NIE's almost over, what have I learnt?

My favourite segment of the module Communication Skills for Teachers was ‘Oral Communication’. One of my concerns in choosing Teaching as my career has always been impromptu speaking. I have always been amazed at the poise and eloquence of public speakers with nary a script in sight! However, the module has taught me that effective communication does not rely on talent alone but practice and preparation. In short, the phrase ‘think before you speak’ has taken a whole new meaning for me. The tips I learnt, such as organizing points in speeches, and using point headers for clarity are invaluable to me. If I were to shorten what I have learnt about oral communication to a maxim, it would be ‘Be aware of your audience’. As teachers, our audiences range from our colleagues, students, their parents etc. It is important to be mindful of characterizing my language to suit the various contexts in my own school interactions in future.

‘Written communication’ also proved to be particularly useful as we learnt techniques on proper and professional communication. In my opinion, it is often tone that is misconstrued in written communication and poses problems to communication due to confusion of intent. Hence, learning ways of softening tone and rephrasing words when writing e-mails or even commenting on students’ work was beneficial especially with Practicum approaching so soon. Most notably, it also helped with teaching us how to give effective student feedback. No stranger to the nerve-wrecking moments when teachers wrote “SEE ME” in bold red letters on my assignments, tips such as ‘show not tell’ through giving specific details for improvement or writing positive statements are easy to remember and implement in my teaching life.

I greatly appreciate that NIE had included Communications as a module for student teachers before their Practicum. Communication is not merely an integral part of our lives as human beings, but as teachers; we have an obligation to teach more than just content. We will touch lives and whether the outcome is good or bad depends on communication. Too often, our words and actions get lost in translation and personally, our relationships would all do a little better with clear and polite communication.