Practicum Reflection 29 February 2012

Today was a day for the pupils to revise for their tests on Thursday and Friday. I was sitting behind observing how my CT revised the lesson with the class of Primary 2. After awhile, I realised Heng Yu was not focusing again and I tried to sit beside him for the whole lesson to assist him. At the same time, I tried to talk to him to find out more about him so that I can engage him. He told me he hates reading and he goes to the student care centre after school. At times, his mother did not prepare breakfast for him so it was really affecting his concentration because he was hungry. When I asked him to stop doing disrupting the class, he was unhappy and sulked and refused to comply. I began to talk to him nicely and said that I do not like that behaviour because that is not respectful and that was when he began to react and told me that he has alot of catching up to do. I encouraged him that he will be able to do it and I am sure of it.

Practicum Reflection 28 February 2012

I tried my first Shared Book Reading (SBR) today with the class. The whole process of Stellar for Primary two is really tedious but a worthwhile process. In my contract school, we did not follow the Stellar closely so I did not have a full picture of it until I went into NIE. In this school, they followed strictly to MOE's guide.

The class enjoyed singing and reading a new book. They were very anxious to know if their predictions were correct. However, I realised that as much as I would like to ask more thinking questions to scaffold the higher ability pupils, there was really alot of time constraints because there were too many things to discuss about in each page. I had to be flexible to tweak the questions or omit some which I thought was not as important. I also noticed that the pupils did not like to re-read the book again with the teacher. Some of them found it boring after a second read. I hope I'm able to sustain their interest again during SBR 2. Overall, I'm quite happy with my performance in terms of managing the class today. I managed to incorporate some of the advice that my CT has given me into the lesson to make it more meaningful for them.

Practicum Reflection 27 February 2012

Today was the first time that I have a chance to teach but I was quite disappointed with my performance knowing that I should have done better since I was a contract teacher for such a long time. I have higher expectations of myself.

The lesson was a 1 period Social Studies lesson for a Primary 2 class. I was teaching about festivals today. Perhaps I was too ambitious, my lesson over-ran. I felt myself rushing through the lesson. One disadvantage was also the fact that they just had their recess so a lot of time were needed to settle the class down. By the time I told them about my rules, ten minutes have passed. I only had a good twenty minutes of teaching time and I had to rush the class during group work. I found that due to all the rushing, the pupils were not able to fully grasp the objectives of the lesson. In fact, I did not state the objective of my lesson too.

I think that in future, I should just plan for a twenty minutes lesson so that I can really ensure that the pupils benefit. Rushing through the lesson is really not beneficial for them. I need to think of short group activities instead to engage them. However, one thing I noticed is that they were enjoying the visual impacts of the various pictures pasted. They were really excited about it.

Comments from my CT stated that I should ask more open-ended questions to trigger the thoughts of the pupils with high ability. I should not only call out to those who put up their hands but those who did not too. I will take note of these in my English lesson tomorrow.

Practicum Reflection 24 February 2012

Today was the first time that I stepped into class 3/2. I will be teaching Social Studies in this class.

Profile of 3/2: There are 36 students in total and consist of 21 girls and only 15 boys. I was told that this class was of middle high ability. They were in groups of 9-10.

Understanding that this class was of middle high ability, my expectation of them was automatically heightened up but I was in for a real shock. The class was not managed properly because when the teacher was teaching, others will be talking and doing their own things. Despite warnings after warnings, they continued with their own businesses. During the lesson, many basic issues were not addressed causing the class to be distracted. For example, a girl was being bullied but the teacher ignored it. Two students were arguing but the teacher ignored it and continued with her lessons. I was really surprised. I wanted to step in but I thought it would not be nice as I'm only the observer today. There are really alot that needs to be done for this class in terms of classroom management. Besides, each group consist of about 9-10 persons so it is really difficult for group work to be done in future.

I should be breaking them up into smaller groups once I am taking over so that it would be easier for me to monitor and assign roles to each of them. Despite being an NIE trainee, I do not agree on some of the things that my CT is doing. Of course, I will not confront her mistakes but I thought many times, we should always reflect on our own practices and make adjustments accordingly instead of staying in our comfort zone day by day.

Practicum Reflection 23 February 2012

Today was speech and drama class for my Primary 2 English class. The vendor came and got the pupils all excited. It was an eye-opener for me because I was not aware that English could be taught this way. This morning, the trainer taught the pupils how to pronounce the ending sound of each word though play. She also taught them to project their voice using the diaphragm. The pupils were totally relaxed and were able to move about in class which is good for kinesthetic learners. She has also used songs to engage them which is good for auditory learners. I kept a close observation on Heng Yu today and realised that he is nether a visual learner, nor a auditory learner nor a kinesthetic leaner! This was not what the theory has suggested and I'm thrown off guard. I must work this out with my CT to see if he has any other issues that we must work on. I find that he is a smart boy with alot of potential left untapped currently.

Practicum Reflection 22 February 2012

Today was quite a disturbing day for me. I went into class 5/3 and they were having their revision on whole numbers. My CT tried to go through the worksheets but she was honest enough to let the pupils know that she had not worked out the sums prior to that so she has to work it out on the spot while going through with the class. However, I realised that there were some concepts that she might have overlooked and taught the class wrongly. I was in a dilemma as I was not sure if I should point it out to her. The pupils who had the answers correct originally all did not question her and follow her 'correct answer' instead. From this, I can see that the class really respect and listen to what the teachers say and does not apply any critical thinking skills to argue if the answers were wrong or correct. I was pretty disturbed by this fact. I would expect the class to raise questions but no one did. As for me, I did not want to embarrassed her so I did not want to point it outright. When I returned to my workstation, my fellow NIE colleagues told me not to point out her mistake as she was my CT after all and it would be difficult for her to swallow it down. I do not want to sound or look as if I know it all too so I let it go. Despite knowing that I have made a wrong decision, I really have no choice as I felt that as an NIE trainee, I'm at the mercy of my CT. I do not know her well enough yet to know if she was able to take critique/mistakes freely. I know this will impact on the pupils so I hope that if I have the chance to co-teach, I can quickly revise through the concept that was mis-communicated.

Practicum Reflection 21 February 2012

Mr Rafi was re-teaching conjunctions to the pupils as it seemed that most of them was not able to do their worksheet. In order to engage the pupils, he tried to use ICT Powerpoint to re-teach the concepts. However, I thought that the Powerpoint used could be more colourful and should be accompanied with some pictures. It was pretty wordy in my opinion for Primary 2 pupils. I assisted the pupils with their corrections during the lesson. I noticed that , Heng Yu, was always very restless and not focusing. He was placed right at the end of the class. I thought it would be better for him if he were to sit nearer to the teacher. I think he is a kinesthetic learner as nothing seems to interest him thus far. He was always meddling with his pencil case. I tried to sit beside him throughout the lesson today and managed to coach him a little. I think he needs alot of attention which many teacher may not be able to give since there is only one teacher per class. I hope I will be able to work with him better. One of my goal for this practicum is to try to engage Heng Yu.

The students in 5/3 were doing their revision for Mathematics too today. I went around to help students with the difficult questions that they were not confident with. I find that this class is very willing to learn. Most of them were eager to share their answers with the teacher. I observed that the teacher moves around to help the students with the concepts too. However, there is a boy, Firdaius, who is a little active in the class. He is seen sitting alone as he can be quite disruptive. It would be a challenge for me to manage him. I realised that he understands the concepts quickly so perhaps he needs some fillers since he is such a fast worker. He could be disruptive due to the fact that he finds the class boring as he has already understood the concepts. I shall brainstorm ideas on how to engage him and fill up his time.

Practicum Reflection 20 February 2012

Today was my first day at Fernvale Primary School. I had the opportunity to sit in three different classes today. I will pen down what I have observed and learnt in these classes.

I was assigned to a Primary 2 class to teach English and Social Studies. I was also assigned to teach a Primary 5 Mathematics class.

Profile of class 2/6: This is a mixed ability class with a few extremely weak pupils. However, most of the students are able to focus except a handful of them who are usually restless. The class has a point system which is very effective in disciplining them. The class also has a daily leadership scheme so that everyone has a chance to be a leader.

2/6 English: The first period was used for Spelling. However, this was the first time that the students are having spelling on a Monday due to the upcoming tests. Due to that , almost one quarter of the class was not prepared for the Spelling. However, my CT, Mr Rafi, had to carry on with it in order to be fair to those who has already learnt. But Mr Rafi was very flexible and encouraged those who did not learn to try. He was kind enough to allow them for a re-spelling tomorrow. This was to give those students another chance. It is important for teachers to be flexible and not be too rigid if it does not benefit the students.

2/6 Social Studies: The topic covered was on 'Ethnic Costumes' and Mr Rafi brought in many different costumes for the pupils to see and touch. This was good for the kinesthetic and visual learners. However, I realised that one period is inadequate for Social Studies lessons to be conducted with so much content to be covered. However, Mr Rafi has tried his best to cover as much and make it interactive for the pupils.

Profile of class 5/3: This was also a mixed ability class. Likewise, the class has point system to manage them.

5/3 Mathematics: The topic was on addition of mixed fractions. The base ten blocks manipulative were given to the class. They were supposed to work in groups and used the manipulative to find the sum of two mixed fractions. I observed that the pupils have difficulties understanding the concepts through the base ten blocks. In fact, I was a little lost during the lesson too. I understand that the teacher was trying to allow them to explore and work in groups but I realised that the objectives of the lesson were not met. For example, when the children were trying to add 1 and 1/4 to 2 and 1/4, they tried to covert the quarters to a base of 100 because the base ten blocks were in hundreds. It was a redundant step to convert the 1/4 into a base of hundred, which resulted in many carelessness. I think the lesson will be more effective if fraction discs are used.