Year end takeaway

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Time flies, and we have almost come to the end of the semester. Its time to reflect on what we have done for the year and plan for the coming year. 

So...what do I hope to take away from this meeting?

I hope to celebrate the little successes and reflect/work on the areas for improvement. Would also like to be open-minded to learn from my colleagues sharing.

Little successes

Started a google site for the Sec 1 History classes and Sec 3 pure Geography class to consolidate students work (HI end product) and lesson resources (notes, slides, practices). This was started to let students have a platform to learn from one another's work as well as to take ownership of their learning. Students seem to like the idea of having a site where they can easily access the resources online so I'm really glad that we are embarking this on a department level in the coming year.

Areas to work on

As I think back on the lessons for the past semester, there are several areas that I could have done better.  One area would be my teaching pedagogy for my Sec 1 NA classes. On hindsight, I could have provided them more scaffolds and greater guidance by going through the practice papers in class and doing it together with them rather than to let them bring the work home or check answers on their own. Oftentimes their homework end up staying at home forever :( In addition, when revising for exams, it may have been an oversight to just get them to study the notes on their own. I could have put in place some checkpoints such as pop quiz, mind map creation to ensure that students are diligently doing their revision.

New ideas to try out

There are several great ideas shared by fellow colleagues, Raine shared that she got her students to look at their classmate's marked essays to understand why it was awarded a certain level and how they can improve it to attain a higher level. This form of student-student interaction can be conducted online is a good way for them to learn from each other. Cryst shared that she allowed her students to use a cheat sheet to consolidate their learning in preparation for pop quizzes. This seems like a brilliant idea too as it can help to better understand the content in their own words and build the confidence of students sitting for a quiz or formative assessment.

Moving forward PDLP in 2021

I've enjoyed using online tools like kahoot, mentimeter, padlet in my classes so implementation of PDLP  sounds like an exiting move forward to allow teaching and learning to be more relevant in this technology dependent era. I guess it would encourage sharing of more interactive resources such as videos and various visuals and allow greater collaboration between students on various online platforms. It could also encourage self-directed learning where students are able to learn on their own pace using SLS lessons and it could possibility also enable differentiated instruction where higher ability students can delve deeper into topics of interest using online resources. 

Feedback on SLS lesson

During the meeting we also looked at a SLS lesson on transnational terrorism and saw how instructions on the SLS package translate to students end product. One takeaway from this activity would be that sometimes different group of students may derive different understanding from the same set of instructions. Moving forward, we may want to provide more scaffolds/template/detailed instructions for the weaker students to help them complete the task assigned. 

Have I met my own objectives?

I guess yes. As I listen to my colleagues share, there were several ideas that I could implement in my classes. Have also gained a deeper insight on the SLS PS. It was a timely session to reflect and on my teaching and learning. 

2020 was a year of transition for me, coming back to work after an hiatus in a new school environment and education landscape changed by Covid. I'm thankful to have supportive colleagues who guided and helped me out along the way. In the year ahead I hope to work on guiding my form class as they prepare for the Os, to build better rapport with my students (haha I still can't remember many names having only seen their eyes) as well as to leverage more on SLS. 

In short to be a better version of myself (:









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