Best in the world

Dear reader,

Recently, one of my students quipped that it was OK to be average. Catching the statement, I refuted her. "Why do you ever want to be average?"

I find that majority of my students sell themselves short. They are not willing to put their best foot forward in their studies, CCA or moral character. Often our students are not willing to even work hard enough.

Then again, it could be just me.

While it is OK to lead a normal, ordinary life, that should not stop us from attempting to be the best that we can be. I expect my wards to be the best version of themselves.

After all, should we not all try our best?

It's all about control

Dear reader,

Together with the Secondary Two cohort, I have returned to Singapore yesterday from the Malacca trip. In this post, I would like to write what I have learnt about managing large group of students in excursions.

A) Giving instructions outdoors
Often without the use of microphone, my fellow colleagues and I often find ourselves out-voiced by the hundreds of students. Knowing this, I practised what ancient military commanders used to do in the past. I gave instructions in short sentences, giving pause for students to chant after me. In this way, large groups of students can receive the instructions clearly.

B) Preparing fillers
On long bus journeys and between tours, there maybe times when students get distracted and make a lot of noise. While generally it is not harmful to class cohesion, sometimes it may upset members of public or students may wander off. For me, I tend to tell jokes or life stories.

C) Keeping calm and carrying on
Many things can go wrong on the journeys, and the most important thing is to keep calm. Students often panic easily, causing mass hysteria over the slightest of incidences such as the presence cockroaches and moths, thunder and even the blackouts. As a teacher, I learnt the importance of keeping a cool head.

Thanks for reading!

Working with parents

Dear reader,

Recently I attended a two-day conference on "Engaging with Parents". I really enjoyed the tutorials, where the facilitator allowed us to share our personal experiences in working together with parents. On the other hand, I did not really enjoy the panel interviews as the responses seemed very superficial.

Nevertheless, I did take away some important pointers. One, high parent involvement often results in better student grades and behaviour. Two, I should pay more attention to my choice of meeting rooms. Three, I should offer to walk the parents out as far as possible.

Well, I am willing to try out new ways in working with parents. So here we go!