Srijan Pant

I major objective of my teaching lectures will be to teach students to think logically, spot patterns, and persevere. This mindset shift is the foundation of everything I do.

For the purpose, I will divide my class (i.e., 60 minutes) into following way:

1. Start with Interaction Sessions on the related topics: The goal of this session would be to shift mental gears and activate prior knowledge. For primary and secondary level students, this will be done through a quick round of "Target Number" where they use a set of numbers and operations to reach a target. It could be a "Which One Doesn't Belong?" puzzle with four shapes or graphs—there's no single right answer, which sparks great discussion. The room should be buzzing with low-stakes chatter right from the start.


2. Introduce Background and Concepts: I would approach this session to introduce the new concept in a way that feels necessary and interesting, not just like another item on the syllabus.

This is where I tell a story. When teaching ratios to Year 7, I don't start with the definition. I show them a picture of a muddy, failed attempt I made at painting my living room. "I mixed the paint wrong! The colour is awful. How can we get the ratio perfect so this doesn't happen again?" We talk about recipes, screen sizes, and map scales. They discover the why before the how. I use physical materials like cubes or fraction walls whenever I can—even my Year 10s get a kick out of using algebra tiles when we tackle quadratics.


3. The Explore: Grappling with the Idea

I'll model one problem, talking through my thought process, including the dead ends. "Hmm, that didn't work. Let me think... what did I miss?" Then, we solve one together as a class. Finally, they work in small, mixed-ability groups. The noise is a beautiful sound! I circulate, not to give answers, but to ask questions like, "What strategy are you using?" or "Can you explain your reasoning to your partner?" This collaborative struggle is where confidence is built.


4. Consolidating the Learning (10 mins)

We have a brief class discussion. I might ask, "What was the trickiest part today?" or "Show me with your thumb—thumbs up if you're feeling good, sideways if you're still figuring it out, down if you're lost."

For a lesson on angles, it might be: "Find one acute angle in the room and estimate its size." It takes 30 seconds, but it gives me invaluable insight into who gets it and who needs a different approach tomorrow.