The general support consists of everyday practices that are widely used by Finnish teachers. Some of them are easily adaptable for every teacher in the world. In this second lesson we give You the basic knowledge about preparation and how to use it when You want to improve Your teaching arrangements so that every one of Your students gets the most out of Your lessons. These tools are called general (or sometimes intensified) support in the Finnish system that was introduced in the first part.
When You are trying to find the best possible support for Your students, it is important to admit that sometimes You just have to try out something and You cannot be sure if it is going to work or not. If You are not brave enough to try out new solutions and are willing to fail sometimes, it is impossible to find the best solutions. Reflection is the most important skill to learn when You want to be a better teacher.
It is also obvious that teachers have to do cooperation between other teachers, teaching assistants, other professionals working in schools and parents if they want to succeed with those heterogeneous groups of students. Do not try to solve it all out by yourself!
Task 1.
How could You be more prepared when You meet a new student or a student group?
What obstacles there might be and how to overcome those?
Have you used classroom-management strategies?
Task 2.
An example of the structure that the teacher used in the video:
1. Homework check 10 min.
2. Introduction to the new subject 5 min
3. Notes and discussion 15 min
4. Task paper with open questions 10-15 min.
5. Homework for the next lesson
Is there a need for the structure with some groups in Your work?
Design the structure of the lesson that You could use in Your subject. Test that plan with two groups that differ from each other when it comes to classroom management.
Task 3.
Instruction to the exercise to use to calm down the students at the beginning of the lesson that You saw in the video.
Take some kind of a timer. Those can also be found on the internet.
For example https://www.timeanddate.com/timer/.
Set 2-3 minutes on the timer and give the students instructions:
- Sit down and take your books and equipments
- Put away everything that you don’t need
- Close your eyes and think about something calming until you hear the alarm go off
Try this exercise with the groups that are restless.