School-based Diary Entry

  At 7.25 a.m. We met the teacher in the general office and she introduced us to the school principal.

  At 7.30 a.m. She took us to the staff room and briefed us the rundown of the day. Everyone in the staff room was nice. It seemed that the teachers were good friends to one another instead of colleagues only.

  At 7.35 a.m. We went on duty with the teacher in the covered playground. The students greeted us politely. They wondered who we were and asked if we were new teachers or not. It was quite funny that I could see questions marks above their heads. Meanwhile, when the teacher saw students that she knew, she talked to them. For example, asking them what they did over the weekend. On duty could be a chance to chat with the students outside the classroom.

  At 7.45 a.m. The teacher arranged the students to queue up and went to their classrooms to have their reading lessons with their class teachers. Sometimes, she shouted at the students to ask them to keep quiet.

  At 8.00 a.m. After the duty, we took the lift to the staff room. In the lift, another teacher grumbled to our mentor that he had to handle students’ discipline problem and met the parent at that time. Being a teacher is not just about teaching but handling endless non-teaching stuff.

  At 8.05 a.m. The teacher had breakfast in the staff room and was chatting with her colleagues. Also, we ordered lunch box. It was an enjoyable moment to the teacher that she could enjoy her breakfast and chatted with other teachers.

  At 8.15 a.m. The teacher prepared teaching material for the English lesson in the afternoon. We were going to play a card game but some of the cards were missing. We helped her to draw the cards and typed the instruction of the game. Teachers have to be well-prepared so that the lesson can run smoothly.

  At 9.20 a.m. The teacher squeezed out some time to mark students’ work before going on duty in the covered playground.

  At 9.35 a.m. The teacher went on duty in the covered playground and again, she shouted at the students to stop them for running too fast.

At 9.50 a.m. Recess ended and the teacher rushed back to the staff room to take the teaching material for the next lesson. Then, we hurried to the fourth floor to have English lesson with class 2B. It was about good and bad personalities. She seemed enjoy the lesson as the students were so attentive.

At 10.25 a.m. We had English lesson with class 6D. We played a card game to teach students vocabularies and sentence structure regarding the topic ‘illnesses and its related treatments’. Our roles always shifted. Sometimes as a participant to participate in the game, while, sometimes as a facilitator to explain the students about the rules of the game. The teacher was satisfied with the performance of the students as most of them could show a good understanding on the vocabularies and sentence structure learnt.

At 11.00 a.m. It was recess and we had to run after the teacher to go on duty in the playground again.

At 11.15 a.m. The teacher continued marking students’ work. She also gave us a chance to do marking. Being a teacher has to be highly flexible that there are so many possible answers for one question. Though the marking did not involve any physical movement, still, it made us feel exhausted.

At 12.25 p.m. We had lunch with the teacher and had some casual talk with the teacher. It was the only time of the day that the teacher could take a break.

At 1.15 p.m. We had Visual Arts lesson with 1B. In the lesson, students were sat in groups of 6 and asked to draw cards for their family, friends, teachers and so on. It made me laugh that one of the boys wrote a card for himself. The atmosphere was very relaxed and the students enjoyed it so much. Primary teachers nowadays may teach few subjects, like English, Art, Physical Education and so on. As a teacher-to-be, we should equip ourselves with different skills.

At 3.05 p.m. We went on duty at the school gate. It provided chances for the teacher to meet the parents. If parents have any problems in handling the school work of their children, they can talk to the principal and the teachers at that time.

At 3.30 p.m. The teacher had a meeting with other English teacher. She says it was confidential so it marked the end of our shadowing day.