I did my community field experience at Richmond Christian School’s secondary campus from April 27 through May 15. The following is a recap of my learning from this rewarding experience.

First week reflections

This week I observed Mr. Ong and Mrs. Nitta’s classes. It was agreed that I would be teaching Mr. Ong’s Math 9 Accelerated classes in Block A and B on Monday and Wednesday in week 2 and Mrs. Nitta’s Pre-Calculus 12 classes in Block F and H next Tuesday, and the same classes in the same blocks in week 3.

I am glad that I had the opportunity to observe math and physics specialists teaching grade 9 through 12 students. My specialty is business education but I am also interested in exploring other teachables. The first week’s observation gave me valuable insight into how math is taught in secondary schools and I feel I can do a reasonably good job in teaching the subject up to Pre-Calculus 12.

Second week reflections

I taught Mr. Ong and Mrs. Nitta’s classes reasonably well. I was competent in the knowledge and skills needed to do a good job in delivering content and leading meaningful discussions and student learning. I responded to Mr. Ong and Mrs. Nitta’s feedback by addressing a few students’ specific needs, speaking a bit louder in one of Mrs. Nitta’s classes, and varying the setup of student-focused activities to reflect the different learning styles of the classes. I had also collected feedback anonymously from students so that I was able to address their preferences and expectations upfront. I slowed down the pace of my lessons and made a point of remembering students’ names.

One interesting point I learned from my sponsor teachers is that they may give you different, sometimes even seemingly contradictory suggestions, but that does not mean that one teacher’s suggestions are right and the other’s wrong. For example, Mr. Ong suggested that I give students time to work through the practice problems before asking for volunteers or calling on students to demonstrate work on the whiteboard, whereas Mrs. Nittta would like me to call on her students to work through the exercise problems on the whiteboard right after explaining the concepts and/or showing them examples, rather than give them time to prepare first. Both had good reasons because the particular learning styles of the specific classes involved were different. Mr. Ong’s classes were made up of younger students who needed a bit more confidence and preparation than Mrs. Nitta’s classes. Also Mrs. Nitta’s classes tend to look up the answer key at the back of the workbook they use if given time. For these reasons the two teachers practice different approaches with their classes and advised me to consider them accordingly.

I am glad that I had the opportunity to observe Ms. Wilson’s Math 11 class and Mr. Kinniston’s English 10 Accelerated class. Their teaching styles were different from my sponsor teachers’ but they were equally effective in helping students learn. Ms. Wilson’s class was content-heavy but she had a way of engaging students by choosing example problems just at the right level so that students were constantly kept in the zone of proximal development. Even though students barely had an opportunity to do any group or seat work, they were engaged throughout the class.

Mr. Kinniston’s class was organized around getting students to brainstorm ideas about what we need to be happy, what exclusion criteria there are, and what the costs of happiness are. This was designed as a way to wrap up what they had learned from reading George Orwell’s 1984 and to prepare the students for another work in the dystopian genre Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. He guided and facilitated the brainstorming exercise with flair. He used the last 25 minutes of the class to get students into four groups to think of a way to “harmonize” a hypothetical society – a dystopian version of Richmond Christian School where different grades are pitched against each other and Grade 9 students are particularly “irksome”. Some of the proposed solutions were quite creative but most had what Mr. Kinniston termed a “dark” side to them.

Next week I will be teaching a chapter review for Mr. Ong’s classes and pathways for Mrs. Nitta’s Pre-Calculus 12 classes. I will be helping with a chapter test on Friday. I will also have the opportunity to observe Ms. Ethena Tan’s Mandarin class next Monday and Ms. Yeo’s English Literature class Thursday if there is no conflict with the classes I will be teaching. I will also help out on the field trip to PNE next Tuesday.

Third week reflections

I gave Mr. Ong’s Math 9 Accelerated classes (Block A and B) a chapter review on Wednesday and taught pathways to Mrs. Nitta’s Pre-Calculus 12 classes (Block F & H) on Thursday. In addition to teaching math, I observed Ms. Tan’s Mandarin class (Block C) on Monday, Liz’s English 10 (Block G) on Thursday, and Ms. Yeo’s English Literature 12 (Block B) on Friday. On Friday I assisted Mr. Ong’s sub Mr. Pujol administer the Math 9 Accelerated chapter 6 test. Earlier on Tuesday I helped out Ms. Nitta’s classes during their field trip to PNE.

Looking back on the past three weeks at Richmond Christian School, I feel my strengths lie in my ability to work reasonably well with sponsor teachers and teach the lessons as they require. Doing a good job in preparing the lessons is a second strength, as is the ability to respond to sponsor teachers’ request to teach something beyond the lesson plans due to unexpected changes. Grasp of math concepts at all levels up to Pre-Calculus 12 is an added strength.

While preparing for new lessons it is always a good idea to over plan so that one has the flexibility to respond to unexpected changes and make adjustments as required by new situations.

About 15 percent of all people are visual learners. So including visuals in one’s lessons is generally a good idea. As a rule, the younger the class, the more visuals one should incorporate in one’s lessons.

My CFE provided another context for me to appreciate the theories and various schools of pedagogy I had learned in my UBC BEd courses. The experience gave me valuable insight into how theories and methodologies are grounded in everyday activities and guide many teachers’ practices.