On 17th March, 2021, Wednesday evening, I joined the LLC Conversation Club’s Social Room for delivering my final practicum. A very interesting topic was covered today ‘Music’. I selected this topic believing that everyone loves to listen music. One of the ISLA theory which was used here was Suggestopedia.

Reflections

As I reflect upon my teaching session, there are a few things that appealed me. I had mentioned in my previous reflection that Elizabeth was not taking part in the breakout room activities. So when she joined early today, I humbly requested her to participate in the breakout rooms as well. I was glad to see her do the same later in all the activities during the session. The students were welcomed to the Live TRU Music festival, I had an artist (my daughter) play soothing melodies on guitar for initial 7-8 minutes till everyone joined. His helped create a very relaxing atmosphere in the class Name tags were used to play an ‘identify the celebrity singer’ game. Students enjoyed as it was their favorite singers. Keeping in mind the diversity of culture in the class, I even included picture of Chinese singers in the game so that Chinese students can relate to it as well. This engaging strategy is particularly useful while teaching multi-cultural students, also it makes students realize the care and compassion we as teachers have for them.

Furthermore, I had planned a Piano interactive circle wherein instead of using name tags, students wrote their names on the piano keys and asked each other simple questions relating to music. This proved a great activity for student bonding especially in a virtual environment. Additionally, 1 student (Moinul) did not write his name on the Piano keys, I figured this out with the help of list of students I make at the beginning of every session. I called out to him when the last student on the circle had to ask a question. These lists are also very valuable while assigning students to breakout rooms. For e.g. first 3 students in room A, next 3 students in room B and so on.

A new thing that we did today was playing percussion video using kitchen utensils and stationary available on the desk. Students followed the beats I played with my pen, pencil stand, laptop, table etc. at their end. This was followed by a video and a breakout activity on the same.

Something that partially didn’t work was a hot potatoes game that I designed on the same celebrity singers. This is because tru/moodle is no longer supporting the hot potatoes software. But I did not let my efforts go in vein and added the screenshots of the exercise so that students could play the matching game using the interactive whiteboard.

Finally, we ended the music festival with the last live performance by the artist, a song on ‘Hope’, wishing for a better life ahead.

One student (Shuyi) joined very late because she had confusion about the change of time. I welcomed her and told that the session is being recorded and that she can watch it later.

Since it was my last session today, the students loaded me with overwhelming response. It was a very emotional moment for me, students flooded the public chat with best wishes and hoping that I teach them again. It was truly an amazing experience. The bond I developed with students will stay with me forever. I wish I could have had the opportunity to teach them in-person. 

My key take-aways are as follows. Based to today’s experience, I now have a firm belief in using my self-devised strategy of maintain and checking lists & name tags to ensure that all students participate uniformly.

Lastly, I am attaching the final chat with my students in the LLC. I am going to miss them deeply.

[20:29] Shuyi Chen : hello

[20:30] Tina Saleh : like a rainbow

[20:32] Yan Ki Wong(Amber) : 🙌lovely song

[20:32] Riva Bawa : thank you:0

[20:32] Karen Densky : Bravo!

[20:33] Tina Saleh : great thanks

[20:33] Mahtab Zangeneh : Thank you

[20:33] Diana Rodriguez Quiroz : 👌

[20:33] Jiafeng Zhu : Thank you

 [20:34] Karen Densky : Thank you Riva and Zoi! This is Riva’s last class. I hope you enjoyed her classes

 [20:34] Tamerlan (Tommy) Adrshin : oh god

 [20:34] Tina Saleh : I hope you be our teacher in the future

 [20:36] Tina Saleh : thank you

[20:36] Yan Ki Wong(Amber) : Thank you

[20:36] Tamerlan (Tommy) Adrshin : thank you

[20:36] Diana Rodriguez Quiroz : Thank you, it was nice to have you as our teacher

[20:36] Elizabeth Vasina : thanks a lot

[20:36] Tina Saleh : thank you Zoi

[20:36] Tamerlan (Tommy) Adrshin : good luck in the future

[20:36] Mahtab Zangeneh : thank you

[20:36] Jiafeng Zhu : bye thank you

[20:36] Boda Zhu : Thank you

[20:36] Tamerlan (Tommy) Adrshin : bye

[20:36] Karen Densky : Let’s set up a time to chat next week.

[20:36] Boda Zhu : Take care

[20:37] Shuyi Chen : thank you for these weeks! take care :p

[20:37] Karen Densky : Another great class!

[20:37] Tina Saleh : bye

[20:37] Moinul Islam : Bye

[20:37] Mahtab Zangeneh : thank you bye

[20:37] Shuyi Chen: see you in the future˜