Gulden K.

I believe that everyone can learn if the right approach is taken which will appeal to the student. Everyone has a different way of learning such as kinesthetic, visual, auditory etc. Moreover if a student understands why he / she needs to learn a certain topic than it will be easier for him/her to learn it. A student shouldn`t view a topic something intangible but should feel that it is a part of his/ her current life.

I spend time to get to know the student in the first class period so that I can understand what the student`s previous notion of the course itself is and what his/her skills and interests are which will make it easier to teach. I try to introduce the topic with very basic questions and try to show the student how to arrive the answer by breaking up the question into parts.

Giving assignments to be completed by the student himself/herself alone , assigning creative assignments where thinking and research is needed. If possible creating occasions where student to student tutoring is possible or student teaching the tutor.

I would help a student motivated first by appealing to his/her interest level, giving frequent positive feedbacks. If I sense that the student is not engaged at all or having difficulty to get involved, I stop teaching and try to reach to him /her by starting a conversation on daily events.

I try to lower the level of teaching and go to very simple examples, or try to use drawing, I try to be sure that the student has the prior knowledge to use in building up on it the the new concept.

I try to see if this struggle is due to excitement or some need for special help. I try to rephrase the question by stressing the important words, try to explain the significant terminology or rewrite the same question in bigger letters and keep it very short and underline the important terminology.

Most of all, have student believe in the usefulness of the subject taught, have a positive attitude towards the teacher, have the class atmosphere engaging, prepare the lessons so that the student feels that he/she is gaining confidence as continues within the course. In terms of IB teaching, I start from very basic and continue building up on it, break up the questions as they master the subject, face them with actual IB questions from past papers, face them with the actual mark from the marking scheme and have them understand their present standing in IB chemistry.

To have the students get engaged with the subject, presence of the teaching material in daily life, their mastery of it by praising them, building confidence in them as they are successful with the actual IB questions. When the students get excited, I try to gain his/her confidence by stating that it is a common practice for students to have difficulty in understanding the particular concept, then I try to explain it in smaller portions and then give them very simple questions relevant the difficult concept and praise them as they move.

I stop on the way and review what I have done so far and ask the student to teach me what he / she has learned so far. Moreover, facial expressions mean a lot. I try not to much involved with tutoring but be with the student to figure out where he / she is lost on the way. Apart from emotional expressions, I present a very short question to see how much has been understood.

A student needs to be praised so that he/ she will be engaged with the topic. This praise can be in the form of giving a positive feedback during the course,

I talk to the student first to understand if he/she really knows the weak points. Then I can check the student`s prior knowledge by giving him/her a pretest. Before class is over, a small quiz can be given to check if he/she has thoroughly got the idea or have him/her play Kahoot which is previously prepared on the basic material taught during the class.

Once I figure out the student`s learning style, interest level, I prepare my lesson plan accordingly.

Videos, puzzles, Kahoot. drawings, active participation even online, animations, data bank questions such as Kognity or Inthinking