I can recall the words from Mrs Ivy Singh-Lim, former President of Netball Singapore. A belief that is very apt for the modern society where each of us is so pressed for time. She talked about an incident in primary school whereby she did something wrong in her homework or something and was severely punished for it. If I remember correctly, her book got thrown out of the window by the teacher then. Something along the line. This is an unthinkable act these days though haha...
Anyway, she said that the incident taught her to force herself to do things right the first time round instead of doing corrections. Hence, she grew up being very disciplined. Come to think of it, a lot of time can be saved when we put in effort for something the first time round instead of wasting time amending it later. That said, I'm sure under some circumstances, amendments and corrections are inevitable.
However, when I look at the homework of some of my pupils (those who fared badly), these are usually the ones who have not been putting in effort (the first time round) when doing their homework. Even their handwritings look like scribbles. They probably assume that it's ok to get it wrong and that they can just copy the corrections when I go through with them on the board. Worst thing is that time is of the essence always. Many a times, there's insufficient time to go through question by question. I can only select 1 question from each category to go through. In such cases, corrections will be followed by re-corrections. Re-re-corrections are also not a rare thing.
I have to remind myself all the time that they are still young and that I can't get all preachy and philosophical with them. I have to tell myself that they will change as time goes by. What I hoped for them to turn into now is pupils who feel secure (only then they can learn well)and pupils who listen and not just hear.
For now, I can only preach to myself.Labels: Work
Serendipity believed today at 11:23 PM
