Reflections snoitcelfeR

Hello class, this is Mr Kang here. Today, I will be sharing with all of you my teaching experience and I hope to have all of your cooperation ok? For the good boys and girls, there will be prizes to be had from my little magic bag.

Perhaps I will begin my post with a reflection on the relative success of bribery in the classroom. We are told ad infinitum that students respond to both positive and negative stimuli, with of course varied effects. There exists also the assumption that students would respond infinitely more positively to positive stimulus rather than negative ones; i.e. like begets like. I offer to you a somewhat different view. For some students, regardless of the amount of positivity drenching them, their hearts remain hardened and nothing gets through to them; it requires a healthy level of negative (read punitive) action before they are able to provide the appropriate response required of them. There is nary a day that I have not had to go into class after school to make students stay back to complete their work. Bribery, of tangibles such as gummies and chocolates, do not seem to have the same effect as a bribery of intangibles, like my undivided attention and love after school. It appears that the incentive of staying back with me is a sufficient motivator for them to actually do their work. Of course there are those who need the extra love, so they do stay back, hopefully for the right reasons.

Another observation is that girls are more responsible creatures than boys. I have had almost no problems with the girls in my classes; it is the boys who are the persistent troublemakers and recalcitrants. I think it is both genetic and systemic. For the former, boys are simply created with itchiestbacksidest programmed into their genetic makeup. Together with the virus I-forgottus homeworkus that most of them seem to be infected with, they are a specie especially hard to teach. Girls on the other hand, seem to largely suffer from Cannotsitwithlegsclosedlitis and gigglitis, but otherwise they give much less disciplinary trouble. For the latter issues of a systemic failure, where two or three boys are gathered in the name of friendship, inevitably they will demonstrate their comradeship by talking, touching each other and standing up to go window shopping in class.

That said, I must state that the students in this school are a good bunch of boys and girls, or at least the classes that I teach. I've been given mostly normal classes and only one express class(which is an absolute joy to teach). While the students are playful, naughty and largely unmotivated to study, they are not a vindictive or malicious bunch. The problem that most teachers have with classroom management is the inability to differentiate between students who are being maliciously disruptive and those who are just playful. More often than not, they are simply being effervescent and have too much energy to expand. This is especially true for the normal classes where, honestly, teaching them English and grammar is not what they want to learn. Teaching is easy; it is the learning that is hard. For them, the first thing to capture is their imagination and from there, their attention is drawn to the subject or topic. It is impossible to have a quiet class and so it is how their energy is harnessed that is important.

To be honest, I have not been completely successful in teaching my normal classes. Some lessons are a hit, for the most part it is a miss. When I had to teach them summary skills and comprehension skills, it did turn into a rather tedious and laborious affair as the subject was dry (and so was my imagination and energy at that point in time). However, a fun lesson that I had was to have a spell-off. I divided the class into groups and they would have a competition to see who could spell the most words correctly. These words were ones that they commonly made mistakes in and were drawn from their compositions and formal letters. The interactive, competitive nature of the activity drew their enthusiasm and harnessed their energy to a more constructive purpose.

One last point about students and I think this is perhaps the most contentious point that I want to make. While the philosophy of integration and having special needs pupils in the mainstream is well and good, perhaps there is a need for those who sit on their thrones on high to come down to the ground and see the realities of it for themselves. In every class that I have, there is at least 2 students with either a learning disability or a special need. Is this endemic of our modern society? Perhaps it is a product of our instant gratituous times but with these students in our classes, it makes the job of the teacher almost impossible. Let me illustrate one case. In one of my classes (unnamed), there is a boy with ADHD. He is unable to sit still and roams around the classroom being an absolute nuisance, be he dismantling a chair or irritiating others or just lying on the floor. One day he reaches into the bag of the girl behind him and draws something out of it. (They had just changed out of their PE attire, I think I should add) It was pink and polka dotted and he tied it around his head and started running around the class. Then the dear girl starts screaming and turns bright pink; as pink as the offending thing on the boy's head. Allow your imagination to run wild and you are probably right on what it was. How is one supposed to handle a situation like that? And this is not an isolated case. There are at least 2 other classes with students with similar issues.

There are also those with dyslexia and mild autism. They tend to be the cutest littlest things. But they cannot understand fully what is going on and require a lot more time and work in order to catch up; it is time that we as teachers want to give but can ill afford. And finally there are the illiterate ones and I do mean illiterate; their level of English comprehension is as low my 4 year old niece. These are the ones from China, who to their credit excel in Mathematics Manderin, but are hopeless in the English pedagogies. How are we going to cater to them. Their compositions are indecipherable and incomprehensible. A simple conversation lasts for over ten minutes and even then they are unable to tell me the time of the day correctly. It is these students who slip through the cracks and we are the ones who are asked to clean up the mess that has been left behind. Inclusion and integration is a beautiful concept and philosophy, but like World Peace, perhaps there is a need of a good dose of reality to be swallowed with it.

Moving away from the classroom, I think I have to say how much I am enjoying my time in the school (Canberra Secondary, 52 Sembawang Drive). The staff culture is a very enjoyable one, one where politics is kept to an absolute minimum and everyone enjoys working with each other. Especially in the EL dept. I think I am very lucky to have 3 CTs who are both helpful yet not intrusive, who provide advice without dictating what I should or should not do. The HOD is also a very driven person who has clear direction and goals to what she wants to achieve. It can be a stressful environment to work in- the school's results are actually really very good in relation to their PSLE intake- but the staff culture makes up for the work put in. The English results are also really good and the time and effort that the teachers in the department put in cannot be overemphasised. To illustrate this, I would like to use 2 examples. The first is of my HOD, but I think this might not be the best platform to tell the tale. Basically, she was struck by a terrible illness last year but she fought it and came back, just for her Sec 4 cohort as they were to sit for the 'O' levels. The second is my CT. His wife was in labour and he had to be with her. The day after she gave birth, he came back to school to get papers to mark for the Sec 4s; and earlier when he was involved in the sec 2 camp, he came back to teach his graduating classes and rushed back to the campsite. If this is not dedication, I know not what else to call it.

I think I am rather lucky to have been able to be involved in various facets and activities of the school. We had an English Festival week which culminated in a meet the parents session. It was a good inaugaral festival and things went quite well. During the meet the parents session, we could see those parents who are truly concerned about their children and how they make time just form them. It takes a village to raise a child; it is not the sole job of the teacher to educate the child for the parents play an integral role as well. I think the term that is being bandied about is the parents as a 'stakeholder' in education. A rather buff(y) sounding title and perhaps a little too far removed for heartland parents to comprehend. But the notion of the parents being a key partner is the important point to be made and we have to increasingly work with them to help understand their children better. Their academics are intrinsically linked to their emotional being; we cannot simply address their schoolwork without understanding what they are going through at home.

There are many things that I can write and this list could go on and on. The TP has been a good experience with almost nothing that I can say as being absolutely negative. Even the problems with the children with ADHD or other disabilities have been learning experiences and it has turned out alright. Everything is linked; there is no saying that students are more important than staff or that academics are more important than physical and emotional health. Each has to be given equal emphasis and importance.