Q1: What did you learn about the school/center, teachers, and children?

For me, school is the place where teachers help children develop their knowledge and
skill through learning.
In my opinion, as a teacher, he or she shall be a lover of all kinds of children. A
teacher enjoys being with children and is interested in what makes children feel, how they
think and why they behave the way they do. And for me, a good and committed teacher is
primarily a curious, life-long learner. Information and skills that are to be passed on to
students must first be learned by the teacher. Strategies and techniques for effective
instruction as well as behaviour management must also be learned.
A teacher is a counsellor, a sympathetic ear, a guide, and a care-giver. A teacher is also
a motivator. Even when he or she is not having the best of days, a teacher is a director of his
or her own movie who knows the educational show must go on. A teacher is a learner, a
planner, an architect, a team player, a mediator, a coach, a mentor and most especially, a lover
of children.
In the school, children first learn how to learn. They begin to form their attitudes
toward school and to see themselves as learners. In this process, children can learn about the
world through play. Children spend most of the day working together with classmates. Each
conversation, whether talking about the class pet or deciding which colour block to put on top
of their tower, helps children develop their thoughts and language. Subject areas arent
separate in their minds or in the classroom. The objects children find on a nature walk, like
feathers, rocks and leaves, might help them figure out math concepts like big, bigger, and
biggest or motivate them to visit the book corner to find out more about birds. And as
educators, teachers may introduce children to basic concepts such as shapes, letters, and
colours. To put it in simple terms, a school is a place where children first develop knowledge,
relationships, thoughts, basic concepts, and skills with learning.

Q2: How do you evaluate your own skills in working with young children?
I have been working at Smart Reader Kids Tanah Merah since 2007. I have learned a
lot about how to teach young children in a better way, that is, to apply methods or strategies

that are good and suitable for the lesson I am going to teach. And I also learn how to solve a
lot of problems, such as the ways to comfort crying children and techniques to teach
overactive or inattentive children.
To evaluate my skills in working with young children, I collect feedbacks from my
colleagues and principal. To become a good teacher with constant improvements, I will
always ask colleagues and the principal to give me comments or feedbacks on my teaching to
see whether my classroom is comfortable and fun. Sometimes those feedbacks or comments
might upset me, but a wise man once said Faithful words grate upon the ear. I should
always prepare myself to hear and accept constructive criticism. And I will have some
discussions with colleagues or the principal about those feedbacks or comments, so that they
can give me some suggestions and ways in which I can improve.
Moreover, I will do self-reflections to evaluate me. Since I want to be a better teacher,
I should have reflections on myself. I love everything about teaching. Sometimes I get home
and think, That was a great day. I tried something new and it worked. They had fun, I
tricked them into practicing some problems. I have ideas about what kind of teacher I want
to be and what I want my teaching to look like. So before the lesson, I will sit and think about
my objectives and try to present myself with more challenging goals in my teaching
progresses, such as I want to get a child who is less confident to demonstrate or volunteer in
front of the class. I will keep a written log of this goal which allows me to chart my progress
and constantly review my teaching goals. After the lesson, I will ask myself a few questions,
such as Did I achieve my goal? How should I revise or modify my plan to be more
successful and effective in my next lesson? And I will use these resources to improve my
teaching.

Q3: Which areas do you feel you may need to focus on during student teaching?

I think the most important thing is to focus on how I plan my lessons. I will plan to
incorporate some humour and fun activities into my teaching as I create and try new activities
and start compiling files of effective lesson plans. Every time after teaching, I will go through
the same material and refine how I shall teach it next time: What language I use, what
activities we do, and what follow-up work I require. I will improve on how I manage the
schedule and how many materials we cover as well as in sensing when to slow down and
allow time for extra practice. I have begun collecting resources for teaching such as
textbooks, worksheets, and websites with interesting activities.
Next, I think classroom management strategies are also very important, for example,
time management and setting up groups. Before the lesson, I will look through my lesson
plan and manage the time, such as what activities we do and how long each activity should
last. Setting up groups for activities is another factor to be considered .
Moreover, I will focus on the types of teaching activities such as whole-class
activities and individual activities. After the lesson, I will compare which kind of activities is
very useful in my lesson. I will think about if I have achieved my objective or if my students
have enjoyed my activities. And I will keep improving myself to be a better teacher.
In addition, I will focus on lesson structure, for example, the way a lesson starts,
develops and ends. These are very important and as a teacher I need to know how I start my
lesson and what my goals are. And before the lesson ends, how I am going to invite my
students to come the next day.

Q4: What teaching strengths did you discover in the field experience?
In my field experience, a teacher must be able to manage a class and in the same time
still be able to maintain a warm, encouraging, and successful learning classroom
environment. And to achieve that, I always smile at children. For me, smile is important. A
smile will make someone happy with no stress. I also make sure that I get this chance to share
a smile with each and every one of children. If a child cannot smile back, I will try and think
of something funny to make her/him smile. A happy learning environment is always a good
solution to avoid a boring lesson. It can also bring fun and excitement to the classroom and
adapt the curriculum for each learning style.
I am a creative person, which is shown in my lesson planning and classroom
environment. I incorporate various teaching strategies into my instruction, so that students
will be interested in the subject matter. Moreover, I will go out of my way to buy new and
colourful materials for my lesson plans and decorations. This environment can be pleasant for
students eyes and supportive for their learning.
As a teacher I feel my strengths would be that I know many teaching methods,
specifically in teaching reading and writing. I feel that if one method is not working for a
particular group of students, I will apply another method to fall back on and use.
Next, my strengths as a teacher are classroom discipline and overall environment. I
feel that having cooperating teachers that are wonderful to work with contributes to this
through examples.
Lastly, I will keep continuous improvement, and this is a useful life concept for my
professional growth as a teacher. We can always be better in some way in what we do. My
goal is to always strive for improvements in my teaching.