The Biggest Challenge
Mentor
a mentor was a big problem for me. First I asked Mr. Jerry Oldenstam to be my mentor but there was conflict of interest because he was also one of the local professors that was assigned to assess the classes. So professor Andy Plak guides me during this period. He was very open and I learned a lot from him.
Lesson plan
The new lesson plan was a big mystery to me. I had no idea how to go about it. I was familiar with the IOL template as a history teacher but the new lesson plan looked like something in Greek to me. Because everybody in the whole group had no idea how to work with this template, the local teachers translated it in Dutch and they gave us a special presentation about it, and only then did we grab it. The first lesson plan was a group effort and because of my teacher's background I took the leader's role. So we choose for a history lesson. At the presentation of the lesson plan at IOL it seemed that our lesson plan was one of the better ones.
The right person
Professor Andy Plak who was at my school for some other reason, saw me and said you are the right person to present the first lesson. I was shocked because our lesson plan was not finished yet. I thought why me, why not someone else? I discussed this with my school director and she said to me "nothing happens without reason, maybe it's a sign to show what you are capable of". Together with Priscilla Wangsatana we worked till late in the evening to finished the lesson plan.
Believe in yourself
A lesson for my students is completely different from a lesson for 60 fellow students. But I did it, and I'm happy to say that I did it very well. Here I learned that when you want to achieve something, don't be afraid to go for it. After this lesson I liked the concept of the new lesson plan very much. But it has its disadvantage, honestly it takes too much time to prepare it.
During this lesson about the Aztecs, the Mayas and Incas, I used several tools. Tools like a self made video, Kahoot and Socrative. The peers liked the lesson and professor Andy Plak was impressed with my lesson. And he said:" every single teacher should work with these tools". I agree with him because if you want to bring innovation in our Surinamese education system, every single teacher has to get acquainted with these new tools.
a mentor was a big problem for me. First I asked Mr. Jerry Oldenstam to be my mentor but there was conflict of interest because he was also one of the local professors that was assigned to assess the classes. So professor Andy Plak guides me during this period. He was very open and I learned a lot from him.
Lesson plan
The new lesson plan was a big mystery to me. I had no idea how to go about it. I was familiar with the IOL template as a history teacher but the new lesson plan looked like something in Greek to me. Because everybody in the whole group had no idea how to work with this template, the local teachers translated it in Dutch and they gave us a special presentation about it, and only then did we grab it. The first lesson plan was a group effort and because of my teacher's background I took the leader's role. So we choose for a history lesson. At the presentation of the lesson plan at IOL it seemed that our lesson plan was one of the better ones.
The right person
Professor Andy Plak who was at my school for some other reason, saw me and said you are the right person to present the first lesson. I was shocked because our lesson plan was not finished yet. I thought why me, why not someone else? I discussed this with my school director and she said to me "nothing happens without reason, maybe it's a sign to show what you are capable of". Together with Priscilla Wangsatana we worked till late in the evening to finished the lesson plan.
Believe in yourself
A lesson for my students is completely different from a lesson for 60 fellow students. But I did it, and I'm happy to say that I did it very well. Here I learned that when you want to achieve something, don't be afraid to go for it. After this lesson I liked the concept of the new lesson plan very much. But it has its disadvantage, honestly it takes too much time to prepare it.
During this lesson about the Aztecs, the Mayas and Incas, I used several tools. Tools like a self made video, Kahoot and Socrative. The peers liked the lesson and professor Andy Plak was impressed with my lesson. And he said:" every single teacher should work with these tools". I agree with him because if you want to bring innovation in our Surinamese education system, every single teacher has to get acquainted with these new tools.