My Story - Volunteering at a primary school

Posted to Facebook on 31/3/2020 3:44 AM
My Story - Volunteering at a primary school"

I am very fortunate that the school I volunteer in trusted me to assist teachers in three different Years in a single day.

In a normal class, a teacher can only use one method (teaching style) to teach the students. However, when the class teacher assigned me to help small groups each are generally of the same competence level, I can use different techniques to help them understand better.

In my opinion the problem is not about the class size, but the student mix. It does not matter how a young teacher is mentored, they will still be frustrated because the one-size-fits-all method will not achieve an optimal outcome. It is sad that the system got rid of streaming, and therefore the end result is that the overall performance is just average. That my be what Australian culture is about - chopping down the tall poppies!

How can a young teacher deal with a student rolling on the floor crying, or the student keeps saying she is a failure? How can a young teacher cope with naughty or mischievous students who cannot be punished or reprimanded? How can a young teacher just use generic words to describe exact nature of the students' behaviour or the actual performance of the students in the "report card"?

It is not just the young teachers having problems. In fact many experienced teachers are as stressed and frustrated when they write the individual reports.

Thank you for reading.

The quality not the quantity of teachers that counts

Posted to Facebook on 4/7/2019 at 9:18 AM
The quality not the quantity of teachers that counts

The problem is about quality NOT quantity. While good quality teachers is important, the non-academic “quality” of the students plays a more important part in the end result.

The society and parents MUST take responsibility about the behaviour of the school students. Not all students can be dealt with just gentle words of encouragement to fix their problems in the classroom.

In a well disciplined class with students who are more homogeneous in most respect, a teacher is able to manage and conduct a much larger class especially in early school years.

The concept of mixing students with big difference in level of competence in favour of social interaction is a myth. The outcome is producing more half baked performers rather than students of excellence.

Life experience is valuable in dealing with students who are very testng and demanding. Being able to “predict” a student’s next move can put a stop to unnecessary disruption

School curriculum can do with some serious revemping. That is another topic I shall discuss next time.

Thank you for reading.