Teachers Who Give Hope and Confidence
Friday, October 2, 2009
Under the guidance of Mdm Wong, students at Anderson Secondary School have a head for numbers and values.
Read the first article about the recipients of this year's President's Award for Teachers.
Step into Mathematics teacher Mdm Wong Lai Fong's class at Anderson Secondary School and you'll get a lesson in both numbers and sense. For in Mdm Wong's eyes, what really adds up is not one's ability to count, but a sense of responsibility and the confidence to confront life's challenges.
It's no wonder that when she was once assigned a class notorious for their rudeness, Mdm Wong took on the double duty of teaching Maths while encouraging the unruly students to mind their manners. With patience, praise and even songs, raps and games, she succeeded in turning defiance into discipline and mischief into motivation.
This commitment to success beyond schoolwork also girds Ms Sharon Ann Cardoza at Farrer Park Primary School as she reaches out to at-risk pupils. "You can't expect a child to complete homework when he's worrying about whether there will be food on the table for dinner or whether his parents are going to have another argument," she states. "Their basic needs like food, safe living conditions, and a home free of anxiety and fear must be met first."
For their outstanding commitment to shaping young lives, Mdm Wong and Ms Cardoza have been named two of the four recipients of this year's President's Award for Teachers, Singapore's highest honour for teachers.
Ms Cardoza encourages her pupils to believe in themselves.
The power of hope
Ms Cardoza's joined the education profession with the aim of teaching in special schools. But she soon observed that children in mainstream schools also face a barrage of challenges and was moved to help these pupils overcome their hurdles. "We should always give our children hope," she declares.
Recalling a particularly meaningful story, Ms Cardoza describes a pupil she encountered last year "who awakened me to what it means to be a teacher." The boy was academically weak, and also suffered from poor social skills and family problems. "It was not easy establishing a relationship with him, but I knew I had to try and not give up on him."
After learning that the boy often had little to eat as his mother had lost her job, Ms Cardoza provided help to the family and on weekends tutored the boy at the void deck of the block of flats where he lived, to help him catch up on his lessons. "Slowly but surely, he began to trust me," she recounts. "I noticed that his behaviour improved and he responded positively." The pupil has now passed his PSLE and is in Northlight School, where he is the chairman of his class. "To this day, he calls me from time to time and updates me on the highlights of his life," she adds.
Ms Cardoza finds joy in helping young people overcome their hurdles.
Although her days are often emotionally demanding, Ms Cardoza credits her fellow teachers for inspiration and sustaining her spirits. "I have learnt the importance of sharing with colleagues," she points out. "It's important to be a team player in the teaching profession - you cannot work alone."
In turn, she passes on the cheer to her Foundation Stream class, whom she encourages to "self-talk" by looking at the mirror every morning and telling themselves that they are smart and able to succeed. "You have to keep reassuring them and letting them know that they are strong enough to get through rough patches," states Ms Cardoza. "As teachers, we have the ability to influence their thoughts and attitudes, and it's a joy to see a child's face light up by simply giving them words of encouragement."
Maths with morals
Calm persistence and gentle persuasion are also Mdm Wong's most powerful classroom tools. Thinking back to her erstwhile uncouth class, she recalls how one burly student was openly defiant and used his size to try to intimidate her. "I was afraid, but I did not want to lose control of the situation," she relates. "So I repeated my instruction in a calm but firm tone." The situation was defused and the boy complied.
Calm persistence and gentle persuasion are Mdm Wong's most powerful classroom tools.
Later, she spoke to him privately. "I helped him realise that while he chose to get angry with me, I chose not to escalate the anger," she says. "I chose to calmly handle the situation instead of getting angry or sending him to the discipline master." Won over by her graciousness, the boy put a stop to his troublemaking. "He even started a little notebook in which he copied the steps to solve each problem," chuckles Mdm Wong. "The class declared him my favourite student!"
Stressing her belief that character development goes hand-in-hand with classroom success, Mdm Wong cites the case of a girl who often sought one-to-one coaching from her. After observing that the girl had low self-esteem and was afraid of speaking up in class and being laughed at, Mdm Wong made it a point to ignore the girl's negative rants.
"Gradually, she realised that I would only respond when she chose to be positive," recounts Mdm Wong. "Today, she is a more confident and cheerful girl, and even dares to tease her friends openly in class."
Students with both a head for numbers and a heart for values - that's something Mdm Wong is cultivating through her Maths classes, which are enriched with manipulatives (concrete objects used to teach mathematical concepts), interactive software and co-operative learning strategies. "Teaching is not only about imparting content knowledge," says the veteran teacher. "It's also about imparting strong values so that students will eventually become responsible people."