Surprise Test Answers for Dr.Leong

Year 4B

Lesson Description: “Googling” for answers (questions prepared by the teacher) and typing out the answers in full sentences on MS_Word.

Time: 30 minutes


1. Self-concerns.

The class was popular for having the noisiest bunch of pupils in the school, so I questioned my own ability to teach. I thought I was going to have a hard time controlling the class and making sure they were disciplined enough to be engaged in the lesson I had prepared.

I divided the pupils into groups of three or four and instructed them to be seated on the seats I had already assigned and made sure that each group was of mixed abilities before starting the lesson.

Right after it was the time for their practical activity, the pupils began to talk. I immediately told those who talked to keep quiet or at least talk in a lower tone. The pupils were obedient for less than 5 minutes and they began to talk again, and even noisier than the last time, so at that time, I was annoyed and I tried my best to not scream in anger. I gave the children a very angry look and began my ‘silent mode’. The head of the class noticed I was angry and told his friends to stay quiet or keep it at a minimal level. This succeeded and I didn’t even have to scream!

Talking noisily and purposeless is one problem, the other problem is, those pupils who chose to walk around instead of doing their work, and the worse part – bullying! I found out that one pupil actually asked for money from a classmate who was in the Special Education. I almost lost my bits of patience at this point as bullying is one of the things I hate most as it reminds me during my schooling time! My solution to this problem in the class was, I let the ‘bully’ use my PC and work alone, on his own. The other pupils were being noble at this time; I guess they were afraid of my loud voice. Eeek! Due to time constraints, they couldn’t get to the last 2 questions but they managed to do most of their work, which was already good enough for me. This class, as written earlier, is popular for having discipline problems, so them finishing their class activity, when they usually 70% never do during most of other lessons, was awesome!

2. Task Concerns

2.1) Lack of Equipment, “Broken Equipment” and “Used Equipment”.
- Lots of ‘mice’ or ‘mouses’ were missing.
- Inadequate amount of PCs available.
- Teachers in the school come and use the PC whenever they please, regardless of there are lessons conducted. They would just tell the pupils (those seated at the PC they want to use) to get off their seats. I tried to tell them that lessons are conducted, but, it didn’t work. I locked the room from inside the lab, but, they kept knocking and it interrupted the class. Weird huh?

2.2) Learning Environment / Expectations

Regardless of the noisiness and several interruptions, majority of the pupils actually were able to carry out their tasks. Due to time constraints, they just couldn’t finish all 5 questions I had prepared but, the outcomes of what they managed to do were very satisfying and unexpected. Those who weren’t able to do so were not pushed aside, I re-taught them spontaneously and tried my best to make them understand, though I still failed to do so in few pupils, I am yet to polish my teaching strategies.


3. Impact

Overall, although lessons may be slow at times, I see the pupils have quite improved than the first time I stepped in. They now are not afraid of the sight of technology anymore, and ICT is no longer a horrifying word. They now can and ‘want’ to work with PCs and utilize the technology for their learning (although a bit slow-paced).

I, on the other hand, need to learn more on the ‘catering to individual needs’ bit. This has been an issue for my teachings as I find it tough to cater to the individual needs in a 30 minutes lesson. Minus the time taken by previous lessons, walking to the computer lab, I approximately have only about 20 minutes to carry out my lesson. It’s frustrating, but, what to do?