Final Reflection on Learning

There are so many things I feel I learned more about. One of those things, specific to this module, would be presentation skills.

The peer teaching preparations provided an early opportunity to practise VC and NVC skills - selling (presenting) my point, listening, reaching a decision. I find it difficult to say if I was successful or not in this regard. My presentation during the actual peer teaching was not very good, but still an improvement from past ones where I was incredibly nervous and ...catastrophic. I really need to improve my time management - I realise I am too lax in this department, a character flaw. This is a personal demon I'll need to face myself.


Compared to the first one, I feel I practiced a lot more for the second oral presentation. Feedback from the first presentation and from my team Healthiomics helped me improve. Firstly, I feel my main stumbling block is lack of confidence. In this regard, I am very thankful for the encouragement and honest feedback I got from my teammates.

Secondly, my tendency to ramble and be long-winded. Given time, I have the chance to edit and check my writing. However, I am still unable to check myself in an impromptu, verbal situation.

Another concern is voice control - volume to be precise. I am still struggling with this, but I hope to improve somehow, perhaps with the breathing exercise that Ms. Lim gave (or just shouting more).

Overall, hand gestures was something I never really paid attention to. I still have difficulty controlling my body and hands, but it seems I have managed to prevent nervous shaking by now. The next step here is to be in total control of my movements and somehow use them to enhance my presentation.

Reflection on Oral Presentation

This oral presentation I had to do was not the first, and it likely won’t be the last. Thanks to my team mates, who provided me with a lot of support, I felt more prepared for this presentation than any other I have done. However, I still feel I have much to improve.

I always feel insecure addressing many people at once, especially in a formal setting. The many rehearsals we had helped me overcome that problem to a large extent. However, I feel I may have come off as too rehearsed; by the time of the presentation, I had memorized almost everything (I think my team mates had also memorized my part by then).

I realized how important it was to truly believe in what I was saying. The story I told, and the stand our team took – being able to support it allowed me to access more confidence in giving my presentation.

My voice being too soft is a problem. It may not have been ideal, but I feel I did my best. One thing I realized too late was that during the Q&A session, I spoke softer again because it felt like the people I was talking to were closer, and I let my guard down.

My body language could have been better. I probably fidgeted too much, and I still can’t manage a decent smile. I think I made better eye contact compared to the peer teaching session.

Finally, I learned a lot from this project about organizing slides and points to make, but I could have done better. I still wonder if the transition between points was adequate.
Again, I want to thank my team mates who provided me with feedback and suggestions on how to improve.

Thanks guys. I really appreciate it.

Chocolate - Welcome to Malaysia

In memory of Yasmin Ahmad.

Kenangan abadi di hatiku.

Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour - This Happened a Long Time Ago

Once, while wandering around, I met a mother and her son at an empty basketball court. She looked very young, shy and gentle. Her son was probably around 5 years old, wearing miniature sleeveless sports attire, complete with tiny sports shoes, and he carried a basketball as big as his body. With deep concentration, he would fling the ball over his head, backwards, behind him, somehow scoring.

Suddenly, he approached me. Grabbing my hand, he dragged me toward the ball, talking non-stop. I didn’t understand a word.

Am I being challenged? I took a shot, but he shook his head in annoyance. He took the ball from me and did it again his way. This kid was teaching me ‘how it’s done’, and we were communicating with gestures, facial expressions, and noises.

Taking a break, I spoke to his mother. An Indonesian, she had married a local. She said that her son liked playing here. She giggled when I praised her son’s skills.

Around this time, 2 older Chinese children (around age 8-10) came to play basketball too. I felt compelled to mediate the situation, especially when the mother worriedly called her son back.

The older boys didn't want to play with him because....  he was “Malay.... and too young anyway”. Hearing this stung my heart. Too young, yes, I could understand, but apparently, the first thing that came into their minds was that this kid was ‘different’.

The little kid went crying to his mum. The 2 older boys ignored them. The mother was reluctant to defend her son. Was it just shyness?

Even if we can't understand a word each other is saying, sometimes you can communicate with something else. When you don't understand someone else, is it because you can't or because you don't try to?

Advertisement from the MOE

Some jobs are merely those: jobs. They require you to drag yourself up from bed every morning and then to drag yourself off to another dull day of work, where you deal with task after dreary task. In exchange for undergoing this daily routine that leaves you drained of your energy every time, you get to make a steady income and to lead a stable, secure life.

In the teaching force, we make far more than just money. Every day, we make children excited with the wonders of science and the majesty of mathematics, and make them fall madly in love with the beauty of the arts and the humanities. Every day, we make our schools the place where students can discover their talents, and aspire to greater heights.

Every day, we make our students believe in themselves. We make them press on in the face of adversity so that they will know how truly limitless their potential is. And as we see them mature into unique, talented individuals before our very eyes, we make sure that they learn all that they can today, that they may become all that they can be tomorrow.

Our teachers make a difference. What do you make?

We know that our teachers—like the very students they groom—are amazing, gifted people with different aspirations. That is why we give them the opportunity to tap their fullest potential and to climb the career ladder with the various options open to them. Currently, teachers may embark on three different career tracks:

• Teaching track
• Leadership track and
• Specialist track.

We are also pleased to present the GROW 2.0 Package, our enhanced career structure for all Education Officers. Through GROW 2.0, MOE aims to maximise the Growth of our Education Officers through better Recognition, Opportunities, and seeing to their Well-being.
They say that being a teacher is the most rewarding job in the world. That’s true: our educators get to laugh a lot, to teach the things they love to the people they love, and to generally have a whale of a time with their classes.

But it’s not all a bed of roses for them; it’s not uncommon for a teacher to be confronted with hard problems and tough situations. And that is why all these measures are in place to reward each and every teacher for conquering these challenges and for their unwavering dedication to their calling with greater career options, professional development, and more flexibility in managing their career and personal lives.

So, sign up to be part of our exciting teaching force and get ready for a career like no other!

-------

If you have a university degree, you may apply to be an English medium teacher.

For polytechnic students and university undergraduates, you are encouraged to apply during the final semester of your final year studies.

General Education Officer (GEO/Teacher)

Successful candidates will be placed on the General Education Officer 1 (GEO 1) scale. This is the entry grade for teachers whose university degree meets the requirements for appointment. Degree holders who do not meet our requirements for appointment on the GEO 1 scale may be placed on the GEO 2 scale.

Teaching Level

Degree holders may teach at the following levels:

• Primary
• Secondary
• Junior Colleges (Graduates with good Honours degrees)

Teaching in a Primary School

While a general degree will suffice, it is preferred if you have read and majored in at least 1 teaching subject.

Candidates will have to undergo the 1-year Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) Programme at NIE. You will undergo training in the methodology for teaching at the primary school level. Upon graduating from NIE, you will be required to serve a 3-year teaching bond. Besides teaching, trained teachers are also expected to take up Co-Curricular Activities and other duties at the principal’s request.

Teaching in a Secondary School

It is preferred that you majored in 2 teaching subjects in university. However, you may still be considered if you have only 1 teaching subject. For a subject to be considered a main teaching subject, it must be read as a major up to YEAR 3 of your degree programme. For the second teaching subject, you must have read it in Year 1 level or at least 2 modules of it in any of the 3 years at university.

Exception to the 2-subjects guideline: If you wish to teach any of the Mother Tongue Languages, you need to have read a major in the respective Mother Tongue Language. There is no need for a second teaching subject.

Degree holders with teaching subjects in Sciences, Humanities and Mathematics are strongly encouraged to teach at the secondary school level. Those with general degrees will teach at only the primary school level. If you have excellent grades in General Paper at ‘AO’ Level, you may be considered for teaching English Language at the Secondary level.

Secondary level teacher candidates will undergo a 1-year Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) programme at NIE. You will undergo training in the methodology for teaching at the secondary / JC level. Upon graduating from NIE, you will have to serve a 3-year bond. Besides teaching, trained teachers are also expected to take up Co-Curricular Activities and other duties at the principal’s request.

Application

Interested Applicants can apply online. Final year final semester students are also welcome to apply.

Shortlisted applicants will be asked to attend an interview. If selected, you will be sent for training at NIE during which you will be paid a monthly salary. Information on trainingand salary scales can be found on the respective web pages.

Upon completion of the 1-year training, you will be deployed to teach in schools, upon which you will begin serving a 3-year teaching bond.

If you wish to teach at the polytechnics, please approach them directly. The polytechnics conduct their own recruitment of lecturers.

Application letter.

Tan Wei Ee,

315 Clementi Avenue 4, #04-135,

Singapore 120315

Email: U093227J@nus,edu.sg

Contact Number: 91230000

Mr. Tan Kok Heng,

Deputy Director, Recruitment Centre,

Ministry of Education, Singapore,

1 North Buona Vista Drive,

Singapore 138675                                                                                                       10 September 2011

Dear Mr. Tan,

  I am writing to apply for a teaching position at the Secondary Level with the Ministry of Education, Singapore. I have always been very attracted to the teaching profession, ever since my own days as a student, and I believe this passion will be an asset in a teaching career. I have an interest in teaching Biology as well as the English language.

   Having taken some modules in Psychology and Philosophy, I have some background in the ability to reason, persuade, and argue logically. I have some experience giving tuition privately to a student who had difficulties with his studies. In the end, he passed all his O-Level exams. Though I cannot say it was with my help, he told me that he appreciated my patience with him and that I took a lot of time go over the basics repeatedly. On my part, seeing the look of comprehension on someone’s face gives me joy.

   A degree of patience and empathy, as well as an open mind, are needed to engage someone in the learning process. I believe I possess these qualities as well as a passion for knowledge and a curiosity to want to know just a little bit more; what, why, and how something works or something happened. These are some things which I would like to share with others.

  Another aspect of being a teacher is to be able to help guide students. Like everyone else, I have had extremely difficult decisions to make, but I was lucky to have my family and friends who supported me through it all. That is perhaps one of the greatest lessons I have learned in my ongoing life. It truly, fundamentally made me realize that learning is not just about academics, technical skills, and potential. It is about living life as well. While we cannot dictate the path of others, including the younger generation, I would give encouragement and support to those in need, the same way my friends and family did for me.

   I would like to conclude by restating my interest in this pursuing a career in education. As stated above, I have enclosed my resume with this letter. I look forward to the opportunity to answer any questions you might have in an interview. I can be reached at any time at my number, 91230000. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Tan Wei Ee

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

This is a story about a project group in college that did not get along. Andrew, Allan, Lily, and Sophia had never met before and were assigned to the same group to work on this project. From the outset, relations were not very good.

Sophia was late to the initial meeting. Andrew, Allan, and Lily were not very pleased, but they understood that Sophia had other classes and commitments. Allan himself had many other commitments. He was just very busy; in fact, he seemed to show little interest in the project, taking little active part in it. He did what he was to do. He made suggestions. However, the others thought that it wasn’t enough – it seemed like his efforts were only half-past the mark. For Allan, however, this was the compromise he had to make for taking part in many other projects, some which he deemed more important than this shared project.

Lily was difficult to get to know and proved a challenge to work with. She had a moody temperament, and appeared stubborn to her colleagues. She got her work done, but constantly got on the other’s nerves with her terse words and mannerisms. In her view, however, she was the only one truly serious about her work. The others were not giving enough of their time and not putting in enough effort.

Everyone thought Andrew was just insufficient. He did as he was told, but that was all. He hardly had any viable ideas to call his own, but always had some critical opinion of the others’ ideas. He never seemed to have anything positive to say. For Allen and Sophia, this together with Lily’s character made working together unpleasant. For Andrew, however, being critical was essential to perfecting their project. If everyone just went along with everything, problems would not be sorted out.

Sophia, like Allan, had many commitments. She was a school representative in more than one field. The others felt that this ate up so much of Sophia’s time that she was never around when she was most needed. Sophia did her best to schedule enough time for this project. However, because this schedule clashed with Allan’s, both ended up perceiving the other as not giving their all.

In the end, Allan spoke very little to the others. Lily expressed her frustration with Allan to Andrew. Sophia expressed her frustration with Lily to Andrew. Andrew expressed his frustrations to someone outside the group. There was no confrontation between the members because no one wanted one, and wanted to get the project done with.

As the group’s advisor, how would you advise them to get them on the right track?

Andrew and Sophia

  When Andrew met Sophia, it was like love at first sight. That’s what he says now, with the luxury of hindsight. He didn’t know it was love then, all those years ago in college. “It wasn’t like when you look at girls, it was different.” So he says. His friends often said Andrew was not good at expressing himself.

   Sophia was a level-headed and friendly girl who, unlike Andrew, seemed to have no difficulty talking to people. She had a gift for chatting with strangers easily as though they had always been friends. Perhaps it was this that attracted him in the first place, although she was no slacker when it came to looks. Perhaps this was merely his perception of her through his rose-tinted glasses – some people said she was arrogant. The truth was that Sophia was neither here nor there – the glasses were indeed tinted, but it did not change the image all that much.

Andrew was rather outgoing and friendly himself, but for some reason, whenever she was around, he became an awkward mess. But through it all, he was sure of one thing: whenever this strange girl was around, his heart would fill up with a fullness that made him grin like an idiot, whether he noticed it or not.

How the cards came to fall as they did is anyone’s guess. A mathematical certainty, a whim of some higher authority, a game played between Lord Fortune and Lady Luck – Andrew would often wonder if it was a blessing or a curse that they met under the circumstances in which they met.

The facts were these.

Andrew and Sophia were to work together in the same group on a project. They were joined by two other group members, Allan and Lily. The 4 had never met before. Relations were cool in the beginning: attempts were made at breaking the ice, but the ice melted slowly. Slowly but surely, Andrew managed to get to know Sophia more, using the project as an excuse. However, Sophia was more concerned with where the project was headed. In private, she confessed to Andrew that she was unhappy with Allan and Lily.

Allan was a very active boy. Andrew wondered how one single person could juggle so many commitments and projects simultaneously. He did not have to wonder very much. The compromise Allan made was to give higher priority to certain projects, and the project these 4 were working on was not one of the prioritised projects. While Allan did his best to attend each meeting and do his job, the other three found his work sub-par.

Lily proved difficult to work with. She was a very driven and highly motivated person, and had rather high expectations of herself. This spilled over into her expectations of everyone else. In her eyes, she seemed to be the only one who really cared about the project at all. The others were slackers who needed to do a whole lot better. However, she did not conceal her dissatisfaction. She did not say outright what she felt, but was moody and morose. While she did do her job rather well, Sophia complained to Andrew that she was unyielding at times, and just quite simply difficult to work with.

Andrew wondered about himself. What did the others think of him, then? In the end, he decided it was a waste of time to worry about such things, and that it would be best to just focus on making the project a success.

The project was a failure. In the wake of the smouldering dust of the burning corpse of the project, Andrew couldn’t help but feel less than happy. This was not the ideal ending to working with Sophia he had envisioned. Had he not worked hard enough? Was he too distracted by Sophia?

He asked himself, how could he have done better?

(to be continued...................?????)

Why Effective Communication Skills are Important for Me

      Hi, I’m Ryan*. As far as I can remember, talking to people has always been a scary obstacle I have to face. The same goes for writing a letter, leaving a message, or even just having to face someone and listen to them. Yet I have thoughts I want to share with people. This frustrates me.

   Humans are social creatures. At the heart of human social interaction lies words, but communication is not just about words. There is so much more to communication than just words, if one pauses to think about it. As humans, we primarily rely on words to communicate, but we also rely on many non-verbal cues. Gestures, the tone of voice, and the method of communication – these are just a few of many factors that play a role in communication. To me, effective communication requires a degree of mastery over these factors.

   To what end? Why bother so much about communication?

   How do you feel when you cannot get someone to understand what you were saying, or when someone misunderstands you? I can say for myself that when I put in the effort to communicate with someone, and later find it was fruitless, it feels disappointing. However, quite apart from that, miscommunication can cause a lot more damage beyond petty hurt feelings. For example, misperceived malice could make a relationship sour; instructions followed to a tee (apparently) but misunderstood renders all effort in a project naught.

  Like it or not, we live in a social world. Realistically speaking, being able to communicate effectively is one of the most valuable skills one can have. If nothing else, at least the ability to get your point across – to communicate one’s thoughts – is worth it. That is why effective communication skills are important for me.

*Not real name.

First Post for Posting's Sake

Today, I woke up rather late because my class started at 12pm. I had a nice long sleep. I arrived a little late to class because the bus from my area runs infrequently, and later on, I couldn't get on a shuttle bus because it was full. I blame myself, but I also blame the lack of buses. Blaming myself makes me feel bad about myself, and I have been feeling bad about myself for too long, so I decided to blame the buses only. However, I feel bad for blaming the buses, and ended up blaming myself again.

But then again, I already live quite near. It still took more than 1 hour to get to class. It seems maybe just a bit ridiculous, so I decided to hack it all and just enjoy the fact that I got to sleep longer this morning.

: )

I wonder if this post should be deleted later. I'll leave that to my future self to decide. Good luck, future self. If you do delete me, please know that I totally understand and empathise with you, and I hold no grudges. Whenever that may be, I wish you good health and happiness. You are doing a fine job staying alive. Just keep breathing. If this message is being read to you by someone else, I hope you regain your senses soon.