Teach2030’s worldwide community is ever-expanding. Despite Covid stopping many travel plans, this month, we journey on a whistle-stop tour around the globe, interviewing 4 different class teachers from 3 different countries. They discuss the impact of Teach2030 courses in their classroom.
First stop, Zambia, where Hope Chiundira is boosting learners’ engagement by implementing knowledge and skills from our ‘Practical Active Learning for Your Classroom’ Course.
I most enjoyed learning about teaching strategies like ‘No Hands Up.’ The first time I did that with my learners was in my Grade 6, Technology Studies class. It was the whole class all standing, as we did it in the starter activity. I could see every learner looking at me attentively, hoping they would be next to answer. They didn’t want to be caught unaware. It works well to make sure all my learners are engaged and listening. Also, even the learners who try to be quiet I asked questions to. This showed that they were following and it showed their analytical thinking.
Our next visit in this world tour is India, where our ‘Fresh Thinking for Your Classroom’ course is strengthening one teacher’s planning, particularly as she focuses on her own language in the classroom.
I filmed myself a number of times, watched and reviewed my teaching. I noted my areas of improvement. I noticed that I make many grammatical errors while speaking. I noted that a better vocabulary and fluency would impart better learning. Students would get better quality of learning, and, moreover, they would imitate the teacher and learn better vocabulary.
Our final destination today is Jamaica, where Jennifer Roberts’ reflects on significant improvements in her teaching because of our ‘Growth Mindset for Teachers and Learners’ course.
The course helped me to realise that the wrong kind of feedback can create self-defeating behaviour while the right kind can motivate students. Learners will be impacted immensely, as long as they can develop a growth mindset attitude.
I now display growth mindset through my grade four class, as I realised that most students had a fixed mindset attitude towards their learning. I started to praise students for their effort, by saying things like: ‘You read the material over several times and tested yourself – that really worked.’ It made the students more aware of their strengths and their weaknesses. They became more focused and showed excellent performance. My students started to show more about their learning. They became more focused at given tasks and I felt very good. It was great.
All our courses encourage teachers to collaborate with a learner partner. Rose Duff, also in Jamaica, explains how this is increasing the sense of teamwork and community in her school.
From the ‘Growth Mindset’ course, I enjoyed the most practising how to give effective and meaningful feedback. The course shows me the language I should use and when and how to praise my learners. The changes I will make to my classroom practice after this course is to model the growth mindset language more and try to encourage all my students to develop a growth mindset.
In my learning partner, I promoted growth mindset language. She constantly used negative language whenever she didn’t readily accomplish a task. Now, she thinks twice before she utters a word. She now endeavours to use more positive language, rather than just ‘no,’ whenever she speaks. It touched me to see the adoration I got just from assisting her to change her language and seeing her putting it into practice now. This has caused me to have a closer relationship with her, as she now knows that someone believes in her and has her back.
This course encouraged me to be confident and determined to be an agent of change.
Today, we celebrate our global community of teachers, who are the ‘agents of change’ by modelling the behaviour and growth expected in their learners. Online learning through the smartphone is the future of low-cost access to high quality and contextualised professional development. Teach2030 is allowing us to connect with teachers across the entire world.
Our journey continues…
Would you like your Teach2030 experience and country mentioned in our next blog? Tell us on Facebook and Instagram which strategy you found most effective and why.
Share your stories using the hashtags: #commonwealtheducationtrust #teach2030 #sdg4 #LearnitTryitShareit
