I am teaching only 3 classes this year, a Sec 1 Comm Arts class (meeting the girls 5 hours per week) and two Sec 2 Math classes (meeting the girls 3 hours per week). The interesting thing is I am also teaching the Sec 1 class PBL and I am also their co-PC teacher (PC stands for Pastoral Care).
Holding many identities with the same Sec 1 class means I have to wear many hats and sometimes I think the voice I use with the class is confusing both to me and to them. When am I speaking as their co-PC teacher, when am I speaking as their Comm Arts teacher? This is something I must understand first so that I can be more effective in my communication with them.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Google Docs - Starting the first Communicative Arts lesson right
The ideal situation would be for the girls to attend the first day of school already with their learning devices. So far, only my previous school context has the luxury of making that happen as it is a 100% Direct School Admission specialized independent school and they know who their students are when the PSLE results are released. In other words, when the students go to the school to register, they would have already placed orders for their learning devices.
This is not the case in CGS, as this is a government school and the students have to put in their options for their secondary schools upon release of the PSLE results and will only be notified of their school posting late December. When they come to register then, they get their uniforms and book lists and so on, but not their learning devices.
But I did not want the girls to be disadvantaged and after the first lesson when I set my expectations right (I hope), I brought them to Green Lab (one of the two labs in the school with computers) to have their first Comm Arts lesson and I got them to input responses into a Google Spreadsheet.
Using this spreadsheet, I got to know how much they know about Cinderella type of stories and this provided me with the springboard to discuss plots and ideas and show them examples. I also got to sense how technologically savvy they are and this will help me in my planning of future lessons.
This is not the case in CGS, as this is a government school and the students have to put in their options for their secondary schools upon release of the PSLE results and will only be notified of their school posting late December. When they come to register then, they get their uniforms and book lists and so on, but not their learning devices.
But I did not want the girls to be disadvantaged and after the first lesson when I set my expectations right (I hope), I brought them to Green Lab (one of the two labs in the school with computers) to have their first Comm Arts lesson and I got them to input responses into a Google Spreadsheet.
Using this spreadsheet, I got to know how much they know about Cinderella type of stories and this provided me with the springboard to discuss plots and ideas and show them examples. I also got to sense how technologically savvy they are and this will help me in my planning of future lessons.
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