A Final Reflection

ES2007S has been a very enriching experience for me. I took the module because I thought it sounded fun, there was stuff I wanted to learn from it, and best of all was non-examinable. But the last reason was the most misleading one, thinking it would be light easy certainly didn’t make it so haha.

But looking back now, it was truly quite a fun learning experience. The interactive classroom discussions were so lively and positive; I can’t remember ever taking a module that was anything like this before. Everyone chipped in to make classroom learning lots of fun and that really added value to the process. Our constant giving and receiving feedback was very useful as I thought that really helped me improve myself.

Doing the mock interviews was really cool, it totally blew my mind away with what sort of questions interviewers can actually ask haha. I shall certainly remember ‘demonstrate to me how you would teach the difference between mass and weight’ and ‘give me 10 ways you can use a pencil differently’.

Group project work was intense and at times I felt like I was never going to make it out alive with FYP, but my group mates were very supportive and kept on pushing us forward. In fact I felt humbled working with them, they never complained even with all their own work and FYPs and just kept going. It certainly helped me understand how important perseverance is at the end of the day.

Other useful skills I’ve improved over this semester would probably be learning how to write a proposal, conduct interviews, make good presentations and write an application letter and resume. These are certainly very useful skills to have in the future.

Best thing of all, I made friends in this module. I consider one of the most important reasons why we want to communicate well is so that we can make friends. Not just those in a close circle around us, but friends everywhere, from every background, culture and religion. It’s really saddening to read in the news of people fighting, mud-slinging and abusing each other. I believe communication should bring us closer to one another in respect, not turn each other away in anger or hatred. That’s certainly something I’m going to be using my improved skills for in the future.

Oral Presentation – A Reflection

My Oral Presentation

Preparation

Personally, what I really liked about my ES2007S oral presentation was the amount of behind the scenes preparation that actually went into it. It is much more that what I'm normally used to. Let's take the slide pasted above as an example. One simple title slide like this and I think I can give a five minute oral presentation just on how it came about. haha.

1. It wasn't easy finding suitable pictures for everything, even harder to find the right places to put them in. That nice picture on the slide with the circled word research was initially not going to be used anywhere, because the colours of the theme could not match it. Until we tweaked a few things and found the perfect place for it that is.

2. Choosing a theme for the presentation required discussion too. Should we have one? How about leaving it in white? What if its not professional enough? I'm quite sure at least some groups would have gone through the same tedious thought processes too. Fortunately, one of Aish's and Madhu's friends assured us. Hey simple = nice. White = simple. White = nice. Stick with it.

3. See that red/gray line at the bottom. Even that had thought put into it. It's supposed to be a timeline to let the audience know at which stage of the presentation we are at, something like the bars at the bottom of a survey.

Delivery

Hmm I would rate my delivery on Monday as average I guess. Didn't internalise my script as well as I would have liked so I ended up having to look at it fairly often. That broke up my train of thought and the speech a bit.

Judging from some of the facial expressions in the audience, I may not have been clear and convincing when selling the presentation.

A good point, maybe I'm speaking a bit louder now.

Slides and Audiovisual

Well this was probably the best part of the presentation. Thought the slides were nice! Mainly lots of fantastic work from Madhu and Aish. Cheers to you group mates :D

Application Letter Critique

Hey everyone,

I'm writing an application letter for a teaching position with MOE. Here's the job application ad from the website. My application letter can be found after the ad.



Inspire. Be a Teacher.

“Are You The Right One?”

Not everyone can be a teacher. Not only must you have the passion for education, you need to know how to engage the students in their learning, be a good role model and an inspiration to them and prepare them for the challenges of life.

A teacher is the heart and soul of a class, the pulse that keeps a lesson lively and engaging. Teaching as a career is an exciting journey filled with challenges and rewards. You play a critical role in nurturing the spirit of innovation and the passion for learning in our young, grooming them into all-round individuals. In turn, you will grow both as a person and a professional. Come take up this meaningful career and experience the wonders of teaching.

We recognise that our teachers have different aspirations. The teaching profession provides a challenging and enriching career with varied fields of excellence that cater to your talents, abilities and aspirations. Explore the various career options you can pursue!

http://www.moe.gov.sg/careers/teach/

----------------------- Sample Application Letter -------------------------

Luo Dongyi Benedict
Blk1 Bedok North Road #02-34
Singapore 567890

5 Feb 2010

Mr Tan Li Teck
Recruitment Manager
Ministry of Education, Singapore
1 North Buona Vista Drive
Singapore 138675

Dear Mr Tan

RE: Application for Secondary Level Teaching Position at MOE

I am writing to apply for a secondary level teaching position at the Ministry of Education. I was present at the career talk in NUS on 27 Jan 2010 and submitted my interest for this position. I am very keen to explore a career in teaching as I have a deep passion for such a vocation. I believe my personality and skill sets are especially compatible with your expectations and will be a valuable asset to the teaching profession of the MOE.

My undergraduate study in engineering has provided me with a practical set of skills in the applications of math and science. In particular, I enjoy analyzing problems and proposing different creative solutions to them. I build this investigative and flexible approach into the opportunities I am given to teach as well. A tuition student of mine remarked that she enjoyed our math lessons because of the different perspectives I encouraged her to take at problem solving. It bears a note that because of her newly discovered joy of learning, she improved 3 grades in the short amount of 3 months that I had to cover the secondary 2 syllabus with her.

However, I also believe that technical proficiencies are not enough in the reality of teaching. Engaging students through effective communication is just as important. I consider that I am an excellent communicator, with lots of experience in public speaking, group facilitation and team building. I have been a beneficiary of 2 years National Service at the SAF Counselling Centre where I developed an excellent set of people skills. The ability to listen, patience to understand and heart to connect with others, are some of the fruits of this experience.

Most importantly, I think a critical quality that enables me to be an effective teacher is the ability to inspire, to touch the hearts of others. Something that I appreciate dearly was when the students of my religious education class asked me after my first year with them to stay on as their formator. It helped me realize that this gift of teaching was not to be put under a basket; but on a lamp stand where it can be effectively used and passed on to others.

I would like to conclude by restating my interest to explore a career in teaching. I greatly appreciate if you refer to the enclosed resume, which summarizes my qualifications, training and experience. I look forward to an opportunity to further discuss my credentials at an interview. I can be reached at 91726182. Thank you very much for your time!

Yours sincerely
Benedict Luo

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict – Case Scenario

Okay! I can’t think of a real-life scenario that’s suitable enough for useful commenting, so I’m going to post a hypothetical one.

El is a very compassionate and benevolent person. Since young, he has always had affection for the poor. He would donate his lunch to a poor classmate, savings to a charitable cause and time to do community service work. This character of his followed him into adulthood. He is now married, has 3 young children and lives a simple life. He works as a teacher and continues his cheerful giving in a home for the aged. He volunteers his time on the weekends and gives a part of his salary to the home. His wife Anna is a full-time nurse.

Recently, Anna conceived her fourth child. She is contemplating giving up her full time job to take care of the children. She knows that without her source of income the family would be on a very tight budget. Therefore, she decided to bring the matter up to El and seek his opinion. Last night after putting the children to sleep, Anna broke the news of her pregnancy to El and her thoughts about becoming a full-time housewife. El was elated by the former news and gave his support regarding the latter. She was pleased that he was very understanding.

However, El also realized that they may not have enough income to support the family especially now that they have just bought a new HDB flat. As they talked through the matter, Anna suggested that El give up his volunteer work at the home and save the portion of his salary for household needs instead. El replied that he could not do that because the home was also running on less than minimal manpower and financial resources and could barely support itself. El suggested they tighten their budget, and sell the car they already owned instead.

Anna wasn’t too happy at this point because she felt that El wasn’t prioritizing his family right. She had had a bad day and without thinking, blurted out that El was always too caught up in all his ‘charitable’ works and didn’t spend enough time with the family. That made El incensed and he accused Anna of being selfish. A heated argument soon ensued.

Max, their eldest son, awoke at a noise and came over to his parents’ room to determine the commotion. Just when he entered, he saw his father slap his mother and storm out of the house. He started crying uncontrollably. El went to the home for the aged where he spent the night while Anna was left to try and console the crying Max.

Today is a Saturday morning and neither Anna nor El has to go to work. However, neither do they have the desire to see each other. El is lost and goes to seek the advice of one of the residents of the home who is known to be a wise gentleman. Anna calls up her best friend and tells her what happened.

Choose between being the wise gentleman or Anna’s best friend, how would you present your advice? Examine the feelings of each party and suggest a course of action for them.

Why is Effective Communication Important for Me?

A picture like that always invokes a good long laugh. The honestly hilarious mistakes that we see ever so often bring much joy to life! However, in a sense, I am also reminded how important good communication is. In the case above, a harmless mistake has occurred. However, more often than not, miscommunication does lead to negative effects such as confusion or anger in one or more parties.

My life experiences so far have vastly broadened my views on communication. One particular example that stands out was my time in National Service. I was vocationally trained as a counseling assistant. For 2 years, I had the opportunity to learn and hone the skills of an actual counselor, communicate with many different military personnel, my own bosses and peers; of all ages, backgrounds and personalities. I thoroughly enjoyed the professional and personal relationships that I developed in that period, which wouldn’t have been possible if I could not communicate properly.

I decided to take ES2007S because I knew there was still much more I could learn about professional communication. Certain things such as job interviews still scare me to death! I am also considering between a career in engineering or teaching, and certainly both require a good amount of effective communication tools to navigate the workplace.

I feel what I could benefit most from this course is learning how to communicate professionally in a workplace setting. For example, in the leadership positions I’ve taken in the past, I’ve always found it difficult to lay down rules and demands for fear of offending others, even though I knew work needed to be done. Yet I’ve seen good bosses make motivating their staff to work look so easy. This is one such skill I hope to be able to get a better understanding of.