Evaluated

Hello again. Okay, on the 13th of March 2008, I did my simulated teaching on Oedipus the King. The reason why I chose this play is because it is the play that most of us are most familiar with. I did this simulated teaching on my own without having a partner because I want to really prepare and train myself to become an independent teacher. If I get too dependent on others, how am I going to teach students after I graduate later, which is just 2 years from now? I also need to build my self-confidence to be a really respected teacher. After finishing this simulated teaching, Miss Siti Norbaiti explained to me why my first exercise (worksheet) is rather not appropriate for the pre-reading stage. It is because I asked students to underline Oedipus’ speech that ends with a question mark (?) or an exclamation mark (?). This kind of instruction will make students to not listen while I read as they can see the punctuation marks clearly on the worksheet. To tell you the truth, I didn’t think of it that way when I create that task. I guess I wasn’t that aware of the students’ point of view. That is the only one comment I got from her. But the most fun thing about this experience is when I got back the evaluation sheets from my fellow future teachers. This is when all the stuffs that I didn’t realize before come into realization. Hmm. Does that make sense to you? Well, anyway. Some people say that my set induction is very clear which is a very good response. But, some also said that although it is clear, I could’ve find for another alternatives instead of using pictures to attract student’s attention. True, I agree. Because I did it very last minute (the night before), my source is only the clip-arts from Microsoft Word. Yeah, everyone says that I’m lazy and now I finally begin to agree. Thank God I managed to photocopy everything before the class starts. During my set-induction, some say that it is a short one and that it could have been better if I explained it in a detailed manner. I did explain my best but maybe some people couldn’t understand. There are a lot of people who commented on my pre-reading activity. They said that it is a rather long extract and like I said earlier the task is not suitable. I only found out about the extract being lengthy when I read the extract that day. I should’ve been more prepared but there’s no point in me dwelling on the past now, is there? They also said that I read the extract quite fast. Hehe. I guess I didn’t really realize that it was rather time-consuming and that is why I hasten my reading. My fellow future teachers also commented on my voice projection. They said that it was very clear when I start but towards the end, they can barely hear me. This is something I really didn’t realize at all. This reminds me of Johari’s window (blind). To me, I spoke in a loud voice but I guess maybe only to the front rows. One person said that I spoke monotonously which I don’t quite agree. Thank God nobody commented on my gestures or body movements. I bet that is something they can comment a lot on because in another subject, the lecturer stated that I move too much and it seems like I’m dancing. I didn’t believe it until I saw my friend’s recording. My language is comprehensible for all and is grammatical with very few errors. Grammar is really something I take good care of while speaking and that is why sometimes I take longer time to make up a sentence and articulate it. I surely will take these comments seriously and do a self-reflection so that I will learn to become a better teacher. It is really nice to hear comments from everyone in the class. Everyone, let’s work together now, shall we?