies that they were familiar with. It was very easy for them to teach the ICT to them because they were familiar with these technologies and responded quickly to what those are and how those things work and what people use those things for. Refer to my lesson plan to see my evidence on this.