Education
Fodder analysis
Jan 18th
Showed my sec1 classes the trailer for Mad About English. Most of them found it amusing, but somehow the GE classes laughed the hardest. Like exaggeratedly so. I wonder if this is just a sign that they’re less inhibited and restrained, or if they are really less able to empathise with slow learners…
(Is it true? Are GEPpers really socially retarded?)
Facebook spying
Oct 22nd
I had some Facebook friend requests from students as early as during my practicum, and I’d deliberated for some time before deciding to accept those requests. The basic idea was that hey, I don’t really have much that I’m hiding anyway, plus it seemed like a way to get to know the kids better. I don’t actively stalk their profiles (who has the time?), but occasionally some really funny gems end up on my main page anyway.
Essentially, the head prefect had failed to write his name on his examination script, and when the discipline master (who was invigilating) made a fuss about it, he’d sheepishly owned up – much to his classmates’ amusement. I wish I’d been there! =P
This one was rather sad really. Here we see ‘elite school’ kids bragging to each other about… how little they study. Which is totally funny (painfully funny? funnily painful?), because of course I wasn’t doing anything of the kind a decade ago!
(…or was I? I can’t really remember. But I suspect it’s possible. How very depressing!)
A little work pride
Oct 22nd
This will sound a little pathetic, but I’m actually taking great pride in a detailed answer scheme for the end-of-year examinations that I helped to kick-start. The previous one was alright, but this one has made marking so much easier!
(How exciting a teacher’s life is.)
Approval ratings
Oct 7th
So the elective modules have come to an end. I’ve had my fair share of students sleeping in class, but I wasn’t particularly strict on them since it’s, after all, meant to be for enrichment. Hearteningly enough, I also had a fair share of students listening rather raptly. Even more encouraging was another bunch of feedback I’ve managed to dig out from alternative sources =P
I know that these represent a very small sample of students (who bothered to blog about their experiences in a Google-able manner), which is possibly self-selecting in the sense that those who hated the module chose not to discuss it at all. However, it’s still good to know that there’re at least a few students who’d enjoyed themselves, and I hope I’ve given some of them at least a greater understanding of what Psychology really is, and who knows? Perhaps some of them will even go on to read it at university.
Feedback
Sep 21st
So I’ve been running two elective modules for the past week now, and though one of them’s off on a rather rocky start, I’m rather glad about how the other one’s shaping up. I’m never be too sure about how my students are feeling about the lesson, though, so I’ve turned to Google Blog Search for a little extra information. One reviewer in particular seems to have really taken to the sessions so far – hopefully I’ve managed to successfully give them a taste of what Psychology is about!
Other reviews are less obviously approving (like, is ‘the teacher is quite lol’ supposed to be good or bad?), but overall it seems like this one module’s been received quite well thus far. Of course, this sample represents the population that has expressed their thoughts on an easily-found blog, but it’s rather heartening nonetheless!
Tweet-bate Step #1
Jul 28th
I’ve come up with a WordPress site that I’m planning to use for the first phase of my unit on debates (yes, we’re teaching that at my school, which is simultaneously cool and scary, considering that I actually know very little about them). The plan is to tap on their existing expository-writing skills and their love for things web-related to bring them through topical discussions, culminating in a mini-debate held conducted via Twitter.
I’ve no idea how successful this will be – in my head it could turn out awesomely well, or turn into an awesome failure.
p.s. Any ideas about the title for the site? I started with ‘Talking Point’ and that seemed somewhat blah. ‘In Focus’ isn’t much better, really.
The shouting man
Jul 9th
I was headed to the MRT station from school today when I heard a man shouting at a bunch of senior students from my school. Curious as to what exactly he was spouting (perhaps he was complaining about certain inconsiderate actions the students were guilty of), I stopped for a moment to listen to what he had to say.
It soon became clear, however, that his grievances had little to do with the students themselves. The man was angrily telling them that the whole lot of them were born with silver spoons in their mouths, that these evil elite institutions had no right to exist, that the students’ powerful gahmen parents had screwed up the way the country was being run real bad. I’m not sure what I would have done in the past – I’m ashamed to admit that I’d probably have done the Singaporean thing and just walked on by – but now that I was an employee of the school, I decided to intervene.
“Excuse me sir, could you please stop shouting at the students?” I asked. Perhaps not the best start, but I managed to deflect his attention from them (whom I signalled to walk away quickly). He continued shouting at me for awhile, and although initially irritated with him, I gradually came to sympathise with him. Clearly, the man must have been under a tremendous amount of stress. I started trying to talk to him instead, to enquire about the source of his pain, as we started walking towards the train station.
I never did find out what was bothering him so deeply in the few minutes that ensued, but by the time we reached the station his volume had gone down noticeably. I wasn’t able to help him in any concrete way during this brief encounter, but I do hope that my (rather minimal) show of concern and willingness to hear his thoughts helped him in his troubled state.
Ramping up
Jul 7th
It seems like I’ve got quite a bit on my plate this semester.
- 4x Sec3 English classes
- 2x Sec1 Oral Communication classes
- 2x DMP modules to plan (basically coming up with my own electives)
- 1x Research Education group (essentially a rebranded IRS/Project Work)
- 1x (co-)Form class
- 1x CCA
Happily, the workload hasn’t quite come full swing yet, since I’ve mainly been administering in-class assessments these 2 week (plus, the H1N1 issue has limited after-school activities).
Strangely enough, there’s a small (obviously insane) part of me that’s rather excited by it all. Let’s just hope that I’m up to the task and survive my first semester.
Technology in the classroom
Jun 7th
So it was an unexciting week of lectures at NIE, and I was part of a significant proportion of the student population hard at work on their laptops surfing the internet doing educational stuff. Somehow, my mind wandered to a recent Time article I’d read about using Twitter in church (during services). Looking around at the laptop-armed students around me, I wondered if the classroom could perhaps be improved with the use of Twitter during a lesson.
After some googling, it seems that this isn’t exactly a new idea, but it seems that the bulk of Twittering occurs outside of the classroom, plus it seems to have mostly targeted university students thus far. Using it at the secondary level seems a whole lot riskier, and I can understand why – I’ve discarded (for now) the possibility of allowing students to Twitter while a proper class is going on, although with a unit on debates coming up next term, perhaps I can try out a lesson where the Twitter interface instead becomes the primary medium used.
I’ll still need to think this through quite a bit, but I do think that social media has a lot of potential in teaching (both inside and outside of the classroom). I’m currently deliberating whether or not to allow my students to add me on Facebook (and whether that can somehow be utilised for educational purposes), and am currently quite intrigued by the possibilities Google Wave has to offer.
What an exciting (if workful) time for the geek teacher!
Yesterday once more
May 9th
Practicum’s over now, so I figured it’s as good a time as any to share some pictures of the experience.
It’s kinda weird taking the bus to school daily (I gave up on cycling in the last 2 weeks, the sudden heavy downpours are just too daunting). I don’t really go to that bus stop all that often (the buses to town are in the opposite direction), so walking there really reminded me of the old school days. As did waiting for the bus home from school – they’ve shifted the bus stop (and thankfully added a sheltered walkway), but it still has that old familiar feeling.
The school itself is much the same, yet quite a bit different as well. Upon entering the school via the side gate, you’re greeted by a long wooden (table?) which I’m pretty sure wasn’t there before. The bust of Raffles outside the general office is still there, as are the Headmasters’ pictures hanging in the atrium. The canteen is radically different – it’s all enclosed now (less bird crap, yay!) and also hosts the school’s (Popular) bookshop. I can’t even remember what the bookshop was like in my day – I guess there must have been one, and it definitely wasn’t an external vendor, but for some reason I can’t seem to recall anything about it!
Friday is combined recess for all 4 levels (usually it’s split into two sessions) – I’m not too sure why they do this, but it results in a shorter work day so I’m not complaining. There’s usually a performance at the atrium (Arts at the Atrium, they call it) during this recess, and since it was SYF season the various clubs were taking the chance to showcase their competition pieces to the rest of the school. I thought this was a wonderful idea, and I really do wish I had taken other photos/videos other than this one performance, but I guess I was too engrossed in enjoying the (free!) performances.
We had a temperature-taking exercise before we actually went all ‘orange alert‘, and it was pretty surreal watching all the students taking their temperatures in the parade square (which is, incidentally, no longer on the AstroTurf field). I guess it’s happened before (during the SARS period), but the sight of hundreds of students with thermometers in their mouths was really just… weird.