Day 3

Topics: Reflective Practice, 21st Century Skills, Active & Passive learning

 Session started with tilawat and beautiful recitation of naat. Our trainer appreciated the digital skills of IT Teachers as we have learnt to use Teams very quickly. Such appreciative comments bring a sense of pride and this motivates me to use more and more available tools in Teams. This is the reason that today I have opened Class Notebook and instead of noting down on paper, I started using my private space during the session. Teams offers variety of learning tools which will not only help me as student but it will also remain with me in my teaching scenario. First discussion was about Reflective practices. Trainer told us that today's session will be totally student centered where we have to discuss and present the content. A reading material related to reflection was being posted. This healthy and informative discussion make me reflect on my previous 2 reflections. I learnt few of my mistakes and now trying to consider past, present and future aspect of events happening during the day long activities. 3 case studies were once again being discussed but this time on the principles of reflection writing. Just like third case where reflective practice makes reflection writing easier, I will inshallah maintain reflective diary of my lessons which I have never done before. In the next session, we were split in 6 break out rooms and were assigned the tasks of discussing over 21st century skills while answering 4 relevant questions shared by trainer. We also have to discuss difference of Active and Passive Learning and lastly we were given 4 scenarios for which we have to identify the skill which students were using. Discussing about 21st century skills in group, I was thinking how such group discussions help practicing the 4C's of learning skills. The best part of this discussion was each and every member was participating and sharing their knowledge and experiences. I was preparing the document and have to present the first task. We complete our task in time and returned back to class. We were in Room 6 and thinking we would be the last to present but this strategy was another one I learnt from my trainer that he gave us a slight shock by calling Room 6 to present first. For a second, I got confused but alhamdulillah completed the discussion points we have collected. Active Passive differences were presented by another member. Trainer adds few very interesting points as conclusion of our discussion. Most of us from the reading have understood that all traditional methods are passive and cooperative methods are active learning. But the biggest take away from the discussion was opposite to my understanding, use of old and traditional methods are not necessarily need to be rejected out-rightly. In some scenarios we have to stick to those methods but its teachers creativity skills that can add some innovation in traditional methods and make it student centered. This brings a sigh of relief as in my classes of IX-X and XI, my biggest challenge is always completion of syllabus in time and this allow less time to engage my students in activities on daily basis. Session concluded with sharing the skills in 4 given scenarios. This helps me in identifying and learning few more strategies where students can learn a particular skill.