Bye Bye Bartley...

(oops... another one of those backdated posts)

hmm... i am rushing through this post as i have taken some time off packing my 'little corner in the staffroom' and preparing to make the move back to my humble abode.

hope that there is enough time before the geography department proceeds for their meeting, which i have been cordially invited to, fortunately only for the food part of the meeting and not the meeting itself.

the practicum folks have more or less received their posting orders from MOE, and i'll write a little bit more about that in another post as there is so much to journal/blog/write/think about. i wonder what life will be like after practicum. NIE! wow... far... but it's nice to see the others yet again and trade stories over lunch and during our long travels to and fro.

i'm also wondering about how my 10-week students are doing or have done for their exams. i marked some of the geography scripts (short answers - skills based stuff) and it wasn't that wonderful. but i am pretty sure that the other sections will benefit the hardcore muggers in the cohort.

as for english, that's a really tricky one. i thought that the second paper would be tough, but some of them thought it was simple... so let's hope that the class clears the hurdle without much difficulty. as for the secondary threes... it's their own merit really. at the end of the day, upper secondary students have to run the last stretch of their race for themselves.

so back to the packing... i've cleared pretty much everything, said my goodbyes to my wonderful CTs and 10-weeks colleagues. i don't suppose our paths will cross again?

so... the question that people will be asking: "what have you learnt through this practicum?"

let me craft out some quick answers so that i may recite them should the need arise.

1) set good classroom routines... (i should have listened to the advice about starting strict then easing off)

2) take their EZlink cards! (it is an offence to confiscate a person's IC... so the EZlink cards work because the students need that to go home. for those who live 'next door' to the school, take their security pass)

3) in other words... hit students where it hurts the most.

4) in that sense... i think it is also important that when delivering a lesson, they must be engaged.

there is so much talk about 'engaged learning' or 'student-centred learning'. it is very true, as we(individuals/human beings) tend not to pay attention unless a topic/concept is interesting and has some relevance to our daily lives.

5) when planning lessons, make sure there is an activity that follows the theory part.

6) use the "1, 2, 3" - it generally works. again, refer to point (1) about setting routines and SOPs

okay... so that's my 6 point reflection for now. i'll write more stuff when the time arises!

so the next question people will be asking - "where have you been posted to?" - i'll answer this in due course.

to all my wonderful ex-students:
1) okay, i know most of you would probably forget who i am after this june holiday (or even after the mid-year-exams) but do know that i had a really great learning and enjoyable experience being your 'teacher'... even if you did not learn anything from me =)

2) do keep in touch (somehow) and let me know if you need help - especially for those needing some sort of help for English.

3) remember how i kept telling you that i will most likely not come back? - i won't be.

take care!

bye bye Bartley!

james

2 more days...

it's been awhile since i last wrote.

quite a number of things have happened since then... let's see where i shall begin.

i am currently using a shared computer as i am slowly 'de-kitting' (army term) and packing up my stuff, so that i can bring them home for temporary storage before shipping off to my new posting. where to? don't know... previous practicum batches say that their postings came out at this time, but it seems that ours is a little delayed.

where do i want to go? dunno, nevermind either. it's already decided - so stay tuned for the next step i guess!

so what has happened since then...

i guess the teacher's life is pretty much routine, and it's thanks to individual classes and students that we get some variation. so in brief, life has been - do lesson plan - teach - revise - chase work - collect work - mark work - give feedback - be observed - and the cycle repeats itself.

anything interesting? i've finished all the 10 observations, which is great! on track for a decent pass, so that's pretty good too. but the practicum has been fruitful EVEN without the observations and the necessary grading.

managed to chalk up a fair bit of resources, as well as strategies for classroom management - mostly thanks to the two secondary two classes. interesting characters, each and everyone of you!

i hope that your exams have gone fairly well. i got to mark a section of the 2N Geography paper. a little disappointed with the answers - so you guys (and girls) better work harder yeah? haven't heard anything from the english papers though... let's see if you performed better than the other classes!

alright... it's almost time to go... home! this is the best part of teaching! doing nothing... WHILE waiting for the mountains of exam papers to mark.

like i've said before... "your 1.5hours of misery results in many many more hours of marking for us."

it'll be another month before i share in this ritual...

proof of global warming

*yawn* trying to stay awake as i write back-dated lesson plans in the staff room. the poor teachers are beginning to fall ill one after another and one wonders who will be next. afterall, with each missing colleague, the chances of striking the "blue lottery" keep getting higher!

as i prepare for tomorrow's class, here are some interesting pictures - as they say, a picture speaks a thousand words

Proof that global warming is taking place

secondary two english class

this post is fresh... unlike those stale ones where i create the post and save them as drafts, updating them awhile later.

this post is within 12hours of the event(s) occuring. so what is it?

lots of things to mark! to that 'english class' that i teach... you may complain because you have to write 50-100 words... your 15-20 minutes of inconvenience results in my many many hours of ploughing through your work.

i'm not complaining either, i am just voicing out my perspective. i do hope you guys and girls read what i write... not just on your worksheets but also on this blog, because i try to practise what i preach.

anyway... had a 2-in-1 lesson observation today. thank you, 2E1 for being attentive. i hope it was useful, if not you are all pretty good actors and actresses. i'm always thinking about how to improve your EL... in NIE, we call you EFL - english as foreign language learners.

don't worry, it's not something negative. just imagine me learning chinese... i struggled with it as a second language, think about how i will just die doing it as a first language!

so who out there has got ideas to teach the basic rules of grammar without sounding pedantic and outright boring?

varying contexts varying strategies...

*yawn* another tiring day in school... been having a good realistic and eye-opening experience here - especially after my 13 years in the fold of being red-blue-gold.

had to save this blog as a draft as i've been rather swarmed by work, marking etc (i'm not complaining because i know the average teacher has more!). i'm just not used to it yet. so let's go back in time and talk about wednesday's story.

taught 2 different secondary 2 classes, and boy are they different! every class has their own peculiarities, culture and work attitude. more importantly, every class have different academic needs and interests. i believe that it is a (trainee) teacher's job to discover what those things are and to find the ways to help them grow. of course 'grow' is in itself a rather loaded term.

my geog CT and i managed to reach a good chemistry in teaching the sec 2 geog class. i am also very grateful to her for being able to jump right into the lesson when i had to deal with some technical difficulties.

*speaking of technical problems, it was just the problem of the projector not playing my videos from windows media player. to solve it, just make sure that when you do the "function F5"... select the option where it is "projector only" icon.

back to geog and CT. we also found a pretty cool way of acknowledging the livelier ones and to ask them to help get the rest of the class interested. this class is living geography if you ask me. why? it'll take a 1000 word essay to explain it. the strategy is to have a student arrow another student in 3 counts... so that there's a sense of urgency in the classroom.

oh yes... one more thing i've realised which is useful - it is the usefulness of worksheets to check for understanding! can never assume that students have read their textbook =) so even if you're showing a worksheet which has been cut and pasted from the textbook... they'll always think it's their first time reading it.

wonder if there are any students reading this. i started this blog so that i could share and learn from those who read it. at the same time, if you keep reading this blog, i am certain that your english language proficiency will get better! really!

(having said that, i never did well for english in school - O's and A's inclusive)

visit to ulu pandan refuse incineration plant

some people have been asking me about the practicum so far, but i haven't found the time to think about it. currently living each day as it goes by - observing my Cooperating Teachers (CTs), co-teaching and trying to get to know the students, by face and name.

i'll write more when i've the time... though things are bound to get worse. already i have to meet up with my NIE folks to prepare our social studies assignment!

anyhow, today was pretty eventful - had the chance to visit the UPRIP - or ulu pandan refuse incineration plant. never got to visit these places while i was a student, so the present generation is quite fortunate. i hope the class(es) learnt something from the trip, not only so that they can do something for their podcast, but to understand how Singapore manages its solid waste given its lack of space.

if any of the young ones are reading this... let me share with you my learning points.

1. the refuse plant quite smelly... (yeah i know the person who brought us on the tour said it wasn't =) and you know, i appreciate the workers for what they do, as these people are exposed to a certain amount of harmful substances throughout their shift...

2. from an economic point of view, i can now understand why the government is keen to privatise gencos (power generation companies) with one of the first plants going to Keppel Corp. the waste management facility is also a money-making facility and rightly so, as it generates power whilst reducing waste.

3. but i am also reminded of the hazardous materials that are left after the incineration process. in the module "global environmental issues"... following the laws of conservation of energy and matter... we aren't actually 'reducing' waste, we are merely converting them to other forms of energy (which is fairly useful) as well as simply rearranging matter. the second point is not so useful - while we reduce the quantity of trash... where has the "matter" gone to?

4. related to point 3... at least our unburnable waste (yeah there's such things... ash is considered left over trash) is sent to pulau semakau to make up the landfill. really hope that 'impermeable membrane' does not fail, or else our seawater-->water supply will be seriously contaminated.

at least we get to build casinos, resorts and golf courses on the reclaimed land! genius ain't it?

having that said... is it good to generate trash? should we generate less trash? i'm doing my part by creating an ecosystem in my home. a humble compost heap... heheh... i'll show the photos when i get my camera. (not for the fainthearted)

practicum!

time in nie sure does fly. tomorrow i begin a 10-week journey in a school which will determine whether i pass or fail the pgde course.

after having received some reminders and advice about the thrills and spills of blogging, i have been duly informed of the need to "maintain the good standing of the teaching profession", so to be on the safe side, i better not reveal too much 'confidential' information.

so if you... the nice and kind reader feels that the blog is touching on sensitive issues or treading on thin ice, feel free to drop me an email! i will remove or amend the post mucho pronto.

having messaged a couple of my geography classmates and future colleagues, it appears i'm not the only one who is having the pre-practicum jitters. i guess it'll last all the way through the 10-weeks. in the meantime, i have to reset my bio-clock... waking up at 6 plus again is really not in my system.

the only time i had to wake up at such unearthly hours?... hmm. army. bleh.

so... who's out there reading?