Birthday: 14th October Occupation: Cultivator; Moulder; Nurturer Currently I am inspired: To renovate my blog
To start on my next phase of new life in 2007
This photo was taken at Sakae Sushi at Heartland Mall. It was basically a farewell lunch for me before I make my way down to NYJC for practicum part II. I had great fun with these colleagues. I think I may not have these colleagues in any JC. We do not have any reservations and we are open towards one another. Most of us have shared our joys, woes, worries, fears. Some have shed tears infront of us. Having not enough space, about 4 of us were given the table at staff lounge. This is the area where we eat, talk, crack jokes and ventilate about the horrible classes we relieved or went into. Every morning, we would be waiting for our imperial edict and excitedly compare which class are we allocated to for relief. And we always say with such resignation ,"Good luck to those who have 2T1." No matter what, we will always share notes on how to handle any particular relief classes. I will never forget those who are going to buy their breakfast/ lunch and will be so willing to ask "Who wants anything?" And all orders for teh-o, teh-si, kopi-o, kopi, kopi-si or fruits will come in. Also, the group of us will always check with one another whether our teaching ideas are feasible or not. We will share lame jokes such as "Which fruit comes in pairs?" or share important information like which school we should not go. Or yes, gossip about the school. HAHAHAHA... Honestly, I don't think I will get this kind of colleagues in any JC. At least colleagues who are open to sharing (resources), and communicating freely. Kudos to Kee Lay, Shufen, U-shan, Kah Bee, Zhang Yan and Stella! All the best for the remaining part of your practicum! Now, let me talk about teaching... As you can probably guess, I didn't have time to update at all because I was busy rushing out my lesson plans and preparing for teaching. To put it all in short, I had overcome obstacles of having to settle the demands of the school, my anxieties about whether the students are competent in this or that, about using any pedagogical strategies, and about sequencing my Maths lessons. I had been busy writing and re-writing my lesson plans as I was trying very hard to use some strategies that can wow my students and supervisor/ CT. But sadly, given the 2 boring topics I have, I can't do anything wowing. It was plain teacher talk. But for the first time, I employed Questioning techniques and challenging my students to think. Those 2 strategies basically summed up my strategies for that major observation. My greatest hi-light in teaching a new topic to my kids was to show them a powerpoint slide show on the real-life applications of Linear Inequalities. I had spent about 5 hours taking photos, compiling them on a slide show and incorporating music into the slide show. And when I showed it to the class, the class gave a unanimous applause! And nope, I didn't intiate them to do so. And when that happened, I experienced the greatest pride and satisfaction of being a Mathematics teacher. At that time, I felt I was truly a competent Maths teacher. And then came Tuesday. After all the slogging, this is THE moment. I was going to be observed by my supervisor and CT. Killing 2 observations at one go. It is a super crucial moment and I cannot afford to screw them up. I was freaking out on Monday evening as my CT wanted to add on to my lesson plan but I had to tell her that my lesson is already quite tight. That made me anxious because I was wondering whether my CT was thinking that my lesson plan is too relaxed. Nevertheless, I still continued on with my old lesson plan. And on that day, I thought I would freak out in anxiety but I didn't. Perhaps I was praying so much that I forgot my anxiety. But it was greatly evident as I started to teach my class. There wasn't any break in tone, a change in emotions, the stammering or thinking of what to say next. The moment I held my marker, I begun to teach. Confidently and without any anxiety at all. All these would not have been possible without God and the prayers of my loved ones. The hi-light of that lesson was when I split the board up into 4 parts and taught 4 different concepts and eventually, I challenged my students by asking them what am I trying to say by comparing the 4 concepts. That made them think hard. =) And to my supervisor, I made good use of the board. =)) I'm so proud of myself because I only came up with that in the afternoon. In conclusion, all of you know how much phobia I have in teaching Maths. That was why micro-teaching in February was so important to me. I needed to secure that stage before I could move on to the classrooms. And true enough, I had gained some confidence in teaching Secondary Maths. I do not think I have any phobia of teaching Maths anymore. Second, no matter how hard the obstacles are, we have to press on. Even when we are at the verge of letting go, we cannot. We have to move on, bravely. Third, never ever look down on a kid's ability. In my reliefing of normal academic and technical classes, these students have developed a fatalistic attitude. That have succumbed to the notion that they can't go anywhere. Some of these kids actually have a heart of gold. I will never forget the students of 3T1 where they shared with me their famous portriat.
Fourth, kids respond to incentives and thus, will be motivated to learn. Fifth, learning has to be made enjoyable. School already sucks. Teaching has to be made interesting so that the students will enjoy learning. Sixth, it's good to reach school early to prepare some work beforehard. I like reaching school at 7am. Seventh, teachers need to rest. Don't overwork. We need to work efficiently and smart. Have at least six hours of sleep everyday and try to work fast in school. Eighth, I'm very sleepy now. To conclude this whole post, I enjoyed my stay at Zhonghua. I have been blessed with a good class that gave me very little problems, a good co-operating teacher, and a good maths prof at NIE. I wouldn't have pulled through this practicum without her guidance at all. Thank you Mrs Seah, 2E7 and Dr Yap! God Bless You!
