Gizmos, Gadgets & the Good Old Human Touch (Part 1)
August 31, 2007
Pupils’ innovations took centrestage at the MOE ExCEL Fest 2007.
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August 2007 Archives
Learn a Language, Build a Bond
August 28, 2007
Finger puppets bring Malay words to life.
Toy Stories Make Science Come Alive
August 27, 2007
Caterpillar Feast by Tan Zhi Rui and Chew Yi Jing - a guessing game based on a book.
Sec 1 Posting Exercise - The Electronic Way
August 22, 2007
Parents, are you thinking about taking leave from work to submit the secondary school choices for your child? Here’s some good news: Come year end, you can submit those options on your own time, in the comfort of your own home.
This year, MOE is introducing the Sec 1 Internet System website, which will allow parents to submit online the secondary school choices for their child. What’s more, parents can also find out the posting results through this new system.
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From Claymation to Better Communication
August 17, 2007
Students devising their own claymation models.
It's only the wizardry of an animation studio that can produce claymation stories like Wallace and Gromit. At Westwood Secondary School, our Sec 1 students may be new to the field, but through our new Communication Studies Programme, they've begun to generate a little claymation and storytelling magic of their own.
Take Sec 1G's production for instance, which brings alive the story of Hanuman from the Indian epic the Ramayana. The video depicts Hanuman chasing the sun and later defeating a sea monster, Octotorn. Certainly a story that's ready for the big screen!
Parents Get into the Thick of Things
August 15, 2007
Parents played timekeepers at the finishing line during the school's Sports Day.
From individual tutoring and counselling, to fun school events and even family-oriented Co-Curricular Activities, there’s a little bit of something for everyone; we’re not referring to teachers or school counsellors, but parents, and the many avenues they have to get to know our school better!
Words Come to Life in “The Dungeon”
August 12, 2007
Research Activist Mdm Aziz (first from right) gets a first hand look at the students in dramatic action with their teacher Ms Lazaroo (second from right).
In the deepest recesses far below the school building, a family is in trouble, a pig communicates with a spider, and a group of youngsters empathises with the king of the toilets. An unlikely scenario at a local secondary school? Perhaps, but it’s all true.
In “the dungeon” of Tampines Sec School, book characters come to life. They breathe, think, talk and interact with each other; they love, laugh, hate and plot their revenge. The action takes place regularly at the disused rifle range at the basement (hence the nickname, “the dungeon”), where students are given the opportunity to step into someone else’s shoes during Literature lessons.
A Witty War of Words
August 10, 2007
Second proposition speaker Jazlyn Chua from ACJC delivers an impassioned plea.
“Because I am a woman, for every one dollar that a man earns, I get 71 cents,” opened Jazlyn Chua of Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC). “I don’t stand for that, and I hope you don’t either!”
Jaslyn’s impassioned plea, as the second proposition speaker for “Affirmative Action in Response to Historical Injustices”, exemplified the vocal prowess and reasoned precision shown at the grand finals of the 2007 MOE Invitational Debating Championship (MIDC). The students certainly didn’t pull any punches when it came to scrutinising the issues in lively verbal exchanges.
As a Beginning School Counsellor
August 9, 2007
Miss Tan Lay Leng believes that though counselling can be an uphill journey, it brings its own rewards .
After completing her practicum in school counselling at Tanjong Katong Primary School on 15 June 2007, Miss Tan Lay Leng is now a full-time school counsellor to the school. In today’s post, she shares some of her learning experiences with us.
Every time I sit across from a pupil who has come to me for counselling, I think about how much their problems might be bearing down on them - but I also remind myself that I am there to listen and to care about their situation. I may not be able to solve all their problems, but I can certainly empathise and help them to shoulder the burdens a little.
“HoM” for Better Reading and Writing
August 8, 2007
A school-wide effort to create awareness for the 'Habits of Mind'.
A Senior Teacher’s Attachment
August 6, 2007
10 Senior Teachers, including Mr Chow (seated, centre, in white) were attached to Staff Training Branch at MOE.
Being the first to try out anything is always exciting; being the first to participate in the work attachment programme for Senior Teachers (STs) at MOE's Training & Development Division (TDD) was no different. The six-week stint was an eye-opening opportunity both to experience work at MOE HQ and to collaborate with my equally experienced counterparts from other schools.
Special and Express Streams to Merge from 2008
August 5, 2007
Since 1995, the number of Sec 1 Express stream students offering High Mother Tongue has jumped more than five times.
“Fewer labels, less confusion” says one parent. “Makes no difference to me - my child is already studying Higher Mother Tongue, and she’s in the Express stream,” says another. These were some of the typical parents’ reactions when they learned that from 2008, the Special stream will be merged with the Express stream.
Perhaps the parents’ nonchalance is understandable with the diminishing differences between the two streams over the years. When the Special stream was introduced in 1979, it was then meant to be a separate course for the top 10 per cent of the PSLE cohort. These students could offer Higher Chinese Language at Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools, where students study English and Chinese as first languages.
Over the years, however, the prerequisites for offering Higher Chinese Language - and Higher Mother Tongue in general - have been gradually relaxed to cater to a changing education landscape.
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Where National Education Can be Fun and Games
August 4, 2007
The game My River Cube was presented at the NYAA-Nexus exhibition at Jurong Regional Library in 2004.
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Learning Amidst Nature
August 1, 2007
The “classroom” that is Nee Soon East Park.