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School Update22nd December 2005 What I am doing Not Teaching English So I ditched English, and concentrated fully on Math. I didn't enjoy teaching English. It's a very complicated language with many weird-o rules that most native speakers apply without even thinking. Trying to explain these rules to the kids just got confusing. Take the suffix "ough" for example. How would you pronounce that?
Damn stupid language if you ask me. Teaching Mathematics to Grade 5 I ran and wrote a test for the students. The test can be found here and the results of the test here. I'm learning a lot about how to run a class. When I started teaching at Pulao I was quite disorganized and made some mistakes. I used to run competitions in class. Boys vs. Girls, Row One vs. Row Two. That sort of thing. I'd give a math question like this:
(the answer is 8/15 by the way...) The students would rush up to the board and answer the question as quickly as possible. Now, while this was all exciting and the students love completions, I don't think it's a good way to learn math. Math is all about taking your time and being organised. I have them chanting "Hini Hini Lang" now, which means "slow down". I give them exercises to do in class and they get to take as long as they need. We then go over the answers. I'm also writing notes on the board for them to copy. Not sure why I didn't do this at the start. Seems like such an obvious thing to do. The notes help make up for the lack of textbooks and obviously gives them something to study from. Discipline in the classroom was stressing me out for a bit. Kids would often raise their hand and say "Please sir, may I be excused". Notice the lack of a question mark. Some of them don't even wait for an answer before leaving. I think they have been taught that it is polite to ask, but waiting for an answer is somehow optional. This is something I plan to crack down on in the New Year. I don't think it is a lack of respect thing. I think it is more indicative of the way things work here. People are generally laid back and are in no hurry and this attitude flows through into the classroom. Students often get up and move around. Sometimes they even share the same seat. I think it is going trying to keep the balance between discipline and the laid back attitude. Their are some naughty kids though. There was a scuffle in one of adjoining classrooms to the one I taught in. I told the kids to sit down and to continue to do what they were doing, which most of them did. I turned my back to them and wrote some stuff on the board. When I turned around this one kid, Mark, had just gotten up and walked out to have a look at what was happening. I went and fetched him and told to sit down and continue to work, which he did for about 10 seconds before he walked out again. I fetched him again and made sure he stayed this time. Now I am unsure what I can do in these situations. Clearly his behavior was unacceptable. I am unsure what methods of punishment are open to me. Should I give him lines? Detention? Extra homework? Dunno. It is something I want to discuss with one of the teachers when I get back. Tutoring Mathematics to Grade 5 I think the tutorials are going quite well. Some of the students don't say boo in class and it is a good chance for me to see how they are doing. I think it is really useful for those students whose conversational English is quite poor. It gives me the time to slow things right down for them. One kid, Giv, is quite clever but his English is quite poor. He clicks to the ideas very quickly when I slow things down for him. One group is particularly problematic. For some reason that eludes me now, I decided to put all the problem students in one group. At times I struggle to keep control. Having everybody sit at a table with me seems to work. Sometimes the only room available for use is the library. There is no blackboard in the library, so sometimes I push the tables back and get the kids do their exercises on the floor using chalk. For some reason this strikes me as being particularly cool... Tutoring Computers to Grade 6 I bring my laptop in and run the tutorials on that. One of the teachers gave me a curriculum from which to teach the students from, but I've just ignored it. They won't be sitting any formal exams and there is just no way I'll be able to get through it in the time available. Each student gets an average of 10 minutes on the computer per week... Some of the students have used computers before and for some this is the first time they've ever touched a computer. So far I've taught them:
I've struggled to get any real momentum in the computer tutorials. Things that have hampered me include:
The Future For this reason, I am hesitant to take up more classes. I got to thinking the other day though and thought I might run some mathematics tutorials for Grade 6 and possibly Grade 4. Tutorials are a lot easier to cancel and move around than classes are. I had some other ideas about running computer classes for adult at the local internet cafe, but I've gone off the idea for some reason. Maybe it had something to do with my I.T. retirement. Dunno. I'm going to run these ideas past the school principal when I return to school after the holidays. Questions? Comments? Try contacting
me. (c)
2005 and 2006 Malcolm Trevena.
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