Using IT tools better method to teach

SOME secondary school teachers who attended several workshops said that using tools from the Internet was a good way to teach students and make them interested in the subjects.

"What I have learnt here today has been very useful, especially because the website used in the workshop I attended was good for teaching Maths to my students."

"This website is new to me, and it has already given me ideas about what websites to use to teach my students," Maths teacher Syukrina Samat from Sultan Muhammad Jamalul Alam (SMJA) Secondary School said on the sidelines of the "Cultivating an Olympiad Spirit for Science and Mathematics" workshops for secondary school teachers at Jerudong International School on Saturday.

Another Maths teacher, Ong Joo Kiong of Muda Hashim Secondary School in Tutong, said he also found that using the website in the workshop was interactive, and would help him explain the subject better to his students.

"Also, it will help us teachers reduce the amount of time wasted in the classroom. As for classes with weak students, using these interactive websites will help them because it can actually show them how things are done (in a fun way)," he added.

Meanwhile, a Chemistry teacher at the Tanjong Maya Secondary School in Tutong, said she found the workshop in "Challenging Microscale Experiments for Chemists" interesting.

Hjh Siti Saleha Hj Mohd Yassin said: "In the workshop, we were taught to use different methods and approaches in experimenting. This is really beneficial for the teachers, because with the approach they taught us, we teachers will be able to minimise the amount of chemicals involved in conducting experiments when teaching our students."

She added that she hoped there would be similar workshops in the near future.

Jerudong International School (JIS) Head of Physics Gary Chalmers, who conducted a workshop, "Whole Class Teaching to Cater for Very Able Students", said that the workshop was to create an awareness of things that could be done "simply and cheaply" through ordinary lesson plans.

The workshop focuses on taking a whole class approach to providing opportunities for gifted students to access more challenging work, while still making the essentials accessible for less able students.

Some of the areas he covered in the workshop were note creation and worksheet preparation for students.

"Not only are the areas covered for able students, but they can also aspire average students to do well," he said.

Another seminar facilitator, JIS Academic Director Wendy Isaac, said that it was important for students to develop new ways of thinking through interactive IT tools.

"Teachers can help students find wonderful interactive things on the web, and they (teachers) can use logic puzzles to help make them think," she said.

By using interactive methods through the Internet, Isaac said that students would be able to find new resources to challenge them to think in "fresh ways".

She added that using the tools also helped teachers provide wider materials that would help in challenging students.

The Brunei Times