I was of course taken aback and rejected the idea.
Since young, I always love Mathematics. Be it the Elementary or the Additional Mathematics. They are my favourite subjects. I love the satisfaction of being able to solve the challenging questions.
As for Science, I had not much memory of what I had learned. Ironically, I actually took Pure Biology, Pure Chemistry and Pure Physics during my Secondary school days. But, of course I wasn't doing well for any of these science subjects. It was a torture for me.
During my Uni days, I taught primary Mathematics in a Learning Centre as well. It was enjoyable as I know the subject well thus it made the teaching so much easier.
But, when I started teaching my first subject in Pathlight School, I was given the subject Discovery to teach. It was a pre-science subject to allow students the opportunity to explore basic science concepts.
I was shocked thinking how am I going to teach something I don't like and I am not good in?
So, I started off teaching Discovery by telling them chunks of stuff that I have found out from the slides.
When students start to ask questions, you will be surprised that they are only in Primary 2. I realised that there was so much that I didn't know about science. It became more interesting as I started to explore the concepts on my own.
We started to do more hands-on activities that are relevant to the topics. We have songs and stories that are engaging and relevant at the same time. There were some mini experiments whenever possible. Pictures replace the lengthy words and information were kept simple and concise.Students ask lots of interesting questions and many a times I do not have the answer to them.
It was so much more interesting and engaging than just passing information to the students from the notes.
Now, I start to like Science! =)
It was amazing how teaching my students actually changed my long standing perspective on the boring old Science subject.
#Teaching should be full of ideas instead of facts.
