Marya Javed
Read the data. Then plan the lesson.
Reading assessment data before planning the next lesson.
- Now
- Science coordinator, Key Stage 3 to 5, and biology teacher
- With Suraasa
- Six months at the time of recording
- Certified
- Microsoft Innovative Educator
- IELTS
- Overall band eight
Marya was coordinating science across Key Stage 3 to 5 and knew the subject, but never looked back at a lesson once it was done. She now tracks formative marks student by student, and reshapes her teaching around where the gaps sit.
More than knowing the subject.
Marya Javed coordinates science from Key Stage 3 to 5 and teaches biology. When she recorded her story she had been associated with Suraasa for six months, and she opened with a principle. “To be a proficient teacher it is not only important that you should be a subject expert,” she says, “but you should also have a knack of pedagogy.”
She lists what she can now do in a lesson: differentiation, inclusion and collaboration, and lesson plans written around SMART objectives and Bloom’s taxonomy. Then she adds one more. “Suraasa has also taught me a very important skill, which is reflection,” she says. “Now, I’ve gotten to the habit of introspecting and looking behind in my lessons and checking what went well and what could have gone better.”
Formative marks, written down.
The feedback module changed what she writes in her students’ notebooks. She calls it “constructive diagnostic feedback”. Alongside it came a record. “I have now started tracking down the progress of my students,” she says. She takes down the marks of formatives “so as to identify the areas of strength and weakness and then modify my teaching strategies accordingly”.
Two other people speak in her video. A colleague who works on assessment says Marya has improved in how she understands assessment data and uses it to inform her teaching, looking for the why and how rather than only what students know, and setting goals that students can see and measure themselves against. An AS level student says that in class discussions she involves the whole class, and that when one person has a doubt she explains it to everyone.
Simulations, and a band eight.
She brought Padlet into her lessons, and uses online simulation tools “where students get real-life, real-time experience of the concept” being taught, and she has been certified as a Microsoft Innovative Educator. She thanks Suraasa, too, for help with her IELTS: she cleared it with an overall band of eight.
The change she describes reaches past the classroom. She feels more confident at work, says she has “developed more amicable relationship with my peers”, and is able to spend quality time with her family.
After getting to know about Padlet in module one, I started using this effective online collaboration tool in my lessons.
