( Post #06 ) Final Reflections

          Here, at last, at journey’s end, I now look back with the benefit of hindsight upon this module and what it has meant for me. It has certainly been an eventful and productive semester, the many colourful characters I’ve been acquainted with contributing to the fact in no small part.

          ES2007S has taught me a multitude of practical skills. I knew not how to write resumes and application letters before, not to mention a proper business proposal. My abilities in face-to-face communication have also been honed through our lessons in active listening and the ample practice we have had in making and sustaining good eye contact. Breaking bad news to people has also become easier since I was introduced to the strategy of using buffers. With regard to the “7Cs”, six of which I was already proficient in prior to taking this module, I have finally learnt the value of conciseness, the last “C” that had previously still eluded me.

          Class interactions have been a blast. I have never witnessed a noisier tutorial, nor one that, without form or structure, facilitated such a level of creative discussion and spontaneity. In our online interactions, my comrades have also displayed the utmost courtesy in their comments on my blog, for which I thank them profusely. I am, in particular, pleasantly flattered by some of their compliments and reciprocate with goodwill of my own.

          Overall, it has been an enlightening three months. My literacy with blogs and facebook has increased and while I have always been an apt writer, I am now a better speaker.

( Post #05 ) Reflections on Oral Presentation

          On Monday the 11^th of April 2011 at 1.07 pm, Yu Tian, Adeline, Paula and myself delivered an oral presentation on our proposal for the enhancement of present social cohesion programmes. It is on this presentation that I now reflect and for which I solicit commentary.

          I am particularly satisfied with the delivery of our presentation, as I am of the opinion that the team, myself included, exuded calm, confidence and professionalism in executing our pièce de résistance. It was also most gratifying to hear from our audience that our performance was adequately persuasive as it was the progeny of much preparation and rehearsal.

          Our slides’ best feature was perhaps the “less is more” philosophy that went into their crafting. Bearing in mind that a picture speaks a thousand words, our slides were filled with impactful and relevant pictures but few words. The intended and accomplished result being to focus the audience’s attention on the presenter instead of the screen.

          The arguments put forth were also simultaneously presented with supporting statistics and evidence from our primary and secondary research, which accorded them added credibility and contributed to our level of convincingness.

          My only lament was that the possibly too minimalist nature of the slides, while easy to digest, left something to be desired in the way of completeness of content. The presence of a text-heavy slide covered in diagrams ever so occasionally, while slightly intimidating to behold, can be a necessary evil in attempting to fully educate one’s audience.

( Post #04 ) Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

It is often said of the Chinese that they have quite the "adventurous" palate. Compared to the typical Western diet of muscle meats of the chicken, beef and pork varieties, Chinese cuisine is known to include such “delicacies” as offal and dog meat to name but a few. Such cultural differences in the definition of what constitutes food often lead to reactions of revulsion and disgust on the part of non-Chinese diners and can be a source of contention, as was the case in the following intercultural scenario observed within NUS’ own campus.

The brouhaha that unfolded in the Office of Student Affairs was between two students who shared a room in a hostel, one hailing from China and the other from Europe. A pigeon had flown into their room through the window while the European was away and the Chinese roommate had caught and cooked it. When the European returned, she was appalled by the Chinese student’s offer of a piece of the cooked pigeon. To make matters worse, there was an ongoing bird flu epidemic. So off they trouped to the OSA to settle their grievances in an incomprehensible shouting match mediated by a bemused professor who, experienced as he was, could not understand a word of the incoherent screaming, nor placate them for that matter. Ultimately, both parties left dissatisfied and changed hostels shortly after.

Personally, I felt it was much ado over nothing. A trivial incident, blown out of proportion by irreconcilable differences between two cultures worlds apart. As the old adage goes, one person’s meat is another’s poison. The Chinese student probably thought it only polite to offer her friend a share of the pigeon as food is communal in Chinese dining. How ungrateful it must have seemed, for the European to react with disgust. The European on the other hand, was not likely to have even considered the pigeon as edible and took it as an affront to her dignity when asked to eat a bird caught off the streets. Neither willing to postpone judgment of the other’s culture nor able place herself in the other’s perspective, the miscommunication was inevitable.

Falling out over trivia, but for a lack of cultural sensitivity their friendship might have endured, is that not the grandest of tragic misunderstandings?

( Post #03 ) Application Letter – 2nd Draft

Isaac Schroeder

xxxxxxx Avenue x

Block xxx, #xx-xxx

Singapore xxxxxx

telephone: xxxxxxxx

email: xxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.com

10^th February 2011

Ms Janet Teo

Manager, Human Resource Office

Ministry of Education, Singapore

1 North Buona Vista Drive

Singapore 138675

Dear Ms Teo,

Physics Teacher, Teaching Career Track

I am enclosing my Résumé in response to your advertisement for the above post which appeared on the Ministry of Education’s official website on 1^st February 2011.

I have recently graduated from the National University of Singapore with an Honours degree in Physics and specialisation in Astrophysics. I have been studying full-time for the past four years and was an administrator in the Republic of Singapore Air Force for two years prior to that, with a brief stint as a relief teacher during the period in between.

My time as a relief teacher has exposed me to the rigors of a career in education and provided me with valuable experience in managing large groups of students. Being a student myself for four years at NUS has allowed me to observe a wide plethora of teaching styles and develop my own for the effective teaching of Physics. Service in the RSAF has prepared me for work as a teacher by instilling in me the values of diligence and responsibility while allowing me to hone my skill in being thorough, meticulous and systematic in my work, an important quality for any teacher if students are to be able to follow his or her lessons.

My lifelong interest in academia, encouraged by my mother who is herself a teacher, inspired me to seek a career in education. The contributions teachers make to the betterment of Singapore is a noble one as our future will be shaped by the students of today. I thus cannot imagine any higher calling than passing the torch of knowledge on to the individuals who will be driving Singapore’s progress in but a decade or two, each of them unique and talented in his or her own special way.

From reading your mission statement I am impressed by your determination to advance the standard of education in Singapore and to the provision of opportunities for all children to develop holistically. As such, I find the occupation of a teacher to be profoundly meaningful and rewarding a profession and wish to commit myself to the service of our education system. I sincerely hope that you will look favourably upon my application and look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Isaac Schroeder

Enclosure

Application Letter ( 1st Draft )

xxxxxxx Avenue x

Block xxx, #xx-xxx

Singapore xxxxxx

2^nd February 2011

Ms Janet Teo

Manager, Human Resource Office

Ministry of Education, Singapore

1 North Buona Vista Drive

Singapore 138675

Dear Ms Teo,

Physics Teacher, Teaching Career Track

I am enclosing my Résumé in response to your advertisement for the above post which appeared on the Ministry of Education’s official website on 1^st February 2011.

I have recently graduated from the National University of Singapore with an Honours degree in Physics and specialisation in Astrophysics. I have been studying full-time for the past four years and was an administrator in the Republic of Singapore Air Force for two years prior to that, with a brief stint as a relief teacher during the period in between.

My time as a relief teacher has exposed me to the rigors of a career in education and provided me with valuable experience in managing large groups of students. Being a student myself for four years at NUS has allowed me to observe a wide plethora of teaching styles and develop my own for the effective teaching of Physics. Service in the RSAF has prepared me for work as a teacher by instilling in me the values of diligence and responsibility while allowing me to hone my skill in being thorough, meticulous and systematic in my work, an important quality for any teacher if students are to be able to follow his or her lessons.

My lifelong interest in academia, encouraged by my mother who is herself a teacher, inspired me to seek a career in education. The contributions teachers make to the betterment of Singapore is a noble one as our future will be shaped by the students of today. I thus cannot imagine any higher calling than passing the torch of knowledge on to the individuals who will be driving Singapore’s progress in but a decade or two, each of them unique and talented in his or her own special way.

From reading your mission statement I am convinced of your determination to further the standard of the education scene in Singapore and to the provision of opportunities for all children to develop holistically. As such, I find the occupation of a teacher to be profoundly meaningful and rewarding a profession and wish to commit myself to the service of our education system. I sincerely hope that you will look favourably upon my application and look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Isaac Schroeder

Enclosure

( Post #02 ) Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

      As a significant number of students taking this module are aspiring to be teachers, and perhaps a few have plans to start a family after graduation, learning to resolve interpersonal conflicts amongst children is of vital importance. We should bear in mind that such conflicts, while revolving around matters seemingly trivial to adults, are of profound seriousness to the child at that stage of his or her life and if left unresolved could grow into something more detrimental as the child develops. Thus, I have decided it appropriate that this post feature a hypothetical but not uncommon scenario involving a pair of squabbling siblings.

Scenario :

      Isaac and Rebecca are siblings in a family of four. Four-year-old Rebecca is the younger of the two by five years. They are both big fans of Garfield, the comic by Jim Davis. One day, they decide that they are going to start collecting clippings from the newspaper’s comics section. However, the family only subscribes to one newspaper and both siblings want the daily Garfield comic for their own private collections. Isaac is willing to share but the younger and more selfish Rebecca is not.

      On the surface, the conflict appears to be over newspaper clippings. However, this latest dispute is actually a symptom masking a deeper source of sibling rivalry. Isaac is bitter that his elders always insist that he give in to his sister on the grounds that she is younger. Rebecca, on the other hand, is tired of living in her brother’s shadow, of being endlessly compared to him because his grades are better and of receiving hand-me-down toys and clothes from him. She attempts to distinguish herself from him in as many ways as possible, to the extent of deluding herself into thinking that she likes everything he doesn’t and hates everything he does even though they share similar tastes. She even refuses to acknowledge their family resemblance.

      The argument over who gets the newspaper clippings is just the most recent manifestation of their constant rivalry, with both parties reluctant to “lose” this symbolic battle of wills.

      If you were either Isaac or Rebecca, or one of their parents or grandparents, what would you suggest as a satisfactory resolution to this conflict at its superficial and deeper levels?

Peer Teaching Group 2 – Resumes & Application Letters

Dear classmates, how's my driving peer teaching? On Monday the 31^st of January 2011, Michelle, Faizal and I presented on the topic of Resumes and Application Letters. The lesson plan was as follows:

Content

·         Effective application letters (workplace, internship, graduate school)

·         Effective résumé

·         Personal Statements

Goals

·         Educate our classmates on how a good application letter and/or resume will allow one to stand out from others.

·         Teach them and demonstrate the proper way of writing a professional application letter and resume

Materials/Technology

·         PowerPoint slides

·         Facebook

Activities

·         “Spot the Mistake!” game

·         Part 1 – Identify and discuss problems with a sample résumé

·         Part 2 – Analyse mistakes in an application letter statement

·         Write A Résumé

·         From details gathered on Facebook, write a résumé of that person

Lesson Sequence

1.    Introduction

2.    Résumé

3.    Application letter

4.    Personal Statement

5.    Activity

6.    Closing

If you have any opinions with regards to our presentation, please feel free to leave a comment.

( Post #01 ) Effective Communication Skills

            How might effective communication skills be important for me? Let me list thy ways. Humans are highly social creatures - no one is an island as the proverb goes for our species thrives on camaraderie. And seeing that knowledge is power, what could be more “powerful” than the effective exchange of information and sharing of ideas. Let us not forget that one of the reasons for the fall of Singapore to the Japanese in the Second World War was the miscommunication of orders within the ranks of the defending British Army.

            As a physicist, I have found it necessary at times to explain or write on various concepts for my assignments and will likely have to write a lengthy paper on a topic of my choosing for my Final Year Project when the time comes. These concepts are oftentimes difficult enough to understand due to their mathematical complexity without the added confusion of ineffective communication.

            Furthermore, since one career option I am presently considering is teaching, being able to effectively convey information with all 7Cs fulfilled is all the more important for me. Equally important for a teacher is the mastering of EQ and active listening as many of us have at some point in time or another been guilty of rambling on and on without being aware enough of our audience to realise that we have lost them. Finally, important too is the willingness to accept criticism, a quality lacking in many a teacher, as it is through feedback that we improve.

            In concluding, I acknowledge that the potential practical applications of effective communication skills in my life as discussed above are specific but not exhaustive. Such skills are also applicable outside of work and school, to our everyday lives. Indeed, I might even go so far as to say that it is an essential and integral part of being able to properly interact with society and to live life to the fullest.