Relief Teaching Stint

Relief Teaching

Three weeks of relief teaching- An overall great learning experience! On the first day, filled with trepidation and excitement as I stepped into the grounds of Dunman, I was greeted with the familiar scene- students donned in white tops with the distinctive metal buttons with blue bottoms. Being the traditional Chinese Medium Sch- they spoke the pledge in Mandarin- which I hardly can remember! Some highlights:

Most humiliating thing that happened- I stepped into the wrong classroom for my first lesson! Well, its not my fault as there was a switch in classrooms betw 1E and 2E since there was a student who sprained his leg. Well I was quite embarassed by the whole situation that I dint really looked at the expressions of the people.

Most helpful teachers- Well many of them qualify, includes Ms Tang, Ms Pear and Mrs Bok. Without them and their valuable resources, I will not be able to deliver my Geo lessons seamlessly. Consider what the sec 3 Geo Elective students actually go very much into detail on human topics like agriculture( I really thought they could be farmers next time, seriously). Special mention to Ms Ling, again who got me this relief teaching job.

Most 'Helpful' Friends- Ernest and Calvin who popped by my geo lesson, standing outside the classroom, distracting and signalling me to give the students a smoking break~ as if they are in the army.

Most quotable quotes from former teachers-
MR Kiw ," 喔， 长得一表人才"
Mrs Shu, " You finished NS? Doesn't seem like..."

Other relief teachers-
Senny who came for one day and concluding that teaching is definitely for her.
Tsz Shan who came for two days teaching bicultural studies

Greatest Fear- Stepping into my English class, and delivering a lesson on punctuation that lasted two periods. According to the lesson plan, i was supposed ot teach "The effective use of commas in essay writing" and "Use of punctuation marks to enhance writing". For a moment, I thought I was wasting their time but i was quite proud that I found a good example on importance of punctuation:

A panda walks into a café, sits down, and orders a sandwich. He eats the sandwich, draws a gun, and shoots the waiter. As the panda stands up and heads towards the exit, the manager shouts, "Hey! Where are you going? You just shot my waiter, and you didn't even pay for your sandwich!"

The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. "Hey, man, I'm a PANDA!" the panda shouts back. "Look it up!"

The manager turns to the relevant entry and reads:

Panda: A tree-dwelling bear-like mammal of Asian origin, characterized by distinct black and white coloring. Eats, shoots and leaves.

Greatest Motivation- This came on the third day of my teaching when students from three different classes actually commented that I taught better than the previous teacher. Being inexperienced and untrained, this was definitely the greatest motivation and force that decide whether I take up the teaching scholarship.

During my three weeks stint, I had many opportunities to talk to the teachers there. In fact, I learnt that Dunman will be moving to the old RJC campus in end 2006 and the Tanjong Rhu campus will be torn down for rebuilding. More facilities will be required to cater for the Intergrated Programme (DHP), meaning there will be students taking the A levels. Well this explains the photo of 正心园 which I have taken, for remembrance sake. Ok the point is that the school may not have enough funds for the new campus, since MOE will not be paying 100% of the reconstruction costs, the school will need to raise funds and being an ex-student, I was conveniently handed a donation card. So now I hereby appeal to all ex-Dunmanians, kindly approach me if you are interested to make any donations. Of course, non-Dunmanians are welcome to donate too

And if there isn't a valid enough reason, here's another one. With the emergence of the various integrated programmes, eg from NJC, VJC and TJC, to put it simply, Dunman is facing a brain drain. Many of the outstanding secondary 2 students are choosing to leave Dunman, for the perceived greener pasteurs. Well of course, it's their choice to leave but quote 'we have nurtured and trained these students and now they are choosing to leave the sch'. This brain drain will have an adverse long term impact as the O levels results of the school will be affected, the worst case scenario being Dunman High becoming a sub-standard school with mediocre results. The donations from this drive will enable the sch to build better facilities and hopefully attract and retain students to compete with say the Raffles and Hwa Chong Family schools. I know that and many of you out that know that we are no way inferior to them, and to be the best that we can be (sounds so much like ACS school motto)

Well, you may think this whole education system is becoming so commercialised. Yes, indeed. We have schools advertising right outside the 158 and 30 bustop, inviting students to join the integrated programmes(IP). We even have Tv Mobile advertisements ,running for 1 min, advertising the IPs and on their open houses. One may wonder where all these schools actually get the money to run the advertisements. you mean they actually have budgets for marketing and publicity? Think of the opportunity costs when these schools pour hefty amounts on these ads. Shouldn't all these money be spent on developing better programmes and activities that benefit the students directly? They are in fact doing injustice to tax payers. Also, this money does not seem well spent since it does not go inline with the mission of the Education service which" Mould the future of the nation, by moulding the people who will determine the future of the nation"