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Table of Contents

1)  Introduction

o   Purpose Statement

o   Letter to Self

o   Statement of Initial Philosophy of Teaching

2) Unit and Lesson Planning

3) Technology Integration

4) Growth in Assessment Competence

5) Transformations

6) Reflective Comprehensive Summary

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Purpose Statement
To measure progress, there must be a starting point, reflection and forward movement toward a destination. With this journal I had intended to record my journey. Schon (1987) defines reflection as knowing-in-action. Throughout the journey, I had embarked on meaningfully self-analyzing with the aim of transformation, to improve as a teacher. My starting point is clear but summarized with all of my experiences, from when I first desired to be a teacher, to being enrolled in this programme; Post graduate Diploma in Education. My destination is not a particular position in the education sector or any title, but to be an effective teacher; one who students respect and associate with great passion for one's profession. So at completion of this journal, my progress or journey is ongoing and so is my transformation.

Letter to Self

Why become a teacher?

From early childhood I acquired a passion for my physical environment and as I grew older I began to study subjects in school that gave me insight. With time it narrowed down to geography. The various fields or careers I could have pursued with such a subject didn’t not really enticed me as teaching did. I wanted to share my passion and appreciation for what I was learning with others. At form six level, I was privileged to be taught by a teacher who loved what she was doing and reinforced my desire. She helped opened my eyes not just to the physical aspect of geography but also the human, I developed from that moment a holistic approach to learning. I chose this programme as a way to help improve my teaching methods, to reach and share with all or as much of the students I come into contact with. Over a decade later as a professional, I can recall my Geography teacher’s impact on my life and appreciation for it, I desire to be developed through this programme into that teacher for my students one day.

Initial philosophy of Teaching

A metaphor which captured my initial philosophy of teaching is, ‘teaching is an exploration.’ Some synonyms that comes to mind for the term exploration are, thorough investigation, observation, search and inquiry. As a teacher I will be taking students into unfamiliar areas or areas which they may have some foreknowledge about, but, to help them connect it with the real world. Learning could be an adventure, with highs and lows, but all memorable and impacting. This philosophy also highlight the fact that I will experience new teaching strategies and concepts when I undergo exploration with different students. This is because the same content may be viewed differently by each student, bringing to life new context. Also by the students undergoing this exploration of teaching and learning they will observe and learn to inquire, allowing them to train their own thinking ability.

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Unit Plan
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The unit focused on practical map skills for form two students during the second academic term. I tried to improve, and build geographic map skills. Introduction to this level of map skills at form two level is aimed to develop an understanding and appreciation for map skills through application. This is important because a large component of geography is spatial, and interconnection of the physical environment and human activities. Map skills helps to deepen understanding of our environment and how we are affected either by space, place, change, time etc. I have learnt from developing this unit plan, follow up activities is strongly dependent on students’ ability to grasp and demonstrated understanding of the task.

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A sample of Instructional Objectives for a lesson
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Learning objectives are to articulate the knowledge and skills I as the instructor intend for the students to acquire at the end of the lesson. Learning objectives should be student centered and measurable.  By setting the learning objectives at higher levels of the cognitive domain students will improve in their thinking ability, become more ‘active organism’ or learner (Getzel 1991).

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Sample of instructional objective of a lesson