During my life in Ngee Ann Poly, I took up BP-NP Mentoring
Club as one of my co-curriculum activities. It was part of community service
whereby the club will allocate and dispatched students to specific schools and
family service centre over Singapore to mentor children ranging from primary to
secondary school. Not only teaching, mentors would organize fun activities
after lesson to release the stress of the students.
However, in the case of mine, I was allocated to a family
service centre that has established a club for low –income families to send
their kids in for extra tuition lesson. As the club is managed by the centre,
there were others volunteers beside Ngee Ann who has rendered their service to
the club. Each mentor was assigned to at least one student and the whole
session was solely based on teaching of the subjects that the student has
queries for. Hence, this is where my journey of a mentor begins.
For the first few sessions, I have no problem with my
students in terms of interacting. However, I find it quite challenging for me
to teach especially on the English subject in the subsequent sessions. My
English standard for grammar and vocabulary was poor enough to make me feel
afraid and stressful to teach my student. Hence, every time I would have to
double check the answer key or even request help from other mentors to teach
the English subject. Being inferior to
English language, I will always try to avoid teaching English subject if
possible. I knew it was inevitable so I would
have to trouble my friends to help me tutor my student on English subject
whenever is needed.
The reason why I fear to teach English Language not because
I am weak in it, but I felt that it would be better for other mentor who have
higher English standards to mentor the students as foundation is really
important for them. They have to grasp the basics for English in order to learn
and score well. Besides that, I myself do make use of opportunity to sharpen my
English language through English modules required in poly. Although there is
not much progress, I would still continue to take the step slowly to build up
my foundation and confidence to teach the students.
In fact, I am glad to be required to attend the English
classes in National University of Singapore as I will not have the courage to
register for English courses outside. Therefore, I would treasure the
opportunity given to me to brush up on my English foundation in the many years
to come.
Very inspiring post. Can see that she wants to contribute the best for her students, which inspires me to want to be a teacher too. I feel that Sandy have a passion for teaching from her willingness to teach English although it is not her strongest subject. She is also a very good student with a strong desire to learn the language. She is a good role model for her students. She also avoided disturbing her friends to help her teach english for her, this shows her responsibility and independent character. In conclusion, i feel that she can become an english teacher in the future with her upright character and passion for teaching.
ReplyDeleteThere is a minor issue on sentence structure e.g During my life in poly,... Would it be better if it is "During my poly life,.." Second paragraph, instead of "in the case of mine", it could be "in my case". It is "other volunteers.." not "others volunteers" (I believe it could just be an accidental spelling error.)
ReplyDeleteIn terms of formality, in the third paragraph, "re-confirm" can replace "double check".
Overall, there is a flow of idea. Smooth delivery as there is no difficulty in understanding her piece of work. A motivating personal encounter.
On a side note, a positive learning spirit. Thanks for sharing :)
Hey Sandy. This experience is very inspiring. I feel you have described it very clearly by organizing your paragraphs well. I can see the flow of ideas from the first paragraph to the last.
ReplyDeleteHowever i can also see some grammatical errors in your writing.
For instance, in your third paragraph, you have started of in the present tense while talking about an experience you have had in the past. You have even used the future tense in one sentence. I feel you should be more careful with that.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this. Good job :)
Sandy,
ReplyDeleteWhat you did for the children in the Family Service Centre was very worthwhile and I am so pleased you reflected upon your feelings toward teaching the children. It must have been a little scary to teach the kids when you were not so confident in your ability. One way to improve your English to ask questions related to aspects of English that you are not certain about. Hopefully you now have a better understanding of grammar rules. Are you still teaching the children? Please make sure you ask me to help if you have questions, ok? From what I could see in your writing, you tend to be weak in the use of tenses.
Organisation and content: This is a reasonably well-structured piece of writing and your writing flows very coherently from the beginning to the end.
Language:
1. Can you see the inconsistency in the use of tenses in the sentence below?
. It was part of community service whereby the club will allocate and dispatched students to specific schools and family service centre over Singapore to mentor children ranging from primary to secondary school.
2. Unclear start to the sentence. Who was not only teaching? You should make sure the subject of your sentence is clear.
Not only teaching, mentors would organize fun activities after lesson to release the stress of the students.
3. Can you see why ‘others volunteers’ is incorrect?
As the club is managed by the centre, there were others volunteers beside Ngee Ann who has rendered their service to the club.
4. Missing article ‘the’ in front of ‘teaching…’. Do you know why?
Each mentor was assigned to at least one student and the whole session was solely based on ++teaching of the subjects that the student has queries for. Hence, this is where my journey of a mentor begins.
5. Incorrect use of present tense ‘I have no problem’… ‘I find…’. Do you know why they are incorrect?
i. For the first few sessions, I have no problem with my students in terms of interacting. However, I find it quite challenging for me to teach especially on the English subject in the subsequent sessions.
6. Again, can you spot the error with the use of tenses?
The reason why I fear to teach English Language not because I am weak in it, but I felt that it would be better for other mentor who have higher English standards to mentor the students as foundation is really important for them.
Blogging buddies,
ReplyDeleteYou wrote some valid comments. I agree, Sandy's post is very inspiring!