Though the Raya holidays have left us behind and the Raya mood is still intact in our hearts and minds, the struggle for supremacy over laziness rages on. Everyone still wanted to relax and take a rest but the abundant assignments we left behind during the holidays will not be completed by itself. I reset my mind back towards accomplishing what I need to do. Luckily, the class was allocated by the lecturer as our assignment-doing period and we were given the opportunity to clarify our misunderstandings or consult valuable advices which could enrich our assignments and tasks qualities.
The third assignment proves to be the lion or the king of the jungle as it was a huge challenge to ‘tame’ it. Producing four lesson plans at once was no piece of cake. I cracked my head day and night looking for creative and innovative ideas which could make my lesson plans great. The challenge doubles as we are to integrate our lesson plans with all the technologies we have learnt throughout the course like photo editing, audio, video and so forth. At first glance it might be too much for me to handle but I try to think it positively by reminding myself that this is a valuable opportunities to create quality work that will not only sharpen my creative and critical thinking skills but also use the lesson plans later when I become a teacher. Therefore, the assignment allows me to kill two birds with one stone and I am becoming more acceptable and patient in handling the task so far.
To me, crafting effective lesson plans should take in depth consideration the target audience, and in this case, they are young learners. So it is my duty to recall back the schemata I learnt about the characteristics of young learners and how to manipulate my lesson plans to serve the purpose and objectives of the lesson plans. Since young learners are very observant to the actions done by objects and what they see around them (according to Eric Erikson), the teaching aids used must be modified as to contain only the favored or intended good learning qualities that we want the child to acquire. To put it clearer; the internet is a host to countless number of pictures, videos and so forth. Each item that we believe has teaching potentials must be rid of negative qualities such as inappropriate words, improper pictures, violence, and so on. Therefore, this is where I can train myself to practice all the necessary technology skills I learnt towards transforming raw materials into wonderful teaching aids, so that they could be used later in the lesson plans. So it becomes clear to me that as future teachers, we should become aware of the needs of our young learners and filter the appropriate knowledge they should acquire while at the same time turning the lesson into an exciting and memorable learning experience. I learnt a lot from all the hard work trying to complete the assignment.
Trying to create something creative from scratch is no easy job. It requires tremendous thinking and intricate step by step evaluation before it could be carried out successfully in the classroom. One would think that after all the hard work done, each lesson plan we gave birth carries the signs of our tears and hard labor. Therefore it would be a catastrophic sadness to us all if someone were to simply use our masterpieces as their own, intended for self-gain and needs without first explicitly acquiring our permission. It should be remembered that as Muslims, every act and actions we take upon others will have its consequences. This is especially important for educators, not just teachers, because it is our responsibility to evaluate each of our students equally and fairly without the intervention of feelings or hatred towards a certain student which might cloud our professional judgments. I speak not because this is what I feel, but because we are Muslim who abide by the rules and teachings of the holy Quran. If your position is as an educator, then treat and judge all your students fairly, because if you don’t, you will have to answer that to ALLAH himself.
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