Greetings dear friends, it's the first week of the Steemit Learning Challenge for season 21 and I'm delighted to be part of these contest organised here by the brilliant teachers. Indeed the role of a teacher in any setting can never be looked down upon and that is why we consider them most important in our community for growth.
Today I want to write my opinion on the topic Developing a Learning Contract. After going through the course, I saw that Learning Contract is what every teacher does knowingly or unknowingly to ensure that he has a smooth atmosphere for teaching and learning.
1. Can you explain what obstacles a teacher may face in the classroom learning process? (2 Points) |
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Every teacher faces one obstacle or the other in his or her classroom especially when the teacher didn't take absolute control of the class before he or she starts his lecture or teaching. Now let me explain this much better.
As a teacher, you may face the challenge of noise making if you don't take control of your class because when you come into the class and the students don't find your teaching interesting they will focus on making news and praying for your period to be over.
Playing or doing another thing such as assignment or copying a different note while you are in the class is another challenge that teachers face. When a teacher is in the classroom, some students place value on the notes or assignment they were supposed to have done before your class and if you don't have control over your class they won't even focus on what you are teaching them.
So noise making, writing or copying notes and assignment of different subjects and also discussion between each other are the major things that students do which is the obstacles teachers in class have to face and control to ensure that they deliver their lecture effectively.
2. What do you think is the importance of learning contracts and how have learning contracts helped your teaching process so far? (2.5 points) |
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Learning contract to me is very important as I said earlier a lot of teachers goes into this learning contract knowingly and unknowingly. As a teacher, meeting my students for the first time, all I usually do is to give them my stand by rules and regulations so that they can know the Do's and the Dont`s.
When we all have these understanding, then teaching becomes very easy for me. As a lecturer one of my major learning contract is that no student enters the class once I'm in class. This means that you must be in class sitted and prepared before I come in.
Usually, I give a grace of five minutes into my lecture period for the students to get themselves prepared because they moment I enter, I don't listen to excuses so all my students at the moment knows that once I'm in the class already there is no point coming because they won't be allowed inside.
This has help my teaching process because all of the students firstly get themselves well prepared knowing that I'm the one coming into the class. The grace of the 5 minutes also help them to tidy all unfinished work because I don't also tolerate students doing other things like copying notes or assignment as well as noise making while I'm in the class.
Overtime I have used this method and it has proven to be very effective for me because they students hearts and minds are geared towards what I'm teaching in the class and that enable me to pass the necessary knowledge to them and I can proudly say I have been able to produce a good number of students who also follow the principle of discipline.
3. What important components should be included in a learning contract and explain why they are helpful to you? (2.5 Points) |
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Just like clearly stated in the course given by the professor, everyone has his or her learning contract as it is not a norm that everyone must follow same standard. Whatever works for you and helps you to have a good environment where you can pass the knowledge to the students then I guess you can implement that.
In my opinion, I think one important that must be added to learning contract to make it stand out is a compulsory rule that both the teacher and the student must meet because some teachers are also a contributing factor to the challenges they face in the class.
What this means is that every teacher must have a Methodology in his teaching which must be perfectly presented in the first meeting with the students and also supervised by external body to see if the students understand the message and if the teacher passed the message clearly.
If this is checked and taken into consideration at the very beginning then you will agree with me that there will be no issues there after when the students and the teacher continually meets for their lecture. So methodology should be included and it should be supervised and if it's not okay then let the teacher be changed so that they class can be lively and the students can put in their full concentration to learning.
4. What are your strategies for ensuring student compliance with the learning contract and how have the consequences worked so far, or do you have other ways of organizing the learning activities to remain effective? (2 points) |
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My strategy to ensure students compliance with the learning contract is very easy and simple. Since in the first class, they already know all that they are expected to do and the things they are not allowed to do, they also know the consequences attached so I don't stress myself at all.
Most times, I take attendance in every class I have with them and I allocate some mark to it and because every single mark in the higher institution is very important, they always try not to miss it. So in this way I have much control over the lay down learning contract.
Also with time I keep reminding them that I'm still taking into account our agreement from the beginning and that it is what I will continue to work with until the end of the semester. In doing so most of them who may have become to familier with the rules will adjust knowing that part of their future is at staked.
So continually reminding them and also attaching some mark to those who sincerely are living upto the rules and guide has helped me a lot to keep the classroom going and focused.
5. Participants are expected to include all photos that are their own and not sourced from other parties (1 Point). |
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Below are some of the images of my self in the classroom doing what I know how to do best.
I want to finally invite a few friends of mine @josepha, @suboohi and @dove11 to also share their participation in this contest if they haven't done that yet.
Your learning contract shows that you are very self-aware. This plan of yours will surely open many doors of success. Good luck for the contest.
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