There and Back Again

The start of the June holidays means that the term is over. This has been a very eventful term, with my son starting his Primary One journey. The beginning was tough, with his body adjusting to waking up early in the morning. The mental adjustment was even more arduous. His separation anxiety surfaced again despite having attended childcare. Catholic High was relatively easy as he had been looking forward to attending a bigger school. Adjusting to Student Care took a long process. He only stopped complaining around April. Of course, if you read my posts, you will know that there have been challenges along the way. Academic results wise, he is fine. I feel there is nothing much to emphasise. Afterall, when was the last time anybody brought up Primary One results to guage your ability? But I will just show you the comments his teachers made. Just a note, the teachers' comments are usually taken from templates. They judge the students, and then find the word template that ...

I got this rather humourous title from an ex-colleague of mine - a Maths and Social Studies teacher. He posted a picture on my Face Book comment when I complained about number bonds. Interestingly, a Primary School teacher (my student) liked my rant as well. So maybe my thoughts about number bonds are widespread? At least I have proven that two other persons disliked this idea. First, what are number bonds? It is two numbers that make up bigger number.  For example, 6+4=10 or 7+10=17. Apparently, the word was first used in 1920s and it entered the Singapore curriculum in the 1970s. This is from Wikipedia - interestingly that that Singapore was specified. I know for sure that the American Common Core use number bonds as well.  It is pretty basic stuff. The complication, I believe, comes when it is used to add or subtract bigger numbers, like 13-7. One strategy, is called 'making 10'. This is when you break the bigger number into 10 & 3. Then, you use 1...

I thought hard about whether to include this in the blog - it is, after all, a negative reflection on my son. Do I want this memory to be recorded down for prosperity? After some thinking, I decided to include it, but I will not emphasise this entry in social media. If you are reading this, it means you are probably somebody who reads my blog quite often! Last week was my son's Math Amodes (which stands for alternate mode of assessment). To me, an alternate mode of assessment is something non-traditional, like project work, presentation, scrapbook, etc. But in Catholic High, it is still a pen and paper test - not very alternative is it?. It is like calling Madonna an alternative singer. But, anyway. My wife spent some time helping my son prepare for it. She went through the Math files and even got an assessment book so that he can have more practice. By the time he sat for the test, he was very ready for it. As usual, I was waiting for him along the corridor when I saw him cr...

Next year, my son needs to go to a student care. I know many people disapprove of it, but I think it is the best option for us. There are many reasons for this choice - both of us are working and we do work late (I finish earliest at 8.30pm and my wife needs to take conference calls at night when projects are due). The only person that can take care of my son is my parents. But they will be unable to help my son much - the syllabus has changed so much from 60 years ago after all. I visited three student care centres around the Marine Parade and East Coast area, checking them out. One of them turned out to be a total disappointment. Despite advertising that they give help based on multiple intelligence, they just do baby-sitting services. They do not even pretend to follow their own marketing! It left two choices. Both seemed to have good administrators and teachers, but one of them really bugged me. They needed us to buy past years examination papers, and the story was that after...