Using Advertisements to Teach

I believe in the value of using advertisements to teach. Firstly because of the proliferation of the mass media. Our students are constantly using the Internet, watching the TV, listening to radio, and advertisements exist even at the bus-stops and MRT and other forms of public transport. Hence, using advertisements can serve to bring in the real-world context to the students and help students to see the relevance of science to their daily life. The use of the more popular advertisements has the benefit of being more memorable and better remembered due to the jingles or whatever, thanks to the effort of the publicity company. This enables the teacher to leverage on the success and bridge the gap between science and the students.

By using the advertisements, the teacher can structure the lesson such that the information presented in the advertisement be investigated. This help students to become more questioning and critical about what they see and receive from the media. This addresses one of the goals of the science curriculum, which is to help students become more discerning consumers.

Using History To Teach

History has been recommended to teach science. Personally, as a student, I enjoy reading the autobiographies and biographies of some scientists, especially the female ones as I find their lives fascinating and amazing. I like to immerse and transport myself back to those times and see how these scientists work in their homes, labs, against the scepia background. Vivid thoughts and imaginations you will say. But I like that. It is not so much about the discovery that I was very much into; but rather, their determinations, the way they lived, their dedications. Hence, I believe in the value of using history; for it can be a means to interest the students, especially those with interpersonal intelligence.
Of course there are other advantages of using history. For one, it enables students to see the development of a science concept or model over time and help students see that the nature of science is that it is not perfect, but one should seek to improve on the current knowledge.
Another is that history help orientate students to the process of science; of how an investigation was planned to study and obtain the results that help establish the knowledge that they are studying today. Also, it serves to help them understand that with new technology, more gaps to current knowledge can be filled and help them understand the ever changing state of flux and improvement that the field of science is in.
But due to time constraints and the tight curriculum schedule, the teacher should exercise professional judgement in using history. However, it does no harm for the teacher to read up on a few incidences and do some research on the pausible ideas that he/she may want to incorporate in some chapters...

Greeting and Smiling

The March 2009 Readers' Digest reported that greeting and smiling at students can boost their productivity.
Implication for me as a teacher: Smile and greet students' individually every morning. This will help build rapport with the students too.