Parents Take Over on Teachers Day
Friday, September 11, 2009
Form teacher Mr Mohammed Shahied gets a confetti welcome from his form class Pri 5 Honesty.
From 12.30 to 1.30 p.m. on the eve of Teachers Day, the scene at Ngee Ann Primary School was dominated by appreciative cheers and gleeful laughter. In one classroom, a teacher had to dance - his penalty for not guessing the Pictionary word within the given time. A few doors away, another teacher was swaying his hips vigorously in a vain attempt to keep a hula hoop from falling to the ground.
One floor up, principal Mrs Cheng Huey Teng was being entertained by a two-person recorder-and-erhu ensemble. Two doors down, a group of teachers was confounded by a pupil performing clever card tricks. In another classroom, a group of four pupils was grooving to loud hip hop music, entertaining their classmates as well as teachers.
Add to that group games, warm hugs for teachers, and song items - and it was a raucous and riveting Teachers Day celebrations for all. The decentralised celebrations not only unveiled the diversity of talents among the pupils, they were also organised entirely by the school's Parents Support Group (PSG).
Parent volunteer Mr Tan Moon Chong with bags of goodies for the celebrations in Pri 5 Respect.
"Our PSG is very active and anchors many of our school programmes," reveals vice-principal Mrs Pawa Mong Jee. So when the H1N1 outbreak limited mass gatherings such as the traditional school-wide celebrations for Teachers Day, the school turned to the PSG for help to organise celebrations at the class level. Spearheaded by veteran PSG member Mrs Jane Koe, whose three children have long graduated from the school, over 50 PSG members and the school's non-teaching staff took charge of this year's celebrations - from brainstorming and planning, to preparing the presents and decorations, organising the schedules and implementing the one-hour programme.
Helping pupils of all ages
In Pri 1 Unity, parent volunteers Mdm Susan Lee Siew Keng and Mdm Pamela Cheong had to do more work as this was the pupils' first such celebration in a primary school. "We gave each pupil a coloured sheet of paper with a box in the upper half of the page - this was for them to write their greetings to the teacher. The lower half page was for free expression - most of them drew pictures, and pasted stickers and glitter to make the page attractive," says Mdm Lee. "We also sent a note to the children's parents to explain that we would compile the pages into a book for their form teacher Mrs Elizabeth Chia."
Parent volunteers Mdm Susan Lee and Mdm Pamela Cheong helped collate a greetings book for Pri 1 Unity form teacher Mrs Elizabeth Chia.
Moreover, the two parent volunteers worked with the Pri 1 pupils over two days, during recess and after school, to make colourful streamers and decorations for their classroom. They also added their personal specialties for the other invited teachers - flowers made of sumptuous chocolate.
Preparations for the upper primary levels began only days before the celebrations, after pupils had completed their term tests. Despite the short period of prep time, parent volunteer Mdm Michelle Lee for Pri 5 Honesty was pleasantly surprised that four Korean pupils volunteered to sing and dance for their teachers.
During the celebration hour, David Park, Kim Jae Hwan, Kim Jee Hwan and Kim Jae Hui showed off slick dance moves and sang a Korean song. The programme continued with the presentation of cards to their teachers and a quiz segment called "Who's smarter than the 5 Honesty kids?" - styled after American TV quiz show Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?
Mrs Elizabeth Chia receives a garland from her pupil in Pri 1 Unity.
Special dedications for teachers
Before the PSG "took over" the celebrations on 31 August 2009, the school had its own Teachers Day Dedication, where messages of appreciation penned by pupils were played over the intercom to the staff room during recess. Allied Educators (who help teachers with pastoral care, counselling, special needs and CCA programmes) had gone from class to class a week earlier to explain the dedication programme to the pupils, and to hand out and collect the dedication slips.
"I edited the dedications and together with the Allied Educators, selected the best written greetings from each level," says Special Needs Officer Ms Hanim Ali. She then worked with three school prefects to pre-record the dedications. A Pri 3 Joy dedication to Prefect teacher-in-charge Mr Bryan Neo, for example, went like this: "Happy Teachers' Day to you. I like you a lot and you are a very good teacher to me. You are also very handsome and a very nice teacher. Happy Teachers' Day!"
Mrs Cheng notes that "the upper primary pupils liked the freedom of expression to plan a programme that they would enjoy." She adds, "For sure, the celebrations would not have been possible without our PSG, and I'm really grateful for their help. I'm also glad that they didn't plan lavish presents or use expensive materials. Most of the items were handmade or involved recycled materials."
Parent volunteer Ms Thu Le leading the games in Pri 2 Honesty.
"I think it is a good idea to have decentralised celebrations," says Tamil Language teacher Mr Murugesan R. - even though he had to dance as a penalty during the Pictionary game. "There is a wider variety of activities, and teachers have more opportunity to interact with the pupils."