D & D

Hi hi,
Laughter abound in today's 2 micro-teaching. :D
Am not in the right frame of mind to actually blog (the washing machine in me tummy has been churning for the past few days), but if I wait a day or 2 longer, I will lose more stuff that is etched in my brain right now. Am getting old and hence the poor memory. Argh! :(

Daffy's Planeteers
The class went crazy today. The poor tcher! :) The price to pay for being kawan kawan with everyone in class. :)

She used pop culture to make her lessons more interesting, by getting her students to be Planeteers. :) Got to compliment her on this, especially on the effort she has put in. I have heard of this being done before but have never witnessed for it myself. I think it would be more warmly received by real students. I guess the Planeteers is the obvious choice for environmental topics, except that they may be a little outdated? Would not The Incredibles be a better choice now? But whether the Planeteers or the Incredibles, the point is that Daffy has demonstrated how we can use pop culture to engage students in lessons. :)
Ah, that reminds me of the time when I had to refer to Plankton (a character of Spongebob Square Pants) to explain what plankton is. So, we can also use bits and pieces here and there to help us out as well.

She started off being really strict with the class - Wes' "hell". I thought that was a little too strict. But it is commendable to correct a student's language if they are not that appropriate.

Our group had a bit of problem on the role-play segment. I am clueless how to role play sewage or sewage treatment. But then, my creative faculty has never been well developed. Perhaps the children would have done it better and enjoyed it at the same time.


Daren's weathering
Another difficult topic to get students to picture the processes in their mind.

It was also commendable that Daren used his little model to show students how rocks break apart. That was nice. Could be quite helpful to students who cannot understand how a big piece of rock can break down over time. But perhaps, using a real picture to tie in with the model would be better.

Daren had lots of diagrams to show the different processes. They are a necessity, certainly. Pictures can also help out here, together with his diagrams.

The blind pakcik was really hilarious. He really enjoys acting. :D But then, all teachers should be good actors.
Poor Daren, having time working against him, he got the group to discuss whether Mas should go home or not outside the classroom. I would resolve this there and then. I guess, in a real situation, I would allow the student to go home. But the incident has to be logged down properly, with other witnesses (Wes the adminstrator). Daren tried to get a letter from a parent/guardian to explain the situation that warrants Mas' departure for home. This is really well-done. But then, there are difficulties. Perhaps an office administrator can help the blind pakcik draft the letter, read out to him, and get him to sign.

Okie, before I go. Here is a pict from the US. A friend (not a geographer but an engineer) took some picts to make me drool. Sigh... What kind of friends do I have? Anyway, sharing them here, if anyone finds them useful. More will come in future.

Geyser: Old Faithful

SW

PTM

Hi hi,
Had a few runs of PTM simulations last Friday during our Geog tutorial. That was really cool. It 'forces' us to think thru what can actually go wrong during a PTM. :) And as such, we can better prepare ourselves for our future actual PTMs. It's also another example of learning while having fun. :P And of course, we got to learn more about one another, and to a lesser extent, know more about ourselves. For example, didn't know that some if us can play the broken English abusive mum and sexually abused girl; the sexually abusive father; and the nasi ayam hawker so so well. Didn't realize I still have the killer look with me which I ought to have left behind long ago. This PTM simulation certainly throws light on lots of things, including how we ourselves respond to the different types of stressful situations.

I have had the opportunity of sitting in a PTM in May this year. I was the co-form teacher of a Sec 2 Exp class, along with a relief teacher who took them for Maths. That was a terrible arrangement, I know. What was worse is that I did not take the class for any subjects. I merely saw them during reading periods after flag raising, and also the bi-weekly PCCG sessions. It took me so long to remember all their names. And that happened only during their mid-year exams when I tried memorising 5 names per day since they were seated according to their index number. And since I did not have much contact with them, I was in no place to conduct a PTM. So, the school arranged for their Sec 1 form teacher to conduct the PTM while I merely helped when language is a problem (the ex-form teacher of the class was a Malay). The parents we met that day were generally respectful to teachers and so we did not have much of a problem. Students were exceptionally shy when they were with their parents, probably stressed over what the teachers would say to their parents and what their parents would say to their teacher and wishing that none would embarrass them too much or get them into more trouble either way. Poor kids.
But anyway, our PTM simulation last Friday did a good job in preparing me for the worst case scenarios, so that I would not sink into too comfortable a position, having witnessed the smooth cases only.

SW

K & R

Hi hi,
Whenever I see Ken, I am reminded of the Can? vs Ken misunderstanding that cropped up a couple of times during our micro-teachings thus far. :) The poor guy. I think I was guilty of that during my microteaching as well. Oops. :(
It also reminded me of the time I was rather traumatised by something similar when I first attended school in Pri 1. My Eng teacher loved to go "Shall we?" every few minutes. And having come from a traditional Hokkien family with almost no Eng speakers at that time, it was so stressful for my young heart then because I could never tell if a teacher was calling me or not. :( Of course, I have outgrown it. But I recently resolve to introduce my name as 'shall we talk' from now onwards if people have problems getting my name right or remembering it. :D


2 micro-teaching sessions

We have 2 similar micro-teaching sessions today by Ken and Raksha. They are similar in terms of the topics, the mode of instruction, and most importantly, both teachers come across as being really confident, knowledgeable, quick-thinking and very very sharp to what is happening around them. :)

Ok, down to Ken's micro-teaching.

The handphone incident + student who simply walked out of class was rather scary but Ken did not waver in his confidence when he handled it. Cool man!
But I am not so sure if it is a good idea to make the 2 students continue doing pair work together. Both of them probably need to cool off first.

To students who asked questions (although not all of them intelligent questions), Ken addresses all of them earnestly. Just that a nodding student is not equivalent to a student who understood a teacher's explanation.

The graphic organiser was a good move. Except that I don't know how much to copy down. I ended up copying almost everything and not listening to what was said.

And it's a pity Ken did not have the time to get down to the activity for students to apply the least-cost model. I think that is a terrific idea!

Raksha's micro-teaching.

I think it would be good if case studies come with a map of the region we are discussing, especially if you can point out to students things like where the airport is situated, where raw materials are obtained, where HEP stations are located etc, in relation to Bangalore or the 'Silicon Valley'? Or am I terribly outdated? My Geog teacher used to make us draw the map of the region we are studying, marking out some important infrastructure tat we would talk about in our essays. It probably should not be as drastic as this but some knowledge of spatial arrangements of the factors would be great.

The jumbled-word quiz was not helpful to me in testing knowledge gained because I was not reading the sentences. Instead I was focusing on deciphering the jumbled words.

I like the notes with the blanks. Made it easier to take down so that I can listen to the teacher better. But I think that for the different factors (eg govt, rm, mkt land etc), arranging them in the style of a mind map would be more useful.
A combination of Ken and Raksha's pluses for the notes would be great.

I wonder how Raksha got to video clip. Was it difficult searching for it? It shows her resourcefulness by using such a clip for this topic, as it was not a clip tailored specially for this topic.

Okie, got to go zzzz…..

SW

No such things as armchair Geographers

Hi hi,
It seems that all of us (except maybe those of us who were slightly sick) enjoyed the little trip to P. Semakau on 14 Sep 2005 thoroughly. :D And it would be nice if we can revisit in another few years or so to see how things have progressed. And I am sure all of us would want more of such field trips (er.. maybe minus the boat rides), to places we have never or seldom been to.

This place has always been on my mind since I had to teach Sec 2 students on waste disposal in Singapore. At that time, I felt really inadequate teaching it since I have not seen for myself how things are like over there. Incinerator, yes. Landfill, never had the chance until now. So, could not offer anything more than what is in the textbook and the internet. So, that's the first reason why I was so happy to be able to visit.

Second reason I was happy - I survived the boat rides. As long as the boats are open-air, I am more likely to survive it. :)

Third reason I was happy - learnt so many things there. At first, I was extremely skeptical how a landfill can function without compromising environmental well-being. Now that this engineering feat has been presented to me, I am less skeptical. But then, we cannot deny the fact that nature still far surpasses humans in its prowess.

Fourth, wow - wildlife! I absolutely love wildlife and places teeming with them. :) I think I spotted a resident otter there, apart from the usual egret and juvenile heron. Perhaps I should come again with the nature soc people to see more wildlife under the surface. :)
http://www.wildsingapore.org/beachfleas/semakau/index.html

Okie, and here are a couple of pics. Not very good though.

Cartography Workshop
Didn't know that it's so difficult to classify what constitutes a map and what not. Try these:
1. Aboriginal songline
2. Site map of website
3. SBS Transit bus guide
4. Vertical aerial photograph
5. False-coloured satellite image
6. Annotated postcard view of Mt Kinabalu National Park
7. NUS Campus guide display board
8. Tolkien's middle earth
9. Radar screen of shipping in the Singapore straits
10. Image in your head of your neighbourhood
Hmmm...
And check out WH's blog for some great picts of maps.


A few other matters

Teacher's turn out and bearing
Once, I met a student and her mom. Nothing great about that. But it happened to be one of those mornings right after I had my morning jog. And when jogging, I prefer to wear those tees that have been washed umpteenth time because they are most comfy, and of course shorts. And I was doing the housewife thingy (grocery shopping) in my jogging attire... It was so embarrassing. :( But then, it could be worse. Imagine if I had met the dad instead ...

Teaching vs other duties
Got a taste of what teachers mean when they told me actual teaching takes up only 10% of a teacher's time, during my 4 weeks' school experience. Host of other duties constantly kept me from planning and preparing for my lessons. Things like giving feedback on students' behaviour for counsellors' use. (And that reminds me of the holistic report card thing that schools are embarking on, ie all subject teachers must comment on student's behaviour in class). Things like keying in exam marks into the system. CCAs and adhoc chaperoning of students on various events. Meetings (my school made every Wed a meeting day and no teachers are to leave school until 5.30pm every Wed). Setting test papers and exam papers. Marking. Seeing students for all sorts of reasons. Speaking to form teachers and parents on students' behaviour. Typing meeting minutes. Feedback sessions with P, HODs and teacher coordinators. Typing reflections. Ticking students homework against the class list. Keying in CCA attendance. Book review sessions with vendors. WITS meeting. Collecting edusave forms/consent forms/acknowledgement slips. Coordinating the ordering of stuff (eg Mother's day cake etc). Invigilating. Giving remedial lessons... We need to know how to be an octopus, multi-tasking and all that, even while still undergoing training. This is why full-fledged teachers always comment that our training days are our honeymoon days. I suppose most of us who have not the chance to take on the full load of teaching, or work anywhere else before, cannot agree with that. But I have to say that they are definitely right. We have to start seeing ourselves as employees, undergoing training, not students attending lessons. We need to wake up and face reality. And we have to practise due dilligence in all that we do right now. The onus is on us, to learn stuff our tutors generously try to impart to us.

Classroom management and other issues
It is simply wonderful to have classroom management issues addressed in our Geog tutorials. Thus far, these issues have not been addressed. And if the Classroom Management portion of our Ed Psy module (that is starting next Monday) is going to be as terribly done as it has been for the past 6 weeks, we will be very very grateful for our Geog's tutorials to have something concrete for us to fall back upon. :) Of course if it is going to be very well-delivered, we get the cake and we get to eat it too. So, I do not think there's any need to change how things are done in our Geog tutorials.

Sharing knowledge from experience
Had this problem when I resigned from my previous job. Had to hand over all that i have learnt in 5 years, in just two weeks. Not possible. Didn't know where to start. So, had to prioritise, just like tutor K. Passed down the most basic stuff to enable the one who took over me could at least ensure that the basic minimum are carried out smoothly, without affecting other people next in the chain. A pity all other wisdom gained from experience were lost. Could have written a book recording all the insights gained from those 5 years. Tutor K has 13 years of his experience. He could have written a whole encyclopaedia on his insights. So, it is a wonder he knew where he wanted to start with us.

Okie, dun wanna go on and on... Not too sure if I still make sense, having gone without sleep last night to work on our dear Ed Psy essay. And then travelling 4 hours to and fro just to get it handed in. Sigh...

Now got to go work on ICT x 2.
SW

Taking 5

:)
Collecting fillers for future use in class.

Jo's rocks

Hi hi,
Jo did a micro-teaching on rocks today. This is also not an easy topic to teach because all those rock names can kill any passion one has in Geog. This is the only topic I hate in Geog. I am prepared to love everything to do with Geog since it is my one big passion but, when it comes to rocks, I simply cannot extend that love to it. Terrible me.
Anyway, back to Jo's lesson. It was really thoughtful of Jo to bring magnifying glasses for the groups to examine the rocks with! Wonderful. I really wished I could play the part of a student today but alas, I happened to be the camerawoman today. Perhaps, Jo's style would ignite my interest in the topic. I love hands on activities like what was done today.
Also, poor Jo had the disadvantage of time constraint but her flexibility shows, in that she chose to go into the main activity after talking the class thru on what she would have covered 10 minutes prior to the groupwork.
But as for management issues, although Jo tries real hard to be strict, perhaps her petite size and her voice worked to her disadvantage in this aspect.
I guess that's all I can comment because my concern was more to record on tape the teaching process.

Ah, something else I look forward to is the Semakau trip but I've just been reminded of my terrible motion sickness. It's worse now that I've just read someone's blog on the boat ride which made him sick when he seldom gets the motion sickness. Arghh! My motion sickness is really very very bad. So bad that I suspect seismologists can use me to detect earthquakes. Felt tremors twice at home while the rest of my family were totally oblivious. So, I am going to be really anti-social during the boat rides. I cannot stand having to nod or shake my head to caring people around me when I don't feel well. So, do ignore me during the boat rides. I really do feel better that way. Grr.....

And oh, reading week. I need to do many things I haven't the time to do, 2 of which are jogging and swimming. I am turning into a bigger and bigger blob of fats! Yucks!

SW

Fully engaged

Hi hi,
Such a draining day today. It all started from 8.30am, when we had quite a fair bit of entertainment from today's Ed Psy presentations. So many of my tutorial mates (they are the same bunch for Ed Psy and Geog) should really consider going into the entertainment line. Actors/actresses/dubbing artistes/director/script writers/director of photography /make-up artist and wardrobe etc, you name it, and they can do it! That was a great start. Although I used up so much energy laughing throughout that 1 hour. :D
Then came Geog micro-teaching. The 2 sessions were rather engaging too, especially Mas' teaching. And of course, that means more energy zapped away... So, here I am, to pen down a few thoughts on the 2 sessions today.

Mas' micro-teaching (TRF)
I thought she delivered a wonderful lesson today. Well done, Mas!
She came across as a really experienced teacher and her nervousness did not show at all. And she was really sharp and quick in her thinking. Cool!

There was quite a bit of suspense when she said she was going to bring the rainforest into the class, which arouse the curiosity of everyone. And I thought she did a good job in fulfilling that promise. Green ppt slides, lots of pictures, sounds of nature (insects, animals, birds). I really love it! Mas must have taken days and sleepness nights doing everything up. I sure hope those were not the causes for her falling sick.

Although, there were some little flaws with the slides, these can easily be improved on so I won't harp on them here. Others have already written about them in their blogs. Anyway, back to the effects of bringing the field into the classroom, I thought it really engaged everyone in class today. Until of course, she broke up the class to do group work (poster). But somehow, I could not relate designing a poster against deforestation with buttress roots, lianas etc.

Mas also dilligently corrected students who gave answers that are non-Geog.

I think given the time constraints in a real life situation, it is not quite possible to devote 2 lessons to the same topic. Which is such a great pity. But we can use them for remedial or revision lessons. :)

Didn't like the shhh... thing.

Oh, almost forgot the whole class standing right at the beginning. I really felt stressed. And Mas did bring the message across that if a student want to survive in her class, they have better know what she has been teaching. :) She is likely to produce students who can do well during the exams.

To sidetrack a little, although it was a really engaging lesson, is being engaging enough? To people who are less informed about the psychology of teaching, this probably works very well. I think my HOD and perhaps even the P in the school I was attached to, will probably love this. So, do we have to structure our lessons in such a way as to suit the different supervisors /observers that we have?
Reminds me of the supposedly 'wise' advice in my previous job - Do the right thing in front of the right people. And another one - prioritize work assigned to you according to the sphere of influence of the person who assigns you the job. Sigh...
Ok ok, I am just ventilating. I have nothing against what was said in class today. In fact, I thought, still think, and will always think that I've gained the most from Geog tutorials compared to other modules, in every aspect of my learning life as a trainee teacher. My tutorial mates helped me revise what I left aside years ago, apart from demonstrating both positive and negative teaching styles. That is the extra advantage of having the micro-teaching conducted in this manner. :)


Yp's micro-teaching (Map reading)
I think it is really difficult teaching such a topic to students. And equally difficult to find suitable resources (simple maps) to teach this topic. But YP took up the challenge! Really brave of her.

I thought that getting Wes to sit at the side was a good move. Although Wes himself thought it lame, I found that this would actually help students remember the North South East West better. Most students have difficulties remembering them. For me, NSEW in Eng is no prob. But in Mandarin, because the sequence is different, I have problems with it. But I have my own method of remembering it, by recalling a Mandarin song we learnt from Pri school, that starts off with "the sun rises from the east" and with hand actions as well. Ok, my learning style is showing, but I am sure there are many students like me.

And using sitting position to teach grid reference is nice. I recall seeing it done before. The effect will be better with a large class.

And I thought Yp was really fierce. :)

Searching of bags. I am not sure if teachers are allowed to search students' bag without the presence of another adult, if allowed at all. It is quite a tricky/sensitive situation to handle.

The big topo map stuck to the white board was a big turn off. Sec ones need much simpler maps to start off with.

Ah yes, I have seen a demo for teaching map reading using pc tablet during the IT Sharing session in the school I was attached to. What happened was, the teacher first showed an aerial photo, with buildings and roads or river. He picked out the most obvious landmark, which was a river. He then traced the path of the river on the tablet. Then, he took away the pict. But the path he traced remains. Next, he placed a map that corresponds with the earlier pic on the screen. And students can straightaway see the path of the river that is echoed on the map. And that helps them connect what is real to a map. That was really superbly done. Perhaps, OHP or visualizer can also be used if no pc tablet is available.


Yep, that's all I have on the 2 sessions.

The draining day then went on to Lit, with another micro-teaching by another tutorial mate. She will make a wonderful Lit teacher but she used materials that were too difficult. So, it was quite a straining session.
Then, came GESL. Had to present our proposals to the team. I am quite on about my idea which my group mate built up upon. Good that we finally zoomed down to 4 probable projects but we are still very behind time. Had to meet up during the reading week to work on it. Sigh...

Reading week is coming. I think it should be named Independent Rush-Through Assignments week. We have literally 1 day to do each assignment when we divide the days out. And some of them are really redundant, having no linkage to practical use in our teaching career. Sigh... We got to do what we got to do...

And yes, we have not time to reflect. In fact, no time to even read as widely as we would like. And to someone like me, whose brain has degenerated over the years doing work that utilised only a minute part of it, I have lots to catch up on. Sigh... No time to R & R now.

SW
(who is currently terribly confused by the different approaches to teaching different subjects, ie Lit vs Geog, and poetry vs novel. Argh....)

On Krn's Micro-teaching

Hi hi, the following are some brief thoughts arising from Krn's micro teaching last Fri (2 Sep 05), from an observer's point of view.

Level: Sec 3 Exp
Topic: Tropical Rainforest

Things done well / Good practices :

1. Use of whiteboard
Asked if students can see what she wrote on the white board.

2. Beginning of lesson
Started off by revising what was learnt in the last lesson (climates), in particular the climate of Singapore. Then list out objectives of this lesson.

3. "Very good"
Gave compliments when students supplied right answers. I adore such teachers.

4. Directing students
Directed students to the answers she wanted by asking relevant qns (eg: Does Sin have seasons? And even listing out the 4 seasons when student gave answers she did not want).

5. Handout
Checked that everyone received the handout after she got KF to give it out. Even remembered to give the handouts to the 2 students who came in halfway thru the lesson.

6. Fill in the blanks
Instructed students to fill in blanks in worksheet, and telling them they have to be kept in their portfolio, to be handed in for assessment. This would ensure students comply. She checked on their progress as well.

7. Soft wood vs hard wood
Promised to bring pieces of hard wood and soft wood to show students on next lesson when students do not know the difference. She mentioned mahogany which is to make furniture. Also promised to get back to the question on what epiphytes and lianas are for.

8. Prepares student + getting their attention at the same time
She said a few times "Are you ready?" & "Can we start the game now?"

9. All at once
When dealing with many incidents at the same time, she prioritized them. She ignored the pen throwing, stood in front of Lly who was complaining about KF, while ordering Rezal back to his seat, then went back to handle Lly. Wow!

10. "Help me..."
KF threw Lly's Bingo game sheet on the floor and refused to pick it up. But Krn said, "Help me pick it up then." KF could not possibly refuse that request to help her out. I thought this was really well-done.

11. Picts
Most picts on the ppt were superb, esp the buttress root and the drip tip ones.

12. Disciplining students
I thought her classroom management style would be great for mature and self-disciplined students. She was never harsh, not even to the pair of the lying girls. And she did not raise her voice at all. But yet, she shows firmness using her body language (esp with her meaningful eyes, when she looked at whoever she was speaking to). She also stopped talking when noise level went up, so that students will hush themselves up.
But then, this became one major flaw in her teaching, because this class did not deserve this kind of 'respect'. (Refer to next section)

13. Missing students
It was alert of Krn to notice the missing student (although only Lly & not CY), and she quickly got Jo to take attendance (and she said thank you as well). 5 mins later, she remembered the missing student and asked if anyone knew where she went.
This would again become a problem because nothing was done after that. (Refer to next section)

Things that can be improved on:

1. Voice
She needs to increase her volume in general. Especially when students have yet to stop talking/laughing. A few times, her voice was drowned by laughter. (eg when giving instructions on the game of BINGO)

2. Classroom management
She has to be stricter with the students who have done something wrong. If not, the same thing will repeat. Students often test a teacher's comfort zone, by creating bits of nonsense here and there. And if unchecked, they get more and more daring and more and more rowdy. And very soon, things go out of control.
If wanna give the student chance, can try giving blanket warning to entire class (eg I do not want to see ... occurring again etc). If not, when you need to deal with the next 'offender', he can claim "the other time you also never punish so and so wat, why punish me now...?" [TPP tip]

3. Missing students
This could potentially lead to a serious problem since we can never be sure what mischief the missing students could be up to. Worst case scenario? Endless possibilities.

4. BINGO vs luck
Rewarding the lucky student? A no-no.

5. Choice of diagram/pic
Used an artist impression of the layers in the TRF.
Also the pic of the forest (the canopy and emergents) can be used side by side with a good diagram (of the different layers) to help understanding.

6. End of lesson
She said that when she finished teaching but about to get into the game of BINGO. So students cheered, thinking she has finished with them.

7. Map
For a while, Krn was talking to the map while pointing at it. Not looking at students to see if they are following.

8. Front of class
While Krn was very alert to what was happening at the noisiest table (thought Ken was sick when he was exceptionally quiet), she either did not notice or chose to ignore some incidents in front. Eg KF was later left alone at table, everyone else had fled that table.

9. Mindmapping (in Lesson Plan)
A pity this could not be carried out due to time constraint. This would reinforce what was learnt.

10. Too wordy
Slides were too wordy. Shorter sentences or phrases would have worked better. Also possible to underline the words students must fill up in the blanks.


Yep yep, the list is very long. So wanna put them here before discussing some of them in class.

SW

Huh? A Volcano in Singapore?

Family Day on Sunday

A volcano that smokes every few minutes has been found in Singapore's Chinese Garden.

I wonder what else they can think of next year. :)

SW

Sir Rez!

Hi hi,
Some thoughts on Sir Rez's class.

I thought that his getting us to be 'Special' students was so smart of him, until tutor K's inject (aka D, the loanshark) came into the scene. Gosh! I am glad my session is over. :) But Sir Rez handled it extremely well - calm, and not antagonizing - thereby preventing the problem from worsening. Although the student's prob was not settled there and then, buying time works. He could address the problem after class with the students concerned if need be.

I also like how he set the class to internalize the problems faced by different countries by dividing the class into 2 opposing sides and facilitating a debate, with students as officials from the 2 countries in question. Reminded me of my uni days. :D But I guess the class size is a limiting factor here. Perhaps they could have been broken into smaller groups, acting as officals from the Min of Agri, Min of Manpower, Min of Defence etc. There were many free-riders within the group. And our group members were exchanging notes on hand cream and applying them under the nose of Sir Rez. Till now, I am not sure if he has not noticed it or that he chose to ignore it. And I wonder what the other group was doing all these while.

I found the map of the Nile slightly dark. Related to the map issue, I thought it would be better if he could show a world map, and slowly zoom in on the Nile. Lots of people do not know where exactly the Nile is, just by looking at the Nile map.

Acting as a sleepy-head and waiting for Sir Rez to discover me was no fun. I could not have kept my eyes shut any longer. But perhaps because of the bags (2 plastic bags of Wes' prata and 1 paperpack of other makan) in front of me, Sir Rez did not manage to spot me until a while later. But I really thought that his gentle tone, when he tried to wake this sleeping beauty, was simply fabulous. First, I did not get a rude shock. Second, he kept asking if I was all right, a show of concern for a student. And finally, I didn't feel embarassed because he did not confront, fingerpoint or throw sarcasm at me. Wow! :) But, something that has been discussed before, and which I strongly feel, a male teacher should never touch a female student, even when trying to wake someone up. Sir Rez made that 'mistake' twice.

Accent in the video. The other time we have problems with Ang Mohs. This time, the local accents of different African countries were a little hard to catch. So tutor K's tip of putting in simple 'subtitles' will work well here.

I also like the handout that complements the video.

Some good practices:
1. Lesson objectives were listed at the onset
2. Summing up at the end due to time factor even though he has not finished all his slides
3. He enlarged one pic (the map of the Nile) when he realized that it was too small

Some questions:
1. Is it necessary to address teachers as 'Sir', although this is a 'Special' school?
2. Is it necessary for all lights to be turned off? It think it is too dark and most students would have fallen asleep with that kind of lighting. My HOD once commented this of my lesson, although I thought at that time that the natural lighting was good enough.

Okie, that's all for now.

SW