Thursday, July 09, 2009

 

super late reflection of monday, week 2 day 1.

i taught two double periods today, one sec 3 maths and one sec 3 chem.

sec 3 maths was ok. the students were relatively motivated and interested on their own, so not much motivating was needed there. however they were struggling a bit with learning a new concept, and some of them look rather discouraged at the end of the day. i will see them again tmr, let’s hope we see good progress. on hindsight my teaching aids could have been better and probably could have given each group a model to look at directly. and that the visualiser/ppt idea is bad because it is a hassle to switch between the two. and visualiser is not very good for motion demonstrations. must take note.

sec 3 chem was not as good. when i stepped into the class i realise that this class, despite being an express class, had significantly lower self-motivation. i wanted to hear from them, to slowly perhaps understand why. is it because they are constantly compareed to the other classes? they could tell me that they are the latest class, and very plainly were not intending to change anything about it, almost accepting completely. i cant accept this sort of attitude. from one person perhaps, but as a class this is really not very healthy. how did an entire class end up like this? and this is only the first year since they were formed after streaming. i had people who constantly drifted off, but thanks to the better class i had earlier, i could make some sort of acknowledgable effort towards pulling them back to stay with me. but it was tiring to constantly have to walk around to catch people’s attention, to stop and pick someone out in class. but i feel that it is working, that if i perservere i might really see improvement. and the good thing about walking around is that there is the fans above them but not at the whiteboard area. and not the whole class is so sure about their identity as the latest class. (they had a late birds banner hanging high in their classroom, i am not sure how it got there) so let’s wait till friday. in the meanwhile i’m planning some surprises later today haha.

then yesterday i did my mad run to hall-btc-ucc. and i made it for convo. mad run it was, and thank every being for the LOA, otherwise i would have had to take the headache to hall on tuesday night to recover my attire. mum was like why were you using the jacket today and i had to gloss over it quickly. i had photos with parents, with friends here and there, with lab group and prof, with hall mates. there were two consecutive photos with two other teachers each. very funny. both had ppl saying let’s take a teachers photo, and i was like hey i just did that on the other side of the staircase. i never managed my double major dream, nor scored that honourable first class honours, but i think i took away enough things to last me for a longer time than any of these would have given me. i think i wouldnt have chosen anything else, except that perhaps i could have succeeded finding a partner. hahaha. but life takes you in the direction planned for you. i guess i have more time, more freedom, and a freer mind to wonder about the children in class and wonder about life as it is. these four years, using words from lynn chan, are to be proud of that we survived, even though we are probably not proud of the school. i am at least proud of the people i have met along the way. great people. people who scored well (but were barely distinguished except for those who knew the sequential ratikonale. it wasnt tough tho.) people who served others with excellence, but were even less mentioned, like Alvin Leong who was president of Temasek Hall, but were merely read out like any other. I’m sorry. it was injustice to an almost disgusting extent. so much for acknowledging the acheivements of our students. You guys didnt even bother to highlight those who have achieved first class. that was the minimum you could have done! night time was dance, the ending was disappointing because it wasnt well organised. i left alone at 11pm, quietly. i hope weng bo can appreciate that some of us will only reach home as late as about 1 hour after dismissal, so be sensitive. but she at least motioned that i could go off when i looked to her, so i thank her for that.

today i’m back. only one double period and that is for observation some more. time to go do my models. Oh monday was youth day btw. i went to see laiyi’s convo, with mengho and grace (the food science one) and oks, and i cant remember who else i met.

Zhengyu wrote at 2:19 PM.