Greetings one and all..

Its now 2.45pm, and I'm just half way through my miserable five hour break! Sigh Life's so funny sometimes... On thursdays, I have NO breaks, not even 30 minutes to have my lunch. And on friday, I get 5 hours... I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Anyway, what better way to kill time than to blog right. And I should look at the bright side. The excessive amount of free time absolutely compels me to finish up any pending work that I have. And thank God for the computer lab! It's an abosolute blessing for those who own crashed Toshiba laptops, and ya, I still have not heard from them

I'll just sum up my views on the microteaching sessions 2 and 3, both of which I thought were carried out pretty well. Kudos to Liyan and Yizhen The three hours went by easily laughing at he antics of our fellow geographers and re-visiting topics which have been almost forgotten.

Liyan's Microteaching session 2

Karst has always been a tough topic I feel. During JC days, my teacher didn't really cover the topic because Karst was not a compulsory question. We were simply distributed with notes and told to read up on our own. Liyan started her session by distributing worksheets and providing us with rock samples, a resource that I feel is absolutely necessary in the teaching of any mineral rock component. We were allowed to closely examine the sample and jot down our observations. The idea of confiscation our ICs or Ezlink cards was also pretty interesting. However, it may not work well for some students, especially those who do not take public transport or simply don't care if their cards are confiscated. The class, as usual was rowdy and Liyan did seem to be getting a little frustrated at the lack of interest and enthusiasm. A few students were lying down and seemed to be in their own world as the lesson continued. Liyan did plan her class well given hat the slides were interesting (especially the flash files) and she also had answers to questions such as "Singapore got Limestone or not, Cher?". Maybe the topic was a little difficult for secondary 3 students to understand and therefore, there was not a 100% being put in by the students. Nevertheless, Liyan was brave enough to go ahead with a JC topic even though she had the liberty to choose any secondary school topic. Great work on that girl Oh and thanks for the chocolates!

The incident of the flying airplanes ( and just to add, the very first one hit me! Grrr..) did take the class by surprise. I personally felt Liyan could have been more firm with the students involved and should have made them throw their 'work of art' away instead of just scolding them. Due to that, the airplanes still continued to fly, disrupting those who were really trying to concentrate. 

Yizhen's Microteaching session 3

Yizhen entered the class armed well with a huge bag and a sweet smile. At first glance, Yizhen seemed like someone who could be easily bullied by the students, given her gentle, demure look. But I was so wrong! She fired the students outright the moment the paper airplanes took their flight. I really liked the way she handled the situation. Firm yet she did not lose her cool. The class was also generally quieter during her lesson. Yizhen however, seemed a little distressed when the asthma incident took place. Personally, I myself would have been a little lost if something like that was to happen to me. What came to mind was my secondary 1 geography class during my 6 month relief teaching days in tanjong Katong Secondary School. One of the male students suddenly started a nose bleed. His whole nose and lower face area was filled with blood! I did not know what to do. Luckily, the boy was very clam and the girl in front passed him a packet of tissue. Thanks to my primary school Red Cross days, I knew that the nose bleeding could be stopped given that the person raise his head. The student tilted his head and gradually, the bleeding stopped. However, that was an excellent lesson for me to learn. It taught me that in terms of health, anything can happen to the students anytime. The teachers, as adults, have the biggest responsibility of the students. Thus, it would be essential to equip oneself with the necessary skills to cope with these sudden occurrances.

Yizhen's lesson on faults was detailed and well explained. A brief introduction allowed students to make a smooth transition into the new topic. The presence of models also made the learning more interactive and the concepts of faulting much clearer. The slides were done well and the lesson was pretty entertaining even though the topic of faults is always categorized by students as 'boring'. Due to the lack of time and camera film roll, I guess Yizhen could not wrap up her lesson. A conclusion would have been an excellent end to her lesson. Great work babe :pleased

Regards,

Raksha