MY EXPERIENCE IN TEACHING AND LEARNING

Happy new year 2015 and may it be merry to all!! ...Fifteen years ago, our high school head teacher doubled as our English teacher. He used to teach us English and while on assembly, we all could realize he knew English, he used simple words, common enough and the guy was audible. In class he grouped us and distributed questions always, and called for answers from every body, and before the start of every lesson he called on every body at least to recite any ideas of what could have been taught previously... At first it was so much hard for me because i had to cram everything because each point could not be repeated i could read hard to make sure i get what to say the next session in the review. I felt we were being over used but i finally realized i had enough English that made me school council speaker at advanced high school. I Felt learning took place both when our teacher was in class and more so at home. up to now, when am facilitating in a classroom, i feel he is still behind my ability. I started teaching my fellow students at the age of 19,and that time could calculate just call it copy and paste, till when i was taken through vocational instruction when skills, knowledge and attitude are key attributes to make a professional. The integration of ICT in Vocational Pedagogy is becoming an interesting innovation, i have started using power point presentations, videos and off course my chalk board is still active however am trying as much as possible to make sure that it is used to explain a feedback not to dictate what the learners will take. Most challenges come of equipment, but compared to where i started from my lessons are consistently becoming active and interactive. enough preparation though is needed for preparing presentations, learning how to use the equipment, and navigating the world wide web to search for viable educative sites to give reference information to my trainees. I realized that much time is wasted as one re-writes on the chalk board, or is drawing a 2D drawing. it is much convenient for the learner to watch a video of how a pipe is jointed, than explaining a print out of a black and white figure, (2D), and then give very many sentences of steps, the learner will derive steps from what he/she has observed from the video and this will facilitate retention and recall of the learned material. Now i like facilitating training because involving learners relieves stress from me. and the next time in my review of the previous lesson i find most of them would have grasped many ideas.