Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction ~ John F. Kennedy

1. Why did I come to NIE?

After doing some contract teaching at the secondary level, I realised that I did not have the necessary skills to fully engage my students, and I also lacked the background knowledge to add weight to my explanations. I have to be the role model and know what I am doing, before I can expect my students to listen to me. The students will look to me for help, and if the teacher feels inadequate, what is the student to do? I always admired my mentor for being able to command the class so well, and making them feel happy and excited in every single lesson, while delivering the necessary content required. I believed that by going to NIE, I would be able to fill in these gaps and add on to my current abilities, in order to be able to bring out the best in my students J

2. Do you think the reason will influence your behaviour?

I came here with a specific purpose, to learn how to be a better teacher through both my teaching techniques, as well as to improve my content knowledge.  I feel that I would be very focused and dedicated in my approach towards teacher studies here in NIE, and to give my utmost in all my projects and assignments, big and small. As someone who is teaching English but has no official training in the language, I feel that my determination to learn as much as I can to make up for my lack of knowledge will be my driving force for my stint in NIE and beyond.

I could come across as someone who is cold, calculative and only thinking about work, so while striving for academic excellence, I would also learn to treasure the relationships forged here in NIE, and gain a broader perspective on interpersonal relations which are invaluable when teaching in a class with so many different personalities.

3. What does it mean to be an autonomous thinking teacher?

My mentor once again appears in my recollection. My mentor was a quick thinker on his feet, and even though he was dogged by technical difficulties and a restless class, he was always able to figure out some activity that could give the students an interesting yet concise lesson about a certain concept. He was also sensitive to the demographic of the class, and knew how to shape the supposed lesson into something that would get the class moving and engaged. This is my core interpretation of the idea of an autonomous thinking teacher, in that, a teacher should be able to shape the concepts that have to be imparted in a way that matches the demographic of the class, as every class is different in their likes and dislikes of teaching methods. A teacher like this should also be able to understand their classes and be confident in their way of handling the class.