Pros:
- Student can adopt the mindset that they are "coming to learn" and not that "the teacher is coming to teach us". This gives them a desire to learn.
- Teachers can set up the home room in preparation from lessons. This saves trouble for the teacher and also provides a conducive working environment (posters and noticeboards are only filled with stuff from the particular subject).
- Students are able move around after lesson, counting in as a short break from lessons, to prevent them from getting restless during lessons.
Cons:
- Troublesome for students to move from class to class.
- As I have observed in HCI, some students prefer to stick to their own table as they keep many of their worksheets and textbooks under their own table. Shifting class to class every hour would be very troublesome them.
- Also, students have to lug their heavy bags along, which is tiring.
- Space in school is limited. Small schools are not able to implement such a system.
From these, I have reached a conclusion that the home room system is a good idea. My own experience as a student has allowed me to reach such a conclusion. On Wednesdays, Conversational Malay, Chinese and Language Arts lessons are all carried out from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. 3 hours of work without any breaks makes me feel very tired and lethargic and I feel that it would help if we moved a little. For example, when we are told to go to the Space for AAT lesson, I would feel more energetic and awake after talking a short while to walk there. As such, I can concentrate better. Breaks in between also allows us to clear out minds and prepare for the next lesson.
How interesting! This indeed is a new thing to me, and after having read your post, I have learnt something new! Thank you so much for sharing this enriching information! All the best! :)
ReplyDeleteWell, I believe this method of yours is rather... unrealistic. What we have currently is that 1 teacher moves around to classes of around 25. Having 25 different individuals to move to another venue just because the teacher is there would incur in lots of trouble. Moreover, I believe the example you cite was mainly because it was an AAT lesson, meaning that it would naturally be more relaxing then the usual tedious lessons, thus making you feel sleepy.
ReplyDeleteHowever, to give students break, what teachers can actually do is to cut each 1h lesson into 55 minutes, such that students can rest for 5 minutes after every lesson. This not only gives teacher time for traveling, but also allows students to conserve their energy for the next lesson. Although this plan was implemented in my primary school and failed rather badly as we see teachers eating into the time of our break, this plan would work out if students and teachers can come to a consensus, taking into consideration that we're already in secondary school now.