tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-300298102012-01-29T06:14:15.177-08:00I have been thinking of putting together a teaching portfolio for a long time but haven't gotten round to it. What better way than to harness technology and use blogging to help me organise my teaching portfolio. Here, I should be able to put in what I feel proud of through my teaching career. It should be quite an adventure to read it later in my life. Here goes...hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.comBlogger411100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-14072443360926062652008-10-12T06:40:00.000-07:002008-10-12T06:46:56.805-07:00

When asked by Guoyong if everything can be taught by framing it around big ideas, I launched into a long discourse on how big ideas can generally help us frame "What to teach". I cautioned that an over-dependence may not really be a good idea though. The conversation drifted to my strong encouragement to include all the five senses when conducting fieldtrips for students and Guoyong said

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-441964664761741572008-09-28T03:45:00.000-07:002008-09-28T03:59:09.474-07:00

Several weeks ago, I had a conversation with Pat. She argued that "impact" is an uncountable noun, and that people have been abusing the verb form "impacts" even in textbooks and scientific literature. I argued that words are invented and re-invented even as we speak but I must admit that to say "climatic impacts" is grammatically incorrect.Back to the impact. As an academic, we are usually

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-83648918370802403112008-09-23T07:29:00.000-07:002008-09-23T07:34:14.882-07:00

The class ended with a task for the trainees to comment on how the course has been run so far. They have to reflect on how the EUs, EQs, DI and performance tasks have been designed and practised. Let's see how it goes....Quote of the day "A person who writes is a writer.... a person who draws is a .... A person who cooks is a ....." So i suggested that a river is a flower!

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-50781002308554620452008-09-18T18:47:00.000-07:002008-09-18T18:49:42.172-07:00

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-3501612144420728192008-09-11T18:11:00.000-07:002008-09-11T18:16:15.164-07:00

At the end of the 2nd run of this course, I have learnt quite a few points:1. Provide an instructional manual even though the focus of the whole exercise was for hands-on activities. Perhaps I have over estimated the ease of using Gogole Earth.2. Build in some structure to ensure that participants do their "homework". This may be tough given the buy schedules of the teachers coming for the course

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-59725622155256366672008-09-02T05:21:00.000-07:002008-09-02T05:27:40.918-07:00

In an attempt to avoid having no questions at all, I ended today's session with an exercise in which everyone had to generate ONE question. I ended up with 14.Several important questions were raised but a main concern I heard was the need to reconcile the need to produce results (in relation to national exams) and the desire and ideal of empowering learners. This is a theme that occurs with each

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-27072633219297042602008-08-29T17:30:00.000-07:002008-09-01T01:26:46.098-07:00

Can you imagine the horror when I heard "I have learnt not to ask any questions", as I asked my PGDE trainee teachers to tell me in turn what they have learnt for that session!But I misunderstood, the teacher meant "I have learnt not to ask 'Any Questions?'". She meant that she has learnt not to end off a lesson with a sweeping overall question like "Any Questions?" but to get students reflect on

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-80636123592021845822008-08-28T17:27:00.000-07:002008-08-28T17:37:15.492-07:00

I had a couple of teachers nodding off in my workshop today. I did this 3 hr professional development workshop for teachers on using google earth for map reading. It didn’t help that the teachers cam after a full day at school. But two people started nodding off when i was explaining the rationale for some of our activities. I had to stop, take stock. Close the powerpoint slideshow. Jump on to

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-33742419469506545732008-08-26T01:22:00.000-07:002008-08-26T01:36:19.914-07:00

I feel great! It was a very engaged session. Maybe a couple of them felt sleepy at some point but by and large we had a very engaged conversation about the "who" are the learners in this course. Off hand I can remember a few characters who left an impression. I shall use pseudonyms here...Bee Bee told us of her background in Psychology. Sha taught in a primary school for a while. Carie organized

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-78277340385047906432008-08-25T00:40:00.000-07:002008-08-25T00:43:34.989-07:00

The session last Saturday went very well. Despite heavy rainfall and a rather chilly morning, a good 50 people or so attended the public forum on Climate Change. Most of them were Biology students from NIE but there were definitely non-teachers and non-teacher trainees among the audience. The Q&A was the highlight of the whole forum. One lady, I recall, commented on Singapore's Garden Festival

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-44451448058066562662008-08-06T22:11:00.000-07:002008-08-11T18:57:19.206-07:00

This came highly recommended from an ex-student who is teaching in a Primary School. He found it extremely useful IT tool for mind-mapping online without having to register, download or do other additional steps. The tool itself is flexible and incorporates many functions such as ease of creating sibling nodes, drawing arrows and changing colour. Give it a try! I found it useful. You can even get

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-64116698948716505532008-07-21T17:00:00.000-07:002008-08-11T18:59:45.101-07:00

Today I gave the briefing for the new batch of PGDE Geography students. When Ivy and Lay Cheng took over the breifing for the overseas fieldtrip I could see a sea of mixed reactions. Some were obviouslly very keen and even excited. There were a few with some degree of reservation about the possibility of an overseas fieldtrip and the majority of the trainees were unreadable, in as far as their

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-32969620932797840502008-03-04T17:26:00.000-08:002008-03-04T17:30:14.731-08:00

Last Thursday was Session 2 of 2 for a course titled "Climate and Climate Change for A Levels" that was conducted at Teachers' Network. The sessions went well and I must say that despite the lack of time to cover the range of topics that the teachers' wanted I managed to convince and impress upon the teachers three broad essential questions to guide their further reading into the issues:1. What

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-83620004954699047502008-01-28T21:25:00.000-08:002008-01-28T21:29:34.907-08:00

After three weeks of meteorology, I started paleoclimatology with my AAG233 class. We worked from the Mesozoic through to the Holocene.... I was surprised that they forgot their basic geology from year one but the looks of enlightenment at the end was satisfying enough for me.I also gave the first assignment out in which they were told to "make the biggest cloud possible" using an online

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-8783659084842138492008-01-11T14:00:00.000-08:002008-01-28T21:58:01.576-08:00

I was feeling apprehensive about my first lesson with the 3 girls in AAG422 as I fear that I will not be able to sustain their interests for 3 good hours.This course has to be mounted (even if it was for just 3 students) as these returning teachers have to graduate from the programme. Lay Cheng gave me a great idea and I took it and used it.We started the session by mapping our epistemology about

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-31138113939775372132007-10-01T18:14:00.001-07:002007-10-01T18:19:56.371-07:00

Today marks the last session on DI with the PGDE Jul intake 2007. I am using the time that they are moving around the learning stations to put in this entry.The overall impression I get from a quick pit stop I did with them earlier this morning was the general lack of enthusiam and belief in using DI in thier classroom. I hope this will change with the hands-on activity. I can't blame them since

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-25312910155715170232007-08-26T19:20:00.000-07:002007-08-26T19:43:51.704-07:00

Tomorrow marks a new beginning. A new batch of trainees will start their 72 hour long training to become highly motivated Geography Teachers. I look forward to sharing with them what I have learnt these years and to inspire them. This batch is particularly interesting since I have just come back from a full term of attachment to a secondary school. I now have a lot of stories to share about my

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-3434776544961299582007-05-28T21:05:00.000-07:002007-05-28T21:11:03.168-07:00

On 23 May 2007, Check Siew and I shared out experience about the school attachment I did from Januray to march this year. We spoke suring the staff contact time and I was very heartened to see many nods of agreement with the problems, suggestions and learning points we shared. I have listen some of our takeaways here too:•Many of the things I teach at NIE will work despite what my trainees tell

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-67821280782316426082007-04-02T18:15:00.000-07:002007-04-02T18:27:23.927-07:00

On 2 April 2007, I conducted a course on how to use existing web technologies to teach map reading in Secondary School Geography. It started with an introduction to the elements of map and map language and then proceeded on with a demonstration on how web technologies like GOOGLE Earth can be used to teach map reading. The last part of the course was to get the particpants to design a lesson

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-67041451523985666942007-03-19T21:35:00.000-07:002007-03-19T21:36:09.283-07:00

I was on air on 9 March 2007.Here is some deatils:Dear Panel Members,I hope this email finds you well.Please find attached, the link to the Podcast of the programme on environmentalism that we did on 938LIVE last Friday. It is a rather sizeable file (33Mb) that exceeded the email server’s bandwidth. I apologize for any inconvenience in having to download it yourselves. (Please let me know if you

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-66107864169018015052007-03-08T01:26:00.000-08:002007-03-08T01:52:09.854-08:00

Mrs Wong Check Siew & I Mr. Keith Wong & IIt is conincidence that ZHSS is having its prize giving ceremony today. I stayed till around 5 pm before leaving and it was the first time the staff room was empty when I left - all of them were in the hall.The final session of the field inquriy on finding the coolest spot in ZHSS was held today. A big boo-boo happened in that the G-portal applet took

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-53705339560073866622007-03-05T23:17:00.000-08:002007-03-05T23:22:49.158-08:00

Yesterday was really hectic day. At 0840, Rina and Yuan Yuan arrived with the PDAs, followed by Phay Fun who was videographer for the day.3E4 arrived a little late and I spent about 20 minutes giving insturctions about what to do. I made the mistake of not reminding to take photographs of their site. In the end I had to run around all the stations to remind the groups individually.The second run

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-77889238070711265532007-03-01T17:20:00.000-08:002007-03-01T17:56:19.857-08:00

It has been two weeks since I last blogged about my school attachement. Well, here is probably the last but one installment as the attachement ends next week.Over the last two weeks, little has happened. The chinese new year break robbed the students of one full Monday of lessons. After the CNY break, 3E5&6 continued with their presentation but I heard some problem from Check Siew with them. It

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-1018161009086620852007-02-15T18:52:00.000-08:002007-02-15T19:13:41.972-08:00

The students of 3E4 presented their project findings yesterday. The task is outlined below (see after ***) The presentation went fairly well and I was particularly impressed by the fact that they really did a lot of work and answered the question very well. Some students even ended the slides with "Now Freddy Lim can sleep well... good night".The whole process of introduction, brainstorm,

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-88112912733818783182007-02-04T21:58:00.001-08:002007-02-04T22:02:15.426-08:00

Close of the day..... The poetry and prose session was not as fantastic. Mostly because the kids are not very keen on that. I have already tried to dramatise it but alas..... the audio recording also did not work so I have to find another way the next time I have a session to record it."... But come down from the mountain peak and walk alone along a forest path. Though it is mid-day it is very

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-86767187297599860302007-02-04T16:56:00.000-08:002007-02-04T16:58:56.613-08:00

Today:I am administering a test for 3E4 now... it is test on Landforms and I hope to see some improvement from the previous test. CS and I have been quite happy with the results from the previous test.Also I will be trying out using prose and poetry for the Geography Elective class later today. I should hope to get some useful feedback.. will podcast the session if I can...I'll be at reservist

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-60926019953294911292007-01-30T01:43:00.000-08:002007-03-08T02:04:11.654-08:00

I have just finished 20 minutes on the cardio trainer.... feeling much better now.I have never felt nervous when people observed my teaching.... not until today. Well, Ee Moi is a little fierce looking but she is usually very nice and there was really no need to have felt nervous... back to the reflections for this session.Ee Moi assured me that it was a good lesson (despite the fact that I was

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-51442441471677299332007-01-29T21:12:00.000-08:002007-01-29T21:13:22.300-08:00

Written on 29 Jan at 0720 amAnother start of the week. Last week was a rather uneventful week.I had a rather dissatisfying attempt at group work with 3E2. This was the Geography Elective class. Upon hindsight I shouldn’t have tried it. I was afterall our 4th meething. This was due to the Sec 3 Camp and changes in time table.The class responded well to the initial part of the jigsaw activity. They

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-83166510772311560792007-01-22T05:37:00.000-08:002007-01-22T05:52:38.828-08:00

I haven't seen 3E2 for 2 weeks now. Last Thursday I only had one 30 min period with 2N! as all the secondary 3 students were at a Sec 3 camp. The aim of which was to foster close bonds among students.For that lone single period with 2N1, I simply used direct instruction to talk about ageing population in Singapore. I help the class devise an acronym LIMP to remember the 4 main responses Singapore

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-771386392961098172007-01-15T00:07:00.000-08:002007-01-15T00:08:46.625-08:00

Today was the first day the new timetable is enacted but more on what happened last Thursday (11 Jan) first. A major highlight was the use of the plate tectonics jigsaw puzzle. I basically used the map of the major plates and cut the plates up along the boundaries. The activity in class consists of the following:Step1 : Getting the students into groups.This was the first time I did groupwork with

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-38360374267371512092007-01-09T23:02:00.002-08:002007-01-09T23:08:21.825-08:00

This time, the Straits Times asked about ENSO and Global Warming. See what they report about what I had say. Strange I don't remember saying those things at all.

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-7254237110801133052007-01-09T23:02:00.001-08:002007-01-09T23:02:16.225-08:00

I’ve just finished preparing for tomorrow’s lesson and I thought it is the time to reflect on my school attachment last week. Last Thursday was the first day at school and I was quite surprised to find that I was allocated 6 periods. The three classes that teach range from secondary two to secondary three, from pure geography to elective geography, from normal acadcemic to express stream students

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-50343098816561396912006-12-28T17:44:00.000-08:002006-12-28T17:48:10.841-08:00

Yesterday marked the first preparatory meeting with FCS, my teacher/mentor who will be with me in my school attachment with ZHSS.My role in this attachment is to do the actual teaching for 3 classes (over 10 periods) in two days of the week. The purpose of this attachment is so that I get some grounded expereince in the classroom from which I can reflect on the pedagogical processes that I train

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-67051539343681558352006-11-08T06:55:00.000-08:002006-11-08T06:57:10.536-08:00

On TV againThis time... it hit the chinese screen....今天早上，上了本地的《早安您好》。还不错吧！第一次接受华文访谈！http://www.ntu.edu.sg/corpcomms2/clips/081106_Ch8_0725.wmvEnjoy or endure...

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-35990778393698136722006-10-13T02:11:00.000-07:002006-10-13T08:01:22.220-07:00

They interviewd me on radioNever appear on TV. Someone even called and ask me to buy insurance! Sigh.Today, the radio called for a phone interview. I recorded my side of the interview but I don't have the radio DJ, so I used Microsoft's speeh engine to make her voice up...Click to hear here...About TV... I was featured on CNA and Channel 5 last night. There was a really short clip of me talking

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-1158840374667372582006-09-21T05:00:00.000-07:002006-09-21T05:06:14.680-07:00

Today's class was very interesting. I had some blank stares and some really excited students.I deliberately divided the class into 4 home teams. Each team had one content expert, on pedagogy expert, one instrument expert and one logistics expert. After some initial disucssion, the experts then went to their expert groups to discuss how they would plan for the coming trip next Tuesday.While the

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-1157949954383742292006-09-10T21:41:00.000-07:002006-09-10T21:45:54.396-07:00

I was walking alond Orchard road over the weekend and it struck me that I could bring the disucssion of how real life occurences can be used to teach Geography. I will definitely bring the dressing up of trees at Orchard Road for IMF as a topic for discssion when I meet my PGDE class next.

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-1157591025386068212006-09-06T18:00:00.000-07:002006-09-06T18:03:45.396-07:00

Today I will continue a lesson that I did not end properly. The IRONY was that I was conducting a session on lesson planning but I couldn't finish the lesson!!!!What poor planning I had. Although I can justify it by the high quality of discussion and work generated by the trainees, I will have to rethink how this can be done the next round.Let's see what happens later today.... I hope I will

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-1156821154251957142006-08-28T20:05:00.000-07:002006-08-28T20:16:42.683-07:00

I started the class by asking them to describe what they expect a Geography teacher to be. This was to help them map their personal epistemology about teaching Geography. What surpirsed me was that it helped me map my own! The trainees come with very broad and diverse expectations (which is not uncommon) but I can sense that they are very keen to learn about being a Geography Teacher. What I

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-1150879772470165052006-06-21T01:46:00.000-07:002006-06-21T02:06:22.983-07:00

Today I met a colleauge from the English department at the lift. She told me that a student of hers from SEAB who attended my mass lecture at MOE mentioned that she really enjoyed the "wonderful" lecture. I really appreciate this little pat on the shoulder. Gives me much more confidence.Here are some comments I have received so far.."R and I would like to ask if you are free either mon, tues or

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029810.post-1150876997115140292006-06-21T01:01:00.000-07:002006-06-21T01:03:17.123-07:00

I have been putting together a teaching portfolio for a long time but haven't gotten round to it. What better way than to harness technology and use blogging to help me organise my teaching portfolio. Here, I should be able to put in what I feel proud of through my teaching career. It should be quite an adventure to read it later in my life. Here goes...

hungsterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06829420204745543814noreply@blogger.com0