Myra's experience at CHIJ St Snick bitch

Hi everyone, Myra here. I can't believe I actually survived practicum at St Snick's!

Well here goes ....

OVERALL EXPERIENCE:

Indeed it can be said, that this is truly an exceptional neighbourhood convent school, that treats its future and most prized babies like pure and utter gold. Less can be said for its "esteemed" staff though.

To begin with, I was given 21 periods. I had three Secondary 1 Literature classes for 3 hours each week x 3 periods and two Secondary 2 English classes for 6 hours hours each week x 3 periods.

On top of that, I was also required to attend a team meeting for Sec 1 Literature and Sec 2 English for at least an hour each on Mondays and Tuesdays respectively. Then there was the EL department meeting on Tuesdays. The Department meeting covered various broad issues from staff administration, the school's disappointment with their PESA respresentative, SOPs for students who miss tests, group sharing (when teachers are sent to NIE for in-service enrichment classes), the Literature Seminar, feedback from the examining board on students' response to 'O' level papers to ideas for their up coming Open House in June ...

Other meetings which us trainees were required to attend included the Staff Meeting on Fridays from 1030-1130 a.m and this time, the meeting involved the Principal and the VP (not to say that they did not sit on Department & level meetings). And then there was the one hour assembly every Thursday, from 1315 - 11415. Assembly which teachers are required to attend at this lovely school is based on one's form class or the level which one teaches most. We would either have the entire school assemble at the hall or sometimes these assemblies would be split into different areas of the school, with each level having a different agenda.

As us trainees had entered the school during a rather busy period, we were lumbered with other duties which included the school's carnival where each of us were given either a food stall to man or minding students at the main carnival attractions - the maze and the haunted house. Thankfully, I did not have to grill satay over the fire ... it was an extremely blistering Saturday! The other major event which we were 'asked' to attend was the Sec 3 leadership camp at St John's island, which fell a week after the Literature Seminar (of which I was not invited to attend because it was only for Permanent staff; this was so kindly reiterated to me by the Person-in -Charge when I went to offer my assistance).

I initially found the workload to be rather overwhelming for obvious reasons and I found it a little puzzling that I was only given one CT for both Literature and English. It was difficult having to question my only CT on English matters when clearly there was another CT required. It got a little messy initially, having to shuffle between the various members of the Secondary 2 English team ... I was embarrassed at having to ask numerous questions to the point where I felt that some of them got rather annoyed. Finally though, the problem of my missing English CT was resolved and another kind lady from the Sec two team was appointed my CT - naturally, because I was taking over most of her classes!

Student discipline at the school as expected, posed no problems at all, apart from the testy pubescent few in Secondary two. The girls at this school are very well behaved and the Secondary ones were a joy to teach, simply because they were keen to learn and most of all eager to please.

Lesson planning proved to be an arduous task. Although I was given very detailed SOWs for both Literature and English, the major problem was tweaking and moving around what had to be covered (the syllabus) and what was required to engage the students. I am sure, and I can speak for the rest of us that many sleepless nights were spent racking our brains to create not just engaging lessons but also ones which would work and ensure that our students were learning and enjoying the experience! But, I would have to say that it was rather unfair to lumber us with heaps of marking in between knowing fully well that we had detailed lesson plans and observations to contend with.

Lesson observations were obviously ... nerve-wracking! But I should like to think that in the course of the lesson observations, I improved with each one and after awhile, the lesson observations did not pose too much of a threat to me because my CTs were very encouraging and always had very good advice for me at the end of each observation, likewise my NIE supervisor, Mr Peter Stead who was also extremely positive about my lessons! But of course, at the end of they day, it is about the relationship you develop with your classes which matters most. My girls, especially the Secondary ones were a delight as we always had a laugh at every lesson!

Working culture at the school is painful. Staff do not really mingle and there are mini-cliques within departments, not to mention a fair amount of bitching. It is fairly obvious that teachers who have immense disdain for some colleagues either refrain from verbal contact with the so called "guilty" or they simply just pretend that these colleagues do not exist at all. School culture on the whole is also truly conservative from the point of view that the VP's word is the law (perhaps almost authoritarian if you ask me). She assumes that everyone will do as she says and she has the tendency to dictate what can or cannot be done. This, everyone has to put up with at every meeting or after flag-raising every morning or her punctual address to the entire secondary section over the P.A. and religiously so at 7.00 am everyday.

The general feel I get is that she treats every teacher like a student, which I do not think is in the best interest of the staff who seem rather afraid to voice their opinions, if any. Staff merely tend to complain and moan about things but never really state their objections out loud.

LEARNING POINTS:

I have learnt that with teaching and any other profession, that there will always be politics. People will always talk and you cannot prevent people from doing so.

My best experience at this school is one which I shall always hold close to my heart. That is, I managed to touch the hearts of my students and they did enjoy my lessons not to mention learn from them as well. I think that if you show a genuine interest for your students and treat them like human beings, instead of adopting the "you student, me teacher" type stance, it really does make so much of a difference. One does not have to be overtly nice to them just to make them like you because it is fairly simple ... if they do not like you, then they simply do not. No point in pretending.

NEGATIVE ENCOUNTERS:

I must add that I was truly shocked with the way my SCM behaved. She was meant to be looking after us trainee teachers but at the end of it, she found fault with at least two of us, namely me and the home economics teacher whom she never failed to "slag off" every opportunity she could.

Oh, she was very pleasant to me throughout my whole stay at the school (how could she not? we were sitting with our backs in proximity to each other) but I was shocked the day after she observed my lesson.

Having finished with the observation, she rushed to her Secondary 4 literature class, to which she exclaimed "Oh girls, I have just been to a TT's lesson and I almost fainted ... but I guess that's why you call them trainees?' ...

What extreme lack of professionalism. I was made privy to this information because a student whom I had taught during my brief contract teaching stint at the school last year, actually texted me to tell me what the old battle-axe had said and the girl had felt thoroughly insulted for me.

From my viewpoint, I had done nothing wrong. True, my lesson had been rather bland and boring only because it was a refresher about giving a good speech, but what sort of person would say something like that and yet pretend to be a "mentor", giving me advice and the like? But that was merely the icing on the cake.

A few weeks ago, there had been a department meeting about the school's PESA representative, obviously not the hot favourite for the school, let alone the SCM or some of the Secondary 4 teachers. So when the day came for the girl to present her revised speech post school PESA prelim, all English teachers were invited to observe her presentation.

What transpired after the poor girls' presentation left me completely flabbergasted. The SCM and another Secondary 4 teacher lambasted the poor child. They deemed her speech thoroughly lacking in panache and eloquence. It was just unfavourable judgement, after unfavourable judgement after unfavourable judgement. I felt thoroughly sorry for the girl. The rest who disagreed with the SCM and her sidekick said nothing. My CT, another English teacher and myself had tried to interject to no avail. The damage had already been done. I heard that shortly after the presentation that the poor girl had burst into tears and no amount of soft words could console her, and who can blame her?! But my thought was, how could vicious teachers such as these get away with something like this and still remain where they are in their golden thrones?

The answer could not have been clearer ... I did not want to go back .... and that I was not to follow in their footsteps and not to pick my favourites because if so, then why then are we in this profession if we are allowed to throw out weight about and make people feel small when they are already down in the dumps?