There and Back Again

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...

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...

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...

Today was the fourth day in school and the first day of following the time table. Today was also the day parents are not encouraged to be around. It was time for both of us to let go, or so we thought. We sent him to school, dropped him off and only picked him up at the end of school. It seemed to be fine at this point in time. Actually we already had a spy. One of the parents was in the school canteen till recess and she provided us with some information - in Catholic High, parents are allowed to stay in the school, but only in the designated area in the canteen. She spotted my son wondering around during the first break (the school practices two additional ten minute breaks together with a 30 minute recess). She said that he looked like he was trying to look for us. He wondered around the canteen, and then the rest of the school. Of course, we were nowhere nearby. He did not look too upset and went back when the break ended. She even praised him for being independent! Little did sh...

Back in November 2015, my wife enrolled my son in this Math school called Concept Math. He has had been in math tuition before, first in Jelic and than in MPM. I thought Jelic was quite good, it featured self-learning activities that combined logic, math, fine motor skills, inference and a host of other skills. But I am not sure about MPM as it is a worksheet based lesson. And if you have been reading my blogs, you will realise that I am not a fan of too many worksheets. The reason why my wife chose Concept Math was because of the recommendations of her friend whose children are currently studying in the school. Not to mention, his good friend is also studying in the same class! I am not sure if he will enjoy the lessons or the teacher, but I am sure he will enjoy the company of his good friend.  I cannot say much about its programme, this being the first day and the fact that I am not a math teacher by trade (in fact, I stopped taking math as a subject after my 'O' lev...

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...