TWA Teacher: Jeremiah
It was with mixed feelings of anticipation and trepidation as I got off the plane in Chennai. I was not sure what to expect from this TWA with HeyMath! in Chennai, India. When I got to the office, I was swiftly inducted through a meeting on what the company was about. I did a presentation on that very day, on what my plans were for the attachment period.
I was given the invaluable opportunity to work with the Content Development Team and animators here at HeyMath!, a leading Math ICT company. I was tasked to work with them to create scripts for the topic on Money, for Primary 2. In addition to using my slides that I had previously used for the teaching of this topic, I sourced out other ideas and ways to teach this topic. This included coming up with new activities that could be digitalized into flash formats. It was something new for me, as I saw how what I had done on Word documents being transformed into flash files. The team I worked with, especially Sangeetha and Sriram, were so efficient and capable. They knew exactly what I wanted and were able to produce my lessons. I was truly impressed.
I also had the opportunity to teach a Class 3 (equivalent to Primary 3 in Singapore) in a private school. As it was the beginning of their new year in Class 3, I taught them on Addition with and without carrying over. I started the lesson with an ice breaker/tuning in activity on the Place Value Table and the children loved it. I had the chance to utilize the HeyMath! resources and that brought excitements and squeals of joy among the pupils too. It was indeed an experience as the pupils were really very enthusiastic and warm. They were interested in learning and were participating actively in the lesson.
It was truly an enriching and rewarding experience. Not only did I get the chance to refine my teaching pedagogy but through the TWA, my content mastery was strengthened too. I am looking forward to using the resources that I had helped to create in my own classroom and see how my pupils would benefit from the fruits of my labour.
