reflections!
everyone went today! XDD
reached at about 4.40pm today~
Auntie Yewhwa had already went home, so we couldn't discuss the CID outing with her further..
(update: she has smsed me, must confirm with group this coming monday)
An was still having percussion, so i took mel aka jj first.
jj was having problems with his maths, and it went "
there are 3 times more boys than girls"
and DENGDENG!
sarah's method of teaching came into my head!
so i told him to take it as
3units for boys, and
1unit for girls! and he understood immediately, but we practiced 4 more such questions to make sure he was familiar with it.
(looking back at my primary school days, i wished my teacher taught me like that! i had problems with the "than" too!! and she tried to teach me what "than" meant, and then sent me to my english teacher to try and make me understand.. she shld've just used "units" =.=)& he also had problems differentiating bigger from smaller numbers, and even from odd!
told him to remember
"even and odd numbers don't like their own kind. so they want to change all the time! the smallest number is 0, right? just remember that zero is even! so 1 will be odd, 2 be even, 3 be odd, 4 be even, 5 be odd, 6 be even, 7 be odd, 8 be even, and 9 be odd!
when you see whether a number is odd or even, just see the last number! infront all dont care!
22222222222222222222 -> even!
22222222222222222223 -> odd!
"but for bigger and smaller numbers, see the infront! if the first number infront is the same, then go to the second number, then third! once there is a bigger or smaller number in the front few numbers, the back no need to care!!
2222 -> smaller!
3222 -> bigger!
4387 -> bigger!
4321 -> smaller!
and following that, An came out, and he went "jieJIE!! HURRY! I WANT YOU TO TEACH ME"
and i was like WHOA! O.O why is he so enthu today?
and so i went with him, and asked jj to finish up his assessment books, and then come and ask me if he has any more questions.
so i followed An to the table, and he plopped his book onto the table, flipped to that page.
half of it was blank, but the top half was all filled.
the bottom ones were easier than the top few, so i asked him "O.O? what is it you dont know? you know how to do the hard ones leh!!"
GUESS WHAT HE SAID.
"是那个JC姐姐帮我做的。"
i tell you, i wanted to explode and hate acjc forever. this is what, the umpteenth time that i have the children telling me "is she help me do one." "he say, i just do." "she show me how to do all".
when will they freaking realise that teaching isn't showing or providing answers?!?!
not only are they wasting time with the kids, the children think they know how to do, then they dont ask, and they'll only realise it when the exams come, or when other mini-teachers like us quiz them. and it changes their mindset, making them super unwilling to learn, making our job, the real teaching, even more difficult.
anyway, then i erased all and told An to try on his own.. out of 8, he got 6 wrong. how did he get the 2 correct? cause he managed to remember the working before i erased it -.-
(during the checking of his answers, i took out my calculator to quickly see if the final answer is correct)
so i told him, cannot, all wrong! and i proceeded to erase the 6 wrong ones. he let me erase. while i was erasing, he saw Ro(farah's tutee) using farah's calculator to check his (already worked out by himself)answers.
then he tried to grab mine too. i put it out of his reach, and asked him why on earth he wanted my calculator for. he said "to find the answer loh!"
i said he can't learn that way, and tried to teach him how to do long division all over again! and he was super unwilling, had a super bad attitude and called me "STUPID" all the way.
i ignored the first few times, cause i could understand him being frustrated, having to re-learn what he THOUGHT he knew (stupid acjc "tutor" -.-)
however, the method we're all using is interactive, and needs the tutee to think, and to answer the questions we pose (to help them remember better, and to make sure they truly know how to do the questions)
his answer: "ZERO LA, STUPID"
me: "the number that is close to or exactly 8, but not exceeding 8, and a multiple of 3, is 0?"
his answer: "THEN? STUPID LA."
after continuous abuse poor me suffered at his hands, and after i realised he diedie also wont pay attention, and after he cried and shouted at me and kicked the chair and threw all over the place the workings i tried to teach him, I WAS FED UP.
during the abuse i suffered at his hands, i remember that;
Ro piped up "oh.. later An go crazy again and dont want to learn"
then it hit me that that he uses this tactic to avoid learning. they wont bend to his terms? then he wont learn lor.
last time whenever he cried, i would back peddle and let him have his way, or at least try to make a compromise.
no more, man.
he wants to throw a tantrum? fine.
i put my paper in between the pages, closed the book, and slid the book over to his corner of the table, out of my sight.
then i said "talk to me when you're ready to learn."
conveniently, jj came up at my other side, and i turned my back towards An, and taught JJ instead.
then An took out my paper and threw them all over the place again (i previously picked them up). this time i picked up the papers and said "you want to throw? ok." then i threw them into the dustbin.
then i resumed my seat, and continued teaching JJ.
then An pushed his book infront of me, flipped to the page and shouted "TEACH LA"
i asked: "are you ready to learn?"
he shouted back: "NO LA"
then i closed the book and pushed it over to his side again.
the book is with him. the choice is with him.
then after another time, he pushed it infront of me again for the 3rd time.
this time i didnt even bother asking him whether he was ready. i just took out the paper, and did everything out, while voicing out loud how i got that number, what i did next, why i did it.
and then after i was done, i nudged the book to him. and he picked up his pencil and tried to do. and he could do it!! (with a bit of prompting from me)
his attitude was a whole 360! he was listening super attentively when i did the question out loud.
and i realised that apart from not knowing how to do long div properly, he also had extra difficulties cause he was not familiar with the 7 and 8 times table.
well, my purpose there is to teach him, and to make it easier for him to learn long div, the basics, i wrote out for him the 7 and 8 times table.
he could do all the questions by himself with a rare prompt or two from me! :DD
felt like we were finally getting somewhere, and i finally managed to handle him and tantrums!! XDD
and i must thank my mum for forcing me to memorise the times table when i was in p3! if i hadnt then, i surely wouldnt be able to swiftly learn my long division or multiplication or stuffs! so yeah, i realised the importance of memorising the times table!
so i told him to better bring home the paper and memorise, next week we'll have a competition to see who can learn more! (cue picked from farah!).
and he went like "oh. OKAY!" then made sure that i put the correct piece of paper into his pencilcase to prevent me from "cheating" LOL
and he became super nice to me after that, sharing with me the jelly (LOL) that the percussion ppl gave him.
i brand today has highly successful! and all the best to his exams man :DD
i realised, after the entire saga, that he probably changed his attitude cause i wasnt doing what was expected. i believe i wasnt the first person he threw a tantrum, cause he was frustrated he didnt know how to do, how to answer, to. he probably threw it at the acjc students, and then they caved in, and told him the answers. when i didnt, and actually threw away what he was throwing around for show, he didnt know how to react. so bo bian, just learn lor -.-
and im hoping that he became super nice to me after that, because he was happy that i finally taught him, and he finally knew, the way to do long division. it's quite exhilarating to finally understand something that's eluded you for ages, ya know ;D
all the best to your exams, Jellytarts!!
<33! Beryl!
Labels: 4.23.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Sunday, April 27, 2008
23/4/08...(Tuyan)
This was my third visit to the center!!
I could go the last time because i went to Palau Semakao the nicely preserved rubbish land with lots of sandflies!! lol... does it sound contradicting?
OK, so this time i taught a primary 5 girl called Hui Ru (Cause my orginal tutee was stolen again... by the same evil person i expect...)
But nevermind!
Hui Ru was a really sweet tutee, and i taught her chinese this time.
At first, after seeing that she had many questions wrong for one comprehension, i thought she didn't understand the passage, so i made her read the whole text once.
As i expected, she did not know the meaning of many words, and after we went through the text, i explained to her the meanings of the each paragraph, just to be sure that she understood it.
Then i asked her, "That wasn't very hard to understand right?" (Just as a form of encouragement.)
She replied, smiling, "Yah, but i never read it before i did the questions."
I was very shocked, and said to her, "If you never read the text, then how do you do the questions?"
She simpered cheerfully, "Thats why i don't know how to do lor."
*faint*
So after that rediculously surprising confession from her, i made her read all the passages which she had to do corrections and she happily complied.
After that, she knew how how to do a lot more questions which she initaially got wrong.
I could say i teached her an important skill in doing comprehension questions during this visit, but somehow or another, it isn't really true because she already knew that she was supposed to read the text first before doing the questions, and its not exactly that she didn't want to do it because when i told her to, she didn't even bargain with me.... hmmm....
...its wierd. But all in all, we made much progress this visit, so....i still have a strong sense of achievement^^, maybe next time i'll tutor her again and see if she remembers to read the text before doing the questions.
Labels: 4.23.08, Tuyan
Jelly! wobbled @
9/4/08...(Tuyan)
This was the second time i visited the center and this time i was assigned to teach the lower primary students,
(because my tutee last week was stolen by another person...Grrr...)
First Tutee: JACK
At first, he appeared quite shy and non-responsive.
Of course, that made me quite worried as i feared that he might just keep to himself for the entire tutoring session. Cause then we won't be able to accomplish much, and end up just sitting there in stony silence.
Hoping to get him to open up, i conversed with him in an (extremely) enthusiastic voice and asked him about his interests.
It seemed that my worries were quite unneeded, because once he started to share his interests (about what catching flies and lizards and cockroaches), he got a little over excited and then there was the trouble of getting him to go back to doing his homework.
All in all, it was fun interacting with him, although it really wans't easy teaching him, because he got distracted at every other teeny-tiny thing.=.=
Lol, at least now i know how the teacher feels in class when the class just want to do everything other then learn what he's trying to teach.
Haha!!
~Tuyan
Labels: 4.09.08, Tuyan
Jelly! wobbled @
19/3/08---(Tuyan)
Today was our group’s very first visit to the Lakeside Family Center.
Although it was a totally new experience, I found it a rather enjoyable one.
Before we went there, I was rather skeptical of the entire idea of going to a daycare center to carry out our project. To begin with, I had no experience or whatsoever on teaching younger children, and I had absolutely no idea what I could do if they were defiant.
Recalling the experience I had when I was in primary school, I assumed that if I was strict enough, and behaved like some respectable teacher, the child would probably see me as how he sees his teachers and pay me the same respect, thus making my job easier.
However, once we got there, I realized that I was very wrong.
In the daycare center, each of us was assigned one child to personally tutor. I was paired with a primary four boy who faced difficulties in his Chinese studies. When the teacher told the boy that he was going to be tutored, he defiantly declared, “I hate Chinese.” Of course, that earned him a long, fierce, lecture and some very severe scolding.
At that moment, I felt so worried. If the boy did not even obey such a fierce teacher, how could I make him even respond to anything I say?
Hesitantly, with a distinct sense of regret that I was chosen to be his tutor, I forced out a smile on my face and introduced myself, then sat down next to him and his Chinese textbook.
“I hate Chinese,” That was the kid’s first complaint.
In the next ten minutes, he repeated that to whatever I said. I was supposed to go through a text passage with him, but the simple sounding task was literally impossible and I was going nowhere with my suggestions.
Growing increasingly impatient, I resorted to “underhand means”. I offered him a bargain. If he cooperatively studies a text passage with me, he would get extra playtime and be dismissed from tuition earlier than his friends. (Which I was sure was not allowed, but since he didn’t know that…)
He hesitated.
Encouraged by his indecision, I continued, “If not, you’ll have to sit here all afternoon…. NO playtime at all.” I emphasized the last few words and watched horror dawn on his face.
He finally gave in, and the rest of my job went without a hitch.
From this experience, I realized that communicating with the kids is actually very difficult from the place of a teacher, but from the position of a friend, or fellow student, it was so much easier.
Ps: Sorry for uploading this first post so late...
Pss: I know i sound a bit formal in e post above, but den last time i din noe how 2 do it...
Psss: Ehh...next 1 i'll make it sound less formal^^
Pssss: Yah, and erm...sorry 4 so many afternotes, hehes...
~Tuyan
Labels: 3.19.08, Tuyan
Jelly! wobbled @
23.4.08 reflections
Tird trip to lakeside family centre
C had percussion program until 5
So i took
XY first
Taught him maths corrections
Had the same corrections as J e from last trip i went there.
"John had 3 times as many frogs as Susie"
After explaining to him that John is 3 units and Susie is 1 unit, i gave him another similar question:
"John had 2 times as many frogs as Susie, how many units does John has?" He didn't know the answer. 3? 3+2?
After explaining to him that the answer should be 2, I asked him another question again. Still he couldn't do.
I guess his not focused, so i started playing with my
calculator and he wanted to play.
So i told him to answer my question correctly, then i will let him play for 1 minute.
He listened to my
explanation attentively, and finally got the answer right! =)
So i let him play.
Continuing on with the first question, "John had 30 more Frogs than Susie, how many Frogs does Susie has?"
So i began explaining how he should go about doing it. (3-1) units=30, 1 unit=30/(3-1).
He could not understand how come 1 unit is 30/2. So i draw models and explain to him.
He still could not understand, and start being uninterested.
Still explaining, C finished her program, so i teach him how to do the corrections and went to teach C.
She's totally different from the first time i saw her. she was very quiet then, but now she has many friends and went about talking to them.
She began doing long division assignment and in 20 minutes she finished it!
Her long division has improved tremendously!
After that she left to play.
So i went back and teach
XY.
He told me his maths not good. So i asked him what is 10 x 3 x 8 x 0.
After thinking, he said 0. Then i said wow, this is harder than your corrections! Your maths is good! it's just that corrections to easy for you so you don't want to do.
Then he got very interested, and set some question for me to answer.
After that, we went back to his corrections.
He finished the one i taught him, and asked me to teach him the next one.
It's something similar, and he could not do it. So i start all over again. Then he had to go home.
Yea he only did 1.5 corrections. Just hoped that he will remember what i taught him.
While XY was still around, i
flipped through my file hoping to do some homework. Then some kids there saw a photo i taken at
IMCB, we were wearing lab coat. Then they asked me how come i was wearing a lab coat. so i said, "i am a scientist." they really believed it.
After asking
XY what is 10x8x3x0, i asked C. Then C friend all gather around her wanting to answer. Non got it right. I told them it is 0, they didn't believed it, so i press the
calculator for them.
So after
XY left, i set maths questions for C and her friends to compete among each other. After the first question which no body got it right, they do not want to compete anymore, so they began to test me. I answer some of their questions correctly. Then talked among themselves.
I
eavesdrop :
" Wow her maths so good!"
" She scientist mah."
LOL
after that, i ask them what's their best subject
ALL say Maths and Science.
C best subject is also maths. So i guess i don't have to worry about her maths test next week already.
Yeah, the maths and science generation. Hope they will become scientist like me in the future!
Labels: 4.23.08, sarah
Jelly! wobbled @
23 April ReFlectioNs
Guess everybody's been rather busy lately, with exams(!), exams(!!), exams(!!!), and more exams (!!!!) coming up. Of course, this also applies to my little cute tutee, or 'sotong ball' as Jean calls him. ;D However, apparently, my chubby Ron doesnt feel the stress as much as i do cos' when i asked him when his tests start, he simply said “不知道”. Oh wells ...
(by the way im posting this on my birthday cos i thought of my darling family, as well as tuyan of course, on my 16 birthday!!!
<33333333333)
the 23/4 visit would be the last one before exams start since we'll be taking a break to mug for the mid-years
Ok, coming back to the topic, the visit was quite a
BIG improvement for me -- in social aspects i mean
I let Ron check answers with my calculator, which definitely got him interested, just like the previous times. Needless to say, i made him do the sums 'manually' before letting him check his answers. I made sure his answers were correct too.
I think Andreas saw Ron with the calculator and wanted to do the same too -- which was the reason he cried :[**guilty**Nevertheless, despite 2 weeks, Ron's improvement in solving division questions were not 'GREAT' though there were much improvements
at least he is comfident enough now to be able to do the sums by himself, according to the steps -- not considering careless mistakes and some confusion especially when dealing with answers that has a 0 (zero) in the middle
So, i gladly went through and revised the methods/steps with him
i must say Ron's really good with understanding texts and multiplication tables :D
sadly, we only managed to complete about 3 pages of his assessment cos' we spent some time 'building up our relationship' (dun 想歪 pls)
And i learnt more about him xD -- that he's actually a very nice person (not that i think he was very bad earlier =x)
ONERon was collecting eraser dusts so i did the same, thinking that i would show him something with it later
So ... ron was collecting his and im collecting mine -- while we were both trying to solve the problems in Ron's assessment book
then Ron saw mine were less than his, so he gave some of his eraser dusts to me! (how generous! given that i was trying to steal his all the times earlier :x)
so in the end, i made a 'blu-tack-eraser-thing' using a ruler to roll al the dusts together and gave it to dear Ron -- and im glad he liked it ;)
TWOAndreas was crying, so Ron excused himself to take tissue paper for him! (how caring!)
THREEit was time for Ron to go home, and he actually waved goodbye to me from the window! (first time!!!)
... so that was one very happy day for me :D
Wishing everyone all the best for the mid-years!
Labels: 4.23.08, farah
Jelly! wobbled @ Saturday, April 26, 2008
reflections for 16 april! :D
HI
FENG HERRRREEE TO UPDATE MY LAST WEEK'S SESSION WITH THE KIDS! Cant really rmb much details cos so long since last wednesday T.T
Ok, so as usual, i tutored selly (NOT, sally. O.o wonder why her name's spelt like that). When i asked what is left for her to do, she said "AIYO COMPLETED LIAO LA!" Thus generally there's nothing much left for me to teach her.
She told me to give her ten mental sums, as auntie DUNO WHO said. Auntie Shirley perhaps? I gave her some 3-digits and 4-digits additions and subtractions first, before proceeding on to multiplications and divisions. It was supposed to be MENTAL SUMS leh, as i mentioned earlier on. But she insisted on working out long division on another piece of paper, BECAUSE.. 'auntie said can.' Hmm okay, she's only primary three so what can i expect.
There were few mistakes on her multiplication, now as i remembered, she ought to practice it more in future. When i checked her mistakes, she was happily drawing
ANGELS, telling me to guess what kind of angel they were. There were pencil case angels, lamp angels, etc. aye basically she just drew it in the shape of that object -.- of which many other objects have similar shapes as? T.T how would i know! T.T she keeps saying "aiyoh", like hinting me that i'm stupid or smth T.T IM NOT STUPID OKAY!! lol, 'aiyoh'.. Auntie at a young age huh. AIYOH, "old at heart". XDD
Okay so we were done with work. She took out a jokes book and volunteered to read it out to me :D which is good. I think she alr has a habit of reading! great job! :P aye, it was some kinda
jokes book, in the form of a story. Welll!! The point is!! The jokes AINT FUNNY AT ALL ??? -.- ok so she told me to read this chapter and rmb the details inside. I took about 5 mins to read. AFTER THAT SHE STARTED ASKING ME REALLY DETAILED QNS!?!? Fine, some were quite easy. I GOT THOSE CORRECT AT LEAST XPPP In the meantime she took a piece of paper and noted down how many i got correct and how many i 'forgot'. Lol. In the end i got more "correct" than "forgot" so i dont have to do forfeit for herrrr! hehehehs. Selly,"AIYOH I TOT YOU WILL DO FORFEIT DE! Not fun one..." -.- bet she enjoys my
monkey performance.Afterwards Selly took out monopoly to play with me. This jolene girl, well i duno how to spell her name but its pronounced as jolene lor, or jolin, whatever. Ok, she came along and asked if she can play with us too. Selly wasnt interested in playing with jolene. So jolene self volunteered as a banker. Initially, it was a fair game. Jolene suggested me not to buy the area of selly's color when i landed there, as selly could later build a hotel later on. she told selly the same thing too. alrigggght, it was fair, and i followed what jolene told me too. HOWEVERRRRR GRRR when it comes to selly, jolene told her to just kope that place of my color. GRRR. jolene said,"aiya we're like that one, i help selly!" -.- er okay. nvm two against one. At least im older thn them so i shld have the brains yea? As the game proceeds, another girl came to join us. ShiYing ah? or shi smth, she wanted to be banker number two, ( or rather, 'fate changer'.. you'll understand later.) As you know, there are chance cards in monopoly, you're entitled to one card each time u land on the "chance" grid. When Selly only misses the chance grid by one grid, Jolene and the shi person "agar agar anyhow" just placed it on the 'chance' grid lei!! scheming lil asses T.T and they purposely arranged her chance card as a card with a large profit. when it comes to MY TURN, they gave me a super lan4 card T.T now u know what's a fate changer? T.T plusplus! When jolene shouts that there's a payday, that is when she will drop loads of money through the air, she and the shi smth will help selly snatch! EVERYTIME!! in the end i gave up lor. let them snatch ba. luckily it was 6.30 before long and we had to leave. wahh cant stand them man lol. maybe they are always against ppl who are older then them, as what beryl said T.T
IN CONCLUSION!! IM INNOCENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNT! D:
Labels: 4.16.08, fenghan
Jelly! wobbled @ Monday, April 21, 2008
please read this before posting! XDD
okay!
YAY! farah and sarah have posted, to save me from being the outcast :DD
sarah, i feel super touched by your post! *hearts*
farah, you're damn cute! "watch out for me ;D"
to future posts, please try your best to post one for each visit, separately, cause it's easiest for us to sort out when printing it out. (at the side of blogger got this "labels" thing)
&&! got this "labels for this post" thingy below, when you're typing the post.
please leave a label! in this format (M.DD.YY, name)
eg, this one would be
4.19.08,jellytarts
heh heh!
<33! beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Saturday, April 19, 2008
reflections for 19/3 & 9/4
19/3 went to lakeside family centre for the first time, pretty excited.
I was assigned C as my tutee, and taught her maths. She had to do long division that day, initially i thought it would be very easy...
However, it didn't occur to me that she did not know anything about long division, so i take her to the first example in her assement book.
It was something like 279 divide by 3, so i began going through the steps with her.
After that i asked her to do it by herself, and she couldn't do it.
so i teach her again, and ask her to do the next question.
Still, she couldn't do it.
Then i realised how i assumed her to be my age, being able to learn things very fast.
Luckily, beryl came to my rescue! She lent me her coloured markers and taught me to write the question very big on a full scap paper.
I tried to follow and began teaching her 9/3
After that asked her to do 4 divide by 2 by herself.
Fortunately, her multiplication was superb. She knew that the answer and written 2 straight away, without any workings.
So i tested her with harder questions and she was unable to do it.
I began to feel very demoralised that i was unable to make her understand what am i doing.
So beryl helped me once again, and she began teaching her step by step, increasing the difficulty level slowly. She understood what beryl taught and was able to do the assement questions by herself! I was pretty impressed!
From this, i learnt not to assume that she understands everything. I also have to be more patient and clear in what i'm teaching. Beryl was very energetic and praised C often, she also used simple words that C understands.
9/4 is my second trip to the centre.
C had something on so i went through corrections with J.
She couldn't draw models quite well, so i taught her and it helped her with her corrections
There's also a question about the number of boys being 3 times more than girls, which Jwas unable to understand.
Therefore i told her that there are 3 units for boys and 1 unit for girls.
She understood and was able to apply to other types of questions.
From what i learnt in the first trip, i gave Jsome easier questions first before asking her to tackle the difficult corrections. It helped! she was able to do corrections by herself although she may draw wrong model sometimes and i feel glad.
Hoped that i will enable C to understand what i am teaching on the next trip there.
Labels: 3.19.08, 4.09.08, sarah
Jelly! wobbled @
16.4.08 reflections
today only me, fenghan and jean went!
farah had doc appt, sarah had bio attachment, tuyan was on learning journey!
today An wasn't in the centre! he was sick D:
so i tutored another girl in maths, called JL.
she was enthusiastic and lively!! just not so in maths..
she had done about 1/4 of what she had to do, but when i asked her to continue, she said "i dunno how to." and i said "but didnt you just finish half the page?!"
she said "oh. that one ah. is the jiejie tell me what to do, i write down only." acjc again -.-
then i realised a problem. alot of the children i've tutored who are weak in maths, are weak in maths, because they dont have teachers who teach, they have teachers who tell them what to do, and the children did not learn how to do maths! they only learn how to follow instructions!!
so i pulled out my ever handy markers and foolscap and drew for her a simple question. 8 divided by 2. she knew the answer!(using mental calculation) but she didnt know how to present it properly!! so i had to teach her the basics all over again! she was interested greatly cause of the marker pens (she kept asking for a different colour for every different step), and so she learnt pretty fast.
after we were done, i asked her to attempt the questions in her assessment book. and she said she was very confused!! (later on i learnt it was cause the space given was very small, the numbers were small) so i copied over one question to the foolscap, and asked her to do it.. SHE COULD DO IT! then i asked her to do the 2nd question in the book.. she could do it, but she kept asking me whether it was correct, like her confidence disappeared all of a sudden.. and she took very long.. so i asked her to copy the 3rd question onto the foolscap, and amazingly, she could do it fast and accurately!! then i asked her why this was so.. she said she didnt know, the problem just seems easier on the foolscap.. so i thought..
is it because the practice questions that i gave, and that she solved, were all done on foolscap, and so she was confident when solving questions on foolscap. but when asked to solve the 12-problems-in-1-page assessment book, she got intimidated by all the numbers, and didnt want to do anymore.. so i asked her to go home and revise more, and do the questions on the page itself, no reverting to foolscap allowed! im rather confident she'll do that, cause she was very interested in maths once she could solve it, and also because she has no foolscap (she didnt even know what it was at first)
the only problem was when i got too friendly with her.. she started putting her hand on my face to get me to pay attention to her.. a move that i greatly dislike.. i tolerated a few more times, then i put a stop to her work for a fw minutes and told her to stop doing that, cause others get uncomfortable and it's disrespectful.. at first she kept fogetting what i just said and continued putting her hand on my face, but after my constant prompting and repeated reminders, she finally stopped that bad habit, and became any other energetic girl!
so i could classify this as highly successful...
p/s in order to get her to start moving her pen at first, i bribed her with sweets :DD
Labels: 4.16.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Thursday, April 17, 2008
reflections for 9th of april!
everyone went today! :DD
hmm! i tutored An for the 9th! everything was tight running.. we managed to get through muliplication successfully, and also taught him basic division.. but when it was time to teach him the longer and more complicated division, he became more interested in bugs and flies and refused to listen to me..
i tried applying all the method's we've discussed before, and eventually resorted to.. threatening him. (this method was actually discussed as a last resort, but i forgot An was especially sensitive)
i told him he'ld better start paying attention or else i'll ask auntie S to tutor him instead.
he instantly clammed up and refused to talk to me at all!!
then i couldnt understand why, i thought he was about to listen, just trying to put on a last defiant stand.. so i continued with the threats (SUPER BIG MISTAKE *scrunches face*)
he started crying.. then i was be bewildered.. i thought he really was lost about the maths or something.. so i tried to revert back to the simple sums, but he ignored me, threw my markers around, and used his pencil to pierce the book repeatedly, intent on mutating it.
then i gave up, and asked him why on earth he wasnt listening. (i was pretty fed up) and he more or less yelled "你吓我！你刚才吓我！为什么每个人都要吓我？吓啦！来啦！你刚刚吓我！”
then i had this overwhelming sense of regret and self reproach.. i was exhibiting the exact type of behaviour i said i wanted to free the children from.. what the hell was i doing?!
then he ran off to the bathroom..
when he came back, i attempted to explain and apologise.. this went on for 45 minutes.. plus the earlier time, 1hr+ was lost in total..
the explaining seemed to have calmed him, but it was still extremely hard to teach him.. so i gave him a break.. luck was on my side, a HUUUGE flying ant appeared and he was jumping around, trying to catch it to fed his tiny spider..
he was getting high over it, and i was standing there helping him, and he finally caught it.. and it cheered him up a whole lot.. after that, he was a-okay again! we manged to do another 1 question, and then i let him off..
so the entire day wasn't productive at all.. it could have been, but i forgot his sensitivities again.. beryl! wake up and stop forgetting your aim!
guide them like a friend would, not dictate and theaten like a monsterLabels: 4.09.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @
reflections for the past 3 vists
my name is farah and my tutee is Ron :D
i think he's quite gd at least he's been stuck with me for the whole 3 times i've to the fmily centre
yet im not sure how he feels about me (sounds weird >.<)
anyway, i tutored him chinese and maths -- multiplication and division
the first time i taught him, he too said "i hate chinese" and was hesistant in reading chinese texts
but in the end he still read them but was unable to recognise quite a number of chinese characters (including those easier ones)
however, after speaking to him i realised that his chinese is actually very good, but only when it comes to speaking using the chinese language and his command of it
for example, he was able to translate what i said in english to chinese, some of the translation he made were even better then what i came up with
moreover, when we were doing a passage where for every question, he had to choose the most suitable out of the 4 for the answer, he was able to come out with the correct answer, without even looking at the 4 options partly becasue he wasnt able to recognise them
unfortunately, he could not recognise the words even though he was able to say out the answer verbally, in the end getting all he wrong answers
hence, i tried to write hanyupinyin below each character to aid him in the pronunciation of each word, which proved quite useful since his hanyupinyin is not bad
we took quite some time, but we were able to finish the assigned assessment in the end ^^
on the second visit i didnt teach Ron much at all cos his multiplication is V.G!!!
for the third vist, it was finally my turn to teach math division
i thought i would be quite gd after the "training" we've gone through to teach multiplication questions, however that was not the case ;(
Ron already had some pirior knowldege to division, but was unable to remember the steps, much less follow the steps accordingly
i tried doing 2digit division questions first, such as 44/2 but he was unable to apply what he had learnt
so i went throught the example with him
i wrote down another 2 digit question and this time he was still unable to do it on his own
nevertheless, he was able to do it after my prompting, such as where to put, up or down? bring down or remainder?
hence throughout the entire session, he was doing the 10 division questions -- with my help
when i told Ron to do himself, he would just say he dunno how to do even without looking at the question
i guess he's just inconfident, and uncomfortable with learning new concepts
so i tried showing him an example and telling him to do the same example again -- this time competing with me and without any help
this made him more excited and i let him win, which boosted his confidence a little
however, this method made him rather dependent on examples done and given and solving it again
and when it is another example altogether, he will say "i cannot do!" again
hence i'll try providing him a step-by-step guide to solving such division questions in the form of showed examples in a booklet
i think it will be rather useful since i remembered even i myself faced difficulties in solving division questions when i was in primary school
ok .. feeling sleepy i'll continue next time
watch out for me ;D
Labels: 3.19.08, 4.02.08, 4.09.08, farah
Jelly! wobbled @ Tuesday, April 15, 2008
2.4.08 reflections!
Today we reached the centre at 4.00pm exactly! on the dot! XDD
tuyan and sarah didn't join us, cause sarah's attached to a university for BIO! DAMN PRO! tuyan's had lotsa tests coming up!
this time, An was still having band lessons from the other grp of student volunteers! so i went to help another girl who was having difficulties learning her spelling~
hmm, lets see what techniques i used from the last time we discussed!
used colours! to highlight the different parts of the word, so that she'll know that when certain parts of the word have the certain type of sound, it's spelt in that certain why.
shrink, shrank, shrunk
yeah! so as you see, the black vowels are the only difference in the spelling and pronunciation!
she initially just hardcore-ly memorised all 60 words @.@
but she kept forgetting words, like remembering "shrink" but forgetting how to spell "shrank, shrunk"
and she was getting quite bored too (who wouldn't be, when you have to memorise all the words ONLY USING YOUR MEMORY?!)
so even though i was kinda sian-ed that day, i was super loud and everything! and i had to exaggerate the way i pronounced the word!
shoot, shot, shot
haha! like that! i was going "oooo" and "o" to show her, and the girl started laughing her head off -.-
but i also started laughing after i forced her to repeat after me, to get the hang of it HAHAXD
but anyway, she memorised everything by the end of it! XDDD
and she had no problem memorising a few other words, using this method!
hopefully she finds this method useful, as i find it, when i was in primary sch till now XD
feel a sense of achievement! heh heh!
anyways, after that An was released! and he didnt have any problems! he has finished his work and all the corrections! i was O.O
he said it was cause there was a new "teacher" (adult volunteer) there, and that guy taught him. An also remarked he did his work super fast, BECAUSE THE TEACHER JUST TOLD HIM ALL THE ANSWERS STRAIGHT.
oh man -.-, i hope this teacher doesn't make An reliant on having answers supplied. and he wont be serious in learning at all, if he knows that he's gonna have answers supplied to him anyway!
grr. i hope the adult volunteer knows what hes doing. we'll see when i tutor An next week ;D
(that's if the guy doesn't finish telling An all the answers first. =.=)
(then again, maybe i'll just test An using the questions that guy gave An answers for, to see if An really knows how to do it xDD)
played with the children after that! realised that a child was spoilt, several are super shy. like they wanted to play but don't dare to ask.
haha! fenghan's super good at including shy children ;D
but the spoilt one likes fenghan alot! i don't know how fenghan's gonna handle her.. if i were the tutor of the spoilt one, i think the kid will hate me for forever more cause i'll be super strict with her.
eh, actually i think fenghan has the ability to make the child less spoilt! she keeps nudging the girl towards the less spoilt direction, like going
noo, 不可以这样，要。。。
eh. i think i would have liked fenghan to bits too, if i was the girl ;D
i must learn from fenghan to be kinder towards children, so that they'll be more willing to change and listen!
Farah's lil buddy seemed to like farah alot!
Jean's buddy was more interactive with her this week, i guess!
they were kept busy tutoring up till the last second, so i didnt really see, just heard little snippets here and there..
hoping we can discuss this weekend!
sounding accusatory and frustrated isnt the way to go! @.@
and then, i played with An and his friend! they both are going to like physics alot! CAUSE THEY WERE PLAYING WITH DOMINOES! I LOVED THAT WHEN I WAS YOUNG TOO!
then they were experimenting with how far the lil bricks need to be placed to make it fall, how heavy (bricks placed on top of each other) the bricks need to be, for them to withstand the hit from the previous domino, but still not fall. i kept thinking of stability when i was watching of them! XDD
the outing should be orientated towards science! i think they'll be interested!
but when i was on the bus ride home, i started wondering.. what role do we play, exactly?
this is what i think..
We're like a group of mini teachers! we teach across every subject, but only for primary 3-4!
we're their confidantes, the seniors who impart to them how to learn and study, who gently nudge them to be better in their characters! and of course, PLAYMATES! HAHA ^^
of course, we cant be perfect also, so we also try to mould ourselves to became these patient beings from heaven *halo appears*
and of course, we also see ourselves in them, the problems they face that we faced and are facing, and when we see others having our problems, it's easier to find a solution that we both have, when we're seeing the problem from the 3rd POV.
i hate chinese! i dont wanna read it, i dont want to learn it!
that guy has no idea how much i wanted to say "i agree man!" but yeah, ive begun to be more serious and more committed and lessen the dislike of my subject.. the reason for my change in thinking? my mummy and zhanglaoshi!
mummy: "读华文很重要！华人一定要会读华文！"
zhanglaoshi never forced me to do chinese, and i dont know, i just.. it's like she's trusting me to do my work, even if i hand it in SUUPER LATE! but she nvr scolds me.. i dont know, but i just feel like doing my chinese cause she trusts me or something. XDD I LOVE HER TO BITS!
and of course, the biggest factor came when.. my aunt's malay friend, dosent watch malay shows, but watches mandarin shows instead! reason? cause mandarin shows have english subtitles, and she cant understand malay!! i felt damn shocked, and i was like "OMG.. I DONT WANT TO BE LIKE HER!"
im gonna relate my experiences to the little guy hopefully he gets the paradigm shift, like i did! and start working hard for his mother tongue!
yeah. i feel so 心痛 when i see the children struggle with the same problems i did, and the frustration and sadness and the whole emotional drama. I SHALL BE THERE TO OVERCOME IT WITH THEM! HEH HEH!
and all of a sudden, i feel so renewed with passion for this service learning!
<3333333333333333333333,>Labels: 4.02.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Sunday, April 6, 2008
19.3.08 reflections!
everyone went tday! it's our first time XDD
things didnt go smoothly D:
We were supposed to leave school by 2.30, but we somehow managed to drag until 3.30..
and even though we told the centre we would reach at 4.00pm, we only arrived at 4.30!
so it was rather bad, although auntie yew hwa didnt comment on us being half an hour late..
after we reached, we found that there was another school band who would be teaching about 40 children(from all lvls).
An, whom im quite close with, was attending the lessons by the band. So i just assisted another student, jack, with his work until An came out. ^^
he was sometimes unable to do the practice maths questions, even though he understood the basics.. then i realised it was because he couldnt "see" how the questions are to be solved.. so i taught him how to draw bar models and see the differences between person A and person B.
then when An was busy drawing the bar models, i went around scouting! (i'm a guide, thats why. XDD)
everyone seems okay with their tutees, but sarah seemed to be having a little difficulty with her despondent buddy. so being the busybody, i popped over to see!
sarah was teaching maths, but the buddy wasn't absorbing anything.. and then i realised that i forgot to hold a mini meeting before the session to teach them how to teach!! so when the buddy went off to say byebye to her friend, i just roughly told sarah to use colour markers, let her choose the colour she wants, and to make the practice questions as space-consuming as possible.
then i went off to help An who was stuck, and once he was preoccupied with the question again, i popped over to sarah! and the buddy was still despondent..
so i asked sarah whether she could switch with me buddies for a little while, and she said it was fine, so of course i asked An to get his "okay" too..
i asked him whether he was okay with me tutoring another student first, and that i'll get back to him later..
An ignored my question. that was the first warning, but i didnt notice it.. so i asked him again. and then he started crying. just like that.
then i asked one of his good friends who was sitting next to me, why An was crying. he said it was because An doesnt like the feeling of abandonment and being alone, and he felt i was just using an excuse to try to abandon him..
i felt really bad and i apologized over and over to An, but he already ran off to the toilet while trying not to cry.. i really should have been more sensitive, especially since he was left alone here because both his parents were busy..
it didnt make sense to just waste time sitting there, so i went over to sarah's buddy to try to teach her how to divide.. i used a super loud voice and praised her for everything she did that wasnt wrong. haha, it kept her happy and more interested in doing the maths.. i started off with super simple and short explanations of how to find the next number to be divided, started off with very basic questions and slowly increased it until it was the standard that was in the assessment book. It worked, and she was able to understand how to use long division. and after that, we all had a bonding session over JENGA!
we got to know them more, forged closer relationships, learnt found out what they disliked, and i think on an overall, they seem to like us more and are more receptive of our instructions after that game. hopefully the next session will be as eye-opening as this one, albeit without the mistakes we made. and hopefully the effects of the mistakes i made this time will not last for long.. D:
Labels: 3.19.08, beryl
Jelly! wobbled @ Wednesday, April 2, 2008
