When being asked the question “who would you like to thank for making who you are today?”, what will your answer be? Some might say it is their parents for raising them and some might say it is their special someone who helped them throughout their hard times.
But let's not forget that there is this group of people that stood with you throughout your youth, without expecting anything in return. They are your teachers. Would you say that most of the knowledge you know today are the results of their hard work?
Tan Khai Sheng who is a 22 years old diploma graduate student decided to embark on an unknown future journey by joining the education line of work. He currently works as a contract substitute teacher in a local primary school and also as a part time tuition teacher.
It all started from a side job
The reason why a broadcasting graduate student decided to make a major shift of path was not an act of impulse at all as it can be traced back to a small passion that was being sparked 3 years ago.
During that time, Khai Sheng was working as a part time tuition teacher while studying for his diploma and as time went by, he only found his interest in teaching grew bigger. It was by then he realized he needed to do something about it although still having some doubts and mixed feelings.
So, after he finished his diploma, he went straight to apply to be a substitute teacher through the system of the local Ministry of Education, hoping to be able to experience whether the education line is really what he wants in the future.
It was at a random afternoon that he received a sudden call from the local education bureau stating that he needs to report for duty at a local primary school the next day. Considering the unprepared condition, he requested one extra day of extension, so he can have the chance to prepare himself physically and mentally.
Bringing along both the feeling of happiness and nervousness at the same time, he reported for duty at the local primary school. But the condition of the school was slightly unique from other primary schools, which made him even more worried.
The very first big challenge
The primary school that Khai Sheng was being arranged to had become the first obstacle for him even before starting to teach and it was a difficult one considering that he had zero experience in teaching in front of a class of students. The school actually consists of a mix of regular students and students with disabilities such as: hyperactive, autism and learning disability.
So, the classes that the school offered are categorized into two types which are regular class and special education class, to better suit each student’s respective needs. Despite this system, he mentioned that his class still consists of a few students that have learning disabilities, some were unable to talk and some were unable to write properly and this poses an even bigger challenge for him.
Without having any specific training on how to teach students with learning disability, he had to learn and experiment on his own while teaching along the way.
Luckily, more experienced teachers in the school will provide him with some useful advises as well to help him coop with different situation faced.
Khai Sheng with his class's students after a class art activity
More challenges and struggles
Other than facing challenges dealing with his teaching of students, he also shared that another struggle that he faced is regarding the education system. As a primary school teacher, many different tasks are needed to be completed each day from time to time other than just teaching.
He shared that he needs to study thoroughly the yearly teaching planner before each class in order to understand what is the objective and syllabus needed to be achieved during his teaching. Then, he is required to plan and write it out in the daily teaching planner so that both the school and him himself can keep check of the teaching progress and whether the teaching is effective or not.
Other than that, he is also required to evaluate his students in class performance after each teaching. Although the criteria are already provided, given his situation, he still struggles slightly to provide a confident evaluation based on his students. He stated that although it is not easy to fully understand the whole education system, it is a must for him and he will put in the time and initiative to catch up.
With the current new variant Omicron pandemic situation in our country, some students are required to stay at home and attend online classes, it definitely made his burden heavier.
He mentioned that considering the condition of his students, more attention and care is needed during teaching and when conducting online classes, he is not able to better monitor his students compared to during physical class. This might cause some of his students unable to catch up with the class, therefore slowing down the learning process.
Another issue that he pointed out is due to the flexibility provided by online class, some of the parents might supervise their kids during the online class. When a student is being asked a tricky question, the parents would just provide them straight with the answers without giving them the chance to do some thinking. He feels that this is not suitable as it would cause students not being able to have their own individual thinking and reduce their confidence as well.
A touching moment that inspired
In the career life of most people, there are always ups and downs during the process. This is no exception for Khai Sheng as he shared that there was this incident he encountered that helped him realize something very important in his teaching career.
The incident was about a boy in his class that is hyperactive and could not pay attention when the class is ongoing. The boy constantly walked or ran around the whole classroom and would carry on his action despite being asked nicely to sit down properly.
As time went by, he would start to lose patience and would use a slightly stronger attitude when asking the boy to sit down and behave in class. And the outcome has always been the same, no remorse or change of actions.
During that time, he was helpless and had no choice but to leave the boy to himself as the class was still waiting for him to carry on teaching.
Until one day, he received some videos from the mother of the boy. The content of the videos was the boy trying to solve mathematical questions and memorizing the table of multiplication. This made him suddenly realize that he has been so numb and blind all along, not realizing that the boy has the potential deep down inside and is capable in the field of mathematics.
He was so inspired by the videos and started to reflect on himself.
“After seeing the video, I promised that I will never see him the same way as before again and I will figure out ways to teach him rather than leaving him behind like old times.” said Khai Sheng.
Choice of future path
When being asked whether he will continue down the path of being an education, a strong firm answer was given out. He stated that before he worked at the current primary school he is teaching, he only had the mentality of trying and experimenting whether this is something that he enjoyed doing.
After a few months of experience, he clearly enjoyed a lot during the process of being an educator.
So now not only will he not give up, he will work even harder to try and find opportunities to switch to a full-time official teacher.
For him it is more of a passion to satisfy his interest rather than a job just for the sake of living.
During his free time, he would attend talks and do research online trying to learn more about the education field. As he can see there is a lot of potential and improvements in our education system, so he is looking forward to being involved in this better change of our local education.
Hopes and advices
During the end of the interview, he mentioned that in this 21st century there are a lot of new emerging things waiting for us to go explore and learn. So, to those young generations who wish to pursue the line of education as well, he highly encouraged them to just try it out and not to worry too much.
“Being an educator for me is a job of greatness, there is meaningful significance behind this job filled with hardships, and if you put in all your heart to do it then the results can be very fruitful.” said Khai Sheng.
The future generation’s mindset is highly related with the education they receive when they are young, it helps shape their mindset and make them who they are. Which is why if one already decided that education is the path they want, he urges them to start doing something about it, without actions ideas are just ideas.
Lastly, he gave his best wishes to all the young generation who wants to be an educator like him. He hoped that together, they could successfully educate a lot of excellent students in all different fields and contribute to society.
Interview video with young educator Tan Khai Sheng
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