Marc and the House of Cards that is Teaching Practice

Happy Family - a card game.

One would think that with the amount of post en-bloc-sale demolition going on in the Balestier estate that Balestier Hill Secondary School - formerly Balestier Hill Technical thank you - would be a more destructive than constructive experience for a teaching greenhorn. Being situated on higher ground (it's really on a hill) can't stop it being a basement neighbourhood school of sorts. With enough untucked shirts to make one wonder if that's the actual dress code, the Internal Security Department so near throwing a stone would in fact break a window, no PSLE T-score cut-off and top Secondary 3 class not knowing about text types at all, surely trouble is brewing 400 metres from where a very wanted man escaped?

Home.

Nah, it's just a regular day at the office, one that I would have no qualms staying in (despite greener, or some say, bluer pastures another stone's throw away). Whilst boasting a 7:10 am assembly and a mandatory-tie-every-day rule for male teachers, regimentation of staff is arguably minimal. No member of staff is to leave the school for any reason whatsoever before 2 pm but for the sake of accountability, it's a rule hardly worth fussing over. Support staff are there for us when we need them (really), not to mention the lavish 2 periods a day of relief they effortlessly bestow upon our humble trainee workload every morning. While the various heads have hardly spoken to us, a smile every morning is as guaranteed as a request to upsize at a McD's; not as sweet as one of those awful McGriddles, but sincere enough for one to feel welcome in an environment where backbiting is only done by the mosquitoes (too many analogies, sorry).

The five of us posted here do also enjoy a favourable vantage point. Unlike the less fortunate TTs elsewhere, the administration here does not saddle us with - excuse the colloquialism - sai kang, or put less succinctly, unnecessary duties such as excursions, meets, debates that senior staff at other schools so artfully dodge. CCAs are perhaps not as much the focal point of a school struggling to push Express students into even the bottom-end junior colleges and so, teachers are taxed but not burdened by their CCA duties. Trainees here then are only encouraged (ok, fine, "expected") to observe one or two sessions.

Mothers.

The Balestier English department is fairly archetypal, whose staff are extremely motherly to the point where department meetings become food-sharing sessions more than anything. My CTs couldn't be more supportive, always ready to offer tips, guidance of a more philosophical sort and most importantly, the pats on the back that get me through. While there were times I felt like a baby sea turtle left to fend for himself at times, their twenty over years of teaching experience was an ever-present current that took me through indifference from students, awkward confrontations and most importantly, the how-tos and what-to-dos of teaching life.

The teaching structure however is a mixed bag. My CT1 teaches two classes of 4E English (hothousing, wherein each teacher handles one specific component), one 3E English class, two 2NA Literature classes and one 1E Lang-lit class. My second CT on the other hand, specialises in 3E English and takes half the level, in addition to her SS workload. Resource-sharing is present, but not operating anywhere near optimum; worksheets get passed around but it's somewhat haphazard. Consequently, I've developed nearly all my resources, sourced for my own comprehension passages, come up with my own worksheets, assignments, tasks, games etc. I have spoken to several classmates regarding the idea of spreading teachers thinly across all levels: while it helps to prevent one from becoming bored with one's own material, it's hardly feasible to come up with "NIE style" (or Ms. Chan-level) lessons for every class, every day of the week.

Sons and Daughters.

I... honestly... have not... felt as adult in my life as I have in the past ten weeks. Move over National Service, it's Teaching Practice that moulds overgrown boys to undergrown men. While not quite mature (or virile for that matter) to father that many sons and daughters, my students have become brothers, sisters and friends in a way as I lecture (sometimes) their self-opinion into oblivion, hand out M&Ms to worthy winners of my myriad of in-class challenges and sometimes explain why my activities are actually fun. I have learnt that it is impossible to win everyone over; your in-class pai kias, who do a 180-deg turn outside of class and speak to you reverently, can never give you the 50% you want for your 100% effort.

While I hold onto the belief that teachers do not have to be absolute role models for students, what cannot be denied is the intolerable amount of attention you get in and out of the classroom. I'm thankful for the supreme frankness of my students when they relay the lack of clarity in my instructions or the knowledge that I assume they should have. Thank God (of course for my Holy posting) I didn't apply to Raffles JC, for I can't imagine having what I wear and how much time I spent styling my hair and how much I look like Chen Weilian (ARGH) when I'm shopping for groceries. Therein also lies the reward of teaching - it is important as Cas hints to communicate with your students. It's not just getting them to listen to you, or making them keep quiet and certainly not talking down to them. It's making sure that you're always in dialogue with them; even if they don't understand what you're trying to impart, it's important to let them know that the teacher is working with them towards a goal, and not just pulling them away or pushing them against a wall.

Learner ability and a... text type syllawhat?

My Sec 3Es don't know their text types. I don't know what's going on. My second CT suggests that they weren't taught "properly" in lower secondary. Of course, it's a bottomless abyss in the blame game as 'cumulative deficit' is oft the term being bandied about. Despite the lack of foundation, their ability is on the whole average (for a top express class) but outside of typical errors (such as 'a lot', fragmented sentences, organisation that has much room for improvement), my Sec 3 class epitomises the school's MSG of 4-5 at the "O' Level examination.

My Sec 1 LangLit class on the other hand, are composed of a mixed bunch, ranging from writers who, I swear, are capable of better prose than the country's journos and self-styled 'writers' to students who can only write in the present tense (something carried over from their Mother Tongue, perhaps?). As Ms Ng and Ms Chan have suggested, you can only reach/engage 80-90% of learners at any given time, so I have a) placed my strongest students as leaders in their respective groups and b) more 'open' tasks with guidelines for weaker learners that the better students do not have to adhere to. I'll speak more about my experience with LangLit in class, I guess?

The Child that is the Father of Children of Men of Fathers

So this entry ends on a bit of an anti-climax, but rest assured that as wages GROW, so did I (not physically, my Sec 1s still tower over me).