sylvia's (boring) reflections

My TP experience has mainly been a positive and peaceful one. What I like about the school culture is that it advocates a five-day work week, something that I strongly believe in. School hours are flexible; teachers can leave campus anytime during their pockets of free periods for a quick bite outside. Because the norm is that teachers are so busy that they stay in school till late, they urge each other to leave school early if there isn’t much to do. This faith in teachers here, I find encouraging and un-stifling.

On our first day here, we were briefed by our SCM (also the VP) for half an hour; it was fuss-free. We all had our individual cubicles. Teachers here are generally very friendly, always ready to greet you with a smile – this was the complete reversal in my ESE school. They also readily engage in small talk. My HOD is my role model – whenever she sees me, she will (without fail) always flash a wide smile and/or a ‘Hi’ gesture. Given that her workload is unimaginably heavy, I really appreciate that. I keep reminding myself that a smile does wonders. This is especially important for a teacher because you may have a rough day at work, but students are always looking at, and up to, you. So you set the standards and expectations. I remember her comment, having observed my class, that my performance was “promising for a beginning teacher.” It was comforting; one can never underestimate such little notes of appreciation and encouragement.

On the other hand, my CT is strictly professional. She gives valuable feedback, but apart from that, she leaves me mostly on my own. I would have loved to hear more personal anecdotes and advice from her. In the beginning, she told me that students who enroll into IP expect a revolutionary learning experience, and their parents may not be pleased that a Practicum teacher is teaching them. Hence, out of the three classes, one is being co-taught with another teacher. The highest grade I got on my APT from her is “Acceptable,” even though I was certain my efforts deserved better. At first I was discouraged, but I saw it as an opportunity for personal development in my AQ and EQ. I showed her the lesson plan I intended to use for my second observation by the NIE Supervisor: she didn’t think much of it, and I spent a day stressing over it. Eventually I decided to stick with my initial plan; it worked with both classes – and my NIE Supervisor gave me a glowing review. So I guess it’s the subjectivity of opinions and teaching styles.

One thing I learnt from her was the teaching style for the IP kids. Here, they do not practise the teacher-models-first approach. My CT emphasized the need for higher-order thinking in every lesson. When I introduced my lesson by means of recollection of the previous lesson, my CT said that this was not useful at all; I should have tested and made them practise the skills they learnt, instead of merely testing their memory. I’m very much aware that my teaching style tends to be more teacher-directed (how anachronistic), probably because as a student, I liked teachers who taught explicitly – I was the sort who saw little value in group discussions. This is my main learning point in TP – learning and implementing student-centred activities. Here, students engage in research tasks, in performance tasks, in discussions/brainstorming, in Socratic seminars. It’s been an eye-opening experience. I think my proclivity to be teacher-centred stems from a fear that the lesson will turn out in unintended ways that are beyond my control, but as my NIE Supervisor says, it is this unpredictability of the students’ responses that makes teaching fun. And if they deviate too far off from the issue, the teacher can always use that as a teaching point. They’re very vocal students, and polite too. Zero discipline problems, although of course there are the inevitable few with attitude problems (so you must always remind yourself not to take it personally). Initially I experienced the difficulty of interpreting my students’ facial expressions and wondered if they are laughing at something I said. But it takes time to know your students, and a teacher shouldn’t be too self-conscious.

My workload: 9 periods a week, 50 minutes per period. Let me explain: there are a total of 12 IP classes (both IP 1 & 2 – equivalent of Sec 3 & 4). I had 3 classes under my charge. There are only 3 Language Arts teachers for these 12 classes. My colleague, who was in the Jan 07 batch and became a permanent teacher just two months before I started Practicum here, has 12 periods. I understand that my workload is comparatively minimal. I remember the most stressful period of this stint was planning for lessons and selecting my own material. There was no resource sharing to speak of; the CT did not offer, nor did I ask, lest it appeared that I wanted to skive. I understand that because this is a 5-year young department, the materials and SOWs are continually revised and improvised – still a considerable amount of work required, besides teaching and marking and CCA commitments.

I think the only blemish in my TP experience is my encounter with the other Practicum teachers. Let’s just say we are inherently very different people. To my knowledge, there isn’t any politicking, precisely because all the teachers are very busy. One teacher told me that whenever she steps into the staffroom, her work rarely involves teaching and planning of lessons; it’s to do with administrative matters and the like. It is expected that students are kept active by enrichment programmes, CCA schedules, competitions, school functions, and this is not without the effort of teachers. I was naïve when I thought that as a teacher, my job was just to teach.

Like Lionel, we are not expected to cover any relief teaching duties here. Funnily enough, we do not seem to be expected to participate in school events outside of curriculum time. I learnt of school functions only from colleagues talking in the staffroom, and I always had to ask my HOD if I’m expected to go (most of the time, I’m not expected to).
My colleagues always tell me that life as a full-fledged teacher is so very different; they tell me to appreciate my Practicum experience. Just received my permanent posting – will be going back to the school! But will be teaching GP; will not be going back to IP.