Today I observed Petros’s session with his Year 9 maths student. They started by going through his school homework of going through standard deviation. I liked how Petros would ask leading questions to his student when going through a question so that he was not giving the answer away but rather allowing his student to reach it with some assistance. Petros also went through a few different ways of figuring out a question which is great as some people prefer using different methods to others.

I also liked how Petros asked his student for a definition or description of standard deviation so that he had an idea of what exactly it is that he was finding in his questions. When his student was struggling to put a definition in words, Petros provided him with one and asked him to summarise it in his own words which I thought was a good idea.

When his student was making a mistake or getting off the right track when answering a question, I liked how Petros would allow him to figure out where he went wrong by himself and then fix that error. Petros ensured that his student understood each question they were working through by asking follow up questions. When it was time for Petros to give his student homework to complete for the next lesson, I liked how he briefly went over the questions and advised him on how to answer them. This was good as it ensures that his student will be able to complete the questions by himself when he doesn’t have Petros’ assistance at home.

It was a really great session to observe. Well done Petros!!

Sophia McLean