Session 2: Some thoughts on videos – “The Quilt Math Project” & “Ms McLane’s Bicycle Journey”

The videos are certainly interesting and makes one reflect on the prevalent use of ICTs in this era of new learning environments. I thought the lesson featured in the first video was simply creative, because she was thinking out of the box when she made use of ‘quilts’ (something that seems quite ‘irrelevant’ to maths at first thought!) to design her maths lesson. I was also thinking about the maths syllabus and I had the impression that the pupils were certainly required to learn more than Singaporean kids because Kristi mentioned that the pupils had to demonstrate how to write and talk about maths concepts! I am certain that Singaporean kids need not go to that extent in elaborating on maths concepts, at most they just merely stop at solving challenging problem sums. (Well, do correct me if I am wrong.) Kristi’s class is just wonderful, from many perspectives – the fact that she assigns roles to different pupils to carry out different tasks, eg: note-taking and photography, shows that she lets pupils take ownership of their learning, and the most striking feature of her lesson is definitely her lesson planning. Just think about it, she needs to come up with a new quilt design each year and probably has to do a lot of adjustments in her instructional packages along the way, just so that she could deliver an irresistible (as she described it herself) lesson to her pupils. Her efforts are definitely laudable. Certainly, her lesson objectives would most likely be met, given that her learning environment is so creative, engaging and allows meaningful discourse to take place among her pupils.

The second video, “Miss McLane’s Bicycle Journey” definitely offers some learning points for language teachers – not only do pupils learn how to read and write via fun ways, eg: reading and replying to emails, they also learn many cultural issues and general knowledge through Miss McLane’s messages. I especially like the way Kristi structures the writing task in an organized manner for her pupils, so that they have a ‘system’ to follow correctly when it comes to writing a specific genre, because language, after all, serves functional purposes, and it is sensible to follow certain protocol to suit specific needs. The use if IT, notably computers and digital cameras seem to be the norm in Kristi’s class, and while I certainly see the benefits of using them – as reflected in pupils’ excitement, interest and engagement during the lessons, I don’t think I could apply the use of ICTs (though there may be computer labs around in school, but the overall setting is different from a classroom, where it is more personal and pupils have ownership over their setting) the way she does, in my own classes. And, I guess it is not difficult to see why, the main reasons being a lack of resources. ;-(