Today I observed Thomas’ lesson with his stage 6 student Kosta. This was an excellent lesson to observe as Thomas was highly attentive to Kosta’s needs in order to maximise his understanding of the topic. To start, Thomas set a relaxed environment by engaging in some casual conversation whilst setting up for the session. He then began by gauging Kosta’s current position in maths and what he needed help with for the session. They decided on financial maths, where Thomas made sure to first figure out exactly where he stood with this topic. He explained the key terms extensively in a catered way that made sense to this specific student. The impact of this part of the session was powerful and had a clearly immediate impact that pushed Kosta in the right direction straight away. Thomas continued working through example questions on the board where he successfully broke down the key information as much as necessary, starting with a demonstration and explanation of the formulae needed for the questions. Kosta followed along swiftly as the questions were explained and worked out smoothly with precise technique. Something notable about Thomas’ teaching style is the unique way he sets out his working on the board where he employs various marker colours and draws different shapes to emphasise the different components of each question and answer. This is a fantastic way to help students separate key information and is something I will definitely adopt within my own teaching style as it proves to be a very effective strategy. As the lesson continued, Thomas also made sure to show Kosta how to properly enter complex working out into the scientific calculator in order to produce the correct answer as this is prevalent issue in stage 6 maths. Overall, this was a really great lesson to observe, and I learned a lot from Thomas’ teaching.

Jenna Freed