Primary School - Catch 40 Winks

The Primary 2 Form Teacher

February 4, 2015 · By Rachel ·

Have you had a teacher in your primary / secondary schooling years that fit into this profile:

Unmarried woman in her 40s, with a perpetual scowl on her face.

I still can recall a teacher known as Ms Tay, that I encountered in Primary 5, who didn’t rank too highly in her personable attributes. Being 11 then, I think it was easier to manage a teacher whom I don’t feel really compelled to give gifts to when Teachers’ Day came around that year.

This reminds me of a retro card game I used to play in Primary School;

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So how do I manage when it is my barely 8 year old that is experiencing a form teacher of this profile in Primary 2 this year?

This experience with K’s new form teacher is like an understatement to experiencing a fast track education in Singapore. Not just in academics, but also a fast track lessons in learning EQ.

I suspected that this teacher is quite ‘different’ during the 2nd week of a teacher-parent briefing, when she insisted that she will not give her mobile number to the parents but will prefer to communicate through email. Many of K’s classmates parents expressed their preference that it will be a more effective form of communication with her. Besides last year, we could call or drop an sms to the previous form teacher. With reluctance, she wrote her mobile number on the white board, and highlighted that we should only call/message her when absolutely necessary.

As for how K feels about his form teacher? It can be seen through these short anecdotes after 3 weeks of school;

“I think Ms Ong is not a happy person, I hardly ever see her smile.”

“You know what happened today, C (his classmate) broke her water bottle and was really upset about it, and you know what Ms Ong said. She said that she does not care! She actually said that she doesn’t care!” – with a look of disbelief on his face.

“Ms Ong is really not sharp, she ended up scolding the wrong person in class. Instead of D who was the one who started disturbing E, she punished E. I pity E, who did not deserve the punishment.”

“Ms Ong punishes the whole class, when just one person makes the mistake. The rest of us get punished even when it is not our fault” (I told him like it is in being in the Army, as that happens when someone makes a mistake in the platoon).

“Sigh…I really miss Mdm Tan (his teacher last year). Even though she is strict and firm, she is caring, but Ms Ong…(sigh again)”

What he needed was fast track lessons on EQ;

– To learn to be alert and watch her emotions and body language during class time.

– And be really, really attentive during her lessons so that he knows what he to do for her subjects that she teach.

So far he hasn’t experience any issues with her, but have been sharing stories about how some of his classmates, the not-so-alert ones, who have been getting it quite bad from her.

Still, I can see myself writing her this note to her;

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As much as I wanted to send this to her through K, I decided not to.

Having come from the ‘school of hard knocks’, I have come to realise that often in life we are not able to change the circumstances surrounding us. Until we take drastic measures to change the situation with these bad bosses or not-so-good teachers, and look to switching jobs or the schools.

Having a not-so-good teacher may not be that bad after all, when this becomes an opportunity to teach K to manage challenging situations by changing his attitude towards it, rather than always expecting things to change for him.

Nonetheless, we find ourselves praying for her nightly before we go to bed, in the hope that she can experience the love of God, so that she can be transformed to be a more loving person towards the children and others.

To be frank, I am not really that excited to meet her again for PTM in May, as she just made it more challenging for me to motivate my child in his second year of Singapore’s School system.

And if desperate measures are ever needed, this letter that I just imagined myself writing to her, might just reach her one of these days.

—–

Read here on my take of how a parent can manage the pressures of the Singapore School system, Part 2 of post here.

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Categorized: Education, His World · Tagged: Character Development, Primary School

Do Art with your Child – Tips and Giveaways!

July 22, 2014 · By Rachel ·

The last time I was exposed to any form of art training was in Secondary School. With a teacher teaching art to a class of 30+ other classmates, there was hardly any art techniques that I could learn effectively. All I recalled from my past art learning was that I detested doing Still Art.

So when K turned 2 years old, I was determined to expose him to as many art experiences during home-learning.

Open-ended art were the first experiences in art that got him to try. There were no set ways to create something, these art experiences were just focused on new art mediums that supported his self-expression. Having an empty canvas and tools to create anything he wanted, was rather engaging for a child below 4 years old.

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Nonetheless, open-ended art experiences can get rather haphazard and it often ends up to be just an exploration of art materials for the child.

It is good to provide opportunities to explore art materials and tools, but when a child approaches 3-5 years old, parents need to start thinking about how they can seamlessly expand ideas to foster the child’s mental development through open-ended art experiences.

Here are some methods I have used to maximize learning during open-ended art experiences;

1. Ask open-ended questions and prompts, “Tell me about what you have drawn?”

2. Make objective observations about the process to the picture, “I like how you have used yellow for the tree and how it blends into the green color,” instead of “I like your picture.”

3. Encourage the integration of language and writing, by encouraging a dictation of the child’s story behind the art creation. Often children will have their own stories and will want to expand on their art piece as ideas start to develop further.

4. Write a verbatim of the child’s explanation of his creation, either behind the art piece or a separate piece of paper. Eventually the child will be encouraged to model this behavior and want to start writing their own stories and creations.

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Here’s how I managed to incorporate language into an Open-ended Art experience with K when he was 5 years old.

There are many advantages to open-ended art experiences, as it can give the child opportunities to expand basic concepts, use problem solving skills and language expression. It also fosters mental development, as he expresses his feelings, thoughts and ideas that he wants to communicate. The child will strengthen his ability to observe, imagine and create with open-ended art experiences.

How about Structured art experiences?

Some art educators frown upon structured art lessons for children below 7, as they feel that structured art stifles a child creativity. But I think that children can be exposed to both structured art and open-ended art experiences from 4 years old onwards.

Structured art is more product oriented, as it is useful to cement the ideas learnt from the process, may even come in the form of doing craft that is related to a theme that the child is learning. Or a set process for the child to learn a particular art technique.

I did not have any proper form of art training before doing structured art with K, but learning from books like Maryann F. Kohl, Mona Brookes, doing read-alouds with K using the Katie series of books were pivotal to encourage art appreciation and instrumental to introduce Open-ended and Structure-Art experiences during Home-learning sessions.

Here’s an example of a Structured Art Home-Learning experience I had with my son, that incorporated an open-ended outcome.

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Effective Art Home-Learning experiences will give children the opportunity to connect to other curriculum areas, while focusing on creative thinking and problem solving. Modelling technique are necessary to guide and empower the child through the creative process, as most children might be overwhelmed by a new concept or new art materials and not know where or how to begin.

Remember to focus on the process and not the final product!

Children s Art Books 7 Have you tried art experiences at home with your child? And what are your favorite mediums (craft, paint, color pencils, pastels etc)?

Giveaways for Catch-Fortywinks readers!

To help readers of this blog guide your children along on their Art Home-Learning experiences, I will be giving away 4 sets of art-learning books.

All you need to do is to answer the above question, leave your children/s age in the comment, and I will be doing a random pick for 4 winners. Don’t forget to leave your email address when filling up the details of the comment form, so that I can drop you an email if you have won any of these books.

Giveaway closes 31st July 2014.

Art Books1 Art Books2 Art Books3 Art books4

For other Home-Learning tips and ideas, view article links from this page

The Giveaway Winners are;

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Categorized: Learn · Tagged: Art, Home-Learning, Preschool, Primary School

In Pursuit of Singapore’s Best Primary School Part II

May 28, 2014 · By Rachel ·

You know how important the selection of a Primary School is to a parent in Singapore, when a father is charged for falsifying his address to get his daughter into the Primary School that he hoped for.

And there are many parents buying and renting homes in a specific area in Singapore, for a higher chance to get into the area’s popular primary schools.

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So then, do all popular, elite or SAP Schools really live up to their hype?

Here’s the second interview of a teacher who had experienced teaching in popular and SAP schools, and her take on the system. Read the 1st interview here.

Why I choose not to put my child in Popular Primary School OR SAP School?

‘Perhaps the distinction between schools and cultures are marked as determined by the sort of families children come from. It is inevitable that schools in geographical areas with higher income demographics will tend to have more fluent parents.

It isn’t just the money that determines how kiasu parents and a school is, I would say that it adds to more pressure for teachers and also children from less well-off homes.

Not all SAP schools have rich or stellar academic results either. Many of our so called elite schools in Singapore are not all SAP schools. SAP schools give greater pressure because of their Chinese standards. Then depending on which SAP school, the overall academic focus may vary.

I have two SAP schools near me. Both require parent volunteer programme to help assure admission. However I find both lacking in holistic development. Having said that again, I also have a much sought after mission school, crazy Parent Volunteer scheme too… And I also wouldn’t enrol my children there.

These schools all lack a holistic development focus.

Honestly, I just have no illusion that schools can provide holistic Education simply because there is far too much administrative demands on teachers , the existence of a very rigorous and demanding assesment/ examination system and too little time for children to be given time to develop.

POPULAR schools, even the neighbourhood ones with more kiasu parents, just make this lack of holistic development worse. Since getting into these schools are so competitive, the parents are likely more ‘kiasu’.

These neighborhood schools are extremely popular with parents and are high academic achieving schools. One of the popular schools in the east had a principal that told Primary 1 parents that they should not complain about their children’s teachers. Cos the teachers will be upset and their children’s lives will ultimately be miserable. True story.

I think many schools not just SAP schools are into awards. The neighborhood popular schools are also very into earning awards like best progress, and in various niches. It is ingrained into the system that there needs to be consistent external validation of school excellence.

Teachers are assessed to death with their EPMS* yearly. And so are principals and superintendents and Deputy Directors. Schools are not ranked? Are awards not important? Think again. If they aren’t , what sort of tangible evidence do they use to ascertain performance?

Ultimately it falls on us the parents- what we desire for our children and our temperaments.

I know some amazing parents and kids who excel in system. And the children come out rather intact and have their passions still there. But there are also many who stumble and flail under the pressure.

However I believe the system is not all useless and there also many merits.’

– An ex Primary School teacher with young children, who are NOT yet in the Primary School System.

*EPMS – Employee Performance Management System. Teachers are assessed on certain grades (A,B,C,D) to determine their work performance bonuses for the end of the year, as well as the potential to increase in their teaching grades.

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So you have read it for yourself in these two posts, from two teachers’ perspectives of popular, elite or SAP schools. Don’t say “Nobody told me it will be like that…”.

Here’s wishing all parents going through the Primary 1 registration process for the first time this July, all the best for the Primary School selection for your child!

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