Too cool for school
After a month's break, it's back to the hum-drum of work. And for the next 10 weeks, I will be knocking into place my half-cooked ideas about teaching. Some came from my own experience as a student, some from what we've been taught at NIE, others a result of my insistence to be different.
The Sec 1 EL class I've been given is a well-oiled machine, largely a result of the previous teacher's fantastic efforts. The other class I've been given is another animal altogether: none of the students seem particularly interested in the subject and I am not sure how to kickstart their engines. On the advice of the senior teacher, I have provided more scaffolding but these students are just not keen to get on task. I do know that next week is going to be a tough one for them and me - we are way behind on the syllabus and yet I must take them to task for the shoddy work they have given me. Although it would make my life much easier to just give up on them and be wholly task-oriented, teaching like that is just a waste of time. Students don't internalise what they "learnt"(memorised) and as a teacher, I would have failed in making lessons mean something for them.
Gotta do up lesson plans for last and this coming week...sucks.
Then another school-related event over the weekend: national day parade! Well, they termed it National Education show and it's really like a rehearsal. It comes with all the works - you get the real pomp of the actual thing e.g. the military colours and the flypast, the fireworks and the freefallers etc. And of course, the many school kids they roped in for the mass displays. The whole thing is a superbly-choreographed show and as I glance into the distance the many tall buildings of which any one I would so die to be working in (particularly that of a top bank), I realised what a great idea it is to have the floating platform sited there. Against a backdrop of history (in the form of the harbour), the modernity we have achieved thus far (in the shape of the skyline) and the future that we can expect (in the form of the sheer amount of work-in-progress on the IR), you can't help but feel a tinge of patriotism as the national anthem is aired and the Chinook flys by bearing a giant flag. When at the end of the show, everyone comes together to say the pledge and sang the national anthem, I thought how routine the pledge-taking/flag-raising ceremony has become at schools.
Maybe sometimes, less is better. Too much too often can indeed muddle the significance of what is supposed to be important.
The Sec 1 EL class I've been given is a well-oiled machine, largely a result of the previous teacher's fantastic efforts. The other class I've been given is another animal altogether: none of the students seem particularly interested in the subject and I am not sure how to kickstart their engines. On the advice of the senior teacher, I have provided more scaffolding but these students are just not keen to get on task. I do know that next week is going to be a tough one for them and me - we are way behind on the syllabus and yet I must take them to task for the shoddy work they have given me. Although it would make my life much easier to just give up on them and be wholly task-oriented, teaching like that is just a waste of time. Students don't internalise what they "learnt"(memorised) and as a teacher, I would have failed in making lessons mean something for them.
Gotta do up lesson plans for last and this coming week...sucks.
Then another school-related event over the weekend: national day parade! Well, they termed it National Education show and it's really like a rehearsal. It comes with all the works - you get the real pomp of the actual thing e.g. the military colours and the flypast, the fireworks and the freefallers etc. And of course, the many school kids they roped in for the mass displays. The whole thing is a superbly-choreographed show and as I glance into the distance the many tall buildings of which any one I would so die to be working in (particularly that of a top bank), I realised what a great idea it is to have the floating platform sited there. Against a backdrop of history (in the form of the harbour), the modernity we have achieved thus far (in the shape of the skyline) and the future that we can expect (in the form of the sheer amount of work-in-progress on the IR), you can't help but feel a tinge of patriotism as the national anthem is aired and the Chinook flys by bearing a giant flag. When at the end of the show, everyone comes together to say the pledge and sang the national anthem, I thought how routine the pledge-taking/flag-raising ceremony has become at schools.
Maybe sometimes, less is better. Too much too often can indeed muddle the significance of what is supposed to be important.
posted by Ming at 10:53 PM
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