ese experience

Though provoking lessons.

I was posted to teach in Yusof Ishak Secondary School.

During my time there i was able to teach the express class english.

One of the lessons that really amazed me was the use of ipod touch's during lessons. 

YISS has been experimenting in incorporating the use of ipod touch's during english classes, thus the students had been provided the ipod touch's and during class were encouraged to use the dictionary, surf the web to find out information, and even use facebook to communicate in a class forum. I observed how well it engaged the students, and got them excited to learn independently.

Initially i thought the ipod touch's would distract the students into playing games, and constantly checking their facebook updates, however the students where very excited to do their weekly reflections on facebook. How it worked was that one student would have to post a thread, and the other students would have to comment. During these sessions the students would be diligently focused on answering the questions, checking the dictionary for spelling, and asking fellow students if their sentences were correctly conveyed. This experience made me realize how technology really engages students; the students "talk" more on facebook than when you want them to contribute

aloud in class. The students seem to feel safer "speaking" their thoughts virtually, and they take more initiative to do so virtually.

 

Profile of students and school

YISS students are not very academically inclined. I was surprised during my first week there as the students kept asking me which polytechnic I came from, and when they heard I had gone to JC they were very impressed. The students did not seem to consider JC as an option as most of the students would graduate to go on to polytechnic's or ITE. Going into JC was a great feat, and it was rare. I was particularly impressed that the school had a staff team to come up with a separate curriculum for the  Normal and Normal technology classes. They came up with various skills-based courses like hairdressing, make-up, sports, tourism, design, etc for the students to sign up for, and attend the classes. This was to help the students develop an area of interest, equip them, and motivate them to pursue that area instead of roaming the streets. I could really feel the care and concern the teachers had for their students when I heard the various activities the teachers had planned for them, and the hassle they had gone through to adjust the students' timetable to accommodate the courses. I saw how the teachers were being creative and flexible in fulfilling their commitment in equipping their students for their future. They were not rigid about forcing the students to study books, but recognized that each individual learnt differently and excelled in different things.

 

New perspectives

Something I learnt from teaching English, and having had to mark the students work, is that this generation of students seem to write their essays like they are blogging. They seem unfazed that an examiner is reading their work. They write about things which are very personal, and even sometimes giving too much inappropriate information. Also as I had to teach classes full of international students, I had to keep coming up with creative means to engage them, as I realized talking in class did not work as they could not comprehend me well.

 

What I hope to learn

I feel that I need to improve in the area of understanding the technicalities of the English language, to know how to explain to the students the problems in their expressions and sentence structure. Also to learn new ways to make learning English fun.

Cheers

Jiet Sie