The school year’s theme “Embrace Flexibility and Innovation” has ended with many challenges for both teachers and students of WASS. However these challenges cannot prevent teachers from being creative and innovative teaching methods to make interesting lessons.
“Over the past two years, both teachers and students have been familiar with online classes due to the Covid-19 epidemic. As a teacher, I also had to adapt with new methods to make a flexible and engaging class, especially after students came back to school. Probably, we also realize the inconveniences and difficulties of online learning compared to normal classes. The biggest difficulty is that teachers and students cannot interact frequently. Therefore, after coming back to school, I tried to create more creative lessons.” – Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan – Literature teacher.
To innovate in education, teachers at WASS have also applied some online learning methods through apps and softwares.
“Using a variety of learning methods will make the lessons more interesting. However, the most important thing is choosing the suitable software. To warm up and create the learning atmosphere, teachers can use video lessons or bouncyballs.org, etc. To manage and motivate students, teachers can use ClassDojo software to add/subtract points, create groups or choose students randomly, etc. During the lesson, teachers can create tests in Quizzes, Kahoot, Baamboozle, etc. Testing through these apps will make students more interested, rather than practicing on paper or the traditional method: teacher asks and students answer”. – Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.
For Ms. Vo Thi Nhat Linh – Civic Education teacher, although it is not a main subject, the teaching method also needs to be flexible to increase the “interesting” of the lesson.
“Besides taking advantage of the lessons, students play an important role. Students’ activities should be formed, based on their interests. Therefore, it would be better if students are taught through quizzes, games, case, group activities, projects, and activities outside the classroom…”
To improve learning methods, understanding students is also important.
“Each student has unique personalities and abilities, so the teacher has to be flexible in teaching methods to satisfy their needs, desires, difficulties… In each lesson, teachers need to listen and understand students in order to adjust methods which help to create the lessons’ value.” – Ms. Vo Thi Nhat Linh Civic Education teacher.
Similar to other teachers, Mr. Nguyen Van Cuong – Science teacher, has also applied many teaching methods flexibly, which is the factor to help WASSers get knowledge effectively.
“By practicing, Science lessons will be more interesting. Through real cases, students will easily understand the lesson. It will encourage students’ interest and participation. Some lessons will be more effective if they are taught outside of the class. Practical lessons are studied in the Lab (like finding out about Protozoa, force measuring instruments, …). or field trips (if any) related to the lesson or simply give students an opportunity to go out class. These activities will increase students’ interest. Without much effort, students will learn and remember the lesson easily.”
Creative ideas, new curriculum combined with traditional methods not only get more experiences, but also help to understand and remember knowledge effectively. That is the way that WASS teachers use to inspire WASSers and make interesting classes.
