The Road So Far...

Here's a rough outline of the Educators' Journey I've roughly taken so far. [Also a handy guide for people intending to know what lies ahead for potential teachers, and for frens clueless as to whether I'm now teaching in school, or studying in NIE]

Registration at NIE

My path started on the 20th of June, with registration and briefing at NIE. As a graduate, I was put into the Post Graduate Diploma in Eduation course, known as PGDE (Pri) on all official documentation.

That's when they informed us that we had to go for classes the very next day, bringing me to the next step, which is...

Content Upgrading Modules

Because of feedback from the public, [darn parents...] MOE has decided to make sure all its teachers are aware of the higher levels of English grammar and language, so that their English teachers didn't end up sounding like PCK trying to sound educated.

Simply put, the course is supposed to make us clueless teachers grammar experts in 4 days.

So for about a week, I went for these language classes, and absorbed a lot of information that, as Dr Andrew Lim put it, I would probably never use in my teaching, because it's just too cheem for the kids I'd be teaching.

After the good Dr did all he could, I went on to the...

Teachers' Preparatory Workshop

This is where, for 2 days, I went back to NIE for a Teachers' Preparatory Workshop. This time, it was a crash course on teaching methods and classroom management. [incidentally, classroom mgt could be one of the most important skills to learn as a teacher, but i'll touch on that later]

Thankfully, I had an interested and well-experienced tutor, who managed to teach us and make us listen to his voice, rather than the sounds of the refreshment tables being set up outside with our tea break snacks.

There were other interesting tutors of course. I heard from Turtle that as a filler at the end of the lesson, his tutor played Abba. (?????) not quite sure of her educational purpose in that.

Then, comes the final step before full-time study in NIE.

Enhanced School Experience

I was sent to a local primary school, which for personal reasons, I shall call Neko Primary School, as part of my Enhanced School Experience.

The ESE is actually for trainee teachers like myself who have had no formal experience teaching in schools. [as opposed to contract teachers, who first start out teaching, and then make their way to NIE] It's a new programme, and my batch is the first batch of trainee teachers to be going through this.

Onwards to....?

Now, the situation stands as such: I'll be a trainee teacher at Neko Primary from now till the 22th of July, taking on whatever teaching duties is necessary, and possibly observe other experienced teachers at work.

If my performance at Neko Pri. is satisfactory, I will then enter NIE as a full-time PGDE trainee teacher.

Following which, the Journey will continue on...