Tapping On Teachable Moments

Educators often struggle to deliver CCE-related lessons. This is because values are often caught, not merely taught. It needs to be contextualized through relatable personal experiences. Think about the way we've picked up our own values, be it through observing the adults or being praised when we chose to do the right thing. Therein lies the difficulty for educators to carry out the syllabus in that weekly 1 hour lesson in an artificial setting in a classroom, when most of the learning takes place beyond the classroom and also in the virtual world, starting from the family.

Educators do impact the students who come through our hands and we do have the responsibility to inculcate values anytime and anywhere. Ms Mavis Ho has clearly articulated in the article the ways we can make the most of it.

Start a conversation with the students.

Remind students to Stop and reflect.

Don’t be hasty to react (which I think is applicable for both teachers and students)

When we allow students the time and space to share their views in a safe environment without jumping in too quickly to correct, we get to pick out the misconceptions and pivot on the points they were raised by students themselves. When the students are further encouraged to practice empathy and to take a different perspective, we are giving students a framework to reflect before they react to anything they read online.

What resonated most with me was Ms Mavis Ho's encouragement to educators and parents to enter students' world by spending time to be familiar with the various social media platforms before embarking on any conversations with the students.

https://www.schoolbag.edu.sg/story/teaching-students-to-make-sense-of-what-they-read-online