What I am learning when I am teaching

I have discovered that it is really interesting what you are learning even as you are teaching. Yesterday evening, I had my first lesson at UniSIM. All my students are working adults who rushed from work to attend my class, and it was really quite a different experience teaching adult learners as compared to my JC, Poly students. As I lectured on the Critique and Evaluation of Discourse, I could see ideas and connections being created in the minds of the audience, which was wonderful. For a ‘cheem’ module like this, I felt great that I was able to dissect the entire module to its fundamentals and get my class to see the significance of being critical in reasoning, reading, and writing. And one of my students last night was my instructor at OCS! =) How small the world is.

And I have been having Cosultation sessions with my 60 poly students the past week. Basically, it is a 15-min one-to-one session to go through the outline of their Final Term Paper. I also try to squeeze in a few minutes to talk to them about how they are enjoying their diploma so far, on life and relationships. One of the topics they could choose to do research on for the Paper is the causes of youth suicide, and I noticed that quite a handful of them cited depression as the most dominant cause for youth suicide. I think it is great that this course exposes them to many real issues, and I hope many of them go on to further their studies in the area of Psychology and Social Work. I know that they have the heart for it, and that always counts.

~ by irwin on July 24, 2009.