Practicum Reflections

Time passed really quickly and before I know it, I am left with 2 weeks to the end of practicum. This journey has been a really enriching and arduous one. Despite the never-ending lesson plans that need to be churned out every single week, coupled with the mad rush of marking, I have truly learnt a lot and have grown as a teacher over the past 8 weeks.

So, what have I learnt?

Teaching Pedagogy - I used to think teaching English is all about practicing papers after papers. Through my practicum experience, I have learnt many useful techniques, strategies and approaches in teaching English Language. There are a couple of skills that I have managed to apply from my NIE course, such as helping students comprehend the text better through predictions which students really enjoy doing (guessing the plot through contextual clues). Besides, I have managed to come up with a couple of artifacts as an effort to help my students understand better. For example, I recorded an audio extract myself to help my students with the skill of note-taking as a listening skill. I am someone who feels more comfortable teaching Mathematics as I am an engineer by training but I have come to realise that it's not easy disecting Mathematics to help students understand it in a bite-size manner. Many things may seem very logical to me but to these students, it may be abstract and difficult for them to comprehend. I've learnt to not assume that they know the basics and really check for their understanding before moving up to the next level.

Through my formal and informal observations, I have learnt to take note of certain key points which may seemed small but have significant impact to the students' learning. For example,  I tend to have blind spots whenever I write on the whiteboard and frequently only asking students in the middle and neglecting those sitting at the sides. Making sure that my instructions are visual is also another key area that I have learnt. Many times, just by verbal instructions, students are often at a lost and would need me to repeat several times. By ensuring verbal and visual instructions, students are able to follow better in the lesson.

Classroom Management - Thankfully, I have been given rather good classes for practicum. Most of my classes are rather well-behaved. My Sec 1 class was a little difficult to control at the start but as they got used to me, it was easier handling them. I guess this is where rapport comes in. I often employ alot of i-messages and logical reasoning with these students whenever they misbehave or are not paying attention. Chasing for some of their homework is a problem though. I realised that this stemmed from a lack of proper procedures put in place. This is an area I need to improve on.

Rapport with Students - Some classes are easier to build rapport with but there is a particular class where I found it a little more challenging to get closer to them because they really liked their CT. Hence having me to take over their class wasn't really something they were looking forward to.

One area where I really need to improve on is basically ensuring that every student has learnt. Other than tests, marking of homework and presenting of answers in class, I need to come up with more efficient ways to ensure that every student in the class is following and learning. Perhaps I should start employing techniques such as "Exit-pass" when I start teaching as a full-fledged teacher.

It's a journey and there's still a long road ahead of me. Nevertheless, I am thankful for the experience thus far and look forward to becoming a better teacher. :)

My Reflections for Week 3 of Practicum

Formal Observation 2 (3N2 - Solving Geometric Problems Using Pythagoras' Theorem) 13/03/13

1. What happened? What did I do? What did others do?

·         For this lesson, I used a guided worksheet together with some self-created manipulative to help students apply the Pythagoras' Theorem to solve geometric problems.

·         Students were generally able to catch the concepts quickly and they were able to see the right-angled triangle within a different geometric shape (e.g. square / rectangle / trapezium) and thereafter use the Pythagoras' Theorem.

·         The manipulative helps the students to visualize how the right-angled triangle can be separated from the geometric shape better.

·         However, students were generally able to understand the concepts and several of them were engrossed in solving all the other questions ahead of my pace.

·         As a result, some were not paying attention to their friend's presentation of solutions. Rather, they were trying to complete their worksheet.

·         While the faster students were able to solve the questions, some of them are weak in their presentation. I reminded the students to pay attention to these details.

·         Some were so fast that they felt bored after a while.

2. Why did I think things happened this way? Why did I choose to act the way I did?

·         I underestimated the students' speed and ability to solve these type of problems.

·         I thought that the students would require more scaffolding in order to see how the Pythagoras' Theorem can be used to solve such problems.

·         As this class consists of students who have varying learning abilities (mixture of NA and NT transfer students), i.e. there are pockets of students who are able to learn much faster, it's still important for me to scaffold the mathematical concepts to the class as there are students who are slower and require more guidance.

 

3. How might this change my thinking, behaviour or interactions with others?

·         I should be more familiar with the students' learning abilities and be aware that the higher ability students would need something more challenging in order to not lose their attention during class.

 

4. What do I want to remember to think about in a similar situation? How do I want to act?

·         I should perhaps give clear instructions that when someone is presenting their solutions and when I am explaining to the class, everyone should stop their work and listen in order to not miss out on any important details. I should remain quiet until I have caught everyone's attention.

·         Knowing that some students have already completed their worksheet, I can set aside additional textbook questions for these higher ability students to solve. This would prevent them from feeling listless or bored during class as that might trigger them to talk to their classmates.

 

Formal Observations 3 & 4 (3E2 - Similar Triangles) 15/03/13

1. What happened? What did I do? What did others do?

·         For the lesson trigger, I used real geometrical solids to stimulate students to think of the difference between congruent and similar objects. However, I mistook congruent pyramids and told the students that they are prisms.

·         As I wanted students to ponder about the main property of similar triangles, I asked students two questions verbally and repeated them several times. Students took a while before they could see the difference between these two questions.

o    For similar triangles, are the corresponding lengths between the two triangles the same or are the ratios between the corresponding lengths the same?

·         I had a slight difficulty with the projector. Due to the limitations of the projector layout and the lack of a visualizer, I had to project a softcopy of my worksheet on the whiteboard using the projector. However, it was still a bit too small and I should have increased the font size of my worksheet even more to make sure that all students are able to see it.

·         Some of the students were not so responsive and started to lose focus during the lesson. I went to them to wake them up and asked them to pay attention.

·         There were several students who were asking questions regarding the concepts of similar triangles. One of them was about putting the unknown in the denominator. I mentioned to the class the convenience of putting the unknown in the numerator as this would less likely to result in careless mistakes. However, I should have demonstrated the steps involved when the unknown is in the denominator rather than just saying it verbally.

·         When I am explaining / checking the students' solutions on the board, some students would not be listening and would be trying to solve the questions on their worksheet. This is especially common for the highly motivated students. Most of the time, I would just ask them to look up but their attention would not be for long.

·         There was insufficient time to complete all the questions which I planned to go through in class. This led to a rush closure.

 

2. Why did I think things happened this way? Why did I choose to act the way I did?

·         Regarding the font size of my projected worksheet, I merely asked one or two students at the back of the class if they could see. However, I should have been more conscious and made sure that they could see clearer by maximizing my screen size.

·         I wanted to cover more questions in my worksheet with the class as the students needed to be exposed to more questions before they could work on the rest of the questions independently. This led to me giving the class a rush summary / closure when the bell rang.

 

3. How might this change my thinking, behaviour or interactions with others?

·         I need to ensure that all students are paying attention in my class. I must not close an eye or assume that all students are listening or are able to see what's on the board. This would put them at a learning disadvantage.

·         It is important to pay close attention to the students' questions and address them in detail so that they are clear of the mathematical concepts. Explanations should be expressed clearly on the board in black and white so that students are able to see the workings themselves rather than doing it verbally. This would allow the visual learners to learn better.

 

4. What do I want to remember to think about in a similar situation? How do I want to act?

·         I must avoid having any blind spots whenever I write on the whiteboard.

·         As most students are both visual and auditory, I need to write down the mathematical concepts and explanations clearly on the whiteboard and explain to the students verbally, especially when it is to answer / clarify their doubts.

·         Ensure that when I am checking the selected students' workings presented on the whiteboard, all students are looking up and paying attention. This is important as students are often trying to solve the problems on their own and may miss out important details (e.g. common mistakes) that the teacher would like to point out. This could be done by remaining silent until all eyes are focused on the whiteboard.

·         Be more mindful of the time and ensure that I have at least 3-4 minutes before the bell rings to do a proper closure.

Formal Ob 1 - English Language (Informal Writing), Sec 1 Express

Context:

Double period lesson. In the previous lesson, students have learnt PACC (Purpose, Audience, Context, Culture) and went through idea generation through the use of mind-maps. For this lesson observation, I would provide feedback to some of the students' mind-maps and deconstruct the format and text features of an informal letter with them. Following which, the students would have to write an informal letter which will be counted as part of their CA.

 

1.      What happened?

What went wrong?

• Some students did not complete their weekend homework task (about 6-7 of them). As a result, I had to spend the initial 5-10 minutes scolding them and asking them to tell me what they have learnt in my previous lesson. The students required prompting before they could tell me what PACC was.
• Instead of having two groups to present their mind-maps, there was only time for 1 group to present.
• I experienced some difficulties with the visualizer. Basically, I wasn't able to zoom properly and some students behind were not able to see the words written on the mind-map.
• While deconstructing the informal letter, some students were giving nonsensical and irrelevant comments. For example, Yu Ting was asking whether he could use a North Pole address. Also, when I mentioned "body" in the context of writing, some students were not serious and started referring to it in the physical body sense.
• When referring to "date of letter", I forgot to emphasize the need of writing it in the right format. Thankfully, Mdm Nadiah (my CT) pointed it out and I managed to highlight it to the students.
• There was a slight confusion in the word count as I did not specify if the address and salutation counts towards the total number of words.

What went well?

• Eusuf's group managed to come up with several reasons explaining his suggestions for the places of interest. However, their group did not categorize it correctly under "what" and "why". Some of the reasons were categorized under "what" instead of "why".
• Generally, most students were able to point out several phrases in the model informal letter that suggest the use of an informal tone.
• Students, in particular Nazrul, were able to explain what "contractions" mean and almost all students are able to highlight and identify the use of contractions in the model informal letter.
• Students were able to tell me that contractions are normally used in informal letters and not formal letters.
• When asked to describe informal tone, students are able to throw out words such as "personal", "friendly" etc.

2.      Why?

• Instructions were not given and a firm tone should have been set to stop students from giving irrelevant remarks.
• I did not test the zoom-in function of the visualizer beforehand.
• There were certain details in the deconstruction phase where I should have paid more attention, such as the format of writing the date of letter and the spacing in between the address, date and salutation.
• I should have clarified / checked with my main CT on the word count.

3.      So What?

• I need to ensure that all students are able to see what is being projected on the screen / written on the whiteboard so that no students would be at a learning disadvantage.
• Information / Instructions need to be clear and specific to avoid confusion amongst the students.

4.      Now What?

• For future lessons, I would need to test the visualizer beforehand to avoid losing valuable teaching time.
• The class rules and expectations need to be stated clearly. Tell students that their responses / remarks should be relevant to the lesson.
• I will pay more attention to the small details (e.g. format for writing date of letter etc) for future lessons on informal letter writing.

Practicum Week 2 - 3N Maths (Pythagoras Theorem)

It seemed just like yesterday when I had to bid goodbye to my NIE peers as werted ways and enter a new phase of our teaching career.

1.5 weeks into Junyuan Secondary School, I must say I am starting to get used to the lifestyle of a teacher and the workings of the school. Week 1 was mainly observations and I have gotten a pretty good idea of my students' learning abilities from all the three different classes that I will be undertaking.

Today marked my first teaching lesson and it was a 3N double period class. The topic was on Pythagoras' Theorem. Generally, this bunch of 3N2 students are well-behaved and require a lot of scaffolding. Most of them have the intrinsic nature to want to learn, which is something that I really admire from their Maths CT as she continually affirmed and encouraged them.

What happened?
The lesson went pretty well at the start. Students were engaged in the derivation of Pythagoras' Theorem which required them to cut a composite figure and arrange them to form a square. However, there was a slight problem as there were quite a number of pairs who did not bring their scissors despite given instructions a few days back. As such, my intended plan of doing pair work could not be carried out. Instead, some had to drag their chairs to form groups of 4. I wasn't prepared to do group work as my Maths CT has not tried out group work with this class before. But when I was thrown into that situation which I should have pre-empted, I had to break them into groups on the spot. Thankfully, I think the purpose of the activity went through and most groups, or if not all groups, manged to see the relation between a2 + b2 and c2 through areas of the squares.

Unfortunately, the last part of the lesson was a bit rush as I was running out of time and I was trying to complete my lesson plan. I should have realised that I was going too fast and students were not able to catch the method of solving the problems as it was a new topic for them. Hence, there were some students who have not managed to grasp the concepts and the presentation required for the solution.

Why did it happen?
The reasons for these could be because the instructions given to the students to bring scissors were done through facebook. I should have done it verbally as some students may not have accessed facebook. Reminders on the day before should also have been carried out.

The consolidation part of the lesson could be too rush because I have over-planned my lesson. I should have considered the learning ability of the students and dwell deeper into coaching and guiding them for a few questions first before allowing them to do other questions independently. I should have been more flexible and work around my lesson plan rather than trying to follow it.

So what?
I realised the importance of slowing and pacing my lesson better for these lower ability students. More time is needed for these students to do these questions and more examples should be modelled before assigning questions to the students. The topic needs to be scaffolded even more, especially when it comes to solving questions.

Instructions delineated should be clear and taken seriously by the students. I should have reminded the Maths rep to announce it to the class the day before the maths lesson and write it down on the whiteboard.

Now what?
To ensure that the students are able to grasp the topic, instead of following my next lesson plan that has been pre-prepared, I would need to spend the next two periods going back to the basics by modelling more examples and guiding the students in solving more questions. I would need to show the solutions in a clear and consistent step-by-step manner so that students are able to follow.

QED 523 NIE-Folio Task: Reflections on Core Competencies

QED 523 NIE-Folio Task: Personal Reflections on Core Competencies

1.      What do these competencies mean to you and why do you think they are important?
          Professional Practice - Nurturing the whole child

In my opinion, nurturing the whole child would mean developing the child in a holistic manner. In Singapore's education context, this would mean not only allowing the child to gain mastery in academics, but also instilling good character qualities and values through CCAs, service learning and other school activities. Besides, the emotional and social competencies of the child must not be neglected as these are life skills that will accompany the child as he or she enters society. Learning takes place both inside and outside the classroom and that would mean giving my students enriching and real experiences to interact with their peers and people in society. It is these experiences that would mould them in becoming who they want to be. By nurturing the whole child, it is also critical not to place judgements on our students based on their academic results alone. Rather, we also need to look at other aspects of their education.


Leadership Management - Working with others: Partnering Parents

Personally, I believe firmly that parents are a key stakeholder in a child's developmental growth while schools and teachers mainly play a supportive role. The home-school-community partnerships are pivotal in developing the child holistically. It is not a sheer fallacy to say that a child's learning is not confined in schools alone. Undeniably, a child's learning is heavily influenced by the external societal influences such as the social media. It is thus essential that parents work collaboratively with the school in emphasizing the right values and attitudes to adopt and ensuring that the child remains focused in his or her learning. Furthermore, one cannot deny that a child will also look unto their parents as role models and mentors. While valuing their perspectives, the lack of support from parents can sometimes limit the teachers' and schools' efforts.
 
Personal Effectiveness - Knowing self & others: Exercising personal integrity


More often than not, students do not simply learn just through teaching. Students are constantly observing their teachers' attitudes, character and behaviourism, treating them as role models. Teachers who do not exercise personal integrity and practise good moral values will inevitably influence their students negatively. Exercising personal integrity at all times is critical in maintaining our professionalism as we are accountable to not only our students' development, but to their parents and the local community at large. With the recent spate of events highlighting some teachers' misconduct, the professionalism of teachers has been put to public scrutiny. This has undoubtedly rubbed off some of the trust that parents have previously placed on their children's teachers. Hence it is of paramount importance to constantly uphold our professional integrity when performing our duties and responsibilities.

2.        How do you see yourself developing these competencies?

            Professional Practice - Nurturing the whole child

To develop this competency, I have to continually upgrade myself. In order to prepare my students for society and develop their twenty-first century competencies, I would need to develop new and innovative teaching approaches and purposefully instil elements such as Character & Citizenship Education into the curriculum. Besides, it involves a change in mindset in the way I view a child's education. Instead of solely focusing on my students' academics, I would need to broaden up my mind and look for opportunities to develop a child's learning through CCAs and other teachable moments inside and outside the classroom. I see myself having to spend more time with my students, interacting and getting to know them better in order to understand and build on their character and personality.
 
Leadership Management - Working with others: Partnering Parents

Personally, I would need to go for professional courses that will teach me skills on how to handle parents. Partnering parents must always start by having their trust and support. This would mean investing time and effort to know my students' parents better and keeping them well-informed with their children's learning development. Furthermore, it is also essential to understand their concerns and seek ways collaboratively to address them. Indubitably, partnering with parents effectively requires mutual trust, respect and understanding.

Personal Effectiveness - Knowing self & others: Exercising personal integrity

In my opinion, this competency is really based on one's values and beliefs. More often than not, personal integrity is compromised especially when one falls into a situation and realises that making a morally right decision may seek to disadvantage them. This could result in career stagnation, bad reputation and so on. In situations like these, perhaps one should always remind himself / herself that as a professional teacher, one should always put the interests of our students, parents and community above our very own as they are after all, our primary clientele.

3.        Are there specific challenges that you face as you seek to develop these competencies?

Professional Practice - Nurturing the whole child
Nurturing the whole child requires an investment of additional time and effort amidst my other responsibilities, to upgrade and develop myself in order to keep up with societal changes. For example, in order to cultivate twenty-first century competencies in my students, I would need to firstly modify my teaching methods. Didactic, chalk-and-talk teaching methods would have to be replaced with more interactive and engaging methods that allow students to stimulate critical thinking. The constant need to learn, unlearn and relearn is definitely a challenge as it involves moving out of my familiar comfort zone.

Leadership Management - Working with others: Partnering Parents

While recognising the importance of partnering parents, challenges arise when faced with unreasonable and demanding parents. There has been recent news about disputes between parents and teachers, putting the latter in a very difficult position. Looking from the parents' perspective, it is perfectly understandable that they always seek their child's best interests at heart. However, at times, no matter the circumstance, there are still parents who always believe that their child is right and have no qualms in pointing the blame to the teacher. It is such situations that teachers would find it a challenge to partner with parents.

 
Personal Effectiveness - Knowing self & others: Exercising personal integrity
 
Especially in recent times, there have been several cases of teachers' professional conduct being put into question. Sometimes, such cases occur as a result of unclear boundaries between teachers and students. To some of them, there is nothing wrong treating students as their friends. However, this could potentially create temptations and can cause the teacher's personal integrity to be vulnerable. It is also important to avoid showing favouritism and passing biased judgements. Notably, it can sometimes be a challenge to remain impartial and objective, especially when there are specific students who don't get into your favour.

The Necessary Heart Element in Every Educator

 

The Story of Teddy and Mrs. Thompson

There is a story many years ago of an elementary teacher. Her name was Mrs. Thompson.... And as she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children a lie. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same.

But that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard. Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he didn’t play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. And Teddy could be unpleasant. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X’s and then putting a big “F” at the top of his papers.

At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child’s past records and she put Teddy’s off until last. However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise.

Teddy’s first grade teacher wrote, “Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners. He is a joy to be around.”

His second grade teacher wrote, “Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle.”

His third grade teacher wrote, “His mother’s death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best but his father doesn’t show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren’t taken.”

Teddy’s fourth grade teacher wrote, “Teddy is withdrawn and doesn’t show much interest in school. He doesn’t have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class.”

By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy’s. His present which was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery bag.

Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was one quarter full of perfume. But she stifled the children’s laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist.

Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, “Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to.” After the children left she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she quit teaching reading, and writing, and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children.

Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her “teacher’s pets.”

A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life. Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he’d stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor’s degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer—the letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, M.D.

The story doesn’t end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he’d met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit in the place at the wedding that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Of course, Mrs. Thompson did. And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. And she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together.

They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson’s ear, “Thank you Mrs. Thompson for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference.” Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, “Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn’t know how to teach until I met you.”

 

This is the reason why I want to be an educator.

You can never tell where your influence stops.

Reflections on CST (QLK 520) Course

To what extent do you think you will be able to apply what you have learned in this course to your future teaching career?

 

It has been 12 weeks since this course started and it has no doubt been an enriching and enlightening learning experience; dwelling deep into the fields of professional communication. Personally, this course has been particularly relevant and useful for beginning teachers as in this profession, one needs to not only be able to pronounce accurately but also be aware of the appropriate tone and register to be used. The module on Pronunciation gave me an opportunity to learn about phonetics and it was only then that I realised I have been mispronouncing many common words. For example, "salmon" and "almond" should be pronounced with a silent "l". As an English teacher, I recognise my role as a good model to speak good standard Singapore English at all times. Furthermore, as teachers, one will definitely have to speak to people coming from different ranks and background (colleagues, superiors, parents, vendors etc). Through the Oral Communication course, I have learnt when and how to apply the correct tone and register when speaking.

In the teaching profession, we need to constantly remember the need to carry ourselves well as this would ultimately affect the school's reputation. Written communication plays as important a role as oral communication. The module on Written Communication has imparted to me the skills needed in writing good emails, students' testimonials and comments for report cards. For emails, one must not only be succinct in stating the objectives, but also watch the words that we use as that would display the tone of the email. As a professional working adult, I have learnt to avoid using cliché words and more importantly, be consciously mindful of the purpose, audience and context (PAC) when writing an email. With regards to students' testimonials and report cards, I have recognised the importance of giving constructive feedback and positive comments to motivate the students and help them improve.

The online module on Vocal Health and Production has enlightened me on the different ways and techniques that I can employ to protect my voice and enhance my voice quality when teaching. Needless to say, as teachers, our voice is one of our most important assets. If not taken care of properly, it would adversely affect our classroom delivery. The videos were insightful and practical, providing a platform for us to practise the different techniques of breathing and voice projection.

In terms of classroom communication, this module has given me new perspectives of how different type of questions can and should be used to aid classroom teaching. In order to make learning meaningful, it is beneficial to integrate a variety of questions in the teaching. Predictive and interpretative questions should be asked on top of factual questions as it can instil higher-order thinking and train our students to be thinkers and not take information at face value.

On the whole, this course has been really insightful and practical. The skills and techniques learnt are relevant and will definitely come in handy for beginning teachers like myself.