Evelyn Soon

Task 1

In most text books or reference books, the explanation for radioactive decay is : caused by its unstable nucleus. After the nucleus emits radiation, a stable nucleus is formed. What actually causes a nucleus to be unstable is not explained in these books.

In my lesson, I served the internet to get information about why a nucleus is unstable before it emits radiation. Then, the information is presented using PowerPoint.

It is actually caused by the attractive force and repulsive force acted on the protons and neutrons in a nucleus. These 2 forces reveal a tug-of-war in the nucleus. When the term tug-of-war is used, ‘wows and ohs’ are heard which means the students understood and they found it interesting – something which they can’t get from books.

From this lesson, I realized that teachers can actually prepare something extra than what the students should learn to help them to understand more and sometimes to make the lesson more interesting. Usually teachers do not teach what is not in the syllabus, because they feel is unnecessary and is a waste of time.

To improve this lesson, I can call a few students to act as the protons and neutrons. Besides that, they experience the forces of tug-of-war and the situation will be more alive and hands-on.


Task 2

That was the second year of my teaching life. I was given a Form 4 arts stream class as their science teacher. This girl wasn’t paying attention and didn’t do her homework to pass up. I told her to stand but she refused, after a few times, she stood up with a leg on the floor and the other on her chair and shouted at me because I bother her. Of course, my lesson was not carried out. She was brought to the discipline teacher and also the counseling teacher. At last, her mum was called to the school, she actually came from a broken family. The girl was sitting on a chair and the mum stood behind her when they were talking to the PK HEM (She dared to raise her voice when she talked to her mum and the mum has to do what she says). At last, the girl was expelled from school. From this experience, I feel home education is more important than school education.