Week 6

The week saw two observations being carried out simultaneously by my NIE supervisor and by Jamie. It was also the week when we tried out the roleplay strategy for the classes. It was interesting how the first class that I taught put in the effort to dress up and play to the roles that they were assigned. It spiced up the class’s energy and atmosphere, bringing some humor and laughter to the lesson at the same time. I was quite thankful that the students did put in the effort and in the end, it was thanks to them that the roleplay worked out well.  However, I could not say the same for the other J1 class. The other class was a lot more passive in playing to their roles and they treated it like any other presentations.  To them, it was more of a hassle to fulfill their roles to the detail as compared to just preparing for a presentation as they have been used to.  As such, the strategy did not work as well as I hoped for.  That taught me that not all strategies can be applied on different classes and neither can similar outcomes or effective learning be expected. Hence, that reemphasized the importance of how a different approach has to be used for different classes, depending on their profiles.

It was also a week when we tried to incorporate some questions into the tutorial, questions that demanded more higher order thinking. On the whole, the students did welcome the tougher questions that we discussed.  While we discussed the questions, I made it a point to not emphasize too much on the questions or spent too much time on it. I also made it optional for the better students to write outlines or to tackle the questions in their own time.  I promised that I would take a look at their work and go through with them if they wished.  Thus far, that has yielded one student writing an outline and another three, who were from a different class, have seen me for consultations. That was a far better start than I had expected. My goal was to cultivate a culture where students take responsibility for their learning and would want to stretch themselves in their own time in the subject. It is certainly encouraging to see the better students coming forth to do so thus far. Of course, this may be an anomaly or an elevated interest in the topic that we are discussing at that point in time. However, if this persists and becomes a sustained habit, it might become a healthy culture among the history students, which I will be determined to build upon.

The week also saw Jasper and I giving our first lecture to the J1 cohort. We managed to give them the lowdown of what was to be expected for Southeast Asia history.  We also managed to finish what we set out to deliver on the dot so that was good in terms of time management.  Lecturing did not seemed as daunting as I had first expected before I even came to Innova Junior College.  One key reason was perhaps the fact that I had interacted with some, if not most, of the J1s and was comfortable with them.  As such, it was just another lesson that focused more on content delivery.  Of course, upon closer reflection, I could have inserted more enthusiasm and hype into my tone of voice in order to instil some form of energy into the students for Southeast Asian History.

To conclude the week, Jasper and I managed to show the students the historical movie, Thirteen Days, a film that we had always wanted to show since the start of the term. The film mainly depicts the Cuban Missiles Crisis from the American point of view.  While the start was a little boring, judging from the way some of the students were dozing off, the latter stages and the climax of the film did not disappoint.  Considering that this was an American perspective and a somewhat traditionalist perspective that the movie was adopting, some of the students were swayed towards sympathizing with the Americans in the issue of escalation of the Cold War. 

I was awed by the persuasive power that visual representation and films can have on people’s minds.  Nevertheless, I had to leave early, leaving Jasper and Jian Lin, who joined us halfway to watch the movie, to round things up.  It was unfortunate that they had to rush off since the lecture theatre needed to be closed.  As such, we will have to follow up on the movie during this week’s tutorials and touch on how the students feel and think about the movie.  On the whole, we were glad that we could show the movie because a video lecture works well, especially if it is a great film on history and especially if it is one that can engage the students’ interests as well.

Week 5

This week has been quiet as lessons went on as usual. We carried out another source inquiry on the Cuban Missiles Crisis for the 75-minute tutorial and it seemed like that class digested the feedback I gave them well. They did not only focus on just listing the evidence from the sources but also did up their own evaluation in answer to the question.   That was heartening.  However, many issues remain.  One, they need to translate their thinking skills into writing as many of them are still not able to write a proper essay or even answer the question.  Two, they are able to do it in groups but they do not seemed to be able to do it on an individual basis.  While peer learning helps them to learn, we still need to inculcate individual exam skills to them so that they can do well in their exams.

Strategies wise, we have been using source inquiry or source based methods for three weeks.  The students are more or less used to the style and method of using sources.  After much discussion with Jasper, we concluded that providing them with sources is also an avenue through which we can actually provide them with more content. This allows students to understand the topic better and make linkages to the lecture material that is sometimes rushed through due to the time constrain in the curriculum.  I was encouraged when I had two students from 1241B asking me for more sources to be provided in subsequent lessons.  While they represented a small proportion of the class, I was glad that the strategy was at least reaching out to a few of them.

For next week, after much brainstorming, we have decided to use a role play for the next tutorial in order to spice things up for the tutorial.  The conventional view of history as a subject is always how boring it is.  However, I decided to come up with the idea of a roleplay.  The suggestion originally came from Jian Lin.  I took the liberty to expand on the idea and see how it goes in the next week.  If it works out well with the classes, it will be a strategy that we can incorporate for future topics that can allow roleplay to be effective.  I did realize that as I gave out the instructions of the roleplay, the students stirred in excitement.  Their reactions made me deduce that the students, despite being 17 or 18-year-olds, still crave for a break out of the monotony of classroom lessons.  In our efforts to be creative in lesson planning, the students exhibit their appreciation by the way they react.  Granted that the more studious ones may find the roleplaying exercise a little redundant and even puerile at some levels, most of them need a fresh change from the conventional didactic approach.  With the occasional changes in tone of the lesson, making it more lighthearted and fun such as roleplaying, it may serve to reach out to students who have lost their interest or lost some steam in the subject.  However, whether it delivers effective learning is yet to be seen.  Very much depends on the research the students do and how they make use of the time allocated for their presentation in their roles.

Week 4

The week has been rather satisfying with two more observation lessons done. There has been plenty to learn, plenty to improve on and plenty to maintain standards in. Through the observation by Jamie, I have been reminded once more about how students here at IJC need visual aids to learn.  It is pertinent to record answers, discussions and recaps of previous lessons on the whiteboard, via the visualizer or through a powerppoint slide.  This would cater to diverse learners, especially for those who rely on visual aids.  While talking may be useful for some, oftentimes words may just fly over the students’ head.  I did carry visual aids out in the next lesson with another class and realized that they digested the information and recaps a lot better with the discussion being written on the board. This was heartening and I will definitely take note of this in future.

The next issue I learnt about is the alignment and tightness of my lessons. As I moved from recap to focusing on the lesson and the essential lessons, the link is more implicit than explicit.  After reflecting much on the flow of the lesson, I can definitely improve on making the flow of the lesson much more deliberate and expliciit so that students can draw connections to the lesson and see where they are supposed to head towards.

Another lesson I learnt is to take more advantage of teachable moments.  One such example was how students mentioned new terms such as ‘NSC-68’ or ‘McCarthyism’.  I could have utilized that moment to expand more on the concepts and ideas behind these terms so that students have a better understanding of the topic as a whole.  However, I did assign 4 girls in my own civics class to research on the term ‘McCarthyism’ and follow up on the next tutorial.  While the girls merely looked it up on the internet, it continued to aroused the interest of the rest and afforded me the avenue to explain the term further.  It certainly showed the students how the term fit into the Korean War context and into the broader theme of the Cold War.

One lesson that I will apply in future is the comparison of answers between each group that comes up to present their answers during group discussions.  This was brought to my attention that it could actually highlight the level of progression and which answers are better.  This allows students to distinguish between the qualities of answers and what is to be expected in an exam like the promotional exams or the A levels.  While it is a good practice to have to illustrate to students what is expected,  my reservation to doing that so early in JC1 is that it could either dampen or heighten a student’s confidence level.  On a personal level, I am trying to build the students’ confidence in terms of forming, voicing and presenting their own opinion.  If a comparative analysis was to be done against their friends’ work, and they are of the lower standard, it might hurt their confidence and the process of rebuilding it may be tougher than before.  Undoubtedly, teachers can do this with more tactful phrasing in terms of comparing.  Yet I still have my reservations about it.  I do, however, note the usefulness of this and will apply it later on when I am sure that the students are able to handle such critical and comparative analysis of their work.

One thing I noted about the classes I am teaching is that they have very high energy and good stamina in terms of lasting a lesson.  Their attention span somehow stretches longer than I have expected. Nevertheless, I definitely will not take this for granted.  Yet I am heartened that these students actually take a genuine interest in learning history as illustrated by their participation in lesson and their enthusiastic spirit in their discussions.  This spurs me on to create more interesting lessons for the students, hoping to inspire further interest in the discipline of history.

After interacting further with the students after these four weeks, I have come to realize that while the students here may not be the best in the country academically, they have a lot of other talents, sometimes hidden ones.  My own civics class is very musically talented.  I spotted one of them playing the guitar very spontaneously that day in the canteen and he did a fantastic job.  Another student can do an imitation of Michael Jackson very well, showing a flair for dancing.  Another student of mine has demonstrated his debating prowess during the source inquiry debate, definitely displaying potential that can be exploited.  Many others have other talents that are not displayed within the classroom.   It would be fantastic if the students can pursue their interests and talents further.  However, as teachers, our job then is to guide them to balance these interests together with academic commitments, especially when they have the A levels to grapple with in time to come.

I had the second focused conversation with our SCM, Mr Fuad, today. The FC itself reminded me of how I am almost halfway through my practicum and it has been a great experience thus far. The student teachers shared about various classroom management issues and situations that we all have had to handle thus far. On a personal note, I had a few takeaways.  Firstly, different classes require different approaches due to their profiles. For example, a teacher can drive the H2s harder in terms of academic rigour and expectations but for the H1s, a softer approach that involves cajoling and coercing at times can be utilized to get students to work for the subject. Secondly, I also learnt that the cooperation between the civics tutors and subject tutors is vital for the well being of a student.  The collective monitoring and motivation of students can push them to greater heights or bring them back to the right direction when they have veered off course in terms of attitude and behaviour.  I personally have experienced that with one of my students. However, after speaking with the subject tutor of hers, one that she prioritizes more than the others, the subject tutor spoke to her and now she is putting in effort for all her subjects.  While that involved only one subject tutor, it is an example of how subject tutors can cooperate together with the civics tutor in a common goal for the student’s well being.

Thirdly, when we as teachers set expectations and groundrules, it is easy to forget about enforcement when the workload increases or the schedules get too hectic. However, we must also be aware that students do note these little things and hold them in high regard as to whether we are fair in enforcing the rules we set.  If we do not enforce them, we may lose the trust, motivation and even respect of students.  Granted that we must still be flexible depending on case-to-case basis, it is pertinent that we maintain the fairness in enforcing the ground rules that were set at the beginning with the class. Lastly, the way we speak about our students must not cross beyond the lines of our professionalism.  Never should we openly ridicule or criticize our students as though they are beyond redemption, pinning unnecessary labels or worse still, stigma on them in the eyes of other teachers. This may set unwarranted attention or even criticism on them, denting their self confidence and motivation further.  We must always be conscious of how we speak about our students to our colleagues and other students.  A wrong phrase or word may incur unneccessary consequences.  We must also bear in mind that no matter how bad a student is, there must always be a reason for their behaviour and we as teachers should always seek to look for that reason and see how we can remedy it.

All in all, week 4 has been fruitful, with two observations down and many takeaways for me.  I feel more at home in the school, especially when I can feel strongly that I have built a certain level of rapport with the students.  That has been helpful and there is no doubt that the J1 adventure camp has helped tremendously in that regard. 

Week 3

I had my first observation today. I was thankful for the feedback as it allowed me to be more aware of areas where I can and should improve on.  The first constraint that I faced was the decrease in amount of lesson time. Assembly took about ten minutes away and with movement time accounted for, I had fifteen minutes taken away.  As such, the lesson plan needed to be altered on the spot.

I initially wanted to show a video but I decided to cut that out since it was not a pertinent feature of the lesson.  As the lesson went along, I did realize that it felt rather pressed for time and it was indeed so. I chose Sheela to come up and be the scribe for the class when it came to doing a mind map as she was one of the faster students who could grasp new concepts and ideas easily.  My own mistake was not to utilize the mindmap to its full potential to illustrate my points across. Also, Sheela’s mind map was a little untidy and messy and some students might not have been able to follow the interweaving lines that resulted. My other mistake was not to be able to help organize the mind map into a neater demonstration of the points discussed.

I was glad, however, to have raised the issue of wikipedia.  As budding historians, one of the grave sins to commit is to cite wikipedia.  Unfortunately, this is one mistake that is commonly made by many students.  As such, I took the opportunity to share with them the idea of reliaiblity of a source and how Wikipedia is not a reliable source to refer to.  It is essential that I follow up on this because the students tend to forget about the unreliability of Wikipedia.

These were my own reflections before the review with Jamie. After the review, I am much more aware of my weaknesses and have to work on them.  First, I am still lacking in the ability to fully utilize the resources around me. The mind map that Sheela drew was not referred to or utilized to its full potential in order to deliver learning points across. Also, the approach that I adopt with the class is far too laissez faire. As such, I need to be more in control of the flow of the lesson.  Also, I need to be aware of who my audience is and what my student profiles are.  Asking too many questions may incite some rigour but it may also turn students off after some time especially if they cannot catch up. 

In terms of lesson strategies, I should also utilize more tools on top of a mindmap. While a mind map was good, there are bound to be students that belong to multiple zones of intelligences and I need to cater to them by incorporating pictorial representations or even videos. Due to time constraints, I was not able to show the video that I had planned initially.  Another strategy that I need to sharpen is to keep time. It is certainly useful to let students see the amount of time they have left.  This will also help in my overall time mangement for the lesson as I myself will be made more aware of the time.

In a class where the enthusiasm is running high, it is pertinent that a teacher must be in control of the class.  This includes asking particular students questions and not allowing others to hijack the question.  This might deflate the student’s confidence and motivation.  A teacher must also be aware of who is more interested in the lesson and who is not there with the lesson mentally or emotionally. This comes with time and practise as the student-teacher interaction grows along the way. 

Most importantly, the lesson must benefit the students academically and that they learn something from it.  The lesson can be very fun and enjoyable but if the students are not learning anything, the objective is thus unachieved by the teacher.  It is quite a fine balance to juggle for teachers and I have much to learn.  However, I believe that if I continue to work at it, I will be able to get there in due time.  One thing is for sure. Teaching itself is never a boring job. 

The debate that was planned for the week turned out better than expected. The process of deciding on the number and type of sources was a meticulous one. The number of words, the type of words and phrases, the provenances as well as the number of sources were all selected, discussed and decided within the History department. It was also good for all to be aware of the process and also to reach an understanding since the entire J1 history cohort was going to do the debate. It seemed like our worries about the students finding the sources tough were unfounded.  The students could use the sources to full effect and the debate turned out to be better than we expected. That being said, our assessment rubrics also came in handy as we evaluated not just on content for our students but also their organization and oral presentation skills. Most had much room for improvement and I made an effort to let the students know, making time for consultations after class.  I thought that it was pertinent for them to know where they stand in terms of content and presentation skills so that they at least know where their strengths and weaknesses lie. 

The areas of improvement that I can make are time management and the ability to tap on every student’s thoughts and contributions in the classroom.  A great portion of time management is within my grasp of control.  However , there will always be a certain portion that is not especially when the class is at the start of the day or caught between a long bloc of classes for the students. As such, I will be forced to adjust accordingly, sometimes interrupting or even disrupting my lesson plan.  Flexibility is vital here and it is a skill that I have yet to master fully. Also, while I am heartened to see that my students contribute a lot in class discussions, I still need to work on how to tap on each student’s contribution and to create the first dimension of learning, which is essentially a comfortable environment for the students to learn and share their thoughts.

I also had the opportunity to attend the J1 adventure camp from Thursday to Saturday.  I was really glad for this chance for it gave me an avenue to bond with my future civics class and also get to know more students in the process through the house system.  I also managed to get to know more colleagues better, mingling and working with them throughout these three days.  It was a a major learning experience, not just as a facilitator in a group of students but also in terms of observing how an overseas camp is run.  The PE department did an excellent job in coordinating an event that involved about six hundered over people.  It was very humbling to find out what the tedious details, time and effort that went into the planning of this major event.  Nevertheless, I was glad that no one was hurt, short of some sick students, and everyone returned safe and sound with good memories of the camp. Personally, I felt that the camp was not intense enough for the students but then again, their expressions said it all when they returned home. Plain relief.

On the whole, week 3 has been really fruitful in terms of learning the teaching strategies as well as lessons for me as a teacher outside of the classroom. It makes me yearn for more of such lessons as the weeks come along.  With the J1 camp, I feel more at ease and comfortable with the students that I am and will be teaching as well. All in all, it has been a great week. 

Week 2 of practicum

Another week has passed. I conducted my first lesson with 1243B and 1241B/1242A today. 1243B will be my first civics class when I return in July. The introduction and icebreakers went well as they took to the toilet paper game pretty quickly and began sharing in accordance with the number of squares they possess.

For 1241B/ 1242A, I used the game of 2 truths 1 lie for ice breakers. Together with Nanda, we co-taught them and managed to give them a snippet of inference and evaluation through the game as the game required these skills to guess whether what the person is saying is actually a lie. I wanted to relate it more to the discipline of History but due to time constraint, I had to move on. However, Nanda did point out that when we embark on source based at a later stage, it would be good to revisit it to relate it back to the discipline.

For both classes, I also managed to cover the introduction of the TACT framework to them in the process. However, a make-up session has to be carried out for each class as they are both behind by one tutorial. Essentially, I have several learning points with regards to today’s lessons.

First, I need to be continuously aware and sensitive to the students’ confidence and motivation levels. As they were asking me questions about my educational background when I was introducing myself, I was hesitant about sharing my JC background. When I related my prelim score of 12 points as low, I could tell from the response that 12 points was pretty high for some, if not most of them. I quickly redeemed the situation that it was from the perspective of RJC. Hence, this taught me to really be cautious and aware of the phrases and words I use as well as how I package these topics to them so as not to hit any raw nerve. I felt that I managed to salvage the situation by sharing with them how RJC was like but shifted the emphasis to my primary school experience which they could relate more to.

Second, I need to continously let them do group and collaborative work. Throughout the introduction of TACT, I had a constant worry of whether the students could understand what I was driving at and whether I should incorporate any collaborative learning strategies to encourage deductive learning. However, fortunately, the questions and participations by both classes showed that most of them managed to grasp the concept and my worries were unfounded. That being said, I still need to incorporate more collaborative strategies for future topics that are more feasible. I also need to continously remind myself to pick on their brains more, to utilize each participation and discussion as a point of learning and teaching. When students participate, they also tend to engage in deductive learning when we probe them with more insightful questions. I will have to learn to cope with the constraint of time as well as encouraging this process.

Third, I also note that it is vital to show the students the objectives of the lesson so that they know what they are supposed to learn and master by the end of it. This would facilitate their learning and help them to understand the rationale behind the activities and content behind the tutorials.

The past week has been a fulfilling and rewarding time teaching and interacting with the students. I had the opportunity to get to know my future form class better and also my first chance at teaching the J2H1 class.

Classroom Management

I haven’t had any major issue with regards to classroom management thus far. I am thankful that the students have been largely cooperative and are willing to participate whenever I question them or invite them up to present. Only with my own future form class did I have a minor issue with. They came into their make-up tutorial 10 minutes later than the stipulated time. That forced me to scold them severely, letting them know the gravity of the situation. I was actually glad that I was harsh with them for I found out, during civics class, that it was their second time in three days being late for class. Nanda continued the lashing at them and I actually felt bad for the class as they had to go through multiple scoldings. However, I also recognized the necessity in enforcing the ground rules so that the students do not become complacent or take advantage of the teacher.

Words can be empty and efforts can be futile. However, it may be a good start and platform to work from when the students themselves came over to apologize to the teachers. I was cognizant of the fact that such an issue was not the most serious I have ever experienced. No doubt, my own experience in teaching is humble and few but the worst one I have had was one who challenged my authority in open defiance. As far as I am concerned, this was a featherweight issue in comparison. Indeed, it has been a smoothsailing start for class manangement thus far.

Lesson Plan/ Strategies/ Pedagogies

I do appreciate how my tutor in NIE drilled us frequently, overtly and painfully. The skills and knowledge acquired in planning lessons have come easier when we have to conjure a lesson, pitched at a suitable level for each and every class. I had the opportunity to teach classes with varying abilities and having to alter my pace for each of them.

I also learned that the J2s needed different strategies especially when they are H1s. Their approach towards history is more lacklustre. That demonstrates the amount of importance they tag to the H1 subject. While I am expecting them to deliver the results when it matters, it is not without much cajoling and coaxing on my part. It is a learning curve that I am embarking on and after receiving some advice and stories from Nanda, it is going to be an interesting one. While strategies and pedagogies remain similar, they are still a science-oriented bunch, different from an arts class. It will be interesting as I go along discovering more ways and means to get more out of them.

Summary

One thing I am very grateful for is the chance to be able to head to Bintan with the J1s for their adventure camp. I have heard good stories and reviews of the experience and that it provides a fantastic avenue for class bonding. It is also very encouraging to see that the school devotes a lot of its resources in organizing these trips that are very beneficial for the students. It has only been two weeks but it has