B) Reflect on your teaching practicum so far: What have you learned from your experience during TP? What kinds of challenges do you foresee as you develop as a Literature teacher in your specific school context?

At this halfway point of practicum, I can quite honestly say that it's been an interesting learning experience with many ups and downs. While I have certainly been properly inducted into the life of a teacher in Singapore and comfortably settled into it by the warm, encouraging staff at ACS (Barker) - it has also shown me many aspects of teaching that I have chosen not to acknowledge. 

Firstly, my experiences so far have certainly solidified my passion for teaching. Perhaps I have been lucky at this school with its fantastic support system. However, I have found myself caring for the students even more than I thought I would. After these few weeks of seeing these boys almost every day, I have come to know them and care for their welfare very much. Despite this short time, I have been able to get a sense of their personalities and interests and I have volunteered remedial sessions for those who feel they need extra help. I am not a religious person but in this case, I do appreciate the concept of "saving souls" one at a time! I have been assigned to classes at the lower end of the level and especially in the case of Literature, I found that many of them are really struggling with the subject - both in terms of comprehending texts and writing. As such, I had to keep my lessons at a much more simplified level than I would like to. Nonetheless, some of the boys have been very keen on doing well in Lit and I have gotten more satisfaction from helping them than I imagined. 

In terms of the challenges, I foresee many ahead. Firstly, after teaching some difficult classes of boys, I have come to realize that many of them are not interested in the subject and at Sec 2 level, realize that they can just drop the subject. As a result, they have treated Lit lessons like a second recess period. They are not invested in doing well in Lit and in some cases, simply refuse to do well just so they can drop it. The boys in general find the high emotions in Lit quite difficult to understand and have difficulty relating to the themes and characters. (I'm currently teaching The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas). This is quite a difficult attitude problem to deal with as these boys really have no reason to do well and treat the subject like a burden (and even a joke in some cases). I'm sure that I will encounter this problem at every level in any school I teach in and will certainly have to address this. 

Pedagogically speaking, I have felt that the best way to fix the aforementioned attitude problem would be to make my lessons creative in order to engage the students. I also feel that the assessment methods in schools these days have changed so little since my time and still consists mostly of tests, exams and homework that will put any student off, not just those who already dislike the subject. With this sort of system continuing to persist in schools and rigid SOWs to adhere to, it's almost impossible to even think about being creative in class. Sometimes, I find myself morphing into a boring teacher, going through the motions and drumming the need for them to score well in exams to the boys and I really don't want to be like that. 

This issue is quite a big one for me and has caused me many frantic, hand-wringing moments of distress. However, this is a challenge I will have to face and I guess you all will do too... Now I just have to figure out how to deal with it.