WEEK NINE REFLECTIONS (23/4/2012 – 27/4/2012)

History

This week’s tutorial sessions were sorely devoted to conducting my first essay test for the students. As such, practically no teaching took place. As for my lecture, I was able to wrap up the topic on pre-war nationalism in Vietnam and thereby completed the minimum ‘A’ level requirements of teaching three countries (in this case Indonesia, Burma and Vietnam) for the topic on pre-war nationalism in Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, I realised that I might not be able to complete the case study of the Philippines during my last week of practicum, therefore the need to request for my Cooperating Teacher’s assistance to wrap up the lesson on my behalf. Certainly, the imminent end of practicum could turn out to be more disruptive than initially expected, especially when we finally grew into de facto full-fledged teachers over the ten weeks.

    

Project Work

   

For PW this week, the focus was on reiterating the requirements of the Group Project Proposal and providing useful hints and tips on how to refine the students’ preliminary ideas.

WEEK EIGHT REFLECTIONS (16/4/2012 – 20/4/2012)

History

The focus of this week’s tutorials was to provide relevant feedback to students on how to improve their skills in writing essay paragraphs, as well as to teach them how to write introductions and conclusions. Since essay writing constitutes the bread-and-butter of History, I found it necessary to place a strong emphasis in this area, having already devoted four tutorial sessions for this purpose. While students demonstrated their ability to construct the basic essay structure, it was clear that they still needed much hands-on practice in order to improve. As such, students are required to sit for their first essay test in Southeast Asian history next week to motivate them to consolidate and synthesise what they have learnt thus far. This will serve as a timely assessment of the extent to which they have gleaned useful learning points from my lessons and, at the same time, provide critical feedback for the efficacy of my teaching pedagogies to date.

Project Work

   

For this week’s PW lessons, the focus was on guiding students in refining their research methodology as well as teach them the importance of research etiquette. Students were taught key pointers about the conduct of interviews, such as identifying the appropriate candidates and also the need to come up with well-thought and well-crafted questions. Students were also reminded of the importance of the pre-interview preparation, which included doing a thorough background research on their interviewees and taking relevant safety precautions in the process of conducting the actual interviews. Ultimately, students had to comprehend the need for good impression management and its applicability to their future lives as working adults.

 

Ten-Pin Bowling

This was my second observation of the ten-pin bowling CCA and it proved to be as uneventful as last week. Basically, the basic administrative work of the teacher-in-charge was clear cut, which would make the job of running this CCA a relatively smooth and hassle-free process. 

WEEK SEVEN REFLECTIONS (9/4/2012 – 13/4/2012)

History

For this week’s tutorials, the emphasis was on continuing with the lecture (on the topic of pre-war nationalism in Vietnam) and basically providing students with the overall analytical framework to tackle this new topic. The aim was for them to bear in mind the underlying factors, especially the impact of key external events such as the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, that contributed to the origins and development of pre-war nationalism in Vietnam, following which students would be able to identify and relate to the specific Vietnamese nationalist organisations that were directly inspired by the key external developments. The final 20 minutes of each tutorial was devoted to conducting a fill-in-the-blanks test on pre-war nationalism in Burma, which would help students to consolidate and synthesise what they had already learnt to date about the topic in question.

     

Project Work

For PW, the focus this week was on guiding students in the planning of their research process. The PW teachers introduced to students the four primary research and data collection methods, namely observations, experiments, surveys and interviews. As well as getting students to acquaint themselves with the research process, much attention was also paid to assessing the reliability of the data collected as student needed to be aware of the flaws of a biased research methodology. The PW tutorials were devoted to individual consultation sessions regarding the students’ proposed preliminary ideas for their PW.

     

Ten-Pin Bowling

As part of the rotating basis for our CCA observations (as part of the NIE practicum requirements), I switched from Hockey (Boys) to Ten-Pin Bowling. In many respects, this was a much more comfortable (at least from the perspective of the teacher-in-charge) and relatively low-risk CCA compared to hockey. Moreover, being an indoor sport, it was not subjected to the exigencies of weather conditions, whereas the competition schedule for hockey had to be constantly adjusted due to poor weather causing games to be postponed. The only problem for ten-pin bowling was the need to conduct training at an external avenue, which necessarily posed transport and related logistical issues for the teacher-in-charge.     

WEEK SIX REFLECTIONS (2/4/2012 – 6/4/2012)

History

This week I had my second and final lesson observation by my NIES. The focus of my tutorial sessions was on hands-on practice in the writing of essay paragraphs using the PEEL framework. Having conducted an introductory lesson on the writing of essay paragraphs during last week’s tutorials, I was keen to see the extent to which the students had internalised the relevant requirements and techniques. In this respect, I decided to get the students to form into small groups to tackle an essay question and construct paragraph responses in accordance with the PEEL framework. This was in fact my first attempt at introducing cooperative learning into my lessons, and the outcome was even better than I had expected. Despite my initial concern about possible classroom management issues, the students proved to be highly motivated in dealing with their group task. I was hugely impressed with their serious attitude and firm focus during their group discussions, which was reflected in the high quality of their final paragraph responses. Certainly, there remained much room for improvement in the formulation of their arguments (e.g. presentation of their key points in a clear and succinct manner), but it was evident that I had generally succeeded in getting them to integrate the PEEL framework into their writing styles, which will undoubtedly prove useful to them in the writing of essays over the long run.

   

Project Work

For the PW lecture this week, the emphasis was on teaching students about the need to avoid plagiarism and how to do proper citations and references. While this may seem to be a common-sense task for me in view of my university experience, I fully recognised how alien this was to most of the students. However, this topic would only come in useful when the students had to write their final group papers towards the end of the PW cycle, by which time they would probably need a refresher course in this area. As for the PW tutorial, the students were required to critique their group-mates’ preliminary ideas. However, as far as I could see, there appeared to be no proper evaluative framework for the students to do a systematic critique of the various proposals, which could limit their ability to come up with constructive criticisms and/or suggestions. Hence this may be one area for me to consider should I need to conduct a similar PW lesson in the future.

     

Hockey (Boys)

This was my second week observing the Hockey (Boys), after which I would be switching over to Ten-Pin Bowling for the next two weeks. Since the boys would be having their first competitive game next Monday, they were particularly motivated and hyped-up during their training sessions. In fact, they even wanted to conduct additional training sessions during the long weekend, but this was understandably vetoed by the teacher-in-charge since the boys would obviously need time to recuperate for their competition. Looking at the boys’ sense of confidence and strong determination to do well, I sincerely hope that this would be effectively translated into their actual performances on the pitch in a real competitive environment. After all, the fate of their hockey team literally lies in their hands.   

WEEK FIVE REFLECTIONS (26/3/2012 – 30/3/2012)

History

This week I had my first lesson observation by my second Cooperating Teacher Ms Nurashikin. The focus of the tutorials was introducing my students to the basic requirements and techniques of writing essay paragraphs using the PEEL framework. Clearly this was a relatively dry and technical topic and, although a necessary component of the History syllabus, may end up boring the students after a short while. As such, my solution was to insert some thinking exercises (e.g. evaluations of sample topic sentences) into the lessons to get the students actively involved, as well as assess how much they had understood the lesson content. In the event, my students generally proved to be highly motivated and showed great interest in the lesson, probably because they understood the importance of mastering essay writing skills in the History examinations. I was particularly pleased by how my students were able to quickly grasp the essence of writing essay paragraphs and ask highly relevant and intelligent questions about the topic. As such, my next step would therefore be to incorporate more hands-on practice in order to hone their ability to write good essay paragraphs and internalise the skills and techniques over time..

Project Work

For the PW lecture and tutorials this week, the emphasis was on familiarising the students with the essential components of the Preliminary Ideas (PI) as well as the assessment criteria. In this respect, the PW teachers discussed the different PI components in great detail, paying great attention to the importance of innovation and originality, and also showed students some sample PI formats for reference. One particularly interesting way of inducting the students into the PI process was to get them to evaluate a sample PI proposal in terms of its originality, feasibility and manageability. From their subsequent group presentations, it was obvious that the students were good in highlighting the flaws in the proposal but had much room for improvement in coming up with constructive solutions to remedy the flaws. Hence, the latter area is probably something which the PW teachers and the students have to consciously work on over the coming weeks.      

Hockey (Boys)

This was the first week when I observed the responsibilities of a teacher taking charge of a CCA as part of my NIE requirements. My initial feelings were one of dread, as the training sessions were frequent (twice or thrice per week) and usually lasting till late in the evening. Moreover, the incidence of injuries was pretty high due to the nature and competitiveness of the sports itself. However, having participated in their team talks (conducted after each training session), I was truly touched by the students’ dedication and devotion to hockey and inspired by their determination to do well in the upcoming inter-school competition. An added motivation for them is the danger of the disbanding of the hockey team should they perform poorly, primarily due to budget constraints. Therefore, I have resolved to try my best to assist the boys to the best of my ability and forge close bonds with them, so as to give them the full confidence of my support as their teacher in their valiant endeavours.

WEEK FOUR REFLECTIONS (19/3/2012 – 23/3/2012)

History

This was the week when I had my first formal lesson observations from both my CT (on Tuesday) and my NIES (on Friday). Surprisingly, I did not feel apprehensive or worried about the observations and this was demonstrated in my generally smooth conduct of the lessons. This may be partly due to my increasing confidence in my teaching abilities, coupled with the intensive and extensive preparations that I had made, which naturally enhanced my self-belief as a teacher even with the formal lesson observations. Moreover, the students in the two classes being observed were by far the best of the H2 History cohort in terms of learning attitudes and aptitudes. Hence I had ample reasons to feel confident about my teaching performances in these two tutorial classes.

On another note, this was the first time that I was conducting a source inquiry lesson with the focus on teaching for historical understanding. In many respects, the lesson outcome was better than I had expected. The students were clearly familiar with the idea of using sources in the study of history as well as the incorporation of relevant contextual or background knowledge. More importantly, I was pleasantly surprised that most of them had little difficulty in reading and understanding the sources, as demonstrated in the source-based written assignments which they had to submit at the end of each tutorial lesson. Therefore, I am seriously considering infusing the use of sources into my lessons over the long term so as to inject more variety into the tutorial sessions as well as maintain the emphasis on teaching for historical inquiry, which is the fundamental basis of the history discipline.       

Project Work

For PW, this was the week when the questions were released to the students. On the teachers’ part, the focus was naturally on highlighting the key requirements of PW, its assessment criteria and some important submission deadlines. Since the students’ first job was to come up with the Preliminary Ideas for their group projects, teachers had to explain clearly to students the meaningful of key terms like “innovative” and “insightful” in order to ensure that they were on the right track when brainstorming their ideas. In short, this was only the start of what for the students would surely be a long and difficult process of self-discovery and hard work to complete their PW assignments. 

WEEK TWO REFLECTIONS (5/3/2012 – 9/3/2012)

History

Even though this was only the second week of my formal History lessons with my students, I would say that on the whole I felt a strong sense of achievement. This was primarily because I was very confident that I had effectively won over all my H2 History students and gained their acceptance of me as their teacher. Having already left behind a relatively good impression during the first week of lecture and tutorials, I was very pleased with the conduct of my lecture in which students were able to learn something meaningful and also enjoy the learning process at the same time. I came to realise that inserting interesting anecdotes jokes into the lecture was one of my key strengths in being able to hold the students’ attention throughout the lecture. While I again overestimated the time available to cover my intended lecture content, it was unquestionably a highly positive teaching episode for me. 

For my tutorials with the H2 students, I could sense the beginning of a strong rapport between me and my students as they proved to be increasingly open to sharing their opinions and participating in class discussions. My teaching style evidently appealed to them, as I had a distinctive preference for using interesting animations and pictures in my visually impressive Prezi presentations. When coupled with my ability to liven up the lessons with interesting and relevant historical anecdotes, I certainly believed that I had discovered the perfect formula that was ideally suited to my personal teaching style and beliefs. The next challenge for me would be to improve on my questioning techniques in order to better stimulate students’ critical thinking skills during my lessons.

The one major blot on my experience this week was my first tutorial with the H1 students. In many respects, it was a relatively demoralising experience as I did not get the feeling that the students had accepted me as their teacher. At times I really struggled to get them to concentrate on my lesson, mainly due to the rather dry and technical nature of the tutorial topic. The hot weather and relatively poor ventilation in the classroom did not help matters either. This was my first teaching experience with a H1 History class and it was undoubtedly a massive challenge for me, both in terms of teaching content and pedagogy. Nevertheless, one bright spot was the willingness of a few students to ask me questions and clarify their doubts, which in the process allowed me to ascertain that I had pitched the lesson appropriately at their level of understanding. My next step would be to think of ways to try and engage their interest in the tutorial class so as to facilitate the teaching and learning process for both teacher and students.      

   

Project Work

This week I observed my first Project Work (PW) lecture in PJC. The focus of the lecture was a step-by-step guide to using certain information technology (IT) tools, specifically Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and Boolean operators in internet search engines. Clearly this was an extremely dry topic for both teachers and students who were familiar with these tools, but the fact that this lecture had to be conducted in the first place drummed home an important learning point for me: we should never have a blanket assumption that all students are necessarily IT-savvy and proficient in the use of various IT tools. Thus, however boring the lecture may be, it was still relevant to the students’ PW assignment.

The PW tutorial was a lot more interesting, as I got the opportunity to be the co-assessor for the students’ presentations of their mini-PW projects (which served as a form of preparation for the actual PW assignment). While the quality of their different groups’ ideas differed widely, what struck me most was the ability of the students to deliver generally fluent and confident oral presentations, particularly in terms of the pace of their presentations, pronunciations, enunciations and intonations. Many of them also demonstrated clear evidence of having done extensive preparations and rehearsals for their individual presentations, which certainly bode well for their handling of the actual PW assignment after the term break.