“Whiteboard to the rescue…”

For the past months that I’ve been doing student teaching, I have a hard time what tool or
website should I use for my classes. Especially, with my subject which is Mathematics, it should be
demonstrated with actual examples of numbers. In a face to face classes, it would be easy to express
these through writing on the board, but with the Online Distance Learning right now, without gadgets
like Digital Pens I cannot do it manually. By this, I need to think creatively and use website that can easily
convey the equation examples. I already used Jamboard, Quizizz, and H5P. Unfortunately, Jamboard can
be a little complicated to use because I cannot properly write with the drawing tool just by using the
mouse. It’s hard and it takes a lot of time, the numbers are not readable also. It really needs a digital pen
for it to be readable. But I don’t have the luxury to buy it for now, so what I did I used the sticky notes to
write numbers or the equations. I used it for weeks and I realized it should be easier to do my class if I
have an actual whiteboard. So, I bought a whiteboard and a marker. In order for the students to see the
whiteboard, I need to set up another camera. It was successful because the students can pin their
screens so that the main thing that they can see is my hand writing the equation. Our lesson was about
changing mixed numbers to improper fraction and vice versa, that’s why we need to show the solution
on how to get the answers.

The domains that I can relate this week is Domain 1, Content Knowledge and Pedagogy, strand
1.3 Positive Use of ICT, strand 1.4 Strategies for Promoting Literacy and Numeracy, strand 1.7 Classroom
Communication Strategies and also Domain 4 Curriculum and Planning, strand 4.5 Teaching and
Learning Resources including ICT. It all applies with what I did for this week’s class presentation and
activities. Choosing the best tool that can easily access by the students, easier mode of teaching for
myself. As a student teacher, I learned how to be creative and flexible on how to make effective
strategies in delivering my lessons. Especially, in ODL we should think out of the box so that the students
can still learn even if they are doing it at home.

The learning theory that I can relate in this week’s class is Constructivism. My students are all
visual learners, they need to see a step by step equation on how to change improper fraction to mixed
numbers and vice versa for them to understand and follow the correct way of finding out the answers.
With this, it relates to constructivism because this way of learning is where higher thinking skills are built
on solid foundation of concrete learning, which include experience, visual feedback and motor activities
(Wawasan Open University).