Reflection #8 : Dos and Don'ts of Teaching

So we just had our final mock teaching session yesterday and I must admit, it wasn't half bad! I think it was more of just a mental fear that made at us nervous initially. But once we got into it, those 30 minutes just flew by before we knew it!

I was a little upset my dramatic sound effects for my slideshow didn't work. And I didn't get to play a video because my time was up. But despite the setbacks, I think my mock teaching still went fairly well. (phew!) I had cold feet in the beginning but it quickly wore off thanks to my sporting and encouraging 'Form 2 students'.  Especially for the Role Play part - shoutout to Sherenne, Diyanah, Retesh and Kathir for being awesome actors! Really glad the charade game of 'Heads Up' was a hit with the class too. Who says learning has to be boring and conventional all the time right ? In case you missed out on the action, here's a glimpse of it for your viewing pleasure :

          Our Phantom got a bit of an upgrade lol. 

For this post, I was asked to choose a favourite mock teaching presenter. To be honest, I unfortunately was not able to attend all my classmates' mock teaching. And apparently I missed out on some amazing presentations. Nevertheless, I still got to witness some pretty impressive ones as well. Picking a favourite is tricky. Each and every presenter had their own unique strengths that captured our attention during their respective lessons. Some amazed us with creative games and songs, some kept us awake with their dynamic voice projections and others motivated us with their delicious rewards (nothing says 'good job' like chocolate hehe) If I had to really narrow it down, I'd have to say my favourite presenter (who also happened to be our final one) was Aishwini. Madam Ng really knew how to save the best for last. Aishwini had the complete package. From using the latest technology to her advantage, her creative 'Pick A Pouch' activity and just her overall control of the flow of the lesson - she truly had the makings of a great teacher. I really liked how she was well prepared, confident, really knew her stuff and above all - gave us an enjoyable experience. I personally am not such a big fan of Maths, but Aishwini's effort and enthusiasm in teaching was really contagious and made us all motivated to learn. Great job Aishwini, staying back for your mock teaching was worth it! :)

Cikgu Ash in action ! ;)

Since it was a first time for most of us, there were some distinctive mistakes that were made during the mock teaching that should have been avoided. But it's okay,we can all learn from them in order to improve in the future. For example, when a slideshow presentation is used,  a teacher should never merely read word to word from the slides without proper explanation. It causes students to lose interest easily. Another thing I noticed was that some of the presenters were not very prepared with their questions. When the time came for students to answer them and check if they were right, the teacher looked not confident of it  and was not able to confirm the answers properly as it was not worked out by them beforehand. This caused some confusion and lack of faith in the teacher. Poor command in language was another thing I felt needed to be improved. Especially for English subjects, students tend to not take the teacher seriously if they are not competent in the language. Last but not least, voice projection is another thing that most of us had to improve on. Some presenters were barely audible and very monotonous. This made it a little difficult for students to stay awake and focus in the class.

All in all, I still have to say that mock teaching was a very good and educational experience. We got a taste of what it's going to be like when we achieve our careers as teachers. Being in a huge class also gave us the benefit of being exposed to different kinds of pedagogical approaches towards teaching. Everyone had something we could all learn from. I also really liked how the class was very supportive of their friends who were presenting. This really helped to calm down our nerves and establish a strong bond of camaraderie amongst ourselves. Really proud to be a part of this fun and awesome batch! Great work everybody! Let's all continue striving for the best in the future! :)