3307 Alex's Posting

What is in a football?

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

since i am much too tired to projectile vomit 500 words for ed psych, i shall spit out 500 here. i usually blog when i'm braindead. heh.

just read obsunsetly's blog and wow, ours did turn out quite different from last year's. it's interesting because every class will have their own dynamics and personalities so the results would probably vary greatly. for example, our banking sector was a private limited one, so they were unfortunately largely left out in most dealings over in the urban sector.

raksha and i (as industry officials) were quite happy with our earnings and we both wished life was that easy. we started off with $600 in total but ended the game with close to $1700. hurhurhur.

ok basically elzap is waaaay too nice to be president. mostly it was the rest of us evil urbanites egging him on to impose tax and what not. and this silly guy will go, "is that too much?"

and the idea of tax was actually a divine inspiration.

all of us concurred that he will make a bad president and is currently in the right profession.

the other interesting thing about urban life is none of us trusted poor spatial thinker very much.

we kept wondering if he was trying to hoodwink us. it was only at the end when he showed us his paltry earnings that we realised we had very much maligned him!

geognut seemed quite pitiful in the first year too when the farmers proved too cunning and refused to show the slightest interest in his bicycle. it was then too that we realised we had surrendered too much power to these farmers who were acting like the real kings.

the near robbery of the central bank was hilarious.

we also realised the need for law enforcement when we figured the farmers were pulling wool over our eyes by not declaring their true rice surplus available etc. we were puzzled about why none of them saw the need to invest in HYVs, fertilisers etc.

alright. that's all for now. might write more when my brain gets out of hibernation mode.

it's moi again

so just now my brother asked me how my microteaching went.

he knows about it because i got him to be my guinea pig. not the best i could get my hands on (he's JC1, not doing geography anymore), but will do. he managed to fit all the jigsaw puzzles together although i admit the totally green one took him some time too. he also asked me if the words at the back corresponded to the part of the photograph but silly me forgot to deal with that when it came to the real crunch. he also said, some people sure don't know what hydrolysis is if you hadn't taught them first.

thanks specialwatch, for reminding me about this in her blog :)

i must confess i was more stressed about the pedagogy aspect rather than the management aspect, and i had allowed the latter to overwhelm me during the lesson itself. specialwatch was right in pointing out that students might not have been able to present at all if they didn't know what was going on. my intention had been to go round and check on them during their discussion time, give them more clues etc. i thought of letting them think first before i told them what it was about but of course, that didn't happen because i was busy saving the world.

oh back to my brother, when he heard how i had a most difficult time, he just rolled his eyes (ok so maybe this runs in the family) and simply said, "tell you teach JC already what, you don't want".

he then said he didn't think a real class would have gone that far because ultimately there is still some form of respect OR fear of punishment present. i like to think we're just too naive because we've been in nerdy goody-two-shoes schools so we don't really know just how bad things can get.

two things i thought about here...

it's not very fair to non-express students if teachers simply dismiss the whole idea of making lessons interesting like bringing them out to the field because they think the class will be uncontrollable and that teachers are only bringing more trouble upon themselves. but who said the world is fair right? it is sad but i don't think we should see it as them getting what they deserve. it's always a two way street. i've promised myself to TRY to build rapport. that's cos i'm simple-minded enough to think once i have that, i can execute whatever lesson plan i want with the class.

the JC debate. up to this point, i'm still quite confused actually. i know i've said i'm leaving things to fate and that nature will take its course etc....but sometimes you hear so much about battle stories and warzones that it makes you want to run to the nearest JC if you can help it.

i've thought about the pros and cons and i STILL don't know. it's probably not within my jurisdiction in any case, so i really should stop mulling over this.

back to work. on a saturday night. but oh, the inertia! the fort siloso fieldtrip was a good distraction and i did get to play frisbee on siloso beach . my plan to recharge myself before diving headfast into my sharks pool is not going too well because my brain insists on having a 3 day break when i can ill-afford it. bleah.

the thoughts of a (snail) murderer

I’m writing this in microsoft word so for once you’ll be getting the CAPs. And it’s going to be a l-o-n-g entry so don’t say you haven’t been warned! :) just want to log my thoughts and learning points asap before they all fall outta my head.

Before I start rambling,

A big big thank you to daphne, my very kind and encouraging observer who had nothing but kind words for me throughout the lesson itself (although I know it’s illegal)…really kept me going amidst all the madness. Thank you! :)

And another big thank you too to my dear binary opposite, I’m sorry if it got too tiring for you, but I could see that you were having fun, smiling behind the camera at my predicament.

forgot to thank mr elzap for being so nice to lend me his camera for days. too bad i'm such a bad videographer the videos for my wet weather lesson can qualify for inclusion into the blair witch project....terima kasih! :)

I also need to say a prayer for the snails I unwittingly stepped on, especially when I’m not heavy enough to deliver a fatal blow. Sigh. I’m really so so guilty and traumatized! Argh. Wherever they are now, I hope they are in a better place. Amen.

Ok here goes. Will be quite disorganized cos I’m just jotting down what I remember. Since you guys didn’t get to experience the nightmare I went through, hope this gives you an idea of what it’s like!

learning points

The thing is, I would have done such a lesson only with a class I trusted and had rapport with, or if the class is very academically-oriented and on task. So for a normal (acad) class, I would probably have to win them over first and strike up a deal with them before I dare bring them out of the class.

Pre-assigned groups with group leaders: sort of a preventive measure but well obviously it didn’t stop you guys! From my experience, if you have the support (or in chris’ case, admiration) of some of your students, sometimes they can help you to discipline their fellow classmates like telling their friends to shut up, not to run off etc. sort of peer pressure. It would be good if you manage to get the ringleaders on your side, then most misbehaviour problems solved!

but well that I should have assigned the groups BEFORE we left class but I suppose I was afraid that would give you all enough time to swap your pieces around to get back into your natural social groups…so sigh!

When people started going missing, it really threw me into disarray cos I had to re-assign some members to other groups. That really derailed my train and my instructions were really downhill from there. Think everybody was really unclear as to what they were supposed to do so that was one big blunder.

If you guys STILL don’t know, haha, I wanted each group to present at their own station lah. I came out with this idea after I found out it would be a 2 periods thing instead of 40 minutes as I previously thought. Plus I didn’t think it was a good idea for you all to hear my voice so much. Traditionally, fieldtrips are teachers being the tour guides doing the talking that’s why I said at the start that I was trying out something different.

Yup so my biggest mistake was I forgot to explain more clearly the whole activity, like what the words behind the pieces of photo were supposed to be. I also thought I should have given more scaffolding in terms of the clues/key terms. Oh and the worksheet. I must confess it was very hastily put together without as much thought as I should have given it. guess I just wanted them to jot down their own notes as we move from station to station….so more scaffolding needed here.

I did think of giving a map showing where we’ll be going but well, a map of NIE wasn’t available and I wasn’t going to subject you people to my horrendous drawing…heh.

I forgot to tell the class to assemble at station 1 after 10 minutes to start the presentations, such that ken and rezal had to walk over to join us. Instructions instructions instructions. Very important! Time management was also not too good due to the derailments. In my lesson plan I wanted 10 minutes for discussion amongst themselves, and then 10 minutes of presentation, Q&A and me clarifying any stuff at each station after that.

oops and the "diurnal" fiasco. i made mental note to self to check the pronunciation before the lesson but obviously i forgot. my secondary school teacher said it as "duh-ner" and my jc teacher said it as “dia-ner" so of course I was left utterly confused. This also tells you the importance of getting your words right because I can’t get the wrong pronunciation out of my head, thanks to my secondary school teacher :) and yes if you haven't already guessed, i am BAD at my phonetics. hurhur. hope i don't fail comm skills. must remember to stop giggling first.

when all hell breaks loose

Chanying’s refusal to join us because she had diarrhea. Yes I shouldn’t have left the class and walked in her direction but she was rooted! Grr :)

Liyan and Karen going to toilet without permission. Testing my patience these 2 were. I let them off with stern warning (did it look stern to you? Haha)

Jos and Janice going missing. Here, I realized the failure of the group leader system because rezal obviously couldn’t physically stop them and being not that familiar with them, I suppose he was quite powerless. I told them to see me after class. Detention for both it shall be, thank you :)

Ken eating. Argh argh argh! I have nothing to say except I really meant it when I threw your snickers on the ground. Of course I wouldn’t do that in a real class though so don’t worry. Ditto for all the times I rolled my eyes, frowned, laughed in exasperation, wrung my arms, stamped my feet blah blah blah. I even tried covering my eyes to stop myself from rolling them but I think some of you thought I was going to burst into tears. Hilarious :)

The snail on the whiteboard was a nice touch. But luckily daphne was nice enough to undo her action because I was too traumatized to touch it, really. I would have just left the silly whiteboard there until the snail crawled away, which could mean I can only come back and collect my whiteboard tomorrow.

My markers’ mysterious movement. Again, didn’t anticipate that! Rezal suggested afterwards that I should have carried my materials with me all the time in a bag. Yup will consider that. Then again, I won’t be bringing monkeys out in future, ever. Now I know why most teachers pooh pooh the idea of fieldwork around school. For fieldtrips outside school, you usually have more than one teacher so management is a lot easier. I had 4 other fellow attachees and one senior teacher as chaperone during the trip to sungei buloh so that didn’t give me any headache like today’s.

Oh back to the markers’ incident, I wouldn’t have revealed my informants’ identities in a real class lah. Initially I was unsure about their reliability (who can you trust in this class! Tsk tsk) but I did look straight at the offender when I was giving my ultimatum and he chose to look away. I’m not sure if it’s effective to threaten that way (“I know who you are”) though, might work sometimes if your threat is serious enough?

Mas fainting. I kind of anticipated that and i was not wearing my teacher’s hat when I was coming down the staircase. Couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Sorry girl, I’m not being heartless or evil. I just brought mas to the table and let her sit and rest. Later raksha requested to bring her to sick bay and I was actually reluctant to agree because raksha looked too happy about going off! so I said, “ok but I will check on you later so please make sure you’ll be there”.

If you didn’t already tell, I was so relieved when Kenneth truncated the whole simulation. My patience was really running thin with all the small pockets of conversation going on when shou wee was “presenting”!

Yup so pedagogy wise, I was concerned about allocating the different types of weathering and factors affecting at each station because I didn’t want the students to simply associate the factor with the type. I suppose I will have to emphasize that all the factors play a role in all types of weathering. Ken suggested I let the students think on their own and come up with their own idea of what kind of weathering occurs at their particular station.

anyways in case anyone's curious about what the groups were supposed to talk about at each station:

Station 1 (staircase with rocks alongside railing)- wanted them to explain difference between weathering and erosion, which the 2 guys did really well. thank you. Chemical weathering type: solution. Factors: relief, grain size.

Station 2 (covered tree)- ohoh! this poor group, i think they were just trying to be funny, they couldn't fix their jigsaw so i had to direct them there. actually i don't blame them, their was ALL GREEN! haha. yeah the whole jigsaw idea was introduce an element of fun while allocating the station because i didn't know a better way of doing it. can't stand at the briefing spot and point to their station far away.

ok station 2 - hydrolysis and biological weathering from the humic acid. Factors: vegetation, climate

station 3 (beside staircase)- what i called the weakest link. biological weathering through carbonation (opened up room for confusion) and oxidation. factors: rock hardness, mineral composition

station 4 (root beside pavement) - no rocks here so the group was cheeky enough to point that out. anyways biological through root and carbonation. factors: lines of weaknesses, human activities

It was a big leap of faith for me to have the groups dispersed so far apart at their own stations during the group investigation/discussion activity. I kept turning around to check on my flock when I was at each station.

Ok can’t remember anything else for now….thank you all for being so wonderfully *bleep bleep*. I had a great time really, it was a good learning experience but I wouldn’t wish it on you though. Keep the suggestions coming and enjoy your weekend while I get back to my Olympic pool of sharks.

save the best for the last

harharhar..

just to log some of my thoughts before the beeeeg day. i'm not sure why i'm so stressed about it, it's either cos the bar has been raised so high i can hardly reach it or...it's just ME!

i mean it's not the first time i'm teaching so why am i having panic attacks!

goes into meditation mode *ohhhhmmmmmmmmm*

it's the deadlines...so many swimming around me like sharks that i find it a challenge to not think about them while planning for my lesson tomorrow. history lesson plan, geography lesson planS, history fieldtrip presentation, classroom management seminar presentation...all these for next week alone. that's like putting 4 sharks in an olympic sized swimming pool and i'm at the 1.8m deep end when i can't even tread water. isn't my analogy cool?

no matter what, i volunteered for this so whatever the outcome is, i'm sure i'll learn from it, first being never volunteer for something you aren't sure of? :)

to make myself clear..

i just realised that sounds like i wanna be Mr Invisible. hoho..lame..i know. anyways.

i am NOT offended or insulted...really. i may look thin but i'm really quite thickskinned. for example, i enjoy salsa although i am well aware of how i make a complete fool of myself at each lesson. life is too short to worry about the not-so-important things! besides, like i told geognut, i get my fair share of compliments too so it balances out. yin and yang. if i get too many compliments, my head will only explode :)

so keep all the "insults" coming yeah?

good-looking...intelligent...like the typical RJ girl, but of course not everyone from RJ's like that...

ouch! so am i neither, nor? either, or?

hurt aside, i am really NOT your typical RJ girl. the fact that i'm in NIE is one huge piece of evidence even the CSI dudes will find hard to bag.

AND i know i'm not good-looking. i mean, 3/10 is a fail right? but if you ask me, i hope i am intelligent, otherwise it will make such a big farce out of the education system, heh heh. i know this may sound really snobbish, but i just want to say i could have gone to HC and that would have saved me from being the only one constantly being insulted now. i guess i didn't relish coming up against the smartest girl of my cohort (who went on to become our year's President Scholar, no less) because i would definitely be in her civics group aka class. how many people take Physics, Geography, Economics and Maths?

there were only 2 of us in RJ who chose that weird combi btw.

this is in blue cos it's an afterthought :) i was totally joking above! yeah i don't SOUND like i am...guess i was feeling cranky but that's what happens whenever i think about my RJC days. i miss my friends, but not the culture. anyways i just remembered the stronger reason why i didn't go HC although i was dying to. my cousin (same age) went so i guess i couldn't stand the idea of having our mothers comparing everything right down to who i hung out with.

i regret not blogging about chris' melodramatic lesson earlier because i've forgotten so much about it by now. age is catching up. i do remember myself thinking i'd found a kindred spirit when it comes to sarcasm in class but i don't remember what the borderline remark was. anyway that was so last week so let me talk about today instead.

chouchou's caffeinic coffee caper

i liked her video! the music was a nice touch. excellent! :) it captured very nicely the supply and demand side of the coffee product, especially the demand aspect. maybe our class was unusually subdued today, but i noticed we were slightly unresponsive when chouchou asked questions. actually obsunsetly and i had some problems understanding what the questions were asking for, and at one point she couldn't elicit the answer she wanted but it was good that she was quick to seize on one of our contributions and move on to the other bits first. i think the elusive answer was "colonialism" (which obsunsetly guessed correctly a little while later) but because it was mentioned very briefly in the video, it left little impression.

i thought the activity was well-designed too, covering both the causes and effects of the slide in prices with the graph first setting the context for the students. my littlest complaint about the graph is the price was in "price per lb" and i was really curious as to how many grams or kg that was, since we use a different metric system.

the readings were good, it was very easy to pick out the points and i liked how she added the column on the left to let us jot our notes/points down. another good practice i noticed was how she left blank slides in her powerpoint to facilitate the movement to the whiteboard, saved her the trouble of fiddling with the projector which like all other machines, loves to go on strike now and then.

oh, i've also decided if i'm teaching in a co-ed/boys' school, i will get my guy friends to proof-read any readings i want to give my class. this is because only boys are capable of looking at an innocent vietnamese name and see it as a rude word. sexist statement this may be, but seriously, i for one, will not be able to see that!

spatial thinker's thinking lesson

wah, very cheem! i was not surprised when i heard he hasn't taught in a school before this because he forgot to "dumb down"! again, i think the use of the video was useful in capturing students' attention and setting the context. if this lesson was pitched at JC students or even NUS undergrads, i think it would be a really good lesson because i thought the flow and link between the different parts was quite clear to me. i found his explanation logical and clear, good use of STB data to emphasize the economic impact, the question of striking a balance between tourism and environmental conservation got students to think, the example of places of worship to explain how local cultures/way of life is affected was a very good way to drive home the point....

except...i'm not sure if a sec 4 express class in a neighbourhood school can understand! terms like "locality", "landscape", maybe even "geographical perspective" may be a bit too fuzzy for them to handle. my belief is that it's good to introduce new words to the students, expands their vocabulary.... so it's not to say all such terms should be left out altogether, but we must make sure we explain them clearly and also apply depending on situation. some students really grapple with English so it won't be a good idea to build up their vocabulary bank, unless they are confident.

well, i thought we were like angels today, compared to previous weeks. the scary thing is all hell will break loose again when it's my turn to go. i volunteered to do fieldwork because i thought this would be a really good time to learn the dos and don'ts. guess i didn't bargain for such a highly creative class when it comes to misbehaviour. sigh.

two things that i feel like doing. one, turn the tables on you people. that is, i pull off a fainting stunt. but it may not be an act, seeing that my stress level is already building up. two, get my medical student friend to come down and man a First Aid booth to treat all fainting, fits, fever and what nots.

AOB

happy to hear that friday dinner plans are back on and are also not taking place at nice little restaurants. i'm not a scrooge, but i don't think i'm being paid enough to eat posh nosh. besides, it's who you eat with that matters, not what or where. however, i may not be able to go tmr because my tuition kid requires last minute assistance before her exam next week. have fun people. please do NOT discuss evil plans for my microteaching lesson behind my back. oops. did i just put that silly idea into your heads?

i wish i could say....bring it on!

sigh.

realised i forgot to talk about the guest appearance of our visually impaired father. i suppose in real life the parent should wait at the office lounge or lobby area while the office staff go upstairs to bring the student down. less disruptive :) but it was a good stress reliever. darren handled it pretty ok anyway. nice and firm and understanding.

today's the day..

when i only slept 4 hours the night before :( this may seem surprising to you, but i need 8 hours of sleep, no less. i know some people (like our honourable founding father) only require 4 hours but that's how they can rule over pigs like me.

PTM

i seriously think (and hope) i won't be that sarcastic when it comes to meeting real parents who know what they are talking about. i don't discount the fact that obnoxious, irresponsible parents do exist but i can only hope they remain the minority. but if you know me well enough, i'm usually very meek when it comes to meeting people on a so-called "more senior" level to me. so much so my cousin (also teaching) thinks i'm the sort who will be arrowed to do everything in the school, from NE to Founders' Day to school magazine...

banana saviour's earth-saving lesson

banana saviour strikes me as as those energetic and infectious teacher but i guess her energy levels have been sapped greatly by history lately so she was rather subdued today :) the teacher at my school experience also used Captain Planet in teaching the topic of pollution and the class even gave me a very lively rendition of the theme song. this reminds me of the use of pop culture in the classroom. i think it is quite effective in gaining their interest but of course the onus lies on us dinosaurs to keep ourselves updated as to what is "in".

thought her slides worked well with the worksheet although she had to speed through them. too bad we couldn't carry out the role play, i'm really curious as to how we can act out the causes, effects and solutions. i suppose the lack of sleep has a detrimental effect on my creativity. sigh. otherwise i think her lesson was okay, pitched at the right level (although i'm not sure what students we were) and she was quite firm with misbehaviour, even stopping wesley from saying "hell".

my only two questions: how should you deal with "interesting" answers like lubricants and colonic irrigation? i think banana saviour handled the latter quite well but that's only because i read it last week in the papers so i sort of knew what it meant, not sure if it left the rest of the class confused as to what it is. and should you accept "lubricants" and write it on the board? during my student mentoring programme, the school i was attached to had very well-informed students. what i'm afraid of is having the well-informed ones pipe up in class about what it really is, that would so put me in a spot! to discuss and clarify the term with the innocent ones will be like opening a can of worms and yet you can't stop the educated ones from telling them all about it either. what is worse is when they misinform the innocent ones and they go away knowing the wrong things...

and also dealing with PRC students in your class. i think this might be something we will all experience at one time or another, given the sudden and continued influx. i've tutored a Chinese girl before, now currently tutoring another 2 from thailand. the funny thing is they are allowed to be in a sec 3 class although their english is not as good (but their maths is brilliant!). should we take the effort to check up the chinese translation for certain geographical terms to facilitate their understanding? give them remedial? there's also the problem of having students in the same class ostracizing their foreign peers. the good thing is geography teachers don't usually mark down for bad english, as evidenced by the school work showed to me by my tuition kids. they experience more problems with grasping the concepts or content of the textbook but once they do, they simply memorize wholesale since they are unable to express in their own words.

darren's weathering class

darren explained our queries quite well, for example the term banana saviour's "disintegrate" question and raksha's question about weathering vs erosion. i didn't catch the last part due to the multiple distractions around me but i liked how he was patient in handling our queries. the use of the DIY model to show the disintegration was useful in showing how the big rock breaks down into pieces, appeals to the visual learners? i noticed his quiz questions at the end were also targeted at correcting any misconceptions or confusion that the students might have. for example, the question of whether freeze thaw is physical, it's good he addressed the possible assumption students have that anything that requires water is chemical weathering.

darren did not get to carry out his group activity as planned which is a pity because i really wanted to see what it was all about. sounded interesting from the way he described it. like a game of "heart attack"? :)

just one small issue that darren could have improved on, that is more eye contact with the class. i observed he looked more at his computer screen and the projected image, less at the students. guess he's really the shy and genial loanshark! this might seem ok with a well-behaved class but in other cases, eye contact goes a long way in telling the students "i know what you are up to" and is also more personable when they don't feel like they are invisible?

other matters

i'm glad wesley and wenhui brought up the blue revolution debate in class. i remember talking about it to wesley and quoting wenhui's blog in which she highlighted the water management aspect of it, to which wesley quite rightly insisted it wasn't. this is a fine example of how policies written in nice ivory towers often miss the small details when it comes to application. mr elzap did a quick google on the net there and then in class to see the results and sure enough, there was a mix of views.

personally i had mistakenly thought it would be the water management aspect since that is a unique problem for our little red dot of a country. maybe that comes under SS.

structured academic controversy: after watching the video, i have a better idea of how to carry it out. clear instructions are absolutely pertinent! and of course the preparation of the material/worksheets. initially i was skeptical about how the students would take to it, whether they are able to really carry out and meet the aims of having them see both views. we were thinking students might just sit in their groups and say "oh it's just what you said just now loh" when it comes to the time to reverse perspectives. to get around this problem the teacher will probably have to walk around and monitor their discussion.

the teacher in the video was able to carry out the entire activity within 2 lessons, allowing time for presentation and conclusion/wrap up. my only concern is the time management, i noticed the activity took 50 minutes from the first stage of reading to the last stage of consensus building, not including presentation time and conclusion. will have to be really strict to keeping to the time allocated because i think the conclusion is quite important in driving home the aims of the whole activity. helps the students understand the whole rationale if the teacher can explain and round up.

but the teacher did put in a lot of effort planning, from the materials to even bringing them out on a fieldtrip to see the coastal protection structures for themselves! i went on a similar trip for a coastal management module in NUS and was indeed very enlightened because the layman in me hadn't known about the different structures (other than the ubiquitous breakwater) put in place until my lecturer pointed them out. seeing the kind of detrimental effects the structures had was also nice.

well well, am bringing my history classmates to Joo Chiat for a Peranakan-themed fieldtrip this saturday (along with my fellow "teacher", icydolphin) as part of our assessment for the history fieldtrip module. it will be a good opportunity for me to find out if i will also have great difficulties putting on the teacher's hat while dealing with my fellow NIE classmates. i've actually brought real students out before to Sungei Buloh during my attachment so it wouldn't be a first time or anything.... but wish me luck!! :)