My GTC Accomplishments as of 29th April 2013

Professional Practice - Providing quality learning for the child

• I have tried various pedagogies and structuring of instructions so as to try my best to meet the different and varying learning needs of the students.
• I have tried to create an effective classroom environment.
• I have also tried my best to help students to connect the knowledge that they gain from other subjects, to the subjects that i teach, as and when possible so as to help them see knowledge as being an entity and not totally separate entities.
• I have also tried to experiment with the various ways of maintaining order and discipline in class so as to provide an environment that is conducive for learning for the child.
• Whenever possible, i have tried to give the students feedback on their errors and how they can rectify the errors in their work.

Professional Practice - Cultivating knowledge with reflective thinking

• As much as possible, i encourage students to reflect on their mistakes and why they went wrong, instead of merely correcting their wrong answers to the right ones.

Professional Practice - Cultivating knowledge with a future focus

• I have tried to get students to think of the reason why they are doing what they are doing and how the things they do can help them in their future i.e. how whatever they are learning in school is relevant to their future.

Leadership & Management - winning hearts and minds : understanding the environment

• I try to understand the family backgrounds of students and how this affect their learning.

Leadership & Management - working with others: partnering parents

• I have had the experience of working with parents whereby the parents gave me insights on their child's behaviours so that together we can help the child to develop holistically. 

Leadership & Management - working with others: working in teams

• I have had the experience of working with my fellow colleagues for various things such as the Great Loyang Camp. 

Personal Effectiveness - Tuning into self

• I have sat down and thought through my weaknesses as a teacher and how i can work to improve myself, be it in lesson delivery or classroom management or other areas. 

Personal Effectiveness - Knowing self & others: exercising personal integrity

• I have exercised integrity by not divulging information that is confidential. 
• I have also ensured that i am do not mix personal feelings with work.
• I have not let the behaviours of students influence my marking of their work. 

Personal Effectiveness - Knowing self & others: understanding & respecting others

• I respect my all my colleagues regardless of their ranks.
• i respect my students as individuals who are growing up and handling the phase of life in which there is a lot of emotional turmoil that may be going on.

Personal Effectiveness - Resilience & adaptability

• I face challenges at work with an open mind and always tell myself that wherever there is a will, there is a way to handle the challenges. 
• I learn to adapt to the working environment.
• I am open to my CTs' advice on how i can improve so as to conduct more effective lessons more suited for the students and also overall on how i can improve on myself. 

Reflection on the CST course

I feel that QLK520 has covered several relevant and useful issues for teachers to-be. The issues that have been covered thus far and the remaining issues that will be covered in time to come would be largely useful for my future teaching career. For example, the module on pronunciation, albeit it being short, I found it useful in raising awareness amongst my fellow peers and I regarding the importance of getting our pronunciation of words right as much as possible. As for the modules on oral and written communication, I felt that it emphasized the importance of getting our purpose, audience and context right so that we ares able to deliver our messages effectively and efficiently. I think that such skills as mentioned previously, are very much relevant and largely applicable to my future teaching career. As teachers, we would constantly be communicating with our students, colleagues, senior teachers and the principal and vice-principals. Thus, it is crucial that we are aware of such skills so as to increase the effectiveness of how we communicate.

The module on classroom communication has taught me the importance of the nature of the questions we ask in class. For instance, do ask managerial questions, lower order questions, or higher order questions? If teachers were to ask students higher order questions, it is highly likely that we are able to get our students to think more deeply and critically, as opposed to asking lower order questions or simple recall questions. Giving our students enough time to think before responding is also crucial. Thus, a teacher’s questioning techniques in class has the power to influence the way his or her students think and respond, and consequently affects the students’ cognitive development in the long run.

The blended aspect of this module makes it an interesting learning experience as learners are able to take the time and explore the various course materials uploaded on Moodle during the e-learning weeks, aside from attending F2F classes for modules that are not for e-learning. Whilst modules covered F2F gives learners the chance to discuss with fellow classmates and the tutor about the tutorial materials, the online aspect of the course empowers students with the ability to exercise their responsibilities to take charge of their learning experiences.

Overall, in my opinion, QLK520 has been a beneficial module for teachers to-be due to the multitude of reasons that I have mentioned above.