first term

(written on 12 March 2009)

Use of Pedagogies
This one whole term of teaching EQ to the 5 yr 1 classes has given me a very, very good insight into the programme and curriculum. After the first week of using PowerPoint slides and worksheets, I kind of figured that the kids might react better if I started with something even lighter.

I ended up using 3 different movies to introduce the 3 EQ concepts: Emotions, Empathy and Managing Stress.

Army Daze: The kids were able to identify the emotions of the characters in the movie. Eg "How do the guys feel when they first entered the army?" and "How does Ah Beng feel when his sister visited him?"

Children of Heaven: This is just a wonderful movie and works for all classes. The kids were captivated by the characters in the movie. They felt sorry for Ali and Zahra and were able to explain why they like or dislike the characters in the movie.

Home Run: Even though the movie is adapted from Children of Heaven, the kids still love it. They can identify the similarities and differences between the 2 movies. This time, the focus is on stress. Throughout the movies, pupils were asked about the stress felt by different characters and how they cope with it.

Tone of Environment
The classes usually take a while to settle down but once they are into the "mood", the lessons flow pretty smoothly. This is especially so when they get to watch movies. The students are very absorbed into the story once the movie begin.

Learning Content
Most of the materials are taken from the package prepared by the NLP team. I added more pictures and allowed more spaces for the kids to write and express themselves. A few of the kids have problems writing and prefer not to write.

Other Comments
It has been a very fast-paced term. I'm glad I survived :) It's busier here, and faster. And happier.