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Thomas Lu
Post-pandemic Teacher-in-Practice
The five-year journey in BMED as a pre-service teacher has passed in the blink of an eye. Once as a freshman, I listened to my senior fellows sharing some memorable moments happened during their teaching practice. Time flies and I have already finished all two teaching practicums last year – full of uncertainties in the beginning, but these uncertainties prepared myself to be a future school mathematics teacher in the new normal. Going to graduate soon and be a teacher-in-service, it is now my turn to share my memorable moments under the challenges brought by COVID-19.
COVID-19 has hit school life hard since 2020. Even though face-to-face teaching was getting back on track in 2021, hybrid teaching was still the mainstream to cope with the pandemic. In my second teaching practice in late 2021, I was required to teach online and face-to-face simultaneously because the ratio of cross-border students and local students were half-half in that class. I had never done this before and doubts were arising in my mind – how could I cater the learning diversity of all students at the same time? How could I spark online students’ interest in exploring mathematical topics when the cameras could not capture the lively atmosphere in the classroom?
Teaching practice actually ‘started’ way before the first day of teaching – I spent lots of time in brainstorming strategies for letting students via two modes of lesson sharing similar learning experience during in-class teaching activities. Holding hands-on activities in class is usually a good way for students to connect mathematics with daily life, but when it comes to hybrid teaching, it is essential that online students can simulate the activities by themselves in front of computer screens too. Therefore, I paid special attention on activity design, making sure that online students can synchronize with their peers in the classroom.
As an introduction to the concept of experimental probability and to demonstrate the differences between experimental and theoretical probability, I did a coin-flipping exercise in front of the class. At the same time, I invited them to guess on the results one-by-one and mark down the results on the board for ‘intervening’ their guesses. Taking an extra mile for online students, I asked one of students to live recording my demonstration and do a ‘live show’ through ZOOM. The classroom interaction, although virtual, made all online students motivated to make guesses in the chatroom. Some even were eager to try the game at home even they were not picked by me to do the live demonstration. At the end of the lesson, all students grasped the difference between theoretical probability and experimental probability, and it was encouraging to see online students learning like their peers in the classroom. “If you never try, you will never know” – my anxiousness towards the teaching practicum gradually faded away as I accumulated more experience on hybrid teaching and witnessed the increment of my students’ proactiveness in learning.
Education may change forever in the post-pandemic future, but what we can do is to be confident and continue to be the bridge to knowledge for students and to facilitate meaningful classroom discourses. Meanwhile, I would not be able to grow as a teacher without the valuable comments and guidance I received along my journey in BMED. Being grateful for all the support, I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisors, mentors and students in teaching practicums, and all professors, lecturers and fellows from BMED. Everyone I met here has nurtured me to be a better educator in the near future, and all things I have been through marked a sparking start in my long teaching journey.
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<Only Chinese Version is available>
雖然已早早備過課，但猶記得初踏入課室的一刻，腦袋仍然一片空白。好不容易說出一早準備好的提問，我卻只聽見自身的聲音在課室中迴盪，台下鴉雀無聲。幸得指導老師每天下課後的悉心教導，漸漸亦與同學之間建立起關係，這種況也不復再，但作為老師的第一節課，我仍然記憶猶新。
事實上在選擇實習學校時，心裡有不少擔心。但本著去多認識不同學生和教育環境的心態，最後誤打誤撞成就了這次實習之旅。在這旅途中發現學生們不但精靈可愛，甚至有時在忙碌充實的實習過程中，成為一股治愈的力量。與此同時，亦很感激指導老師願意花大量時間和心力與我檢討課堂，他的教學令我發現學習和教導生物科也可以是一件有趣、愉快的事情。而作為實習班主任，兩位原任老師也毫不吝嗇地與我分享和學生的相處之道，以助我融入校園。
我想藉此再次感謝指導老師們和新界喇沙中學願意給予是次的實習機會，並在過程中無微不至地照顧。在是次實習後，令我寄望自己往後能成為一個可陪伴學生們成長、一個令學生熱愛生物科、一個不斷鞭策自身進步的老師，亦祝願自己下一次的實習一切順利！
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