Practicum Week 10

In terms of the tasks which I had to complete, this week was much like Weeks 8 and 9, but with the additional element of having to prepare my students for my departure from AJC and handing my classes over to my CT and the other J1 teacher. Leaving the school after 10 weeks of settling in was quite difficult, and I realised at the end of the week that I really had a very fruitful practicum experience and would miss both my colleagues and the students.

One highlight of this week was having breakfast with my principal, the VPs, and my SCM - they made a special appointment to see all the practicum teachers together to hear about our experiences and suggestions to improve the school, and although I missed most of this session as I had a last-minute tutorial to cover (the other J1 was on MC that day), I was touched by their concern for us and willingness to hear from us about how our time during practicum had gone. This warmth and openness is something about the staff culture in AJC that I really appreciate, and my perception was reinforced on the last day, when we went around giving little tokens of appreciation to the school management as well as the many teachers who had supported and guided us on our practicum journey. There was a real atmosphere of camaraderie in the staff room during this time, and it felt great to know that I would soon return to be a part of it.

As for my classroom experience during this week, I really had a lot of fun during all my International History tutorials, as I got my classes (including the class that I had to take on behalf of the other J1 teacher) to imagine that they were part of a court trial to determine who was most responsible for the outbreak of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Each class was divided into 4 groups, with 1 group playing the USSR, another the USA, another Cuba, and the final group playing the judges, whose task was to critique each group's defense and come to a final verdict. I was initially nervous about how the lesson would play out, especially for my H1 class as they had never done anything like this before (the H2 classes, at least, had experienced a reduced SAC process in a previous tutorial for Southeast Asian History) but my experience in each lesson thankfully proved that my fears were unfounded. My classes all responded extremely well to this activity, and came up with arguments on the spot that were better thought-out than anything I was able to draw from them during an average tutorial. I guess it was the atmosphere of subtle competition that sped up their thinking, and from the laughs and cheers that the presenting students got from their peers during the presentation and Q&A segments, I could tell that they were all enjoying the activity. Unfortunately, my means of assessing the success of this activity has to stop at what took place within the classroom - the students actually have to complete an essay assignment on this tutorial question, but as I will have left the school by the time it is submitted for marking, I will not be able to see if their lively discussions will translate to a well-thought-out, structured, and balanced essay. Nevertheless, this activity has given me the confidence to use more of such strategies in future, and I can say with confidence that I thought that these lessons were my best teaching experiences in AJC.

Finally, on my last day, my H2 class surprised me with this lovely card. This was a great affirmation of the work that I had put in for them over the past weeks, and I really am looking forward to my return.

Practicum Weeks 8 and 9

I have decided to combine the reflections for these 2 weeks into one post as my experiences during this time were very similar. Basically, practicum life in the aftermath of all the lesson observations returned to its simple routine of preparation for and delivery of lectures and tutorials, marking scripts, CCA observations, occasional consultations with students, and staff meetings. As I think I mentioned in my Week 6 reflection, it was actually quite good to settle down into a routine - while I tend to be the sort of person who values spontaneity and frequent change in my work, teaching by its very nature already involves much spontaneity and change, since every student and class has their own unique strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles, and the material for each lesson changes from week to week. As such, having a basic timetable to follow was actually a good thing, since I was aware of the main tasks that had to be completed in the week as well as when they had to be completed by, and this gave me the freedom to decide when I wanted to do each task, yet kept me focused on finishing what I had to. I really am very comfortable with this sort of system, and am grateful to have a CT who is supportive and helpful yet refrains from micro-managing my tasks.

Of all the tasks that I had to carry out in these weeks, marking scripts was definitely the most challenging - my colleagues were amused to learn that Marcus and I took an average of 30 minutes to mark just one script, but also reassured us that the process would get better with time and increased familiarity with student work. We had a few meetings during these weeks to standardize our marking for the lecture test scripts (since there are 3 JC1 teachers including Marcus and I, and my CT was preparing to take over our work once we left the school) and these sessions increased my familiarity with the school's standards of assessment. In a sense, I felt like it was meant to be a test of how much my personal standards were in sync with the established standards, and after some practice, I was quite happy to have reached the point whereby my CT and I were  in agreement about the ballpark grade for each script. This tedious process of marking also helped me to understand why my CT and the other teachers were generally reluctant to mark other student work beyond their tests and assignments - marking really is quite time-consuming, and given their other responsibilities of CCA, Project Work, other committees, or being the civics tutor of a class, it would definitely be difficult to manage. While I do not anticipate taking on the full load of these responsibilities when I return as a Beginning Teacher, I think I will need to decide whether I can continue with my current practices, which include setting the students small in-class assignments and doing occasional "spot-checks" of their essay outlines (i.e. their tutorial preparation) that I take back to mark and review. Much as I feel that regular feedback and assessment is crucial for student learning, it unfortunately seems like this formative aspect would have to be compromised once the full spread of my responsibilities as a teacher begins.

Another thing that I participated in this week was my observation of my CCA (the Drama Club) carry out some filming work as part of their preparation for an upcoming production, due to be performed at the end of Term 2. The filming was conducted by the CCA teacher-in-charge at his own house, and I was impressed by his passion for the project and willingness to go this extra mile to make it a success. I was also surprised by the maturity and commitment of the students - despite this filming process being time-consuming (and especially given that it was taking place at a time where I'd expect many of them to have to grapple with assignments and lecture tests), they were willing to put in their full effort and never complained when things went slowly or technical issues cropped up and interfered with the process. I realised during this time of observation that JC teaching is really about preparing the students for life beyond the classroom, and that skills such as teamwork, discipline, and responsibility are often cultivated best during such extra-curricular projects.

Mr Bell and a member of the crew work together on filming a scene.

Practicum Week 7

This week was a busy one for me - not only did I have my final observations by both my NIE supervisor and my CT, I also had to juggle several consultations with my students, prepare for a lecture, and finish up a lesson plan that would be used across the H2 classes for their first Unit 2 tutorial. Here are some of the main takeaways from these activities:


1) Final lesson observations by NIE supervisor and CT
My final lesson observations took place on Wednesday and Thursday this week, and perhaps because of their proximity to each other, my feedback for them turned out to be very similar. My main area for improvement was pinpointed as my questioning technique, as both my NIE supervisor and CT commented that I still failed to give sufficient wait-time for students to digest and respond to my questions, and that I frequently asked questions with a "model answer" in mind that I wanted students to hit. These actions often resulted in me either pushing or trying to rephrase students' answers to fit my expectations, and sometimes even directly giving them the answer when they took too long (in my opinion) to respond. I am quite aware of both this weakness and my reason for perpetuating it - I tend to be very concerned about keeping to the time and covering the requisite content for the lesson such that it will not have to spillover into the next tutorial, and I know that I am also inconfident about my ability to just work with students' ideas and push for greater understandings from there. These concerns essentially cause me to "spoon-feed" my students, and on reflection, I realise that my actions have really gone against my ideals about promoting independent student learning and critical thinking skills. Time and again I tell myself that I need to worry less about my coverage objectives and focus on working with what I have (i.e. my students' responses, regardless of the level of ability and understanding that these responses come from), and while I know that changing these teaching habits is going to be an uphill battle that may well take months and years, I believe that at least making an effort to do so would be beneficial for both teaching and learning in the long term.

2) Consultations with students
For some reason, this week was really packed with student consultations - I had at least one on each day! Oddly enough, I found consultations more tiring than classroom instruction, but I realised that teaching one-to-one or in a small group setting did have its benefits. Firstly, they presented excellent opportunities to check for my students' understanding and get to know more about their unique strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles. In addition, I was able to solicit feedback from them on my lessons, and was pleasantly surprised when a few of my students were able to clearly articulate which teaching strategies they found effective for their learning and which they did not really benefit from. (Unfortunately, students from the same class gave completely different opinions on teaching strategies, with some wanting more interactive methods such as debates in class, and others preferring direct instruction - I have yet to decide how I am going to approach their feedback and incorporate it into my lessons!) My takeaways from the consultation were, however, dependent on their willingness to speak up during the consultation - I realised that if it was a small group setting, one or two students tended to monopolize the discussion and essentially turn it into a conversation between myself and him or her, and much as I tried to engage the other student(s) who came for the consultation, they generally remained silent and seemed content to just listen in on the discussion and take notes. I feel that I already tried my best to involve them by repeatedly asking for their opinions or if they had any questions, and even asked them at the end of the consultation if they were satisfied with my explanations and had any further doubts to clear, but they insisted that they were "alright" and had "nothing else to ask". I suppose the only ways to encourage greater participation in future would be either to see them one-to-one or to get them to submit questions prior to the consultation and inform them that the session would be focused on answering them, which would mean that if they asked no questions, then the consultation would not be able to proceed.
Another aspect about consultations which I enjoyed was my ability to get to know my students better. My personal teaching philosophy has a lot to do with caring for my students and nurturing them both intellectually and emotionally, and I firmly believe that good teachers need to be concerned for the students as individual human beings, not just grades-producing machines. I felt like I had been able to build closer bonds with my students through my numerous consultations this week, and I was very touched by how one girl, who happens to be going through a difficult period now, was willing to open up to me and share about her personal struggles. This helped me to understand why she had been falling behind so badly in her work of late, and  reminded me of the importance of seeking to understand my students first before writing them off as being merely "lazy", "uncommitted" or "disinterested", labels which I had heard several teachers (over my various teaching experiences, as well as my time as a student) use on their under-performing students. Empathy is really such an important quality in this line of work, and I really hope that my passion for my students will not diminish over time.

3) SAC lesson plan preparation

This lesson was intended to incorporate elements of the Structured Academic Controversy, although my discussion with the other teachers in the department during AJ Learning Day (Week 5) yielded feedback that this plan was too ambitious to carry out within a 60-minute tutorial, especially since it was the first one on a new unit. I thus had to spend some time this week discussing this lesson plan with Marcus and planning how best to modify our approach. In the end, we decided to remove the role-reversal component of the SAC and simply focus on having the students construct their own argument and critique the argument of the other pair, before working together on a synthesized and balanced stand. To help smoothen out the process, we created graphic organisers that would help to organise students' thinking and scaffold the learning process, as well as powerpoint slides that could be used at each phase of the modified SAC as a way of reinforcing instructions and expectations of the students during the activity. I really am looking forward to implementing the lesson next week, and hope that my students will be receptive!

Practicum Week 6

This week went by rather uneventfully, with the exception of the lesson observation by my CT, HOD, and one of the vice-principals. This took place on Wednesday with my H1 class, and at the beginning, I was rather nervous about how things would go as this class tends to be weak in both content knowledge and skills mastery. I thus tried to ensure that the lesson would be pitched at a comfortable level and pace for them to follow, and used two "real-world" examples in an effort to deepen their understanding of certain concepts and writing skills - the first being a series of optical illusions, which I used as an illustration of the concept of misunderstandings and inaccurate perceptions, and the second being a mock essay question on Taylor Swift. This mock question, and more importantly, its accompanying argument, was intended to function as a sort of teacher-modelling for the class. I wanted them to be able to understand the elements and structure of an argument, and decided to use an example from popular culture as it would not only generate interest, but also prevent the problem of them simply copying down the argument word-for-word and not focusing on understanding how it was constructed, which I foresaw would be the case if I had used an example from the syllabus. At the end of the lesson, I felt quite positive about how things had gone, and was very grateful to my students for their cooperation and responsiveness. There were no classroom management issues (as is typical of students in AJC) and they were much more familiar with their content material than they had been in previous weeks, perhaps because this was their last tutorial on the origins of the Cold War. Their improved content mastery was a great help in enabling me to achieve what I had planned in the lesson, as this was a largely thinking skills-based tutorial, and I was fairly confident that my students had left with at least a better understanding of how to construct an argument, albeit in a group. The following critique with my observers was useful as always, and I was touched by their willingness to take time out of their schedules and talk me through every phase of my lesson, pointing out both the good and bad points of my lesson execution and asking for my personal assessment of how things went. One significant issue was the time I had allocated for the group work - as the H1 class has a 90-minute tutorial, I tend to take liberties with the amount of time given for student discussion, but my observers reminded me that this may not be a good thing as students will not be trained to think and speak up more quickly, particularly if they always feel that they will be given time extensions. This is something that I will definitely bear in mind for future classes, and I will be sure to state my expectations for group work (including the time allocated) clearly before the activity, and insist that students stick to it as far as possible.

As for the other aspects of my practicum life, such as CCA observations, staff meetings and the like, I felt that this week was rather routine. After 6 weeks of being posted to AJC, I can finally say that I have somewhat settled into "real" teaching life, in the sense that I have now fully internalised and keep to a schedule of lectures, tutorials, meetings, and CCA duties. I am actually grateful for this routine as it helps me maintain a sense of order in my week, and I no longer feel that sense of struggle to stay on top of my responsibilities, as I sometimes did in the weeks before.

Practicum Week 5

This week was one of many learning experiences. I participated in two external seminars to improve both my content and pedagogical knowledge, and had my first observation by my NIE supervisor. In addition, I also participated in my first fieldtrip as a teacher-facilitator, as part of the College's "Learning Day" programme.

1) ACJC "Dialogic" Seminar

On Tuesday afternoon, my fellow History teachers and I went with a group of JC2s to ACJC to attend an International History seminar as part of their "Dialogic" series of talks. The talk was given by A/P Malcolm Murfett of the NUS History Department (a familiar face from my undergraduate days) and it was on the "special relationship" between Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan during the 1980s. A/P Murfett gave a thorough and entertaining talk on how this relationship impacted global affairs, especially the unfolding of the Cold War, and it was well-received by the many teachers and students from the various JCs who were present. I managed to glean a lot from this session, particularly since international history isn't really my forte, and now see the importance of keeping these talks open to teachers - very often, it is us, not the students, who need to continually deepen our understanding of historical issues, and large-scale sessions like this are a convenient way of sharing ideas and upgrading our content knowledge. There will be another "Dialogic" seminar, this time on Southeast Asia, sometime in early May, and I know I will definitely be going for that as well.

2) AJ Learning Day

This day began with a workshop on the "Skillful Teacher" for the staff. Prior to this session, my CT had informed Marcus and I to read up on Chapters 16 and 17 of the book and create a lesson plan that would be usable in the teaching of the upcoming Southeast Asian unit. We were supposed to present this lesson plan to our fellow History colleagues during this session, and modify it according to their feedback. During the workshop, we heard presentations on these chapters by senior teachers, and I thought this was very useful as one of them used her own teaching strategies as exemplars of what and what not to do in the classroom. Her honest yet light-hearted appraisal of her strategies over the years provided a really good basis for reflection, as some of her methods - sadly, the less successful ones - actually looked similar to what I had tried before. This helped me gain a greater insight into not just what I had done or been doing ineffectively, but also helped me understand why it was ineffective. Through my preparation for this workshop, my greatest takeaway was the understanding of the various levels of lesson objectives, beginning with coverage objectives (teacher-centric focus on just getting the content for the day covered); activity objectives (focus on what the students will do during the lesson); involvement thinking (focus on differentiated learning and designing specific activities to suit the different needs of students); and finally the "ideal" objectives - mastery and skills. I realised that much of my lesson planning had been revolving around only the first two levels of lesson objectives, and that I had often lost sight of the bigger picture in doing so. Attending this workshop thus motivated me to try and alter my frame of thinking, and to work from the broader mastery and skills objectives instead of just being focused on covering the tutorial material for the day in preparing for my lessons. I hope that, with practice, it will be easier for me to work from this frame of mind, and trust that doing so will make a genuine difference in the way I teach and my students learn.

Following this workshop, I then chaperoned a small group of students on "Artscapade", a fieldtrip to the Marina Bay area organised specially for the JC1s taking Arts subject combinations. Since I was not involved in the planning phase of this fieldtrip, I was paired with my CT and thus took on more of the role of observer rather than facilitator. In fact, the real facilitators were the JC2s - each group of JC1s had a JC2 student attached to them, and the latter was meant to facilitate the entire learning journey, with only minimal assistance from the teachers as and when it was required. While the hot weather did put a slight damper on our spirits (it also did not help that I was totally unfamiliar with the students in my group, having never taught them before), my group eventually warmed up, and I was happy to see them actively engaging in fieldwork methodology such as approaching people for interviews. I also felt that the JC2 student was extremely responsible and motivated as a leader, and this made me reflect on how, at the JC level, we are really preparing the students for more than just the 'A' Levels. Cliched as it sounds, we are preparing them for "real life", and I feel that going out on this enrichment fieldtrip helped them to break out of their shells and push themselves to work in teams, try new things, and even develop their leadership abilities. While the planning phase must have been very difficult for those teachers involved, I think that their hard work definitely paid off, and am quite looking forward to an opportunity to plan a fieldtrip myself, although I would prefer to do one that is specifically focused on History.

3) Formal Lesson Observation #1 with NIE supervisor

On Friday, my NIE supervisor came to observe my lesson for the first time. I must admit that I was very nervous about this, not least because it also happened to be the first time that I was trying out the strategy of source-based inquiry with my students, and really could not predict how things would turn out despite my good rapport with the class. In addition, the lesson was held in a different venue as I wanted the classroom layout to be more conducive for group work, but then during the lesson I felt a little disoriented by the size of the space and was unable to follow my usual routine of walking around to check their work in the comfortable manner I had gotten accustomed to. During the lesson, I think my nerves got the better of me and I wound up compromising on my questioning techniques in a bid to ensure that I would be able to finish all that I had planned within the 60-minute tutorial. I barely asked the students to give their responses or feedback, and when I did, I offered such little wait-time that I often wound up being the one to answer my own questions. My NIE supervisor summarised this teaching style as "doing all the thinking for my students", and I (sadly) agree. While the temptation to simply provide the answers for them is particularly high in a situation whereby the students are unfamiliar with the task requirements, I've come to realise that I am actually doing them a disservice in the long-run as they would become dependent on me for the "right answers" all the time and never push themselves towards independent inquiry, which ironically was supposed to be the rationale behind the source-work activity.

In addition, I felt that I might have pitched the lesson at a level that was lower than would have been appropriate - my NIE supervisor advised me that I should have asked the students to do a direct comparison across the three sources in their groups instead of assigning each group a different source to analyse. This would have better helped students to develop the key skill at the heart of the tutorial question, namely the ability to make comparisons across sources. Also, I could have cut out my short activity of getting them to identify the source provenance altogether, as that did not add any value to the lesson and was a basic requirement that I could have checked by simply going around to read the graphic organisers that they were supposed to have filled in before the lesson. This feedback made me realise that I should take more risks in my teaching and expect a high quality of work from my students, instead of giving them easy tasks that would not really stretch them or help them to develop higher-order thinking skills. This lesson was therefore a major learning experience for me, and has helped to shed light on some of my ineffective teaching practices. I hope to be able to learn from my mistakes and correct myself with more in-class practice, and to build on my existing strengths (e.g. good rapport and classroom management) to become an increasingly effective teacher over time.

4) Singapore History Association seminar

My CT, Marcus, and I were invited to a seminar for teachers organised by the Singapore History Association (it so happens that Marcus' and my CT is the president!) on Saturday morning. The speaker was Dr Chua Ai Lin, a professor from the NUS History department, and another familiar face for me as I had taken a couple of her modules during my time as an undergraduate. She spoke on possible approaches to the teaching and learning of secondary school History that teachers could adopt in the classroom, and these included strategies such as:

- Visits to museums, particularly the galleries at the National Museum
- Getting students to conduct oral history interviews
- Exposing them to relevant films
- Encouraging their participation in blogs and/or Facebook groups to do with Singapore history and heritage
- Drawing on materials from newspapers.nl.sg and the oral history archives

While this talk was catered more for the lower secondary level, as that is the time when Singapore history is a part of the syllabus,  I felt that many of Dr Chua's suggested methods would be applicable at the JC level as well, especially since many of us as teachers struggle to make the content relevant and engaging for the students. By emphasizing the personal element of History and the need to exercise empathy when trying to understand the actions of various individuals and/or groups in the past, as well as an awareness of the multiple interpretations of historical developments that exist, I believe that we can make this often dry subject come alive for our students. As of now, Marcus and I haven't really found ways to make these methods a mainstay of our lessons but I believe that as our familiarity with the content and basic requirements of teaching grows, we will be increasingly able to find ways to value-add to our lessons and stretch the students further in their appreciation of the discipline.

Practicum Week 4

Key takeaways from this week occurred during:

1) Project Work (PW) observation #2
During this lesson, held on Wednesday, the teacher reiterated her expectations of the Preliminary Ideas (PI) with the students. She showed the class a sample of a good PI and asked for their comments, probing them with deeper questions to help them achieve a more thorough level of understanding. During this time, she got her PW representative to act as a scribe (i.e. typing down the class' comments on a blank powerpoint slide) so that she would be left free to engage with the class. The class was informed that the scribed work would be shared with them after the lesson, and that they would thus have to speak up in order to create a bigger pool of resources for everyone to work with. I had never seen this method being enforced in class before, and thought it was a fairly effective way of engaging the students (particularly visual learners) through the use of ICT. It is definitely something that I would consider for my future lessons.

2) H1 History tutorial
I taught the class for the second time on Wednesday, and I was actually rather disappointed by their performance. Not only did almost half the class (8 out of 17) fail to prepare an essay outline for the tutorial, 3 students did not do their essay assignments. In addition, they were very slow in responding to a pop quiz I gave them at the start of the lesson, even though all that was required was basic factual recall. While I did not really reprimand them during the lesson, I did enforce my rule whereby students who do not adequately prepare for tutorials have to write the full essay and submit it next week. I do regret, however, not taking some time out after class to talk to those who did not do their work and find out the reason behind it - I realise on hindsight that some of them might have valid reasons, and that I should have checked before issuing the penalty. With respect to their performance on the pop quiz, I now feel that I need to pay more attention to their work attitude and check for understanding at regular intervals to ensure that they remain committed to the subject and do regular revision. After the lesson, I spoke to Marcus (who co-teaches the class with me) and we have both agreed to remain consistent and be more firm in our discipline, and to enforce practices that check for understanding, such as pop quizzes or even by collecting their essay outlines periodically for review.

3) JC2 General Paper (GP) observation
My Drama teacher-in-charge, Mr Bell, invited Marcus and I to observe a JC2 GP lesson that he was filming for the purposes of a nation-wide teachers' workshop on Thursday. The teacher that we were observing was Mr Herd, and his lesson was thoroughly entertaining. I could really feel the rapport he had with his students, and they were engaged in the activities which he conducted. This lesson reminded me that we can take our jobs seriously yet have fun in the classroom at the same time, and it was heartening to see someone express such enthusiasm and passion for his work even after so many years of service as a teacher.

4) H2 History tutorial
This tutorial, conducted on Thursday, was my most trying experience yet. It was my second formal lesson observation with my CT present, and it seemed like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. The lesson got off to a bad start when I discovered that one of my students had skipped class, and it was very embarrassing for me to interrogate the rest about his whereabouts with my CT present at the back of the classroom. In addition, several of my students were late, and one of them left to use the toilet for about 15 minutes, which was rather aggravating as I wanted to be able to deliver all my instructions for the hook activity at once. Another major issue was my students' energy level - it was an afternoon lesson (2.15 to 3.15pm) and they were all very lethargic, and I unfortunately made things worse by conducting a highly teacher-directed lesson. Breaking down the tutorial question took far longer than I'd anticipated, and I wound up running out of time to carry out my planned group work segment. Finally, it seemed like my students did not really understand where I was going with my essay breakdown - one of the more vocal ones spoke out on behalf of the rest to express his confusion, but I was not fully prepared to clarify his doubts. This resulted in a bit of "dead time" while I tried to come up with an answer on the spot, and I was too distracted to notice some minor classroom management issues that were going on, such as a couple of students leaving their desks to charge their handphones. 

On the bright side, however, this LO provided many learning points. I'm very grateful to have a CT who takes note of my blind spots and provides timely and constructive feedback. His feedback for this LO included suggestions on how I should have stopped the lesson flow once I sensed that student attention was waning, and incorporated some small interactive activities such as think-pair-share to break the monotony. He also urged me to brush up on my content knowledge and really think the tutorial questions through before going to class so that I would be able to anticipate student queries. This is definitely one area which I know I am still weak in, and this tutorial was yet another reminder that I really need to improve my knowledge of the subject. In addition, he provided some tips on how to handle classroom management situations such as the student who skipped class, and encouraged me to be more stringent in my discipline. These are all issues which I will take note of in future lessons, and I hope I will be able to keep improving with more experience.

Practicum Week 3

This was a really eventful week! Highlights include:

1) First CCA observation
In Week 1, I informed my SCM that I was interested in observing the Drama Club (known in AJC as StAJeworks) as that had been my CCA for three out of my four years in the NJC Integrated Programme and theatre is something that I am rather passionate about. On Wednesday afternoon, I went to observe the group and was given a thorough update of what had been going on during the past weeks as well as their upcoming programme by their teacher-in-charge, Mr Bell. It turned out that the group had just organised an inter-house drama competition for the JC1s and that it had been a great success, which explains why they were in such high spirits that day (they were playing warm-up games when I entered and the noise they were making was near-deafening). I was informed that the group was about to embark on a major production to be staged at the end of Term 2, a performance that would include a mixture of live theatre as well as pre-shot film, and that would involve other performing arts CCAs such as the choir, band, and even the dance groups. This was the first time that StAJeworks was attempting something on such a large scale, and it was wonderful to see how enthusiastic the group and Mr Bell were about the project. While I only spent a couple of hours with the CCA, I could really sense the strong bond that they had with each other and their liveliness was a breath of fresh air for me, as up till then I had only encountered students in the classroom, where their behaviour would naturally be vastly different. I left feeling very excited about being a part of this dynamic group, and am looking forward to the weeks ahead, where I will get to see the students prepare for the production.

2) Humanities Department meeting
There was a Humanities Department meeting on Thursday morning, and our HOD began by going through a process of goal-setting for the 'A' Levels this year. This started with a presentation of the recently released A Level results for History and Geography, as well as how they compared to the results of the past 2 years. It was good to see that the History grades were increasing in quality over the years, but I also felt a little stressed on behalf of my CT and the other JC2 teacher, as it meant that they would have a tough act to follow. After a short process of negotiation, the teachers finally settled on a set of projected grades for this year, and we moved on with the other things on the agenda, which included a discussion of the upcoming History-Geography-Economics fieldtrip (Artscapade) and an introduction to an assessment strategy known as the Patchwork Test Assessment by our HOD. The practicum teachers were informed that we would have to prepare a lesson plan for critique during a teachers' workshop on 4 April (the same day as Artscapade, which would coincide with an overall college learning day for the students) and assigned two chapters of the "Skillful Teacher" book to read as a means of preparation. This lesson plan would actually have to be executed within 2 weeks after the critique, and our CT encouraged Marcus and I to get started on planning for it as soon as possible. As for the Patchwork Test Assessment, our HOD informed us that it was part of her practice to share new teaching strategies with the department, and it was quite interesting to learn about this one. The basic premise was that it intends to assess if students are able to relate different topics within a subject discipline to each other, and requires teachers to design a series of tasks for students to complete over time. These can include reviews of articles or videos, conducting interviews, or even going through a webquest, and the final product would be a project that requires them to synthesis and consolidate whatever they have learnt in the smaller tasks. While I am still uncertain at the moment of how and when I could implement this strategy in my classroom, I think it is a really commendable practice for the HOD to share new pedagogies and ideas with the department, as that fosters a positive culture of sharing and mutual assistance. I do feel that the Humanities Department in AJ has a friendly atmosphere, and have so far never been afraid to ask for help or guidance when required. In return, my requests have never been denied, and I always feel that my CT and the other teachers are in fact willing to go the extra mile to help and make me feel comfortable.

3) First formal lesson observation
I had my first formal lesson observation with my CT on Thursday afternoon, and once again I learnt a lot about how to improve my teaching strategies. My CT reminded me again to be careful with how I defined certain key terms for my students, especially since this lesson involved me giving them a template to work with, as even the slightest error in phrasing could affect students' understanding of the concept. I also realised that I should have asked them to write their answers on mahjong paper or just use the visualiser to directly flash their work, instead of getting them to transfer the issues brought up during their group discussions from their foolscap paper to the whiteboard. The latter strategy, which is what I adopted, wound up eating into the time that I had planned to use for review, and this was unfortunate as there really was quite a lot to be evaluated with them. There were also some minor issues to do with classroom management, such as one of the boys getting up to walk around the classroom while I was writing on the whiteboard, and later repeatedly using somewhat hurtful language on his peers (i.e. words such as "retard") during the group discussion. I did not notice the former incident and wasn't sure of how to respond to the second, which led me to just give generic instructions such as asking him to lower his volume. My CT advised me to be more aware of the classroom situation even while working at the whiteboard (that proverbial ability to have eyes in the back of my head!) and to directly address the misbehaviour in future by taking the student aside to speak to him privately about why such words are unkind and should not be used. I will definitely keep all this in mind, and again I really am grateful to my CT for being able to keep track of all these blind spots and provide useful suggestions on how to tackle them in future.

4) Track and Field Meet

With my fellow practicum teachers!

Despite having several periods of teaching experience since 2008 (the year of my first teaching internship, which ultimately led me to take up the MOE Teaching Award), I'd never had the chance to participate in a school track and field meet, and much less take part in the staff race! We were informed by the PE department a few days before that they needed more signups for the staff race, and four of us practicum teachers decided to put our names in. Friday came, and we all showed up for school in our sports attire, ready to take on the 8 x 50m relay. There were so many things to smile about that day - the adrenaline rush from the (admittedly very short) race, the lively atmosphere of the track and field meet as a whole, the great time of bonding with the other staff over our sponsored bento lunches, and of course, the half-day holiday to celebrate the good A Level results and the end of Term 1! The icing on the cake was a dedication that my H2 class wrote for Marcus and I, wishing us the best of luck for the staff race and a really sweet "We love History!" This was read out by the emcees of the event, and we couldn't really believe our ears at the time as it seemed unbelievable that they would do such a thing for us despite only having 3 weeks of lessons. After the event was over, we asked the class to stay behind so that we could thank them, and their warmth towards us has really inspired us to continue giving them our best, both in and out of the classroom. 

With some members of A34, our shared H2 class

Practicum Week 2

This was another week spent settling in, with lesson observations taking up most of our daily schedule. I got to observe a Project Work (PW) lesson for the first time, and also delivered my first H1 tutorial, which also happened to be an informal lesson observation by my CT. In addition to these, I gave my second Paper 2 tutorial, and co-taught a second Paper 1 tutorial with Marcus.

1) PW lesson observation

Marcus and I were asked to observe the PW lessons conducted by Ms Tan, one of the few "PW specialists" in AJC, and we did so on Tuesday morning. Even though the PW question paper had yet to be released, the PW department had given the students an ssignment which required them to select and do research on one significant invention in recent years that they felt was innovative and insightful. During this tutorial, the students were divided into groups and asked to share their research with each other and then decide on one which they wanted to present to the class. Ms Tan gave them about 20 minutes for this discussion, and then randomly selected a representative from each group to present their idea. The biggest takeaway which I got from this tutorial was Ms Tan's method of prompting responses from her students - using a spinning wheel divided into 6 segments ("Who", "What", "When", "Where", "Why", and "How"), she got each group to focus on one word, and they were asked to formulate questions that began with their assigned word after each presenter had finished. If their questions were too surface-level, she would step in to prompt them towards more higher-order thinking. I thought this was a very interesting way of developing critical thinking and questioning skills in the students, and the process of student Q&A helped to make the lesson more lively and promote peer learning. It is definitely a technique that I would consider using in future, particularly for classes that are more reticient and less willing to engage with each other and the subject material.

2) First H1 tutorial-cum-informal lesson observation

On Wednesday morning, I met my H1 class for the first time during the tutorial slot. I was rather nervous at the beginning as it was my first lesson observation (albeit an informal one) with my CT, and I knew that I would only have an hour with them instead of the usual 90 minutes due to a pre-planned schoolwide fire drill.  Thankfully, I already had introduction slides and activities planned from my first H2 tutorial last week, and I was thus able to breeze through the introduction component fairly quickly. A few issues arose during the lesson proper, however - my CT pointed out that I could have better defined key words for my students and scaffolded them towards a reconciliation of the multiple perspectives brought out in the tutorial question instead of leaving them hanging with disparate sets of arguments to consider. He also advised me to watch my lesson pacing and to not be over-ambitious in my planning, in the sense that certain tasks were too complex to be completed within the stipulated time-frame. Marcus was present in this lesson to help me monitor the students during the group discussion segment, but my CT reminded me that I would not have the luxury of his help in formal observations, and emphasised the importance of being able to track and manage student behaviour on my own. However, he reassured me of several good points as well - he praised me for having a good variety of questioning techniques and the quick provision of feedback and evaluation once students responded, and said that my voice projection and demeanor were good as well.  This made me feel more positive about my performance during the lesson, and I really am thankful for a CT who is honest, constructive, and yet kind in his feedback. 

3) Overall lesson reflections

After my tutorials this week, I really recognise the importance of being well-versed in subject content. Four years of pursuing my own disciplinary interests (many of which have little to do with the JC syllabus) in the university have left me very unfamiliar with the content that is required for my current teaching, and much of these first two weeks has been spent on reading and research to ensure that I am prepared for class. My classroom experience has also taught me the importance of time management and lesson sequencing, and I hope that over time, my familiarity with my classes and their preferred working style, as well as the amount of time it takes on average for them to perform certain activities, will increase. This would help me to plan lessons that are appropriately paced and accessible to them, and make for more effective teaching and learning on the whole.

Practicum Week 1

A candid photo with Marcus on Day 1

Adjusting to the new school environment wasn't particularly easy during the first few days as my CT was away on reservist, although he did his best to communicate information via SMS and a pre-prepared list of instructions. My SCM and two Geography teachers (who were asked by my CT to help brief me and my fellow History colleague on practicum) were very helpful and approachable, and their briefing sessions with us were light-hearted yet informative - I was able to gain some insight into the school culture, and could feel their warmth and enthusiasm in welcoming us to the school. Once my CT returned on Thursday, we had formal meetings with the HOD and VP2, and I was touched by their care and concern for our well-being as well.

Some of the highlights of this week included:

1. Focused Conversation 1

Our FC1 took place in a group setting, with 4 out of 5 of the practicum trainees (one of them was unable to make it for that timing as she had to chaperone some students to NUS, and she had her FC1 at an earlier timeslot) as well as our SCM and another senior teacher present. It was a good opportunity to share and learn from each other's NIE experiences, and I enjoyed seeing my peers' showcase of their lesson artifacts and other materials. The Q&A was a good opportunity for reflection, and I felt that our SCM and senior teacher were not only constructive in their feedback, but also provided a lot of sound advice on the teaching profession.

2. Lesson observations

During this first week, my History colleague (Marcus) and I got to observe several lectures and tutorials, some of which were conducted by Geography and Economics teachers. Observing lessons that were not from our subject domain was a good learning experience - since we were not familiar with the content, it was really an opportunity for us to pick up on other aspects of teaching such as classroom management. Since AJC does not adopt any standardized school-wide approach to discipline, each teacher is free to craft his or her own classroom management style, and observing these lessons gave us new perspectives on how to tackle common classroom issues such as unresponsive or sleepy students, as well as how to enforce expectations, pace lessons, and pose questions that stimulate higher-order thinking. We also got to learn more about the profile of AJC students. 

3. My first tutorial

My first tutorial (an unobserved one) was on Thursday, and my CT was very kind in providing Marcus and I with many suggestions on how to set our expectations for our classes. Unfortunately, during my tutorial, the unexpected happened - I was unable to connect my laptop to the projector, and wasted about ten minutes moving from room to room to try and see if the laptop would connect while leaving my students unattended in the original venue. This was a major blunder, and I realise on hindsight that I should have gone to the tutorial venue beforehand to ensure that everything was working fine before conducting my lesson. While I attempted to mitigate this problem by giving them a small introduction task to do while waiting, I still felt like I was wasting everyone's time and creating a terrible first impression. Thankfully, my students remained patient and responsive despite this bad start to our lesson, and I was able to improvise by explaining things verbally and using the whiteboard instead of the Powerpoint slides which I had prepared beforehand. This whole experience was really a major learning point for me, and I've since made it a point to check my classrooms beforehand if my lesson  happens to require technological support. I've also realised the importance of taking responsibility for my mistakes and being accountable to my students - before starting the tutorial proper, I gave them a sincere apology, and I felt that doing so helped me to build some rapport and (hopefully) transmit the value of responsibility and honesty. These are qualities which I would like to see my students develop, and I hope that by first modelling it for them, they could learn from my example.

4. My first co-tutorial
As Marcus and I are both History teachers on practicum, our CT advised us to try co-teaching. In other words, we should sit in for each other's lessons where possible, and while one of us executes the lesson proper, the other helps by maintaining classroom discipline and checking on the students during group work segments. On Friday, we had our first co-teaching session, and we decided that the aim of this tutorial should be to familiarise students with the demands of an essay, since essays are the primary assessment mode in History at the A Levels. We sought our CT's advice on how to introduce essay-writing skills to our students in a fun and accessible manner, and he suggested using a question on pop culture to arouse their interest and ensure that the focus would be on their skills instead of their ability to grapple with content knowledge. We put his suggestion into practice, setting a question that required them to assess the merits of Lady Gaga in comparison with Bruno Mars and Katy Perry, and the students responded positively to this. The introductory paragraphs which they wrote in groups of 4 were fairly indicative of their ability - we could see clearly, for example, where they struggled with organisation of ideas and overly narrative writing - and we also took note of the group dynamics as that would give us a sense of how to organise the class for future collaborative learning experiences. When we asked the students to present their work, however, they were a little reticient, and we had to do a lot of probing and scaffolding to find out why they wrote in the way they did. After some discussion with each other and our CT, Marcus and I thought it best to attribute this unresponsiveness to a lack of confidence in our students, unfamiliarity with our expectations, and perhaps insufficient rapport as well, and we decided to just give them more time to find their footing and be more encouraging in our efforts to get them to speak up.

QED523 NIe-Folio Task

The Graduand Teacher Competencies Framework (GTCF) provides a holistic integration of the revised V3SK model (i.e. Values, Skills and Knowledge of the 21st Century teacher) and MOE’s competencies framework of beginning teachers as expounded in the Enhanced Performance Management System (EPMS).
Choose ONE core competency from EACH of the following dimensions: 

• Professional Practice 

• Leadership and Management 

• Personal Effectiveness 

Reflect on your personal development of these three identified competencies as you train to become a teacher. For example, what do these competencies mean to you? Why do you think these competencies are important and how do you see yourself developing in them?Are there specific challenges that you face as you seek to develop these competencies? Capture personal reflections such as these in a 800 - 1000 blog post.

Professional Practice
As professionals, I believe that teachers need to always set their sights on and be clear about who we are working for - the students. As such, a commitment to providing quality learning for the child is crucial. This in itself is no easy task, as it requires the teacher to have an integrated understanding of how students learn and develop in general, as well as the specific background, needs, and interests of their own students. This requires a great deal of work outside the classroom, as the teacher needs to take time to get to know each student in order to maximise both their learning and their character development. On top of this, the teacher must be able to effectively manage the classroom environment, as there would be no point in having a thorough understanding of how to approach the class (e.g. through designing a wide range of instructional materials that are intended to cater to various learning styles) if basic discipline and order has not been established. Though this sounds like a tall order, teachers must be able to juggle the (often scarce) resources of time, space, activities, and student attention in order to engage their pupils. Meaningful assessment is also important, and I believe that assessment for learning should take place as often as - if not more often than - assessment of learning. Providing prompt and constructive feedback to students on a regular basis can go a long way to promoting learning, and also helps teachers to monitor students' progress and modify their instructional activities where necessary. As such, it contributes to the development of both teacher and students, since both can grow to become reflective learners who are resilient, adaptable, and open to improvement.

Leadership and Management
Working in teams is one core competency which I feel is very important for teachers, especially with the new emphasis on collaborative learning in not just the classroom but the staff room as well. Many Humanities teachers have a bad reputation for hoarding instructional materials, perhaps because of the difficulty involved in generating and consolidating them. I feel, however, that this is a practice that will ultimately backfire - if teachers keep their information and ideas to themselves with the aim of preventing their colleagues from borrowing from the materials that they have so painstakingly created, it is impossible to gain a fresh perspective on their work. This third-party point of view can be very helpful, as colleagues (particularly those teaching the same subject) also have experience in communicating the content and concepts, and may therefore be in a position to target existing "blind spots" and offer new insights or teaching strategies that could boost the overall quality of the work. In my opinion, the ideal working relationship is one where both parties have positive feelings about each other and are open to exchanging their work and seeking constructive feedback. The resultant synergy could well make the whole greater than the sum of its parts, and the students are thus able to benefit from the hard work of two or more teachers as opposed to just one.

Personal Effectiveness
The core competency under this domain that resonates most with me is resilience and adaptability. Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once famously expressed this idea in this simple quote - "never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever give up". Having had some teaching experience prior to embarking on my practicum journey, I must say that this rings true, especially at low points when the classroom feels like a treacherous jungle that is impossible to navigate, and when work just never seems to end. Lesson plans do fail embarrassingly during the execution process, and the spread of extra-curricular events (all of which require involvement) can be very tiring, especially when layered on top of the already heavy classroom commitments. At these moments, a tough spirit and positive outlook is necessary, and I've found for myself that perseverance and optimism need to go hand-in-hand in order for me to reach that metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel. and that . Given that the students whom I will be encountering belong to the so-called "strawberry generation", whose feelings are easily bruised and who tend to give up when faced with obstacles rather than attempting to stay the course, I feel that this is one quality which I would definitely like to pass on. I hope to lead by example and teach my students that reaching a breakthrough at the end of a challenging period is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world.

As for adaptability, I believe that teachers really need to be very quick-thinking in the classroom, as the successful delivery of a lesson depends on so many different variables, some of which - such as student behaviour or even the proper functioning of necessary technology - are extremely unpredictable. This means that a teacher needs to always be on her toes and ready to modify previous plans to suit the classroom context. This adaptability is really what I would consider a "survival skill" of sorts, and I look forward to exercising it during the ten weeks ahead.

"Changing Education Paradigms"

I recently watched this video - an animated piece that was adapted from a talk by Sir Ken Robinson, a world-renowned education expert - as part of my QKS520 course, and found it really thought-provoking. There were many salient points raised, but I was especially struck by the following:

1. Modern-day children are actively besieged with information from a whole variety of sources, but are forced into an artificial passivity and docility in the classroom. "We are getting our children through education by anaesthetising them, [instead of] waking them up to what they have inside of themselves."

2. Schools unfortunately require and result in a "production line mentality", where students are divided by their age, not ability, and "funneled" through a system of standardised testing and curricular.

3. Divergent thinking = "an essential capacity for creativity"; the ability to see multiple answers, possibilities, and interpretations of an issue, and to "think laterally". This ability seems to be very strong in young children, but diminishes as they go through the school system. Why?

As a teacher, I certainly hope to be able to fully engage my students and cater to their specific interests and learning styles. I certainly do not wish to push them through a syllabus which they have no emotional investment in, and am fearful of falling into the trap of creating a "mechanistic" drill-and-practice routine in my classroom. While I acknowledge that academic achievement is important, I feel that the teenage years are possibly the most exciting in our lives, and I want to stretch my students; to foster a real love of learning; and to build them up as people, not mere grades-generating machines.