July 2007 Archives

Helping Children to Navigate Cyberspace Safely

July 26, 2007

What happens when a parent spots his Pri 4 son viewing a pornographic video on the Internet? “I was too shocked to react and didn’t know how to speak to him about the negative effects of watching such videos or viewing undesirable websites,” said a parent at West View Primary School.

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Classes With A Kick!

July 23, 2007

Tumbling tackles, wrenching sprains and torn ligaments - such injuries were de rigueur for Mr Mohd Abdul Rauf Mohd Yusope throughout his footballing days as a student. But the pain of the playing field and agony of defeat paled in comparison to what he felt when his mother lost her fight with leukaemia in 2006.

Yet Mr Rauf found new strength to carry on. "I had to make a choice," he recalled, "to remain devastated for the rest of my life or pass on the values my mother taught me to a younger generation."

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Empowering Students the Robotics Way

July 20, 2007

While the National Junior Robotics Competition (NJRC) has been around since 1999, it was only in September 2006 that a team of students from Canossian School, a special education school for hearing-impaired children, took part for the first time. Working under the mentorship of two teachers, these students from the school’s Robotics Club put in months of hard work prior to the competition - and emerged with not one but two awards, for Best Newcomer and Best Marketing Gimmick. Not a bad showing for a club that was started only four months before the competition.

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THINK© Cycle Sets Students Thinking!

July 18, 2007

Academic subjects, like the Sciences, that are facts, are typically taught using teacher-oriented approaches. The innovative THINK© Cycle developed by Temasek Junior College (TJC) is set to change all that, with its problem-based approach shifting the focus of learning to the students. Teachers take on the role of facilitators, relinquishing their previous position as the supplier of content.

For science teachers especially, this is a radically different approach - a move that requires careful preparation, training and support from their respective schools as they guide students to be active, inquisitive and independent seekers of knowledge.

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Shining STARs of Service Excellence

July 16, 2007

A national-level award, the Public Service STAR Service Award is conferred annually on public officers for their excellence in service delivery. Three 2007 winners from MOE - Mrs Ng Wei San, Mdm Noraini Yusoff and Mr Choo Boon Chiao Albert - received their awards on 10 July 2007. Here, they share why providing good service is an important element in their job.

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Inventive Ways to Help Pupils with Special Needs

July 11, 2007

A Special Needs Officer at Gan Eng Seng Primary School, Mrs Fawzi alias Rahmah Mohd Ali gives us a glimpse of how the school has implemented various strategies and programmes to help pupils with special needs.

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Winning Ideas: How Schools Create a Thinking Culture

July 9, 2007

A China Everyday programme where old boys share accounts of life and culture in China, a student-produced podcast, and an international science fair - these are some of the initiatives in our schools that have brought about a more lively approach to learning, and helped these schools to win MOE’s Thinking Culture Award 2007 (TCA).

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Online, on Task and on the Go!

July 9, 2007

MOE’s annual Learn@ programme took a trip to the heartlands this year, with Learn@TheLibrary held at two regional libraries during the mid-year school holidays. Jointly organised by MOE and the National Library Board (NLB), the programme saw students from Pri 4 to Sec 3 rushing from point to point in either Woodlands or Jurong Regional Libraries. No, they weren’t misbehaving - they were on their way to finding clues and solving riddles with the resources of information and communication (infocomm) technology at their fingertips.

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Interactive Teaching and Engaging Learning with IDM

July 6, 2007

How can educators use interactive digital media (IDM) to enhance learning? That was the central question explored at the 2007 Curriculum Forum, where principals and vice principals were treated to a kaleidoscope of presentations by schools and organisations about exciting IDM-based teaching resources, from games and podcasting to interactive textbooks.

Held on 7 May 2007 at Republic Polytechnic (RP), and jointly organised by MOE, Republic Polytechnic and Infocomm Development Authority, the theme for this bi-annual event was “Engaging Learning - IDM Limited and Unlimited”. Participants caught a glimpse of some of the imaginative possibilities IDM offers that can enhance teaching and learning, while they were also reminded of the challenges that come with the proliferation of IDM.

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A Long-running Tradition of Excellence

July 6, 2007

It was a warm homecoming for Cedarians on 19 May 2007 as they trooped into the school hall (transformed into a stylish venue) for the highlight of Cedar Girls’ Secondary School's 50th anniversary celebrations - the Golden Jubilee Dinner. Brimming with school spirit, the 500 guests ranged from old girls from the pioneer class of 1957 to the newest Sec 1 students in the family.

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What's Hot, What's New in Education

July 6, 2007

Teaching in schools today does not fully adopt the "teacher knows best" model anymore - students are now seen as the main actors in the classroom. As seen at the recent 'Redesigning Pedagogy: Culture, Knowledge and Understanding Conference 2007' in Singapore, there is solid empirical evidence from both Singapore and overseas to show that the student-centred approach works better in the longer term.

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Getting a Headstart on Education and Career Planning

July 4, 2007

Career planning may not often be timetabled into a student’s school day, but it goes hand-in-hand with the formal syllabus to prepare students for the game of life. It is thus beneficial to get ‘An Early Start to Career Planning’ - which was the focus of the education segment of CAREER 2007. Held at Suntec Singapore from 1 to 4 March, the exhibition, which was supported by MOE, attracted a record number of visitors, of which 46% were youth aged 19 years and below.

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