Reflective Logs

DRP 2017-18

Reflctive Log Day 1

Aoa. I am Zil e Zahra from Beaconhouse Abbottabad. First session of Drp that also included
orientation session was very comprehensive and informative. My ambiguities about strategies
and activities were sorted out.For the very first time I planned an activity by keeping in mind the
learning paradigms and I realized that the curriculum of BSS is not only confined to classrooms
but also is practically applicable in students social,domestic and in future in professional life as
well. I learnt about the cycle of doing reviewing learning and applying and that really my
broadened my vision about teaching and learning.Different aspects and interpretations of
blooms taxonomy about teaching also helped me in understanding the deep philosophy of the
curriculum and from now onwards definitely my lessons and planning will not be superficial
anymore. 
Reflective Log Day 2
Aoa everyone
"Your focus is on helping students develop certain skills—the ability to write more
persuasively, think more clearly, offer more effective presentations, solve certain kinds of
problems. Again, be prepared both to articulate the precise skills that the students will
have gained in your courses and the reasons those skills are important". James M. Lang

Being a language teacher for middleand high school my primary focus is to equip them
with immaculate writing skills to survive in this era. However, I never felt fully satisfied or
accomplished after the lesson. I tried multiple strategies like hands on activity,ppt
presentations ,group tasks, inspiration 9 and individual work etc . Though these
strategies work for students with good language skills but for the struggling students not
to great extent.This is the point where I question myself for not catering to the needs of
all thestudents.

After taking two classes of DRP my perspective of teaching changed and I have started
considering four c's in my lesson plans and thes four cs are applicable both to teacher
and students. Instead of forcing students to write an essay on an unwanted topic I have
started giving them different topics of their intersts to write on. As youngsterslove to
research their intersted areas so they come up with better writings. so instead of
imposing my interests I have started collaborating with them and sharing their areas of
interest. In this way attainment target was linked to leraners profile.

So the ability to reflect upon my weaknesses and fix them, enabled me to achieve better
results. 

Zil-E-Zahra
BSSA 
Reflective Log Day 3
DRP Class Management
Zil-E-Zahra

The main focus of third session of DRP Training was class management ;a critical aspect of teacher’s life.
According to William Glossar’schoice theory (1998) “the most important need is love and belonging
because connectedness with others is required as a basis in satisfying all other needs. The classroom
should therefore be a needs-satisfying place for students.” That is exactly what was taught in the session.

Until now my perspective of a well managed classroom was of noiseless classroom where teacher was
the only authoritative person but the last Friday’s session gave me a new vision of an organized
classroom where there is a transition of boring monotonous classroom to a lively and congenial learning
environment . I will start with the derivation of rules . This job should not be carried out by teacher alone
rather students should create rules themselves which are applicable and acceptable for both students and
teachers. 

Secondly ,I feel that the content of lesson should be made more interesting by introducing new
techniques and approaches because students love to explore and want their queries and curiosities to be
satisfied and hence will be more eager to learn hence lesser class disruption. So a well planned lesson is
synonymous to a well organized classroom. Groups of students with different skills can be a good choice
as they can act as a live resource for each member and help students improve their inter personal skills
enabling them to survive the challenges of the real world.

According to William Glossar (1998) supporting, encouraging ,listening ,accepting ,trusting ,respecting
and negotiating differences are the traits that a teacher must have to administer a conducive learning
environment where every single person feels important and the productive member of the team . So I am
going to work on these qualities to make my classroom a hub of learning .

References
https://online.husson.edu › Blog
William Glossars Choice Theory 1998 Less...
Reflective Log Day 4
Assessment means collecting and evaluating evidence to establish the level of an individual's
performance, whether carried out by external methods (common assessment tasks, examinations
and portfolio submissions), internal methods, or a combination of external and internal methods,
or any other approved method" (NZQA,n.d.).

Fourth session of DRP was infact the comprehensive interpretation of the above mentioned
words andcatered to the most important area of teaching i.e. assessments. It focused on different
types of assessments and their purposes .Furthermore I realized that a good assessment can
only be judged on the basis of VRIP. 
Three major types of assessments and their respective pupose were discussed in detail.This
session helped me to realize the fact that formative assessments not only help teacher to assess
students understanding but also is a gadget for teacher himself to formulate strategies for future
to maximize students learning..However, importance of summative essay can never be
overlooked as it shows us the efficacy of our strategies and plans and determine the learning of
our students. 
I am sharing one of my summative assessments which I took recently and sharing of criteria
earned me much better results as student exactly were aware ofthe specific areas to be assessed
on.

Reference
wikieducator.org/Learning_and.../Assessment_theories,_principles_and_practices
Reflective Log Day 5
Day 5 in DRP course was all about reflection and learning to be good reflective practitioners.
The day started with the circle time and it proceeded with other activities in which we reflected
back on our personal and professional learning. We evaluated lesson plan in a group and came
up with better solutions.
After attending the DRP classes, I have realized that being a good teacher is not only about our
command and understanding about the subject we teach but we have to constantly evaluate our
self continuously. If we want our students to be engaged and to learn and develop their skills, we
need to be able to look at our own abilities and keep on polishing them. This happens when we
are in a continuous process of reflecting ourselves. This can be our lesson plans, different type of
assessments or even teaching strategies but we as teachers in each step should engage ourselves
in reflective practices thus continuing a circular flow. In this way the more you understand what
you do in your class; you will be able to understand why you did it. This can lead to our and our
students’ better learning.
We can reflect back on our teaching through students feedback (formative or summative),
writing a log, co teaching or being observed by a peer. In all these ways we can find out, how we
can improve our teaching and students learning.

“…reflection in the context of learning is a generic term for those intellectual and affective
activities in which individuals engage to explore their experiences in order to lead to new
understandings and appreciation. It may take place in isolation or in association with others.”

David Boud, Rosemary Keogh and David Walker, eds., Reflection: Turning Experience into
Learning (New York: Kogan Page Ltd., 1985) at 19.