Crazy school
I've started my second practicum at my second school, which I won't name here because I'm about to talk bad about it.
First of all, I was assigned the last class for Year 3. This means that I have pupils of a very low proficiency level, and this factor may make class control and pupil participation harder to achieve. Ironically, there are some better students there as well because the new pupils automatically enter the last class. So I have a difficult situation on my hands - some are quite good, and most are very weak. Now, if it were only the issue of being assigned the last class, I wouldn't be so worked up about it. I believe every student has the right to learn, and maybe a practicum teacher with her loads of teaching aids can generate their interest in learning English. The issue is that even though it's the last class, my mentor insisted that I teach everything in the textbook. I don't blame her. This school is a cluster school, and they want their pupils to score in the final year exam, plus I'll be taking over for 2 months so she might be worried about that. However, I feel that the Year 3 KSSR textbook is too difficult. Given a choice, I would like to simplify and adapt the textbook materials so that my pupils can focus on just 3 or 4 main points for every lesson. The way things are now, I'm struggling to simplify things for the weaker students at the expense of the better ones, because it's hard enough to help them remember that "a leopard's tail is as long as its body", let alone the more specific "a leopard's tail is ALMOST as long as its body" (hence, technically speaking, it's a little shorter than its body). Not to mention that's only 1 fact out of 6 other facts.
When you teach a weak class, these details are of secondary importance. You want to get their focus and interest first. Overdwelling on minor details is going to backfire. But because I have to teach according to the textbook, I don't have a choice.
You may think that this is a simple sentence, and that I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. However, if you're able to understand what I'm writing thus far, your proficiency level is high enough. Imagine that you're learning a foreign language - Vietnamese, for example. You'd be cursing the leopard by the time I'm through with the lesson, especially after a True/False quiz question that goes " A leopard's tail is shorter than its body". That's the situation with my kids - some of them can't even read in English.
Thank you so much to the GPK for assigning the last classes to us, and being stern about enforcing the school 'policy' that you don't give the best classes to practicum teachers. Thank you for your double standards and giving my classmates the first two classes last semester, thus giving them a good experience and making me choose this school. I don't mind teaching weak students. But let me teach them MY way, please. This unnecessary overloading of information is not going to do them any good.
And the stupid activity book and workbook don't provide answers, so sometimes I'm not even sure if my answers are entirely accurate. I'm an ENGLISH teacher, not a SCIENCE teacher. Am I supposed to do research on every safari animal and find out facts about them which have nothing to do with language proficiency? Difficult thing is, some of the better pupils have read up on their own, and they know more than I do. I'm too cautious to agree with everything they say, but at the same time, I know that I don't know everything a certain animal eats. Oh and did I mention I have a time limit to cover everything? This topic is supposed to take only 1.5 weeks because we're behind time and we have to cover everything before the final exam.
*sigh*
Don't come to this school. It's crazy. And for all that talk about putting pupils first, I don't see that happening. All I see is a school obsessed with its title, and striving for another one without caring about the welfare of the last classes. I feel so restricted with my lesson plans, and I'm pressured to add in interesting activities so that the pupils get involved and are happy to be in my class. But that's at the expense of the material I manage to cover. I should've listened when the seniors said it was a blacklisted school. I shouldn't have listened to my classmates who went there.
Lord, help me. Please. I have another 7 weeks to go.
First of all, I was assigned the last class for Year 3. This means that I have pupils of a very low proficiency level, and this factor may make class control and pupil participation harder to achieve. Ironically, there are some better students there as well because the new pupils automatically enter the last class. So I have a difficult situation on my hands - some are quite good, and most are very weak. Now, if it were only the issue of being assigned the last class, I wouldn't be so worked up about it. I believe every student has the right to learn, and maybe a practicum teacher with her loads of teaching aids can generate their interest in learning English. The issue is that even though it's the last class, my mentor insisted that I teach everything in the textbook. I don't blame her. This school is a cluster school, and they want their pupils to score in the final year exam, plus I'll be taking over for 2 months so she might be worried about that. However, I feel that the Year 3 KSSR textbook is too difficult. Given a choice, I would like to simplify and adapt the textbook materials so that my pupils can focus on just 3 or 4 main points for every lesson. The way things are now, I'm struggling to simplify things for the weaker students at the expense of the better ones, because it's hard enough to help them remember that "a leopard's tail is as long as its body", let alone the more specific "a leopard's tail is ALMOST as long as its body" (hence, technically speaking, it's a little shorter than its body). Not to mention that's only 1 fact out of 6 other facts.
When you teach a weak class, these details are of secondary importance. You want to get their focus and interest first. Overdwelling on minor details is going to backfire. But because I have to teach according to the textbook, I don't have a choice.
You may think that this is a simple sentence, and that I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. However, if you're able to understand what I'm writing thus far, your proficiency level is high enough. Imagine that you're learning a foreign language - Vietnamese, for example. You'd be cursing the leopard by the time I'm through with the lesson, especially after a True/False quiz question that goes " A leopard's tail is shorter than its body". That's the situation with my kids - some of them can't even read in English.
Thank you so much to the GPK for assigning the last classes to us, and being stern about enforcing the school 'policy' that you don't give the best classes to practicum teachers. Thank you for your double standards and giving my classmates the first two classes last semester, thus giving them a good experience and making me choose this school. I don't mind teaching weak students. But let me teach them MY way, please. This unnecessary overloading of information is not going to do them any good.
And the stupid activity book and workbook don't provide answers, so sometimes I'm not even sure if my answers are entirely accurate. I'm an ENGLISH teacher, not a SCIENCE teacher. Am I supposed to do research on every safari animal and find out facts about them which have nothing to do with language proficiency? Difficult thing is, some of the better pupils have read up on their own, and they know more than I do. I'm too cautious to agree with everything they say, but at the same time, I know that I don't know everything a certain animal eats. Oh and did I mention I have a time limit to cover everything? This topic is supposed to take only 1.5 weeks because we're behind time and we have to cover everything before the final exam.
*sigh*
Don't come to this school. It's crazy. And for all that talk about putting pupils first, I don't see that happening. All I see is a school obsessed with its title, and striving for another one without caring about the welfare of the last classes. I feel so restricted with my lesson plans, and I'm pressured to add in interesting activities so that the pupils get involved and are happy to be in my class. But that's at the expense of the material I manage to cover. I should've listened when the seniors said it was a blacklisted school. I shouldn't have listened to my classmates who went there.
Lord, help me. Please. I have another 7 weeks to go.
Maybe you should just ditch the textbook and go with what you feel is better for the students...
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