Tuesday, March 08, 2005
My Concern
Was back to teaching for a few days already.. Just yesterday, I took over a class from my fellow colleague. My first day with the group of youths was overall pleasent.
I spent the 1st half an hour breaking the ice .... well, I am able to engage most of them (except 4-5 of them showed least interest, they were either reading newspaper or having a small talk among themselves). Was wondering what was going on in their mind?... a new teacher is taking over and this particular group seems indifferent to the change.
I did a self intro of myself... after which, everyone in the class introduced themselves; their names and what they see themselves after 5 years down the road... well.. almost the whole class gave identical answer... "My name is XYZ..., .... I am going NS... dunno what to do, see 1st." Others said, "...want to go poly, but dunno what I want to do if cannot get into poly...". After some questioning I realised that some of them are not doing what they can now to get into a poly... And I could sense that some of them are really not motivated to study. (hmm... My belief is that all learning ultimately comes from within... well it is alway a challenge to help our student overcome this barrier towards learning)
Nevertheless.. After hearing all theseI spent the next 15 mins "imparting" some goal setting skills to them and try motivating them by using myself as the real life example... hmm... wonder how much have gone into their head...?
Anyway.. I started the lesson proper.. I used the power point which I have painstakingly made over the last weekend for this lesson... The powerpoint did capture their attention for a while, but they loses their attention just as quick... However, there is this particular student from China, age about 30 plus year old, I remembered that he said that his goal was to secure a job in Singapore and wishes to stay here... he was attentive throughout the lesson...
After the lesson, some of these students' action towards learning confirmed my belief that learning indeed comes from within ourselves. However, this set me thinking...
How do we as teacher help our student learn, if they are not motivated within???
I spent the 1st half an hour breaking the ice .... well, I am able to engage most of them (except 4-5 of them showed least interest, they were either reading newspaper or having a small talk among themselves). Was wondering what was going on in their mind?... a new teacher is taking over and this particular group seems indifferent to the change.
I did a self intro of myself... after which, everyone in the class introduced themselves; their names and what they see themselves after 5 years down the road... well.. almost the whole class gave identical answer... "My name is XYZ..., .... I am going NS... dunno what to do, see 1st." Others said, "...want to go poly, but dunno what I want to do if cannot get into poly...". After some questioning I realised that some of them are not doing what they can now to get into a poly... And I could sense that some of them are really not motivated to study. (hmm... My belief is that all learning ultimately comes from within... well it is alway a challenge to help our student overcome this barrier towards learning)
Nevertheless.. After hearing all theseI spent the next 15 mins "imparting" some goal setting skills to them and try motivating them by using myself as the real life example... hmm... wonder how much have gone into their head...?
Anyway.. I started the lesson proper.. I used the power point which I have painstakingly made over the last weekend for this lesson... The powerpoint did capture their attention for a while, but they loses their attention just as quick... However, there is this particular student from China, age about 30 plus year old, I remembered that he said that his goal was to secure a job in Singapore and wishes to stay here... he was attentive throughout the lesson...
After the lesson, some of these students' action towards learning confirmed my belief that learning indeed comes from within ourselves. However, this set me thinking...
How do we as teacher help our student learn, if they are not motivated within???
posted by Ong Tiam Chye at
8:21 AM
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1 comments
