Wonder Why? woman's lesson

Now to comment on Wonder Why? woman's micro-teaching.

Level: Sec 3 Express.
Topic: Tourism
Strategy: Work in groups to design a trip to 5 places in Singapore where we can bring our friends to. Explain why. Include budget. Present to the class at the end.
Resources: Postcards, mahjong paper, markers, whiteboard.

I personally felt that Wonder Why? woman was very brave to take the first step to kick off a whole series of micro-teaching in our Geog class. I'm very excited about this whole thing, and it makes my day just to know that there is Geog class that day... so I can be the cheeky kid in class! Haha! Not ALL in the name of fun lah... there are really situations which I dun think I can handle and hence wanna deal with it before I am dumped into the deep end of the pool (ie. officially teaching). So disruptive as it may be... I promise I won't cross the line to it being ridiculous. So though things do go in a full circle.... please please please have mercy on me!! Just sabo my accomplice geognut!! Hahaha! (Just joking lah...)

OK, back to Wonder Why? woman's lesson. I think the objectives of the activity and the lesson could have been more clearly spelt out. But then it might have been my own inattentiveness (ie. discussing of how to disrupt class) that caused me to think so. Erm... clearer instructions as well? I think for kids... regardless of how old they are... instructions have to be clear and concise. Cos everyone has their own mind and way of doing things... so if instructions are not clear... conflict and misunderstanding will arise. However I do have to commend the strategy of writing the instructions on the whiteboard. That prevents students from asking and asking and asking. =) Oh, and giving out instructions before distributing the materials is a good method, cos this makes them listen attentively and not get distracted with the distribution.

Hmm... distributing of materials. Yeah, I think it is more convenient to divide them into the various groups first... instead of having students come to the front. Cos they'll fight over what colours they want, etc. But having the group leaders come to the front, and not just a volunteer, is also a good way. If this is too much work, maybe we could have the monitor/monitress or the subject rep to divide the materials.

I must say that Wonder Why? woman was good at dealing with the fighting scene that Geognut and myself were involved in. (Geognut tore the mahjong paper in the middle of the fight. Then we agreed to work on a smaller piece of mahjong paper. But we listed 8 places instead of 5. We were told to redo it. So instead of just cancelling the extra places, we tore them out... resulting in a chesse-like piece of mahjong paper with holes all over. Hahahah!) But a disclaimer: we were prompted to do so... though Geognut did come up with the idea.. Hee. And it was fun! Hahah! Oops! Wonder Why? woman maintained good eye-contact with Geognut in reprimanding him... while being careful not to raise her voice (but vaired it slightly to let us know that she was not too pleased) to prevent us from losing 'face' in front of the class. I must say that her quick and forward-thinking are some stuff I cun foresee myself having! Hee. She didn't allow us to switch groups... to maintain the fairness and not allowing us to take the easy way out. This forced us to deal with the situation at hand. She also mentioned how unfair it is to our groupmates, which should have struck out conscience (though it didn't, cos it was all planned! Hee.) But it's a good move. Cos we did feel that our beautiful piece of work was wasted... or else can compete with the "Gifted students" group liao! Hahaha!

And making Geognut go off to wash his face and cool down was a good idea too. However, one down point was that I felt that she didn't focus on reprimanding me enough. (Not that I am masochistic lah!) It's just unfair for Geognut lah. And commenting on his 'big size' was erm... Hee. The boy's self-esteem might be hurt even further lah. But I understand that it's a spur of a moment to break up the fight. Mebbe if we are faced with such situations, we can pull the kids aside at the end of the lesson and do a detailed follow-up with them.

The question about whether she was focusing too much on the problematic students and neglecting the rest. I think she did find a balance there lah. If you dun control the naughty ones... how is the class gonna function? And she did make an effort to go around to the different groups rite? Hmm.. maybe to facilitate more, she could have asked them questions lor. Cos sometimes kids are shy and tend to clam in more when the teacher comes near them.

Another point of contention was about making superlambanana and wesley read the text on the postcard. For superlambanana, it was because he didn't understand the instructions... and it worked, cos he did went "Oh!" after reading it. However, I think making him stand up to read to the whole class was like a punishment, when all he did was give a wrong answer... This might discourage students from offering answers and speaking their mind. But I might be exaggerating here lah... it might not be that bad afterall. As for Wes, he was being disruptive lah. So the punishment is warranted. The benefit of making him read aloud to the whole class was so that he would understand what was going on despite being inattentive. But I think it went on for too long lah... such that it became awkward... and I think she forgot to ask him to sit down afterward. This happens all the time... and I think we should be conscious about not forgetting to ask students to sit down... or else they might think that they are still being punished. Worse still, they might think we are punishing them not for their 'crime' but 'attacking' them.

Yeah. I am looking forward to the next micro-teaching class!! WooHoooooo!!!
(I really should have gone first so that I dun incur so much wrath and create an opportunity to get shot! Hee)