CCE in everyday interactions by Sarah Ong

ZZZ Please use the same subject line

sarahong0601 — 2024-02-13 06:40:20 UTC

Example:

One student tended to text me his questions about EL at night. Often, he would just take a photo of his worksheet and type "cher how to do." I usually felt a bit irritated by the phrasing of his questions, but I brushed it off and helped him anyway because I knew his EL was a bit weaker and was glad that he was at least curious and interested to learn.

However, ignoring his mistakes might have been a negative practice because the student did not actually get feedback that his way of asking questions can be inconsiderate/rude, nor might he understand why or how he should change.

ZZZ Please use the same subject line

sarahong0601 — 2024-02-13 06:40:25 UTC

Example:

Instead, next time, I can address the issue with the student in person the next day in class. I could:

Validate the student for his efforts: "Thank you for your questions last night; I appreciate that you are really curious about EL / working hard to improve."
Point out and explain his mistake: "However, I know you did not mean it this way, but the way you phrased your question can come across as rude and disrespectful when your teacher is taking time out of their night to help you."
Maybe provide a more relatable example: "How would you feel if you stay back after CCA to help pack up, and your friends just boss you around without even saying please or thank you?"
Suggest what he can do next time: "When you text or email your teachers questions, you can try to phrase it more politely -- e.g. include a greeting, type a full sentence, say please and thank you. A little will go a long way and I would really appreciate it!"
Praise/affirm him if he does phrase his questions nicer the next time :)

🤠

2024-02-22 08:37:18 UTC

When interacting with students I often find myself letting things slide on the account of being empathetic or kind to students. In hindsight, I believe it is not good-CCE teacher coded of me as I would only be postponing the problem to others that the student will interact with.

Snide comments about CCE

2024-02-22 08:40:13 UTC

A teacher in my UT school often made comments about how teachers also do not like to conduct CCE lessons so if the students cooperate with the teacher, they can "get it over and done with" as it is the job of the teacher to conduct the lesson and they "do not have a choice". This diminishes the value of CCE lessons and reinforces students's current perception towards it.

We can mitigate this by being more mindful of our comments regarding CCE. Take the school's stance as our stance and understand that our words carry weight, much more than we think!

CCE lessons as "boring" and "useless"

2024-02-22 08:40:50 UTC

I guess the negative perception towards CCE lessons as useless and a waste of time, many of my colleagues and students felt that way and I did not really respond and just told my students to pay attention during CCE lessons.

Inquiry>Advocacy

2024-02-22 08:41:03 UTC

Sometimes when chatting with students I would make statements which reflected my personal opinion/ feelings at that time, eg. "life is unfair sometimes". But I realise that at that impressionable age, students might take such comments seriously and incorporate it into our worldview, compromising CCE goals of active citizenship and social-emotional wellbeing as they respond more like victims to unideal situations.

Negative Practice

2024-02-22 08:41:34 UTC

Dismissing peer support kids' concerns and displacing responsibility onto them to care for their buddies

Should not 'expect' that kids with higher self-management should compromise on their own experience during these formative years for the sake of their buddies

Not all high-performance, high-ability, high-potential, high-progress, etc., students may be holistically inclined to 'do it all': be a leader, care for others, do well in studies, etc.

We should be conscious of the messages we communicate

Mental Illness

2024-02-22 08:41:40 UTC

I had a classmate who was transferred into my class and had mental health problems and would often go to the counsellor during class time. She was given many affordances but it was never explained to the class. Her lack of EQ, reclusiveness and constant absence resulted in her being an outcast with few friends. While teachers would encourage us to look out for her, they never explained the situation to us nor did they really provide any structural support or interventions. As a result their encouragements were not particularly helpful and resulted in tolerance but not care.

🤠

2024-02-22 08:41:52 UTC

Acknowledge the student’s intent / perspective
Address how their behaviour / response may not be ill-intended but can be negatively perceived
Offer an alternative view or suggestion that the student can consider
Guide the student to be more sensitive

CCE lessons as "boring" and "useless"

2024-02-22 08:42:12 UTC

I should have tried to reason with the students and tried to draw connections between CCE and their daily lives to make them more relatable and "useful," and tell them not to have such a negative perception of CCE.

Policing

2024-02-22 08:42:46 UTC

I’ve seen teachers who tried to police a student behaviour in hopes that the kid improves but he just got worse.

Picking Up Litter

2024-02-22 08:42:51 UTC

agreeing when students bemoan the fact that they have to embark on a litter-picking activity at the residential areas around the school; perhaps asking the students why they felt this way and helping them arrive at the objective of this activity might be useful
making light of the situation when students express their amusement at the amount/types of rubbish they've picked up??

D:

2024-02-22 08:42:54 UTC

I shadowed a teacher who went through the notions of CCE especially to a class where there was a student with special needs. I felt uncomfortable whenever she would shout at him and try to shut his PLD screen whenever the student would watch videos on the PLD and not do the CCE lesson on SLS.

Poor socio-emotional wellbeing

2024-02-22 08:42:58 UTC

There was a student in my class that performed poorly in his EOYs, and the teachers think it was largely due to his lack of discipline. His parents were asked to come down for an in-person PTM, where the two form teachers (I'm one), year head, and VP were present. His father and two sisters came down, and the poor kid was just getting berated by his dad, with his sisters frowning and teachers nodding and saying things like "we want to help you, but you have to help yourself.

I feel like this was a negative practice as it hurt the child's self-esteem and went against building resilience and socio-emotional well-being.

Inquiry>Advocacy

2024-02-22 08:43:12 UTC

Instead of just making a statement, I could have used the unideal situation as a teachable moment to encourage students to think about what they can do rather than focusing on the injustice. Eg. saying, "Yes, it feels bad that they got more time for recess. But what is within your control to do to help yourself?"

Mental Illness (cont.)

2024-02-22 08:44:49 UTC

I think that teachers should have been more forthcoming with speaking to the class about the circumstances of the student transferring class (while of course respecting confidentiality about sensitive issues) and also explained the affordances that she had. I think they should have integrated education on mental health in our CCE classroom. I think they could have chosen a few reliable students to look out for the classmate.

:D

2024-02-22 08:44:58 UTC

When I had the opportunity to relieve my CC and teach 3 days straight of CCE-related modules to a future sec 4 class, I made sure to work together with the co-teacher I was assigned with and strived to make the lesson on mental well-being as applicable and engaging as possible.

(i think they liked it! i hope lol)