The Preparation...
The preparation was 'xiong'... again towards the couple of days before the actual workshop took place. But I was glad that Hwee Peng had us get ready the outline and stuff before meeting up with Kok Seng about 2 weeks before the session. It in fact helped to push us into the thinking and preparation... otherwise, on the day itself, will 死得更难看！
As she said, we were over prepared - especially with the ICT tools materials that Paul came up with... really, not enough time for the participants to look at. But, as Sai Choo always said, it's good to be overprepared than underprepared.
Another challenge that we both faced is really the time to meet up and have a good discussion after inputs from Hwee Peng. Yes, must admit, we have chosen not to acknowledge the 'wide' knowledge gap of some participants... and wanted to take the opportunity to expose them to what's new... then after Hwee Peng's advice and a 2nd thought, just a day before!!! OK, quickly 'packed' some down-to-earth stuff for the session... and because of that, I think we used up about 1 brim of papers... Oops!
The other challenge was... we did not really plan who to take which part... hahaha... but we are quite sure who is good at which part...
Another challenge: Just the day before, we realised that the application software list has not reached the technical stuff... Ah!!!! Changes to strategy??? Oh know!!! Yes, it's quite stressful for someone who's not too use to surprises!!! OK, pack more stuff... as a result, we pulled in more resources, materials, etc... Oh yes, some changes to the execution... Reflecting back... Think I must have added more stress to my co-trainer... for bringing in the unplanned stuff into the session! my sincere apologies...
The Session...
In the morning, while preparing, some of them scrolled in quite early and it seems like the classroom scenario - they know each other pretty well, joked and laugh... and more importantly (especially before the session commenced) - the tone of conversation was friendly :D
We did not conduct any pre-session survey. In this instance, I realised how important or necessary to have the profile of the participants! (esp when they're experience... now it's a matter of finding out what they do not know, especially the ICT areas). The profile would have helped us in the resources prepared... but we notice that one assumption is always right - ie. They want to know what are the resources available, and it seems like, it's true (almost in all instances) that they have little time to explore and see new tools! So, their entry level to technology use is still quite elementary...
- This observation seems popping out - especially for the more senior teaching staff - it came true for this group of Senior & Master Teachers, it's true for the HODs in the baseline HOD workshops, it's also true for the DDM HOD/Maths participants! Hm... where are those who have spent hours in exploring technology use? those have been using robotics, 2nd life, tablets, etc? Where are these people? They don't belong to this category who's stronger at the pedagogy (delivery), the management group? Perhaps someone would want to carry out a research in this norm!
The participants were really the enthusiastic lot... I really admire their spirit - their attitude to learning (about the ICT tools!) - especially a handful are very senior and quite a number (1/3) teaches Chinese! Just another interesting observation: The composition is 1/3 for EL & Humanities; 1/3 for Maths & Science; 1/3 for Chinese... in fact, they just converse in any languages (english, chinese or even dialects!). We are glad they reacted well :D
[Click HERE to see their comments of the session]
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