Some thoughts and a teacher's dilemma
Many things happened in class today and I wanna quickly get my many thoughts recorded, before sleep comes and erode part of my memory ...
First, Steve Job's speech is going into my list of 'motivating stories', which I can tap on in times of need. I was given the advice that students love listening to interesting stories and generally, I find that it is quite true, provided one can tell a story well. So, this will be one of those that I can make use of, together with the life stories of Walt Disney's etc. In any case, these will be the politically correct stories to tell, as opposed to ghost stories, which I was guilty of telling once or twice in my 4 months of teaching, in order to bring the class to focus on me. Oops! I won't be blacklisted for this, will I?
Then came CY's well-thought out and splendid micro-teaching on Tourism. Well done, CY! If MOE can promise that all teachers are like her, I won't mind becoming a 15-year-old all over again. In fact, I would wish for that if all teachers were like her.
Some thoughts:
1. Tone of voice
Wow! What a friendly tone. There is no 'I am the teacher and you are a student' air at all. A good demonstration of 'tender loving care'. This is certainly the kind of teacher I would like to have. So, I think I need to work on this.
2. Instructions to students
We should give instructions explicitly. We cannot assume that they know. Often, they don't know. So, instructions should be as detailed as possible, but broken down into understandable steps. Common sense to us may not be common sense to others. So, never assume. But then, we are not them. How are we to know the instructions we plan to give are not clear, until students start doing some strange things they think are right? Well, I can only think of 'testing' the instructions on someone (non-teacher and non-student) to see if he/she can grasp what is expected of him/her rather quickly. And as time goes by, hopefully our brain will be automatically programmed into such a mode and giving explicit instructions becomes something as natural as breathing in the air.
But if all else fail, teacher's intervention is necessary.
In addition, it would be good if instructions are put up somewhere. Students can refer to them when they are lost or have forgotten the next step. Also, they serve as reminders not to go off course.
3. Learning goals
I think learning goals should be told to students, especially if the link of the activity to their curriculum/textbooks is not that clear, yet. I think saying or writing on the board something like "At the end of this lesson, you will have learnt ... blah blah..." will be good. The more goal-oriented (or results-oriented) students will certainly want to know why they need to do this, and what bearing this has on their curriculum, tests and exams. And the low-end students may not be able to link them up on their own if the goals are not told to them. The learning goals should be mentioned again at the end of the lesson. The loose ends should be tied up. And of course, our supervisors will want to see this done. :)
4. Logistics
I would agree that all materials for group work should be pre-packed before the lesson itself. It would save time distributing them for sure. And it also prevent all the unnecessary squabbles from happening.
Related to this would be the method of distribution. Personally, I prefer to get students to distribute materials for me. That will free us up for other things. When new to the class, we can rely on the monitor/monitress and those with the councillor badges to do a good job for us. But as time passes and we know more students, we can actually assign such tasks to other students, be they responsible students or students who need to be taught what responsibility is. And I do know of students who take pride in helping teachers out in such simple tasks.
5. Be creative, be bold
Honestly, I would not have thought of using STB's marketing means to conduct a class. My creative level is almost nil. The best I can think of is to ask students to list the places they would want to bring their foreigner visitor. So boring right? So, I really need to expand my creative cells a lot more! Everything can become a geographical teaching tool if we think different. Certainly, I have to get out of my comfort zone now!
6. Budget
For the budget issue, I think the amount should be decided for the students instead of by them. First, of course it 'forces' them to think deeper and more realistically. But more importantly, it spells the start of some learning points, ie an average tourist to Singapore stays only 3 days and hence their expenditure is not that high. This can then lead them into examining why this is so, and what can be done about this. These are all important issues in both the Tourism chapter and the Development chapter (tapping on tourism to fuel development). Ok, I may be going a bit too far.. But my point is, whatever we do, there must be a point to it. If not, I don't think it should be there at all.
CY's micro-teaching also brought to mind a couple of dilemmas which I will mention briefly here:
1. If a couple of students are always not paying attention in class, what can be done? (Am referring to those who have no fear of DM, no parents to guide them etc). Should we stop teaching and address the problem there and then? Or should we leave them alone and focus on those who wish to learn? In the former, we are taking away time that can be used in teaching, to discipline the naughty students, thereby keeping the good students waiting. And we run the risk of not finishing the syllabus because of these one or two black sheep in class.
If we choose the latter, what kind of teachers are we if we do not 'bring' those students onto the learning path? Should we leave them alone so long as we can still teach the majority of the students? ???
2. When a squabble or potential fight breaks out, should we raise our voice or should we remain mild and gentle?
On the one hand, raising our voices sometimes makes matter worse. But sometimes, it stops the problem there and then. Shouting at them can make them 'lose face', as CY pointed out. And because of this, students sometimes see the need to win the squabble or fight so as to protect his own pride.
On the other hand, if we remain mild, the squabbles may persist and escalate, although being mild has the advantage of protecting the self-esteem of that student.
But then, we must also know that there are other students watching. We must send the message across that such nonsense in class will not be tolerated and should not occur again. So, dilemma... dilemma...
The End.
SW
First, Steve Job's speech is going into my list of 'motivating stories', which I can tap on in times of need. I was given the advice that students love listening to interesting stories and generally, I find that it is quite true, provided one can tell a story well. So, this will be one of those that I can make use of, together with the life stories of Walt Disney's etc. In any case, these will be the politically correct stories to tell, as opposed to ghost stories, which I was guilty of telling once or twice in my 4 months of teaching, in order to bring the class to focus on me. Oops! I won't be blacklisted for this, will I?
Then came CY's well-thought out and splendid micro-teaching on Tourism. Well done, CY! If MOE can promise that all teachers are like her, I won't mind becoming a 15-year-old all over again. In fact, I would wish for that if all teachers were like her.
Some thoughts:
1. Tone of voice
Wow! What a friendly tone. There is no 'I am the teacher and you are a student' air at all. A good demonstration of 'tender loving care'. This is certainly the kind of teacher I would like to have. So, I think I need to work on this.
2. Instructions to students
We should give instructions explicitly. We cannot assume that they know. Often, they don't know. So, instructions should be as detailed as possible, but broken down into understandable steps. Common sense to us may not be common sense to others. So, never assume. But then, we are not them. How are we to know the instructions we plan to give are not clear, until students start doing some strange things they think are right? Well, I can only think of 'testing' the instructions on someone (non-teacher and non-student) to see if he/she can grasp what is expected of him/her rather quickly. And as time goes by, hopefully our brain will be automatically programmed into such a mode and giving explicit instructions becomes something as natural as breathing in the air.
But if all else fail, teacher's intervention is necessary.
In addition, it would be good if instructions are put up somewhere. Students can refer to them when they are lost or have forgotten the next step. Also, they serve as reminders not to go off course.
3. Learning goals
I think learning goals should be told to students, especially if the link of the activity to their curriculum/textbooks is not that clear, yet. I think saying or writing on the board something like "At the end of this lesson, you will have learnt ... blah blah..." will be good. The more goal-oriented (or results-oriented) students will certainly want to know why they need to do this, and what bearing this has on their curriculum, tests and exams. And the low-end students may not be able to link them up on their own if the goals are not told to them. The learning goals should be mentioned again at the end of the lesson. The loose ends should be tied up. And of course, our supervisors will want to see this done. :)
4. Logistics
I would agree that all materials for group work should be pre-packed before the lesson itself. It would save time distributing them for sure. And it also prevent all the unnecessary squabbles from happening.
Related to this would be the method of distribution. Personally, I prefer to get students to distribute materials for me. That will free us up for other things. When new to the class, we can rely on the monitor/monitress and those with the councillor badges to do a good job for us. But as time passes and we know more students, we can actually assign such tasks to other students, be they responsible students or students who need to be taught what responsibility is. And I do know of students who take pride in helping teachers out in such simple tasks.
5. Be creative, be bold
Honestly, I would not have thought of using STB's marketing means to conduct a class. My creative level is almost nil. The best I can think of is to ask students to list the places they would want to bring their foreigner visitor. So boring right? So, I really need to expand my creative cells a lot more! Everything can become a geographical teaching tool if we think different. Certainly, I have to get out of my comfort zone now!
6. Budget
For the budget issue, I think the amount should be decided for the students instead of by them. First, of course it 'forces' them to think deeper and more realistically. But more importantly, it spells the start of some learning points, ie an average tourist to Singapore stays only 3 days and hence their expenditure is not that high. This can then lead them into examining why this is so, and what can be done about this. These are all important issues in both the Tourism chapter and the Development chapter (tapping on tourism to fuel development). Ok, I may be going a bit too far.. But my point is, whatever we do, there must be a point to it. If not, I don't think it should be there at all.
CY's micro-teaching also brought to mind a couple of dilemmas which I will mention briefly here:
1. If a couple of students are always not paying attention in class, what can be done? (Am referring to those who have no fear of DM, no parents to guide them etc). Should we stop teaching and address the problem there and then? Or should we leave them alone and focus on those who wish to learn? In the former, we are taking away time that can be used in teaching, to discipline the naughty students, thereby keeping the good students waiting. And we run the risk of not finishing the syllabus because of these one or two black sheep in class.
If we choose the latter, what kind of teachers are we if we do not 'bring' those students onto the learning path? Should we leave them alone so long as we can still teach the majority of the students? ???
2. When a squabble or potential fight breaks out, should we raise our voice or should we remain mild and gentle?
On the one hand, raising our voices sometimes makes matter worse. But sometimes, it stops the problem there and then. Shouting at them can make them 'lose face', as CY pointed out. And because of this, students sometimes see the need to win the squabble or fight so as to protect his own pride.
On the other hand, if we remain mild, the squabbles may persist and escalate, although being mild has the advantage of protecting the self-esteem of that student.
But then, we must also know that there are other students watching. We must send the message across that such nonsense in class will not be tolerated and should not occur again. So, dilemma... dilemma...
The End.
SW
posted by S W at
1:23 am
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