Cherry's Note
Do the things that worth for you to do!
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
MY SUMMER PROJECT
[QUIZ]
Let me ask you a question, which the one categories of student out of the 3 options that is easier to teach?
A. 6-11 years olD
B. teenage students with the age of 12-14 years old
C. pre-youth with the age of 15-17 years old
Well, all of them are very difficult. There is nothing that is easy, unless you have the sufficient experience as the school teacher before that know how to deal with different categories of age.
“It is never been an easy job as a teacher, especially when you experience it yourself personally. It seems that they only need to teach, but on their back there are so much burden that they need to take charge on.”.
Any pre-story background before accepting the offer to teach in my summer holiday?
It supposed to be the period where I am going to travel to Korea for being the facilitator in another country and gain some cultural exposure during the July to August 2015. However that dreams need to be postponed for a while as the MERS disease outbreak has cause the entire International Conference has being cancelled.
However if taking from the positive angle, I have the chance to be given the offer to teach in 3 different schools that contains 3 different level study of students. The school that we teach are 2 private school and 1 government school. 2 weeks teaching seems a long period programme to me, however it is not.
Myth as a student and teacher!
“You cannot really feel the clock is ticking and when you just talk for 15 minutes and you have just know that you need more time for finishing the required material”
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As the position of a teacher, you can actually feel the time flies fast when you are actually doing the teaching session, in the comparison when we are the students that feel the clocks ticking in a very slow pace and one and a half hour feels like it takes forever. This gap in between the timing perception of teacher and student, it actually a dangerous matter and need to solve as soon as possible!
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Time management and subject scheduling for the consistency purpose is very important as a teacher. There is a need to standardize all teaching material for 5 different classes that is in the same batch. Meanwhile when there is no specific requirement that is needed to be taught and force you to come out with your own materials.
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It is always a trial and error experience when you have a new teaching method and you will see whether it applicable to the student in this modern era. There is a need to understand the student and observe their behaviour when we are playing the game and see their excited, boring, anxious face expression. From there then we can evaluate further to make a better system and ready to implement for the next class.
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Although as a teacher your working hour will be from 7am-2pm the latest, but again it still take lots of your energy as you are the office worker from 9am- 6pm. It makes me to contemplate on how tiring to be a teacher and start to appreciate the profession of a teacher even more than before.
"Different audience has different way of teaching, sometimes playing games in the class is not always the good choice. Some of them are more comfortable with the other way of teaching and that is the job of the teacher to find put the most suitable way in teaching them."
What we have done within 2 weeks period?
I keep telling myself, “I used to be a student and I know exactly what the student like and prefer when they are learning something.” Therefore, I am trying hard to avoid so much theoretical teaching in delivering the knowledge and try to revise the way that students learn in which more interactive style.
With the collaboration of the games and learning process in teaching for 2 weeks, we hope that it can trigger their interest toward Mandarin language and not only teaching for the sake of teaching. We also stimulate their learning process by giving a reward and incentive to the students. This concept allow them to write and do their homework as it motivates them to work out for the task that has been assigned to them.
When I was a student, I do hope that the teacher will understand if every student has their own way and pace in learning something. It is almost impossible to cater everyone need at the same time, but if there is a bit of attention paying toward those who felt left out in the classroom and it might be a big help to their study.
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Primary School
Stamps incentive works on them, especially when they have done with their homework and tutorial during the class. It also can be a form of gift for the winner.
Games might not suitable for this group, as their capability to understand something complicated is still low. Quarrel and teasing often happen in between when they are competing with each other.
They are controllable at the first time of contact, however after several times and you start to figure out that they are no longer in your control and tend to play around with you.
To take note, we need to slower down in the way of explaining the content. They need a detailed instruction from the teacher as they have no idea on what to write, where to write, and how should they write. Due to that, most of their parents is helping their homework instead of following on what have been said by the teacher. When you asked them, why you are writing it this way? Their answer will be, “My mother said to do it like this format and some of the parents are taking into effort in asking the teacher on how to do specific homework). In short, Parents=Student’s Guardian in which play a lot of role on it.
2. Junior High School
Naughty and sometimes uncontrollable. They are the midst in finding their identity and the transition period of children to a youth.
Games are the best way to attract their attention and creates an excitement toward new thing. As they have high curiosity toward fresh and new stuff and start to explore things that attracts to it.
They still afraid of punishment and that might be the only reason to control them. As they are in the period of unsure what they are doing is the correct way and blur in the sense of still have the sense of immaturity in their attitude.
3. Senior High School
Very easy to control, as they understand exactly what you have taught them. It is very easy to spot the bad and good students by only seeing the way the dress up and behave in the class. This is very important for a teacher, so that can take note on themselves and provide more attention to particular type of people.
Games sometimes doesn’t work for them, as most of them refuse to play the game because afraid of the punishment that comes along to loser. They know what is embarrassment to them and the most important thing is to memorize their name, so that it might come in handy when you are not able to control the situation and mention their name in midst of the noisiness. .
How different are that 3 types of schools?
It always being my pleasure in helping my former Mandarin teacher for 2 weeks teaching opportunities. Without expecting the payment or gift, it makes you feel happier to realize that you have contribute selflessly to the students that you have taught on and payback the knowledge that you have once being taught by your teacher.
- July&August 2015 -
