T4W3

This week was passing by really slowly at the beginning but sped up towards our school's celebrations - culminated in the fabulous carnival and performances put up on 3rd Oct!

Prior to the start of the week, I was nervous as I knew that Angie and Mawar would both be down for invigilation duties. The beginning of the week was challenging for me as I was preparing for the upcoming lesson observation both mentally and physically - finalizing the lesson plan, slides and preparing the materials. But Angie was there with me every step of the way, even as I carried out lessons with the P1 classes on Monday. She gave me concrete feedback to work on and suggested adjustments that could be made to my original plans. Her candid feedback helped me evaluate my own reflection for the lesson modifications. The changes made to my lesson plan were crucial to the generally smooth running lesson observation on Tuesday and contributed to me meeting my lesson objectives within the time planned for the lesson.

However, classroom management is an area that I am looking forward to improving, as I was unsettled at several points in time during the lesson. For instance, when I asked for responses and children's responses were ones I had not anticipated, I had to think on the spot of ways to link it back to the topic at hand. I also realized that gathering the class' attention after a short discussion (such as think, pair, share) can be more efficiently realized through a more systematic routine, which I feel might not have been consistently reinforced for all my classes yet.

I was happy to see that the students engaged well with the topic, were excited about the art task and were able to imagine different types of animals using leaves of different shapes! Seeing each child making their leaf animal with enthusiasm, pridefully naming their leaf animal and verbalizing these ideas to me reminded me of the relevance and importance of art education today. Art can serve as a natural and compelling trigger point for students to develop skills that will follow them through life. These include observation, comparison, decision making and thinking skills that can help them break down and understand what they see/experience around them in the world. Moreover, art provides a platform for students to express their unique thoughts and perspective. Students can gain the confidence to verbalize and share these ideas with others by first presenting them in a visual form!

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