The sharing by the various KPs on Learning and Development and Work-life Balance is really a learning journey for me. Firstly, it was the first time that I was involved in a Cluster Meeting which was not restricted to Math KPs only. Secondly, I learnt a lot of the different perspectives with regards to the topic that was given by our Superintendant Mrs Ong. I was really very nervous about saying out my thoughts when it is my turn to speak. I guess I never can get the stage-fright feeling off me....
Nevertheless, this is waht I have learnt:
Work-life balance (or harmony as many of the KPs have decided to change it to) can be achieved when there is learning and deveopment. When we learn something , that knowledege would (even though very little) help in improving the ways that we do things. We get more efficient in our thinking, teaching and doing work and this in turn would help us put aside more time for ourselves, family and our hobbies. Of course it is our choice to decide whether we would like to achieve a 50-50 , 60-40 'balance'. If we enjoy doing work , 70-30( with 70 being work) is also alright as long as we know that our family or our health is not jeopardized in any way. Quality vs quantity....
Also as leaders, we should try our best to get to know our teachers so that we know what is good for them and what is important to them. If the schools' needs and the teachers' needs are aligned then there should be some sense of work-life harmony. When teachers know that their leaders care, they are happy to come to work. They would teach happily in class and this feeling could be translated to happy students and more engagement in class, hence better attitudes and results...
Learning new things is important, no matter how small the fact is. But why do we need to learn? We need to learn in order to improve ourselves and learn new pedagogies that will help our students learn better. The new generation of students are more IT savvy and very much distracted by media (youtube, facebook, etc) so we need to be in the same page as them in order to know them better so that we can engage them more in conversations and hence work. By learning new ways of interacting with students and how to teach them more effectively, we also raise our own self-esteem and this translates to more willingness to try new pedagogy and the cycle continues.....
When we, as leaders learn, we become good role models for our students and teachers. We learn when we read articles, literature review, watch TV or movies or just by talking to our peers and students. Hence learning can take place anywhere. It's just how you make use of this knowledge to better ourselves and our lives....
Coincidentally just before we entered the meeting, Hong Heng was sharing about extremedeals.com, the place where we could buy cheap stuff for our gadgets. Those of us who have IPhones were really excited with this new knowledge and I guess some of us will make use of this new knowledge to enhance our own lives...I rest my case....:)
Sunday, 29 August 2010
Monday, 5 July 2010
Reflection on Mrs Yu Sin Tong's (DDSN) visit
I was inspired...full stop.
Mrs Yu is one of the few people who had inspired me. Another person I could not forget is my ex-conductor from AJC Symphonic Band who then became my ex-conductor in NUS Symphonic Band, Mrs Jessie Ho-Tan Wee Eng. Both ladies have this aura about them. Not only were they charismatic, they believe in what they do and they really do well in what they do. Mrs Ho is now the Senior Specialist CCA Music 3. I was once inspired to become a conductor because of her...but that's another story...
Ok back to Mrs Yu's visit. She is one person who can see things in macro or the big picture. I was talking about my responsibility as a People Developer and the different ways that I should go about developing my three different teachers. One is a trainee teacher, the second is a part-time teacher and the last, a flexi-adjunct teacher. I told her that I was still learning in this area. I need to be the role model for each of them (to be a good teacher and achieve all the targets), to understand their difficulties and also help them overcome any obstacles. I said that it was ok for them not to reach their targets as long as they had done their best. My mistake was just to stop there. I actually wanted to continue saying that they should meet their targets by the end of the year as the mid year work review should help them to identify their weaknesses and also make them realise how they could fill their gaps....(regrets..regrets...)
Mrs Yu gave me pointers on how to go about doing my job. For the flexi-adjunct teacher, he is supposed to be sharing his resources and methods with the whole department as his experience and good practices should be copied or adopted by others. As for the trainee teacher, he should be encouraged to ask questions (as we learn from being inquisitive) and to explore the different teaching pedagogies. For the part-time teacher, she said its about resource management. She expressed her disagreement with one clause on part-time teachers that allow them not to turn up for Staff and Department Meetings. I totally agree with her. I was always wondering why some teachers didn't have to attend Staff or Department eetings. I think that it was a totally wrong concept. Staff and Department meetings should be attended by all teachers, no matter what scheme they are in. Although minutes of meetings can be read by them, they would have missed the valuable discussions that the whole faculty would have been involved in. Meetings also promote collegiality and understanding on the workings of each teacher. I am really looking forward to a change in this clause.
On the whole I think Mrs Yu was talking about developing connections in the whole school. Teachers need to know their students well - ( I like the part where she said that if she went back to being a Principal, the first two weeks would be a getting-to-know-you session for all the teachers and students. ) Teachers that know their students' habits would be able to play a more significant role in adapting their teaching and how they interact with their students and thus know how to get results from them. I am also inspired to hear that a VP was once a naughty student who had turned over a new leaf after having felt being cared for by one of her school teachers. Care and motivation lead to little successes which lead to hunger (for more successes) and then to bigger successes. Middle managers and school leaders must also know their teachers in order to develop them. Developing doesn't mean saying the good things only. We have to be truthful in our observations and monitoring of our teachers. Only when we know our weaknesses do we get to change and improve for the better...
I really hope to improve my relations with my students and teachers. I do believe that if we show care and concern towards others, there will be less misunderstanding, more cooperation and thus the world will be a much better place to live in....Thank you Mrs Yu... :)
Mrs Yu is one of the few people who had inspired me. Another person I could not forget is my ex-conductor from AJC Symphonic Band who then became my ex-conductor in NUS Symphonic Band, Mrs Jessie Ho-Tan Wee Eng. Both ladies have this aura about them. Not only were they charismatic, they believe in what they do and they really do well in what they do. Mrs Ho is now the Senior Specialist CCA Music 3. I was once inspired to become a conductor because of her...but that's another story...
Ok back to Mrs Yu's visit. She is one person who can see things in macro or the big picture. I was talking about my responsibility as a People Developer and the different ways that I should go about developing my three different teachers. One is a trainee teacher, the second is a part-time teacher and the last, a flexi-adjunct teacher. I told her that I was still learning in this area. I need to be the role model for each of them (to be a good teacher and achieve all the targets), to understand their difficulties and also help them overcome any obstacles. I said that it was ok for them not to reach their targets as long as they had done their best. My mistake was just to stop there. I actually wanted to continue saying that they should meet their targets by the end of the year as the mid year work review should help them to identify their weaknesses and also make them realise how they could fill their gaps....(regrets..regrets...)
Mrs Yu gave me pointers on how to go about doing my job. For the flexi-adjunct teacher, he is supposed to be sharing his resources and methods with the whole department as his experience and good practices should be copied or adopted by others. As for the trainee teacher, he should be encouraged to ask questions (as we learn from being inquisitive) and to explore the different teaching pedagogies. For the part-time teacher, she said its about resource management. She expressed her disagreement with one clause on part-time teachers that allow them not to turn up for Staff and Department Meetings. I totally agree with her. I was always wondering why some teachers didn't have to attend Staff or Department eetings. I think that it was a totally wrong concept. Staff and Department meetings should be attended by all teachers, no matter what scheme they are in. Although minutes of meetings can be read by them, they would have missed the valuable discussions that the whole faculty would have been involved in. Meetings also promote collegiality and understanding on the workings of each teacher. I am really looking forward to a change in this clause.
On the whole I think Mrs Yu was talking about developing connections in the whole school. Teachers need to know their students well - ( I like the part where she said that if she went back to being a Principal, the first two weeks would be a getting-to-know-you session for all the teachers and students. ) Teachers that know their students' habits would be able to play a more significant role in adapting their teaching and how they interact with their students and thus know how to get results from them. I am also inspired to hear that a VP was once a naughty student who had turned over a new leaf after having felt being cared for by one of her school teachers. Care and motivation lead to little successes which lead to hunger (for more successes) and then to bigger successes. Middle managers and school leaders must also know their teachers in order to develop them. Developing doesn't mean saying the good things only. We have to be truthful in our observations and monitoring of our teachers. Only when we know our weaknesses do we get to change and improve for the better...
I really hope to improve my relations with my students and teachers. I do believe that if we show care and concern towards others, there will be less misunderstanding, more cooperation and thus the world will be a much better place to live in....Thank you Mrs Yu... :)
Sunday, 3 May 2009
T2W6 - 4E1
(This blog entry is inspired by Amy's entry ... http://maxwow-amycharles.blogspot.com/2009/04/praises-go-long-way-sometimes.html)
This class amazes me....
At the start of the year when I realised that I was going to teach them, I checked their E Math MSG for 2008. Oh yes...it's going to be a tough year. So from the beginning I was strict with them. I was determined to ensure that they get the best result in E Math this year. So in the first week of this year I gave them the SOW that I will strictly follow, the CA1 breakdown that shows their test marks and assignments done(or not) and gave them reasonable amount of homework (they know it's for their own good) and go through the harder questions the next period. As what happened in my 1E2 class, most of them have shown improvement, whether slight or a milestone, which I am very proud of. The remarks that I gave in their assignments are carefully thought of and not just random remarks. I realised that you have be genuine in giving out praises as students don't like to be patronised (just like adults). Thus when they do well in tests and assignments, a little word of praise like 'well done!' and 'good effort' and little smiley stickers will have a positive effect on them. I remembered putting this comment on a student's test paper... ' You're finally showing your true potential. I'm so proud of you. Keep up the good work!' From that day onwards, the student never fail to impress me. He continues to be paying attention in class and handing in assignments on time and will be participating actively in class discussion. HOORAAYY!!! :) ( one down ...and many more to go...hehe)
I have 2 more of such cases. One is a student who had failed in her previous tests and because of her active involvement in one of the performing arts groups that did well in SYF Central Judging and her curriculum period conducted dring the SRP timeslot, it was really tough on her. She perservered, tried her best to pay attention in class (although she gets distracted easily), studied for the last test on Graphical Solution of Equations and wah lah! she finally passed! I call that determination and she was so proud of having passed that test. What I did was to encourage her more as I know she is capable of doing well in her academics as she has shown those qualities in her CCA. Now that SYF is over, we will sit together and do some intensive revision....
The other student had a colourful past. After accepting him in my class in February, I realised that he had not shown a better attitude this year (being his 5th) and I was really getting frustrated. I held him back after class sometime last month and gave him a tounge-lashing that I was not aware I could. I SMS his mum and told her of my disappointment and needed her to do something cos obviously he hadn't. I thought it was going to be like last year...advice falling to deaf ears...BUT he really surprised me. He turned up earlier than his classmates on the day of the Graphical Solution of Equations test. He sat quitely and did the test. When I marked his script that same night I was shocked as he was the fourth highest in the class! I think he finally got the message that we(teachers, school and parents) want him to do well in his academics. I had to ask this of him- whether he was already good in that topic as he had studied this last year, or is it that he had really studied for this test. And when he said that he studied for it, I really felt good. He is on the road to better future....YESSSS AT LAST!!! Now what I need to do is to keep reminding him of his potential and what he is able to do, instead of harping on his shortcomings....
So to summarise this very long entry --- Every child (AND ADULT) has potential to do well. He/She just needs that guidance, encouragement and genuine praises from the people that matters. It is our job as teachers to support and give good advice and be a role model to them in terms of good work ethics and behaviours.
This class amazes me....
At the start of the year when I realised that I was going to teach them, I checked their E Math MSG for 2008. Oh yes...it's going to be a tough year. So from the beginning I was strict with them. I was determined to ensure that they get the best result in E Math this year. So in the first week of this year I gave them the SOW that I will strictly follow, the CA1 breakdown that shows their test marks and assignments done(or not) and gave them reasonable amount of homework (they know it's for their own good) and go through the harder questions the next period. As what happened in my 1E2 class, most of them have shown improvement, whether slight or a milestone, which I am very proud of. The remarks that I gave in their assignments are carefully thought of and not just random remarks. I realised that you have be genuine in giving out praises as students don't like to be patronised (just like adults). Thus when they do well in tests and assignments, a little word of praise like 'well done!' and 'good effort' and little smiley stickers will have a positive effect on them. I remembered putting this comment on a student's test paper... ' You're finally showing your true potential. I'm so proud of you. Keep up the good work!' From that day onwards, the student never fail to impress me. He continues to be paying attention in class and handing in assignments on time and will be participating actively in class discussion. HOORAAYY!!! :) ( one down ...and many more to go...hehe)
I have 2 more of such cases. One is a student who had failed in her previous tests and because of her active involvement in one of the performing arts groups that did well in SYF Central Judging and her curriculum period conducted dring the SRP timeslot, it was really tough on her. She perservered, tried her best to pay attention in class (although she gets distracted easily), studied for the last test on Graphical Solution of Equations and wah lah! she finally passed! I call that determination and she was so proud of having passed that test. What I did was to encourage her more as I know she is capable of doing well in her academics as she has shown those qualities in her CCA. Now that SYF is over, we will sit together and do some intensive revision....
The other student had a colourful past. After accepting him in my class in February, I realised that he had not shown a better attitude this year (being his 5th) and I was really getting frustrated. I held him back after class sometime last month and gave him a tounge-lashing that I was not aware I could. I SMS his mum and told her of my disappointment and needed her to do something cos obviously he hadn't. I thought it was going to be like last year...advice falling to deaf ears...BUT he really surprised me. He turned up earlier than his classmates on the day of the Graphical Solution of Equations test. He sat quitely and did the test. When I marked his script that same night I was shocked as he was the fourth highest in the class! I think he finally got the message that we(teachers, school and parents) want him to do well in his academics. I had to ask this of him- whether he was already good in that topic as he had studied this last year, or is it that he had really studied for this test. And when he said that he studied for it, I really felt good. He is on the road to better future....YESSSS AT LAST!!! Now what I need to do is to keep reminding him of his potential and what he is able to do, instead of harping on his shortcomings....
So to summarise this very long entry --- Every child (AND ADULT) has potential to do well. He/She just needs that guidance, encouragement and genuine praises from the people that matters. It is our job as teachers to support and give good advice and be a role model to them in terms of good work ethics and behaviours.
Friday, 10 April 2009
T2W3-1E2 (AFL so far...)
Term 2 has started and we are back in class learning together. My shortcomings for Term 1 for this class was that I didn't prepare them well enough for my 'class entrance'. I thought it was clear to all students (from the extensive discussion done in T1W1-T1W3 about class rules and expectations) that the expectations was for them to wait for their subject teachers with their books ready on the tables. Boy was I wrong! And I wasn't helping the situation as I didn't adhere to the standard procedure but just walked in and stood in front of the class and waited until they were ready to greet me ( which could take about 5 extra minutes of 'SHHHHH' and somebody saying 'Stop talking'). Hmmm....I guess instructions will only be remembered if each subject teacher gives the same instructions to them. (It would be even nicer if the teacher who had just ended his/ her lesson , help to get students to get their materials ready for the next lesson.....)Thus I worked on this ever since T1W6 and now I will not step in until everyone in the class has their books and homework on their tables ....and they stand, ready to greet me... :) ( I can even hear them scurrying to get ready when I am about 5 metres from their classroom...hehe..
I think AFL has really helped me in teaching this class. As what I had done for my other classes, I would write what I would be teaching at the top left corner of the whiteboard so that I am able to carry out my lesson as planned and also to ensure that students are on task and not waste time, as usually I will have about 3 lines of instructions. For e.g., for my 2-period lesson with them on last Tuesday I had these on the board: 1-go through HW Ex 4.1, 2-learn substitution, 3-HW Ex 4.2 (do all odd numbers). This answers the question of 'where are we going?' in AFL. My lesson often starts with a review of last period's homework. (This answers the question of 'where are we now' in AFL) I will give the answers to the questions (even though they are found at the back of the book) and students will be marking their own work with a pencil or green pen. For every answer that received remarks such as 'Huh?'or 'I didn't get that' or 'Miss Rozi, I got a different answer' or when at least 1 student raised their hands to indicate they got it wrong, I would write the full solution on the board and explain the question thoroughly. I find that this works very well for this class. They are good students who will definitely do their work and they want to do well. Thus by going through the answers and getting the correct solution from me (when they got theirs wrong) it ensures that they get the correct feedback to help them in their own learning and to clear any misconceptions that they have. It is also during this session of going through homework that I find students thinking. Some would be asking questions of a slightly higher level and their classmates would often offer answers (before I do), which I thought was excellent ...:) At the end of going through the homework in class I would collect the assignments and mark them (the marking is less tedious now as most have been done by the students diligently) and at the same time I would be able to mark their corrections and put some more comments on the mistakes that they had done or to give encouraging remarks when they have a lot of mistakes but effort was shown when they diligently do their corrections and also congratulatory remarks (very good! or well done! or smiley stickers) for those who have got full marks for their assignment. When their assignments are returned the next day or a few days later, students who had not done well in their assignments and have 'come and see me' written on their assignment, would meet me and I would find out if they have overcome their misconceptions in that assignments.
In overall, I think 1E2 has responded well with AFL. Timely feedback given to them clears their misconceptions and satisfies their curiousity. I think that the building blocks have been put into place satisfactorily for future learning of Mathematics and I think it has kept some, if not all of them, interested in Mathematics.
I think AFL has really helped me in teaching this class. As what I had done for my other classes, I would write what I would be teaching at the top left corner of the whiteboard so that I am able to carry out my lesson as planned and also to ensure that students are on task and not waste time, as usually I will have about 3 lines of instructions. For e.g., for my 2-period lesson with them on last Tuesday I had these on the board: 1-go through HW Ex 4.1, 2-learn substitution, 3-HW Ex 4.2 (do all odd numbers). This answers the question of 'where are we going?' in AFL. My lesson often starts with a review of last period's homework. (This answers the question of 'where are we now' in AFL) I will give the answers to the questions (even though they are found at the back of the book) and students will be marking their own work with a pencil or green pen. For every answer that received remarks such as 'Huh?'or 'I didn't get that' or 'Miss Rozi, I got a different answer' or when at least 1 student raised their hands to indicate they got it wrong, I would write the full solution on the board and explain the question thoroughly. I find that this works very well for this class. They are good students who will definitely do their work and they want to do well. Thus by going through the answers and getting the correct solution from me (when they got theirs wrong) it ensures that they get the correct feedback to help them in their own learning and to clear any misconceptions that they have. It is also during this session of going through homework that I find students thinking. Some would be asking questions of a slightly higher level and their classmates would often offer answers (before I do), which I thought was excellent ...:) At the end of going through the homework in class I would collect the assignments and mark them (the marking is less tedious now as most have been done by the students diligently) and at the same time I would be able to mark their corrections and put some more comments on the mistakes that they had done or to give encouraging remarks when they have a lot of mistakes but effort was shown when they diligently do their corrections and also congratulatory remarks (very good! or well done! or smiley stickers) for those who have got full marks for their assignment. When their assignments are returned the next day or a few days later, students who had not done well in their assignments and have 'come and see me' written on their assignment, would meet me and I would find out if they have overcome their misconceptions in that assignments.
In overall, I think 1E2 has responded well with AFL. Timely feedback given to them clears their misconceptions and satisfies their curiousity. I think that the building blocks have been put into place satisfactorily for future learning of Mathematics and I think it has kept some, if not all of them, interested in Mathematics.
Sunday, 1 March 2009
T1 W7-8 1E2
This class is currently learning Percentages. Most had done quite well in the previous 3 chapters' tests. As Percentage was covered in their Primary 6 syllabus, I was able to go quite fast with them. Just a few students had to be hand-held to do a few of the Try It! questions. I should be able to finish teaching the whole Chapter in the next lesson and also start on the next chapter which is Data Handling, and have them sit for a test, before they go for their OLE 1 in Week 10. In the weeks that I have taught them I discovered that they are intelligent (therefore I should stretch them further to raise their Maths ability), most are enthusiastic and eager to answer and show their working on the board while the quite ones sit and do their work quietly (I should ensure that everyone has a chance to answer and make the quiet ones present their answers more and perhaps increase their self-esteem?), they are hardworking ( i gave them a lot of homework questions and so far most have given me very satisfactory work on time. I just need to work on one student who forgets to bring his homework a lot and seems lost in class- I have already talked to the Form teacher and she has agreed to change his back seat to one in the front). Let's hope that with SMAPP in Term 2, I will be able to learn more about their strengths and weaknesses and hence how to help them in the future.
T1 W7-8 4E1
For the past two weeks, I have been teaching this class the topic of Cumulative Frequency Distribution. As a change, for the first lesson, I had given the class an overview on what to expect for in this chapter. I showed them my own drawing of the cumulative frequency curves and told them that I expect their curves to be as good as mine and for the past few sessions, almost all of their curves were as good as mine which I find awesome. I know that most of the students do not like drawing graphs but students do meet up to our expectations if we show that we believe in them. Only some have difficulty (need more practice of course). After the first assignment was marked, I reviewed the mistakes with the class. Some had to be called to the teacher's table to be given a stern reminder for showing 'poor attitude'. I have decided to change the seating arrangement as a few of them were not learning from their chosen seating partners. They will only get to change back if they show an improvement in their homework assignments. We have one more subtopic to go before closing the chapter on Cumulative frequency- box and whiskers plot. Most probably after reviewing the chapter and going through 2008 'O' level question on this chapter next week, the class should be ready for a test on Thursday. I am determined to make sure everybody pass this test as it is a definite question in the O level. If this Chapter is mastered now, they will have one less Chapter to revise for the 'O' level.
T1 W7-8 5N1
Three 'new' students joined the class. It was unfortunate that they had come in when the class was supposed to sit for their Test on Matrices. Everyone passed the test (including the three students) except for one student. In overall the students agreed that they were careless in their multiplication of the elements, forgot that when a matrix is squared, it means it needs to be multiplied to itself again and not have each element squared. ..We also started on a new topic- Set Language and Notation. As was done previously at the start of the topic, students were given some time to read their textbooks and find out the answers to my questions that were written on the whiteboard. The students were very focused and managed to get the right answers. I think that we have made the correct choice of using Discovering Mathematics for the NA classes in the upper secondary as the Try It! questions lets them practice on the new concepts that they have learnt straight away. I think another thing that made the students of this class focused in their learning was that they know what I was going to do for that entire period. For this class I dedicated the top right hand corner of the Whiteboard to my plan for the day. For example, on last Friday I had these written on that corner. 1) review the topic 2) give homework questions 3) test on next Wednesday? 4) 2008 'O' level question 5) 2007 Specimen paper question. As they had only 20 mins left (they had come late from their D&T and F&N lessons), the students were focused and I was able to do 4 out of the 5. The specimen question will be done on our next lesson. I feel that if we are focused in what we are going to do with the class, the students will be cooperative and will be focused and thus no problems in classroom management. Im very sure this class will meet my expectations and more....
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