SO UN D I N G T H E T E A CH IN G
2
Exposition
Ben had failed his practicum and would be doing his re-practicum at our
school. Being the only music teacher, I naturally became his mentor.
A few questions popped up in my mind: “What could have gone wrong at
his last practicum?” “Will I have a difficult time with this trainee?”
My HoD cautioned me that I had to really prepare Ben for the job as he
would be my co-music teacher if he passed. He also asked that I give
him ample warning if Ben wasn’t going to make it.
The first thing I did was to have a chat with Ben’s NIE supervisor,
Professor Choo, to find out more. According to the professor, Ben had
a few issues. One was that he was not very critical of his own teachings
and there was little evidence of reflection done after each lesson
observation and thus, very little improvement shown.
EX A MI NI NG MU SI C LEA R NI NG EX P ER I ENC ES
S E T T I N G
T H E
S TA G E
S
o with all that in mind, our journey as mentor and mentee began.
I started the semester by teaching only a few of the Secondary 1
classes, while Ben observed me. I had to let Ben take over the
teaching early, as Professor Choo wanted to observe him in the second
week and Ben had requested for more teaching practice before formal
observations.
For the rest of the practicum, we followed this procedure:
To prepare Ben for this re-practicum, Professor Choo insisted that he
write his lesson plans in great detail, followed by a reflection after every
lesson he conducted. In addition, Professor Choo requested that I make
a video recording of Ben’s lessons so he could watch himself in action
before doing his reflection.
I then had a talk with Ben, who shared with me some of the issues he
faced during his last practicum. He felt that he might have done better
if he had been given more teaching practice before the actual formal
observations.
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Procedures
1 Set lesson objectives and
discuss content to teach
for the following week
2 Ben to come up with a
lesson plan
3 Run through lesson plan
with Ben and offer advice
4 Sit in and video record
Ben’s lesson whenever
possible
5 Give feedback or hold a
discussion with Ben right
after each lesson
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