During the first week, I basically shadowed Mr Tyrus Chua for his English Literature and English Language classes. He impressed me with his firm, systematic yet interactive teaching style. His classes are always filled with lots of engaging activities but most importantly, these activities did not distract the students but rather the students were able to appreciate Literature more and bag home new knowledge while having fun.
Lessons aside, Mr Tyrus had also very willingly shared with me many teaching materials and lesson tips on how to conduct interesting lessons, maintain class discipline and so on. At the same time, he also exposed me to some other teachers so that I could take a look at their teaching methods and devise a personalised teaching style which I am most comfortable with. He had also kindly allowed me to teach two of his lessons on “Irony” for the following weeks – one is a lecture and the second one is a poetry appreciation. Ultimately, the objective of these two lessons is to prepare the students for essay writing. The greatest irony of all is that the topic “Irony” is actually my weakest link, but I have learned that being a teacher, we have to be able to take up the responsibility to teach whatever that is in the syllabus, though not to follow it blindly but to do research and preparation to brush up on what we do not know in order to pass on the right content to the students.
During one of the days after class, we had an impromptu program which was to join in the Mongolian athletics for a tour around the school. Excited like a tourist, I took lots of photos:
Multi-racial dance performed by the students
Gamelan performance
Group photo: Mongolians and EVGians
Finally, this little section is attributed to my group mates who had been there for me when I nearly fainted after school and had severe stomachache. I greatly appreciated each and every one of their help because I understand that some of them had to make sacrifices just to be there for me. Thank you! :)
The greatest lesson learned of all: To teach is to learn!
Itinerary
7/7 Tuesday
Had an induction with Mr Chan, Mrs Lim, Mr Lee and the respective Department Heads.
8/7 Wednesday
Shadowed Mr Tyrus Chua the whole day and the following are the highlights:
I observed Mr Chua’s English lesson for Band 10. The class had an oral practice and students were randomly picked out to speak to the whole class so as to boost up their confidence in speaking to a crowd. Mr Chua then explained his lesson objectives and rationale to me after the class. He also went through the English Language and English Literature syllabus with me for the secondary school curriculum.
9/7 Thursday
Shadowed Mr Chua the whole day for the following classes:
Literature – 2 Respect, 2 Integrity, 2 Achieve and 2 Thinking
English – Band 10
Below are the highlights:
For the Literature lessons, I got to see more fun and interactive activities being carried out for the lower secondary classes and this was in contrast with the English lessons for the upper secondary where they were mainly drilling and practices.
We started on our NE project in the afternoon when all the lessons were over.
10/7 Friday
Shadowed Mr Chua the whole day for the following classes:
Literature – 2 Thinking and 2 Dynamics
English – Band 5
CCD – 2 Thinking
As for the highlights, the CCD class was carried out in a slightly different mode from the Literature and English classes. A more relaxed atmosphere was set up so that students could enjoy and hopefully remember the moral of the story learned – to “always look on the bright side of life” – and the class ended with everyone singing that song. :)
*for all the days when I am free during the recess period, I will join in with the oral practices in the NE library.
Kai Yiing
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