Reflections: Session Two.

Fri, 15 Aug 2008
2 min read
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  • K: What I already KNOW about this week’s topic.
    This week’s topic was something that was completely new to me – while I vaguely understood that teachers also had to practice ‘customer service’ and focus on giving their customers (i.e. their students) what they wanted, I never knew about the practice of Engaged Learning, and that it was a formalised set of rules/procedures on how to provide that form of ‘customer service’ to students, in terms of “student-centred learning”. I’m glad for this week’s lesson, as it definitely gave me something new to think about and reflect on.

  • W: What I WANT TO LEARN.
    I want to learn about – you guessed it – Engaged Learning, as it’s a topic that I sorely need to gain a greater sense of awareness about. Specifically, I want to know how to better translate the methodologies of engaged learning into lessons that are relevant, entertaining and educational for students.
  • L: What I LEARNED this week.
    I learnt that Engaged Learning, together with the use of ICT, possess opportunities for providing:

    • Collaboration, where users are able to interact with one another,
    • Authentic contexts/environment, where users are situated within real-life examples in their learning journey,
    • Scaffolding, where users are given adequate support structures to make meaning of what they are learning
    • Evaluation (real, meaningful, formative), where users have a chance to reflect upon what they have learnt in order to internalise their newfound knowledge.


    In order for these four factors to work, we must also recognise the roles of: the student, the teacher and ICT in this process.

  • Q: What QUESTIONS I still have.
    There is much theory behind ‘Engaged Learning’, and it seems very workable. I do not doubt its effectiveness, but one question I have is: will ‘Engaged Learning’ be able to meet the needs of all students in all schools? What if, for example, we have a segment of the student population that is still IT-illiterate? What happens then? I pose this question to my fellow classmates in order to also stimulate some discussion on the topic.

Food for thought.

Fri, 15 Aug 2008
1 min read
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Currently, our students do acquire values, as a result of being in school. In fact, this is an inevitable process. But the values that they truly acquire are not the ones that the teachers deliberately teach, as part of a formal plan like National Education.

Instead the values that the students truly acquire are simply a consequence of their personal experiences and observations, in school. And it is mostly an unconscious, automatic, ongoing process.

I thought this was quite an interesting post, and something that all of us, as educators, should include as part of our reflection process – are we meeting the needs of students, or are we merely trying to make numbers work?

In white and blue.

Fri, 15 Aug 2008
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The long awaited blog post from the Saint Gabriel’s 55th Anniversary Dinner.

I was thinking of putting in some personal thoughts and comments but decided against it. Instead, I’ll just leave you with a photo narrative framed within the secondary school song lyrics. The lyrics of the old school song and the Primary School version are here.

See you back here on Monday, when there are more exciting posts in store.

~

In white and blue, boys full of mirth and life

From early morn, we flood the green playground

In every hall, soon starts the daily strife

Of school routine, lessons and work all round

With spirits bright, our will well gladly bracing

From teachers kind we learn what’s good and right

We thus do hope to attain with God’s blessing

Virtue and Truth, Virtue and Truth

Of life’s true beacon light

Saint Gabriel’s School dear

Here willing hearts behold

When duty’s call rings clear

Mid sorrows as through joys

For Singapore and God

For Justice to uphold

Let us live and thus prove

Saint Gabriel’s boys!