Putu P.

I believe in the philosophy of teaching through understanding. Many students think biology is about memorizing. Compared to other branches of Sciences, I think Biology indeed has a lot of terms to memorize. However, when we can correlate the Biological terms with their functions or mechanisms, memorizing the terms will become automatic. Many biology materials need understanding, and when the students understand the topics, they do not need to remember the topics repeatedly. When students understand the topics, the students will be able to explain the topics using their own words and, of course, with the incorporation of biological terms. To achieve those goals, during my lesson usually, I will explain biological topics like storytelling. I will present the topics they need to learn and connect the biology topics with the real and current situation or their experience in daily life. For example, a short distance pathway is one factor that affects the rate of diffusion. I will explain to them that traveling from Jakarta (in Indonesia) to Tokyo (in Japan) will take a longer time than traveling from Jakarta (in Indonesia) to Bali (in Indonesia). Shorter distances make people can travel faster, the same as particles in diffusion. Therefore, a shorter distance can make the rate of diffusion become faster.

My student feedback shows that I make students fall in love with Biology right from my first lesson. My simple teaching through storytelling and understanding creates a eureka moment and makes learning easy as students like. I also try to build connections with students and make students comfortable giving their opinions during my lesson, answering questions, and sharing their difficulties for the lesson. I teach through excellent online tools and use beautiful slides, interactive digital whiteboards, videos, animations, biology games, and online lab simulations. I will ensure the students' understanding of the lesson by doing simple quizzes or worksheets or simply giving the students oral questions to test their knowledge. I am open to feedback from the students and ask about specific topics or materials if they need to focus on certain areas.

Doing active learning, creating projects, and slide presentations are the ways to help students become independent learners. First, the teacher needs to give guidance and example, such as what kind of projects that they need to make, the purpose of the projects, what they need to learn during the project, how to make a report, how to find data or resources, how to analyze the data, how to make a good slide presentation, how to do public speaking or how to explain the concept in front of other persons. After giving clear guidance, we can train the students to do similar things using different topics. At first, it will be difficult for them. However, over time, the students will get used to doing those activities and can be more and more independent in their learning. We can introduce them to topics in the books and relate the topics to the current situation, so their curiosity regarding the topics will be increased. When their interest increases, the sense to gain new knowledge will be increased, and they will try to learn more and more through the teacher or independently.

I believe in intrinsic motivation, which comes through knowing the meaning of things you learn in your life. Biology is a subject that students think about a lot of memorization. Many students are afraid to study biology because of the stigma of complicated materials and the stigma of a lot of memorization. However, I believe that understanding and learning the importance of these biology topics in our lives will motivate the students to learn more and more. When we can correlate biological terms with the phenomena and understand the importance of those terms, we can memorize them automatically. When students can relate the materials learned with daily life or their conditions, the discussions will arise. I have some lessons that start with specific topics, and students begin to ask about their own experiences and try to relate them to the topic of biology. The open-ended discussion arose, and I feel students enjoyed the class and wanted to learn more from me.

As a teacher, my first job is to make students believe that learning something like biology is the thing that is grown, nurtured, and extended. Students may feel they are not good at biology and cannot understand this subject well, but this is a myth. Every child has the potential to grow and be good. With effort, everyone is capable of improving their biology knowledge. Every student has a learning preference or learning style, whether the student is a visual, auditory, writing, or kinesthetic learner. I can adapt the learning style of the student with my teaching strategy. In addition, the students can adjust their hobbies to learning biology. For example, for students that like art and love to draw, I will ask them to make biology notes using symbols and drawing for reviewing biology materials. Although specific topics will be more difficult for certain students than the others, knowing the students' difficulties and focusing on improving those sides, students can excel in their learning.

First, students can learn to read the paragraphs aloud to get used to the reading while the teacher listens. Students can also record the audio when reading the long paragraphs and listening to it repeatedly. I will also teach the student how to use a highlighter and find the main idea over the paragraph. Practice is the key. Through a lot of reading practice and finding the main idea or topics in the paragraph, the student can learn to read more and get the main idea faster over lengthy paragraphs. In addition, I can ask the student to practice by reading materials that they are interested in as practice. If the topics chosen for reading are something that they are interested in, it will increase their motivation to keep practicing the reading.

First, I need to connect with the students, whether they will be comfortable learning from me, talk to me, and be open to their problems or difficulties. Then, by teaching them the materials in a simple and easy-to-understand way, I can use examples that the students can observe daily to relate to their own experiences. Next, I give them worksheets or assessments to determine which parts they still do not understand. After identifying their problems, I can work on them and explain the elements in more detail. Finally, I introduce them to IB exam questions right from day one, starting with easy questions and then taking the level up and teaching them strategies to decode the question and devise a solution later—providing students with personalized feedback on their answers.

First, students can learn to read the paragraphs aloud to get used to the reading while the teacher listens. Students can also record the audio when reading the long paragraphs and listening to them. Then, I teach the materials that they struggle with using simple words and simple examples that they can understand. For instance, we can discuss the concept of the cell by using a parable, and we can compare the organelles of the cells like a city with various places with its functions. Then, we can introduce games that contain the struggling topics so students can study through playing. Finally, I tried to teach them to review the materials based on their hobbies. For example, if they like singing, we can make a song to memorize the terms or topics. If they enjoy drawing, we can try to draw mind maps or simple illustrations. If they like to design, we can make the posters, etc.

Giving assessments or worksheets is one of the best ways to check students' understanding. Students who can explain the concept in an organized manner, especially using their own words, have complete knowledge of the materials. Giving oral questions is also one of the fastest ways to check students' understanding. I also always want my students to keep the camera on as it can be evident from the facial expression if the student has understood the concept. Secondly, I used the flipped classroom concept where after teaching the concept, sometimes I request the student to teach me the idea, and I act as a student and ask questions that give me insight into where the student stands in terms of understanding. And of course, I use a series of questions from past papers to solve after the concept delivery and gauge the student's knowledge through it.

If the student has already mastered the topic or subject, the student will naturally build confidence regarding the subject. Mastery comes when we make things visible and easy to understand. To make things easy to understand by the students is the role of the teacher. And one important thing, during the process of learning, mistakes are inevitable and hence should be encouraged. If the student is not making mistakes, he is not trying out new things or not learning something new. So, we need to tell them that making mistakes is ok and it is the process of learning. When we know our mistakes and can learn to repair, improve or avoid the errors, it is a eureka moment in understanding. In addition, every student has something to be praised. It could be prior knowledge, quality of questions they ask, their participation during the lesson, their creativity, etc. If the teacher encourages all these small things during teaching and learning, the teacher can boost students' confidence. Giving feedback to the students also works the moment to raise confidence in students. Not only can we comment on parts that they need to improve, but we can praise them if they do something excellent or congratulate them when they progress from project to project or assignment.

Good communication between tutors and students is needed. Students need to feel the connection and be comfortable with the teacher. When the communication has already been built, I ask students about their areas of concern in biology and their overall feelings about biology. Then, I conduct preliminary assessments based on the prior knowledge to build on the course they are learning. During the course and after teaching any topic, I conduct formative and summative assessments based on questions from past papers. It helps me gauge students’ performance and does some need-analysis to devise personalized plans.

First, identify their major weakness in the subject, determine which topics they are weak in, and explain them in more detail or more sessions. I try to use a simple explanation to explain complicated things and relate the concept with the application in students' experiences. While the topic can relate to the things familiar to the student, students will be easier to understand and interested in listening and knowing more. Listen to the students and try to make connections with them so they can open up and talk to us about their difficulties in learning. Giving feedback to the students to improve or praise them is one way to improve students' performance and boost students' confidence. Tutoring is not a one-way learning pathway from teacher to student. Still, it can be involved in both directions, from teacher to student and student to teacher. Open discussion and asking students questions about how to solve the problems about specific topics are several ways to induce active learning. Interactive digital and online tools such as a digital whiteboard, online quizzes, online games, biology practicals, and simulations can make our teaching session more fun and give color to the tutoring session.

I use Save My Exams, Question Banks, Online Biology Games, Canva, and Google Jamboard for discussion to give color to biology tutoring sessions. Online Biology Practical Simulation, "Quizzes," Kahoot, and Live Worksheet also can help to provide a unique, dynamic, and fun experience of teaching and learning biology.