Baby blogpost of 2011

Having neglected this blog for about half a year, I have decided to dedicate and commit more time to my blog on a more regular basis. This is also because many of my colleagues have consistently and diligently blogged and have been using blogging as a platform to share professional knowledge and learning. The latest to join was my neighbour colleague, Zuraida. She has finally started a blog of her own (it was quite amusing as she took a LONG time deciding on the colours and a name for her blog and even asked us to vote for the titles that she came up with) and she was very proud of it when she was able to lauch it off!

I would like to start by sharing my key roles for 2011.

1) Physics Coordinator:
I was assigned this role last year in 2010. At that point in time, I was still learning about the ropes on how to coordinate a unit. I would honestly admit that in 2010, I was still struggling to cope with the different responsibilities assigned to me. Nevertheless, I had mentors (Latifah and Azlin) to guide me. This year, I feel better prepared to cope with this coordinator role and thus, am feeling more enthusiastic and optimistic. I have a great team working with me and I strongly believe that my team colleagues are all committed to work towards the quality teaching and learning of the pupils. Aside from vetting exam papers, I am aware that I will need to mentor the beginning teachers especially on AfL (currently our key mantra for our school) and at the same time, upgrade my own professional learning and understanding of AfL. Everytime when I do something related to teaching and learning, I must ensure that I consistently 'THINK and DO AfL.'

2) Curriculum Development unit:
In view of the rapidly changing society in terms of technology and knowledge, MOE has came up with the 21st century set of skills. These skills are important to the pupils to ensure that they are life-long learners to continuously stay relevant. Currently, there are common skills across some departments but they are taught differently and assessed differently by the different teachers. Each IP head has been given two documents: one from CPDD and one from SEAB. However, the SEAB document has been continuously emphasised as our immediate priority is to help our pupils to achieve good results in the O-Level Exams. Hence, our task would be to find common skills between the CPDD and the 21st century skills and see how they can be incorporated into the teaching and learning of students. I foresee this as a possible crafting out of a 'new' curriculum, something that will not take effect immediately but I think that they will have a huge impact on our students.

With my roles clearly laid out, I am reminded that this is one reason why it is so important to reflect. It has definitely made my thoughts clearer!

Lastly, my personal mission statement: "To be a humble servant of God, a positive influence in the lives of others and to continuously strive to be a better person."