Spontaneity

ONE THING I appreciate about teaching is that every day is always different. The experience in every session would always be distinct from each other even when you are teaching the same subject matter or even using the same strategy to deliver a particular lesson.

This observation has become more obvious when we decided to assign students to their sections based on their academic performance. The strategy that works for one section most often fail in the other section. So the teacher has to design activities with the individual differences between students in mind.

The other day, while we were discovering the relationship between the angular velocity of a rotating body and the tangential velocity of a point in the circumference of the circle using a PowerPoint presentation and recalling their observations in the activity they performed prior to the discussion, I noticed several wrinkled foreheads suggesting that they were still having a hard time understanding it.

Right on the spot, I thought of demonstrating it together with some of our students. I asked some students to volunteer. That started all the fun. They were laughing while we were doing it and I believe it had been an effective strategy.

That’s spontaneity. The lesson plan need not be strictly followed. In order to ensure effective delivery of the lesson, the teacher should be quick to devise an alternative strategy as there exists no single strategy that works for all types of students and in all kinds of situations.