Thursday, April 2, 2009

Overview of Simulated Teaching

Like what I have mentioned in my previous posts on Set Induction, Pre-reading and While-reading, I think this simulated teaching is successful in the way that it opens the eyes for us teacher trainees that we actually have to be so creative in designing worksheets and activities for our students. Especially when we talk about literature, students have the mind set that literature IS Shakespeare, and Shakespeare is BORING! Well, that was my first impression on literature, I always assumed I will never get the hold of what literature is all about until I enter TESL and started to fall in love with this teaching course. Literature, which includes Theatre, drama, plays and short stories have trigger my excitement about the world of English literature. There are so many things to explore and being a future teacher, my responsibility to make my students fall in love with literature is extremely big.

Thankfully, this semester, we were given the golden opportunity to do lots of micro-teachings. At first, when Tutor Herald assigned us to do the simulated teaching, I was thinking "what? again? How many simulated teachings do we have to do in this course?! I'm dry of ideas! " However, when I opened my laptop and clicked on the powerpoint, ideas came flooding into my mind. Thanks to my classmates suggestions, I have so many interesting activities in mind for my students. The show begins!

One of my 'bestest' buddy once told me, to treat workplace as playground. Well, for a playful student like me, I take that advice seriously. I want my students to enjoy my class, therefore, I decided to create games for them to anticipate instead of the boring worksheets and exercises. When there is competition to win the games, students will automatically perform their very best and participate actively in class. This is what I like to see in my class - active classroom participation!

As for my own performance, Tutor Herald suggested us to prepare a procedure which serves as a guideline for us to teach in class. I find this rather useful because sometimes, even when you are so well-prepared, you might came across some butterflies in your stomach. This is when the procedures or lesson plan comes in useful; it serves lika a life-jacket for you if your mind suddenly went blank in front of your students.

There are so many things to write regarding my experience for this simulate teaching. Overall, I would think my performance rather satisfactory because I seriously put in alot of effort in this. The sad part would be we lack time! We have to rush to finish our presentation and some teachers just fail to present their very best though they're well-prepared. This reminds us of the importance of time management. Given a 40minutes class, by nook or crook, you have to finish your lesson and leave the class when the school bell rings.

In short, this simulated teaching activity has bring me nearer to the reality that one day, I would stand before my real class, and teach as a real teacher. Right this moment, I have to admit that I am not so ready to enter the teaching world. There seems so many things to prepare, we just couldn't enter the class empty handed; though i remembered some of my secondary school teachers did so. He leaves a very bad impression to me - irresponsible! Hopefully, two years later, this batch of teacher trainees will emerge as capable teachers like Dr. Edwin!

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