Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know. ~ Jim Rohn

QLK520 - Communications Skills for Teachers

1. I felt that this module has allowed me to understand more about my own form of communication, and the quirks which are tied to them.

2. I also felt that the module has given me some methods to improve on my communication skills, and they would serve as a good experience/way to practice such improvements as I continue on my path of teaching.

3. I also felt that the module has given me an overview of what to expect in a classroom, the kind of replies that students will give during lessons, as well as how to reply to students in an efficient manner to ensure that lessons are able to carry on as planned.

4. Finally, I felt that the module has sufficiently prepared me for office life, mostly through teaching us the right way to use emails to communicate our ideas to others in a proper way to prevent misunderstandings from happening, as well as how to elicit requests in a polite manner as to facilitate the process of asking for a favour in a positive way.

Overall, though the module is a little dry, the benfits of having this module still outweighs not having it at all, to prepare all of us for our practicum/BT stages.

QCL520 Final Reflection

Final Reflections:

• How do you make difficult concepts accessible to your students?

Making difficult concepts accessible to my students can be done in many ways.
Firstly, huge concepts should be broken down into smaller ones which could be easily digested before linking them back together to form the big picture.
Secondly, scaffolds play a big role in doing so as it slowly shapes the student's perspectives and mental processes towards what we are trying to teach them. Hooks are especially useful because they are not directly linked to the concepts in the textbook but instead draws students closer into the "frame of mind" which makes concepts accessible. Discussions within class are also good because they allow students to verbalise their perspectives of concepts and to clarify their thoughts with their classmates as well as allowing the teacher to understand the level of thought taking place in the student's minds.
Thirdly, there should always be a rationale behind each difficult concept, as students would not feel compelled to understand such concepts if the teacher him/herself does not even know why they are teaching such concepts for. The teacher's attitude would also play a part in making such concepts accessible.

In relation to Theme 6, big concepts like Challenges, Adaptability and Leadership should be broken down into smaller examples before attributing them to the larger concepts, and finally linking all back to the big picture of Rise and Fall of Nations being linked to such concepts. The teacher should also emphasize that the lessons learnt from Venice are important, but it is up to the students themselves to see the true relevance of the lessons in relation to Singapore, and that it is not dictated by the teacher.

• How do you plan to teach so that students are able to organize and structure the massive loads of information that they will encounter? 

Whenever possible, students should always have a chance to relate concepts to themselves in a personal way. In doing so, students would be able to see the relevance these concepts have in their lives, or through some experiences of their own.
Also, a fair amount of charts/graphs/pictorial notes would be very good tools for students. By sifting out the relevant information and concepts from the textbook, it would ensure that essential lessons and takeaways that students would have to learn isn't too wordy and are very clear and focused.
It would also be good for students themselves to create their own mind maps for every chapter, with guidance from the teacher,

With relation to Theme 6, the topic of the Rise and Fall of nations may be very text-focused and unclear to students due to the different time periods/contexts, thus there has to be a bigger concept which can tie all of these together for the student to remember as the key takeaway of the lesson. One way for them to organize what they have learnt would be through the Cycle of Nations framework (http://patrioticprinciples.com/the-cycle-of-great-nations/), which provides a clear view of what the lesson is trying to bring across to students.

QLK520 Group 2 E-Learning

I felt that I had some knowledge of vocal health as well as voice projection, as I had spent months in school but I didn't have any issues cropping up with regards to vocal problems.

The e-learning site showed me many problems and ways to cope with such problems should they arise. I realised that I should always be in the know of how to tackle these issues even though they have not happened to me.

The checklists seemed a little too long to properly maintain and look at point by point, but the videos were very informative and were nicely split into the different techniques which were easy enough to remember and practice.

Techniques like body posture seemed to be very relevant as I tend to have bad body posture, and thus the video highlighted to me how that could affect the air flow in my body and the inability to use my diaphragm to speak loudly.

Knowing how to identify and manage vocal problems would be useful in the long run as it is impossible to escape vocal problems, and I can only be prepared and pre-emptive in my strategies. 

Theme Presentation - Looking back.

Based on the textbook and intended curriculum, many different parts based upon the three different perspectives can be seen, but the perspective which seems to be dominant is that of the Personally Responsible Citizen.

The core assumptions of this perspective are,

“To solve social problems and improve society, citizens must have good character; they must be honest, responsible, and law-abiding members of the community” (Westheimer and Kahne, 2004)

The textbook seems to tell us that citizens have to do their part to ensure that problems do not arise, and that many issues can be prevented/corrected once a correct behaviour has been established.

Examples:

In Theme 3 on Multi-Ethnic Conflict, it seems to tell readers that if citizens practiced tolerance and understanding/acceptance towards each other, many problems could have been avoided. It seeks to tell that although there were historical issues brought forward, the citizens had the power to choose their decisions in pressing situations. As the group which presented this theme had shown, their key takeaway messages seemed to be focusing heavily upon character development, and thus the personal responsibility of citizens to maintain racial harmony.

In Theme 6 of Venice, the key concepts of adaptability and challenges could also be seen as being directed to that of the citizens, as the rise of rich merchants led to a great disparity between social classes and other problems which eventually involved the ruling of Venice. If personally, citizens are unable to understand their individual roles in maintaining responsibility, problems could arise.

I do not see many links to that of community-service, community-oriented activities that might help Singapore progress. This would fall under the Participatory Citizen perspective.

I also do not see the “seeking out and addressing areas of injustice” portion of the Justice-oriented citizen. It seems like the intended curriculum seems to treat readers/students very passively, and their sole purpose is to just ingest the information and not repeat mistakes/toe the line.

With reference to Theme 6, it seems there could possibly be too much emphasis on Singapore being the second Venice should we follow certain strategies which Venice followed at their peak. There seemed to be a 1 to 1 (Venice to Singapore) kind of lesson which the syllabus seems to want us to impart to students. I felt that instead of framing the lesson as such, we could raise the students’ awareness on why certain strategies failed with Venice, and if Singapore had followed certain paths, what would be the possible outcomes. Whether or not the outcomes would be beneficial for Singapore, I would leave that for my students to decide and ponder upon it. It would allow them to understand the ramifications of problems associated with Venice’s decline independently.

The idea here for the students to take home is that, following the footsteps of Venice need not necessarily means that Singapore will decline in the exact same way. The world is now different, but it does not mean that we are immune to the key takeaways like Challenges, Adaptation and Leadership. Following in Venice’s footsteps brings us at a greater risk of decline rather than making it a certainty.

Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

As the title suggests, this post will be about Rules/Regulations that I intend to implement during my practicum.
I firmly believe in not having hard and fast rules, but instead teaching students principles which will have a lasting impact upon them.
But, this might not only apply to students who have the ability to reflect upon their own actions, thus a set of guidelines would still have to be created as a baseline to be adhered to. 

 

My 5 Rules of the Classroom.

1. Showing Respect to one another. 

- This will help to ensure that the class learns correct social behaviour, and mutual respect between each other.

-Not speaking when someone is presenting, paying attention to the Teacher, respect everyone's right to their needs, do not impose your will upon others, do not distract one another, do not stand up and walk about etc.

 This is always important.

2. Be kind.

- To allow students to learn how to treat each other genuinely, and to start them off on a lifelong process of caring for others/less fortunate/each other.

- Helping someone when they are in need (can be teachers as well), Not judging someone before understanding their situation, trying your best to make the class/school a better for everyone.

 This is a moral value that is essential.

3. To be accountable.

- To learn that every decision is a conscious one and that they have the ability to make the most appropriate decision. To know that everyone has the same amount of time, and that what they do with it is up is their responsibility

- .Examples could be, knowing how to manage their own workload, knowing when and what homework is due and when, knowing when exams are nearing and preparing for it, knowing when to tell their peers that they are ill, knowing when to tell their teachers when they have problems regarding school/family that clashes with their workload, knowing when to ask for extensions/help with proper reasons etc.

 Good as it helps students to keep tabs on themselves 

Bad as they might not have developed the necessary planning skills to plan so far ahead.

4. Keep the classroom neat and tidy.

- A clean and tidy environment makes students and teachers feel good, and when they do, there are fewer roadblocks to teaching as compared to an untidy classroom. A cleaner classroom also decreases the chances of students falling ill.

- Duty Roster for cleaning the classroom, everyone has their own roles and carries it out responsibly. If everyone exercises personal responsibility, it will make it a lot easier to maintain classroom cleanliness.

 Good. This gives them ownership of their home class.

5. UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Social Studies: At first glance.

What are your beliefs about citizenship?

Citizenship denotes the link between a person and his country, and I believe that it details our own self-belief of being proud to be part of the country. This link helps us to understand the direction that the country is undertaking, as well as putting faith in each other to pave a path for future generations in the country. I believe that although citizenship is interchangeable, we will always relate back to our country of birth in some way.

What was the impact of reading Westheimer & Kahne (2004) on these beliefs?

The reading has shown me that my idea of Citizenship has no real democratic value, something which the article mentions over and over again. My beliefs that as long every citizen is helpful towards one another, society might progress, but I had not emphasized on the collective decision making which makes the bulk of what democracy is about.

What is Social Studies?

To me, as I have been teaching (an attempt to) SS for about 9 months, it feels like a blend of History, Geography and Politics. It allows students to understand certain key events that carry important lessons, and also teaches them certain hard skills (for SBQ and SEQ) which are beneficial for their future as it opens their mindset to concepts like irony, sarcasm etc.

Who controls the Social Studies Curriculum?

Though the materials for the curriculum comes from MOE, teachers are also afforded the freedom to explore more examples in relation to the topics if they are relevant and can bring more perspectives to students. There is probably more control in the hands of schools and teachers.

What is your role in relation to the Social Studies Curriculum?

My role is to bring the hard skills, as well as to content knowledge across to students in a way which will not bore them. My role is to at least ensure that they leave my lessons knowing a little more about the world and how to look critically at sources.

Diversity is the one true thing we all have in common. Celebrate it every day. ~ Anonymous.

•Why is it important for a teacher to understand the issue of student diversity?

There will not be a blanket effect when teaching carried out. Every student has a different way of learning/attitude towards learning. A teacher has to know that there will be students at the tail ends which require special attention (bell-curve).

•How could student diversity impact upon a teacher’s ability to manage his/her classroom and student learning?

A teacher will have to ensure that most of the students are able to fall within the “net” of what they are trying to teach, and also making sure that additional resources/time are available to help with the tail-ends. A teacher would also have to utilise several methods of classroom management and know that some students can simply be unresponsive no matter what he/she does.

•What is the concept of ‘unconditional teaching’?

Unconditional teaching entails that we look at the child as a “whole”, and that we have to be those who encourages them even in the face of failure/misdemeanour. The child must be able to understand that a teacher’s care/concern is not related to their academics but is a genuine action towards treating students as human beings too.