Weekly Journal week 5

During the fifth week, I was happy and sad at the same time because this is my last week in
this school. This week was the hardest week for me because I catch up everything such as TP
booklet and I taught two lessons.
According to Kyriacou (2007), one of the main reasons that lead to misbehave in the
classroom is the activity that bore students, especially if it does not meet their interests.
Therefore, in this week I focused on differentiate the activities according to student's interest
and student's level. Moreover, I noticed that students participate well if the teacher use
different activities. In addition, I observed that my MST differentiate the exams and
activities. I think the differentiation strategy is a very useful approach for both students and
teacher. The students are in different level so it helps students to improve their skills and
succeed. It help teachers to explain the lesson in brilliant way.
In this week I applied the differentiation activity for two lessons. At the first time when I
used the differentiation strategy, I explained the activity before I gave it to them. Then I
noticed that I took many times to explain it. So, for the second time, I gave them the
instructions for the activity in small groups.
During this week, taught two lessons one about the fossil and the other one about butterfly
life cycle. As usual, I corrected students work such as their homework, spelling test,
worksheets, and exams. I also read a story about the fossil for the students and I asked them
questions. I think that in this week I did a great job because I finished all my tasks in this
week. Moreover, my relationship, with the teachers, and parents became stronger. Besides, I
learned a lot of things through this week, and I worked hard.

My MST did a lot of activities about science most of the activities was for English and math.
However, I think the best activity that I observed was letting students use clay to create a
fossil for the animal. I believe that the students learn science better by doing and touching
and doing things by their hand rather than lecturing.
In this week, I tried the differentiations strategy it was very successful. At the first time I
faced some problems, but at the second time, I fixed that mistakes that I did it. I think this
strategy was successful because the students participated well and learned many things at the
same time. I also believe that this strategy was effective even if it take a lot of time to
prepare for it. Moreover, I think this strategy it worked better than other strategies.
Next time, I think I have to come up with more strategies that will help students to learn.
I learned that the best way to assess students learning is by doing a summative test for them at
the end of the two lesson. The exam must differentiate according to their level low, middle
and high.
In this week, I had to teach two science lesson in the last period. I noticed that the time of the
last period is too long (1 hour) and I think it is too much for a young child. Therefore, I think
I should be flexible with time, and I have to prepare more activities for the lesson. Moreover,
I must improve my time management by using the timer. I also should divide a time for each
activity to finish on time. I applied these ways in my last lesson.
Next time, I will focus more to improve my teaching skills. I will also focus on applying
inquiry and differentiation strategy. Moreover, I will always let students to work as group
but each student with her own role. Bruner observes that "the process of constructing
knowledge of the world is not done in isolation but rather within social context"(Meggitt,
2006). In addition, according to Vygotsky social interaction..is necessary for children to
acquire the ways of thinking and behaving that makeup a communitys culture (Berk,
2009).

References:
Berk, L. (2009). Child development. Boston: Pearson Education
Kyriacou, C. (2007). Essential teaching skills. Cheltenham, UK: Nelson Thornes.
Meggitt, C. (2006). Child development (2nd ed.). Oxford: Heinemann.