Greetings all and Sundry! Sorry!, I've been away for 3 days. I was preparing for a trip so I was a little busy. I'm back again when today I had to supervise my Intern on his work of portfolio building. This was to be done through video teaching of the class ( Form 2). The topic was on "Dentition of Human." Lately there are many things that the Universities in Ghana allow their student teachers to do on the field in order to equip them for job market. Every student who is completing is to take part in this video teaching and other portfolio that the student teachers are to supposed to do like series of pictures showing their proof of teaching, exercise recorded for the term. All these information are to burn on CD cassettes in addition to their project works before they are accepted as having completed the University.
This is exactly the the overview of the lesson for today. So, Martin my Inter began the teaching while I was to video him at the same time being his Mentor as Science Teacher I had to ensure he is on the right track in his teaching. He began very nice introduction linking to the RPK by introducing students to the types of human teeth : the incisors (front teeth), the canines ( side teeth after the incisors), the premolars (after the canines), the molars ( the last teeth after the premolars). To make the students understand the concept, he blended the lesson with the use of a well drawn labelled cardboard depicting the types of all these teeth mentioned. He began to discuss with the students, each teeth beginning from the incisors which appear first in the mouth. He allowed the students to know where exactly the incisors are found in our mouths by allowing some the students to use their teeth as an example. But to me, I think this was wrong approach he should have brought artificial model teeth from their campus than using the students as life examples to this lesson. But he couldn't improvise that so he had no option than to use his students around.
He was able to explain that the incisors are 8 in numbers; 4 at the upper mandibular jaw and 4 at the lower mandibular jaw totalling to make 8 in numbers. The incisors shape is chiseled, functions for cutting or biting food. The incisors are normally the types of teeth which appear first in human buccal cavity when the milk teeth of babies emerge.
The next was the canines which are in 4 in numbers; 2 in the upper mandibular jaw and 2 in the lower mandibular jaw. They have conical shape and function for tearing food or meat. The premolars are found just before the canines and they have some rough surface made of up mostly one cusp and normally described as having flat surface. They are 8 in numbers; 4 in the upper mandibular jaw and 4 in the lower mandibular jaw. They are used for chewing food or for crushing food as supportive members for the molars when food are to grind into fined particles. The last teeth he taught was the molars which are the last teeth in human mouth. They have flat surfaces with 2 or more cusp. They are used for stabbing food or chewing food and bones. If all the permanent teeth emerge, the molars are 12 in numbers.
Students were made to know that in human Dentition, they are two main set of teeth that appear. These are the milk teeth which appear at the infancy and being removed when the person is young at the age 5 to 6 years. Another set of teeth appear and this is what is called the permanent teeth. In most case, the last to be appear is the molars. It ranges from person to persons. To some people they have their wisdom teeth to appear very late in their 30 years and even more.
He sum up to bring the lesson to an end by asking students few questions. The students were allowed to write some points into their note books. They were given exercises in order to assess their performance. The lesson was brought to a successful end when it I had recorded 25mins.
