According to Johann, who taught Social Studies during his attachment, the instructional and classroom management approaches were similar to what he had experienced in Singapore. What were lacking were resources that ranged from whiteboards, furniture and ICT tools (except for the occasional projectors), to transportation and food.

“Amazingly, the teachers there adjusted to these circumstances through ingenuity, creating visual aids like a hand-crafted globe or using their own personal speaker to play Mulan’s Reflections in a discussion on stereotypes. I was also impressed by the students in my assigned class – my ideal kind of class! The students were innovative, eager to learn and demonstrated impeccable student leadership. It made me realise that we can expect so much more from our students. We, too, can have lessons that are creative and students who are energetic,” he shared.

For Dianah, who taught Language Arts as part of her school’s English Literature/Language classes, it was the sheer amount of creativity and expression in the classroom that impressed her.

She added, “The students were actively engaged in oral performance tasks, reading excerpts from Beowulf, discussing Afro-American literature and working on inter-disciplinary projects. The breadth and depth of topics discussed showed me that creativity and rigor need not be on separate planes, and that they can co-exist. The experience encouraged me to think of new possibilities beyond tableaus, such as incorporating more speech and performance activities like speech choirs into my Literature lessons. This exchange programme has certainly developed me to be more resilient and resourceful. I had to manage a large number of students with very limited resources, and the experience has brought me back to the basics of teaching as well as learning to think out of the box.”