Reflection

Greetings everyone!

I began contract teaching in July 2009 at Anderson Junior College (AJC) upon graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics, teaching Economics to JC students before being posted to North View Secondary School (NVSS) in March 2010 to teach Social Studies and English Language.

The School Environment

Over in AJC and NVSS, while facilities cannot be considered state-of-the-art, they are rather adequate. You will find your standard-issued white board and markers, along with the visualiser and the screen. Certainly, you can also connect your laptop to the projector using the cable provided if you so wish to do a slideshow or show your students a youtube video. However, there is one subtle difference between the two schools in terms of the ICT infrastructure – AJC apparently possesses some really high-tech futuristic-looking gadgets such as the interactive white board as well as this iPad-looking panel that connects wirelessly to your laptop and allows you to move forward and backward through the slides, and even write on them as you teach. (Pardon me, but I forgot the exact name of this incredible device.) So why do I consider this difference “subtle”? It is because apart from being demonstrated to us once, I have not actually seen any teacher using these marvelous gadgets. Perhaps you can label these technologies “white elephant”, or maybe they are just so sophisticated no teacher has yet to figure out how to integrate them into their lessons.

Moving away from the ICT infrastructure, the two schools are vastly different in terms of their students’ profile. In AJC, you will observe that the students tend to be less disruptive and better behaved. They are also motivated learners who are respectful of their teachers. These are students you never had to raise your voice at and you could trust them to get their work done. Hence, the classroom focus was how to better facilitate their learning through the use of ICT, group work and activities. To put teaching at AJC in a nutshell, it was about the creative use of pedagogies.

Things are very different in NVSS. I still remember my first English lesson with my Normal Technical class – I really had a “cultural shock”. I liken the situation to a fire-fighter trying to put out a bush fire with a bucket when there is an onslaught of strong winds. The major problem with bush fires is that the pockets of fire tend to rekindle when you move elsewhere. These students really put your classroom management to the test and I must admit that I was ill-equipped. At this point, it would be important for me to thank my wonderful colleagues at NVSS, who had given me their support and shared with me their invaluable experiences on managing the students. For instance, a colleague advised me to instruct the students to put their bags on the floor instead of allowing them to leave it on their desk or laps. This makes it harder for students to use their cell phones stealthily under the cover of their bags and become disengaged from the lesson. In other instances, I was advised to appear strict yet fair to the students, just like a “benevolent king” as my colleague had put it.

Moreover, in NVSS, you tend to hear more stories about students coming from families that are so-called “dysfunctional”. Disciplinary issues are also plentiful and students are less academically inclined. Hence, counseling, suspensions and absenteeism are pretty common. However, you will be pleased to learn that these students are not exactly malicious. They may act up in class or can even be rude to you, but they can also be really sweet out of class. It really makes me wonder if it is the classroom setting that really puts them off. Or maybe they are just not interested in the subjects taught?

EL lessons I have observed

To be honest, I have only had the chance to observe two EL lessons. However, I do have the opportunity to observe more teachers at work for the Economics subject thanks to the Structured Mentoring Programme over in AJC.

The lessons I learnt in AJC were very different from what I learnt in NVSS. In AJC, I was exposed to different philosophies on teaching. Some teachers believe in having more teacher-driven lessons, while others incorporate more collaborative learning in their lessons. My mentor in AJC belonged to the “teacher-driven lessons” camp, and as some students will later testify to me “that every moment is capitalised and no time is wasted during her lesson.” My mentor was very organized and structured in her presentation of the content, and that helped her students compartmentalise the various concepts taught and answer the questions. I also managed to pick up a few pedagogies from the other teachers, such as the “jigsaw” and the “four sages.” I believe that these pedagogies could also be adaptable to the teaching of the English language, such as getting students to work in groups and then later present to their peers their findings on a particular “word class” for instance.

It was an altogether different ball game in NVSS. I only had one day to observe a teacher’s lesson and the very next day I was teaching the classes assigned to me. I suppose the policy here in NVSS is that teachers learn on the job. However, I was told to set my expectations and lay down the ground rules right from the beginning. The problem is I did not know what to expect. As time goes by, I gradually learnt of some of the possible problems students at this age can create for a teacher. One key problem I noticed is the late submission of work. It usually took the students a week or two after the deadline to submit their work. There were even times I had to hunt down and persuade the students to do their work and turn it in just so I could give them a grade. On the retrospect, I think the late submission phenomenon might have been a result of me not making it clear from the beginning about the penalty of late submission. Had I had a system that states clearly to the students what the penalties for late submission are and adhere strictly to it, maybe the problem could be minimised. What I had done was to tell them simply to submit their assignments on time, which was probably vague to the students. Most students at this age still prefer to be given clear instructions on what to do; they still like to be held by their hands and led by their teachers. This is perhaps one of the areas I could improve on because I tend to forget to give students clear instructions such as asking them to take out their logbook to jot down certain important points. I am now so used to jotting down notes on my own that I forgot these students have yet to reach that level of maturity.

Change in perspective of literacy teaching and learning

I used to think that teaching is like doing a slideshow presentation – you simply get the content of the day ready and present it. However, after acquiring some first-hand experience, I am beginning to realize that teaching is more about management than about the imparting of knowledge. In fact, imparting knowledge is not even adequate; it is also about arousing the interest of your students in the subject. And hopefully, that will make them want to find out more on their own. The content and skills that we teach in school merely equip the students with the basic tools to go out there to gather, understand and critically analyse information. However, it is important to note that no teaching and learning can take place without proper classroom management.

Furthermore, it is increasingly difficult for teachers to sustain the attention of the students, especially when there are so many distractions out there. I think it is becoming the duty of the teachers to be creative in their teaching, to make their lessons interesting for their students so that meaning learning can occur.

Areas I wish to learn more

Firstly, I wish to learn how to integrate more collaborative learning into my lessons.

Secondly, I wish to learn how to explain complex grammar concepts to my students. In other words, explain grammar in a way that will make them understand instead of using technical terms.

Thirdly, I wish to learn how to make my lessons more interesting so that meaningful and effective learning can take place.



Cheers,
Kenneth