Thursday, June 28, 2007
7am to 5pm in school...7AM TO 5PM IN SCHOOL...
7am is de time i usually reach sch...cuz i dun like to squeeze in de bus wif students...lol...and so far, i've only managed to go home early once, which is on de first day of sch at 2.15pm...de other days hav to stay back either bcuz of meetings, if nt CCAs...CCAs r quite fun, but meetings can get quite boring...as usual lol...but thru meetings, i've gotten to learn more bout how de sch works n oso how they analyze students' exam results, as well as how they plan stuff...so actually there's new things to learn too.. :)
Hmm...ever since I started this sch stint, many ppl hav repeatedly told me that teaching takes much passion to stay long in tis field...apparently de turnover rate is very high!! It's passion that makes u willing to wake up early in de morning n come to sch, and passion that makes u wan to make a difference in de students' life...hmm...do i really hav tat passion? maybe i'm still discovering i guess...heard tat teachers usually stay in sch frm like 7am to 7pm...how did they manage to do tat?? its passion i suppose..hehe..
"An effective teacher is not one who delivers lessons well, but one who is able to make students learn effectively." (a quote i heard frm a senior teacher)
Personally, I agree that de gimmicks tat tchers hav been encouraged to use (ie. demonstrations, interesting ppt slides, project group work n other stuff to make lessons interactive n engaging) do not actually help em to do well for their final exams. (which is de ultimate aim, right?) Those gimmicks can help students better understand n relate to de concepts taught, and maybe learn more effectively, but it does nt neccessarily mean tat they wld be able to answer de exam or TYS questions...Hence, i ever pondered whether its really useful to use those gimmicks to engage de kids in learning..well, perhaps if de tcher juz followed textbook n de students juz cao mug intelligently (which i feel is an easy method to score if u actually put in REAL effort, intelligently, of course), they might be likely to get de grade they wan.. And i admit this was wat i mainly hav been doin throughout my whole education life...i enjoy being spoon-fed as its an easy way to learn n can score as long as u cao mug...BUT den, i realised tat de setback is tat i end up forgetting de stuff i learnt VERY VERY easily..CM3231 on quantum chem is a gd example, sorry Dr. Lee...such tat when i hav to re-teach it to others, i find myself having to spend sometime refreshing myself wif de concepts...but for stuffs which i learnt thru project group work, i find tat it actually stays longer wif me, and i can remember em more easily...Plus, dat senior tcher oso said tat pedagogy research hav shown tat students learn better in groups than individually...no wonder got more n more group work in class... I believe if students learn things today, n return it all to de tcher de next day, teachers will feel quite sad :( so maybe incorporating those gimmicks r still worthwhile in de long run to help students to rem things they've learnt.. :)
A pity I haven seen anything REALLY interesting n innovative frm de teachers i hav been assigned to observe...maybe wil hav better luck next time... :)
2:27 PM
Lyna