My Reflections

I was posted to SAJC for my contract teaching last July shortly after my graduation from NUS. Over the period of about 13 months, i was deployed to the teaching for JC1 Economics. I had no experience in the teaching of English Language as my CS2 is EL at Secondary level.



SAJC is located within the Saint Andrew's Village (SAV) where all the four different Saint Andrew's schools from kindergarten to junior college are located in one compound in Potong Pasir. Therefore you will be able to see all the different SA uniforms around the Potong Pasir area. The JC compound is smaller than what i was expecting it to be but they have all the basic facilities required. For me, the most important device used for teaching in the school will be the Visualiser as it is really much more efficient than the usage of OHP during my college days.



The students in SAJC are relatively academically inclined as most of them entered the school with an average of 10 points. They have a very strong command of English and many of them came from English speaking family. the English standard of some students especially those from the arts faculty might even be higher than mine.



As i was posted to the economics department, i have little connection with the GP teachers. most of my interactions with them were in the canteen where the conversations were mostly non academic related. my impression of them is that they have very strong language ability especially in expressing their thoughts.



In order to be a confident EL teacher, i must first build a strong foundation in the command of English language. after that, i must learn to be able to express myself and elaborate my ideas better. for the students, i will need to be able to make the learning experience of EL as interesting as possible so that the students will be motivated to continue the learning process themselves.



Benjamin