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...

This looks like a comprehension passage he set about a Ryan Gowith and Caleb Xia. Please don't ask me who they are. Last night, my son decided to write some stuff. He proceeded to write all these pages, which I guess was based on what he did in school. I am not sure if these are considered good or bad; I have never seen samples of Primary One writing that has not gone through the eyes of an adult. Nevertheless, these are totally unedited and without any intervention. The only reason I am sharing these is that it amusing that he writes such things. It is something he did unexpectedly, and I think will never do again.  "Today we are learning math. This answers are easy. Try them. Good luck." Looks like he needs to brush up on his continuous tense and 'this' vs 'these'. And stop being so arrogant about his math. They are easy because he is only in Primary One! According to him, there are science lessons. The school never requested u...

This week is Catholic High School's English Language Arts Week. And the school has organised some activities for the children. The theme is 'Around the World in 80 days' - the classic book. It is indeed a classic book, just like what Mark Twain said, 'Classic - a book which people praise but don't read'. I have not read the book but roughly knew the storyline. So as to help him, we managed to borrow the book from the library even before the holidays. Anyway, on April 6, the kids were supposed to turn up in school in a costume, made up of recycled and scrap materials, based on the ethnic clothing of selected countries. We were quite undecided on what to make my son wear. He was also not very forthcoming with suggestions. This is very typical of him - he is indecisive when faced with almost unlimited choices. Eventually, we decided on a Chinese emperor's costume. To keep with the material requirements, we sacrificed a bed sheet and a Transformer toy box. But...

How nice of Mr Lee to write back to my father! This is just a short note about Mr Lee Kuan Yew, founding father of Singapore. I am writing about him not because I want to pay tribute to him - better writers have done so with much better aplomb. So I leave the tributes to these people.  I am writing this because of the profound influence he has over my family, not in the nation building sense, but in how my son ended up in Catholic High School. This story starts with my father. He has always been an admirer of Mr Lee. I would say that he admired him so much that when Mr Lee decided to send his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong to Catholic High, my father decided to send me there. While I am not entirely sure, I think that my father was in the Ministry of Education at that time, so it was not too difficult.  There was absolutely no reason for him to do so. We did not live near town (Catholic High was still at Queen Street). We were not Catholics. And Cath...

Cover Page of STELLAR Unit 6. STELLAR stands for Strategies for English Language Learning and Reading. The programme is designed specifically for Singapore children by Singapore teachers. It was rolled out in 2006 and after nine years, all the primary schools use for all levels. STELLAR is an instructional programme and not a syllabus, and therefore it offers materials and strategies rather than an outline of teaching outcomes. As a result, some parents complain that it seems unstructured. However, from what I can see, there is a certainly a pattern that only an experienced teacher can detect. There are elements of explicit grammar instruction (like the lessons taught traditionally). But wrapped around these basics are stories that interest the kids instead of the boring old textbooks during our time. How does STELLAR work? I will focus on STELLAR at the lower primary levels since that is where my son is studying. There are three stages - Shared Book Approach (SBA), Modi...

Storm in a teacup A couple of weeks ago, a commotion appeared in the What'sApp chat created for the parents of my son's class. Apparently, one of the mothers accidentally made her son wear the wrong attire. The form teacher of the class then proceeded to call the boy 'blind' for paying scant attention to the notices sent out. The word 'blind' made the mother very upset. Some parents immediately jumped on the bandwagon and said that they will complain about the teacher. A few of us did try to ask our sons if any of them heard the form teacher call him 'blind'. Only one boy actually said that he heard it while the rest said that they did not. Despite the lack of overwhelming evidence, one parent even said that the principal must be notified! I was quite disturbed by this exchange. I even switched off my phone for a while. One of the lessons I have learnt as a teacher is never to believe totally what your child says. It is not because your child is ...

Happy during recess (taken by another parent) It is the middle of Term One Week four, and I finally believe that Lucas has settled into his new schedule. It has not been easy for us. Week 1 was full of frowns and tears as Lucas refused to let us go. I had mentioned this in an earlier post. He was unhappy with everything - Catholic High, Master Hand (his student care), going to my parents place (this was surprising considering he had been going to my parents' place for the last few years). It was especially traumatic for my wife, who at some point in time was so shaken by the experience that she was thinking of part-time work. I was also thrown off my stride a bit. But I told myself that everything would be alright. Some of the little things we did help, I think. Firstly, we arranged it so that I was the one who walked him in. He tended not to be so emotional around me. So I drove towards Bishan and just before we reached the drop-off point, I switched with my wife so that s...

Chirpy at 6.40am The holidays just zoomed by and we are already in the fourth day of 2015. My son has to report to primary school and this being our first time as parents of a primary one kid, we were not really quite sure what to expect, especially my wife. Even a former school teacher like me was not very sure of the entire procedure - the first day of school for secondary one students is probably vastly different from the first day of school for primary school students. Actually, the day started quite well. The journey was smooth and traffic was not that heavy until we reached Bishan, where the school was located. Traffic really slowed down tremendously within the proximity of the school. But I managed to get him and my wife into school on time. For Monday, I have already figured out my strategy to minimise traffic time. When I arrived at the school hall after parking my car, I discovered that my son was already seated in his class and my wife was seated in a circle of ...

Orientation Map of Catholic High The previous Saturday, my son went to his Primary One orientation. I hope he really loves his future school. I really love his school - for one, it is also my school. I spent 11 years in Catholic High School. One year in Pre-Primary (during those times, MOE allowed schools to run their own kindergarten programme), six years in Primary and four years in Secondary. I hope he gets to spend 12 years there - six years in Primary and six years in the Integrated Programme. Of course, I have little control over whether he qualifies for the final six years, but I am going to try my best to prepare him so that he can qualify. Mind you, it is totally fine if he does not qualify. I am sure my father was happy enough that I made it Catholic High instead of Raffles (his alma mater). We were soon separated after we arrived in the school hall. I was glad he did not show any anxiety after being made to sit with his future classmates. I also managed to catch up w...