Seven Days in Japan: from Table Tennis to Technology

July 23, 2010

Brushing up on paddling skills, catching a glimpse of tomorrow's technology, experiencing another culture - these are just some of the experiences Dunman High School students enjoyed during a one-week school trip to Japan under the Friends@YOG programme. From 30 May to 7 June this year, the group of 27 students and 4 teachers were hosted by the Japanese National Olympic Committee.

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Staging A Scene For Drama At 'O' Level

March 30, 2010

Tanjong Katong Girls' School was one of the first in Singapore to offer Drama as an 'O' Level subject in 2006. At present, there are about two dozen Drama students across Sec 3 and Sec 4, who undergo about five hours of lessons each week. As a subject, Drama involves close scrutiny and analysis of dramatic texts. Theory is complemented by practical assessments that run the gamut from intense monologues and group improvisation, to creating sets for various time periods and cultures.

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Getting All Lit Up!

October 16, 2009

What a scene: The man of the house barely glances up as the servant beats her daughter with a broomstick. His eyes are glued to the newspapers, as he alternately takes a swig from a beer bottle and puffs on a cigarette. Finally his wife intervenes in the thrashing by saying stiffly, "That will do, Ah Soh. Do you want to kill the child?" "Better for her to be killed than to insult you in this way!" sobs Ah Soh.

Enter the narrator, who brings an abrupt end to that riveting performance by Gan Eng Seng Secondary School. "What do you think will happen next?" she asks, and urges the audience to read The Jade Pendant by Catherine Lim to uncover the fate of the "thick circular piece of intricately carved jade of the most brilliant and lucid green".

This was one of the 30 performances in the Lower Secondary Book Trailer competition, where each team had 10 minutes to present a scene so compelling, that the audience would be motivated to pick up the short story or novel to find out how the events turn out.

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Saving the Environment, Caring for the Community

October 6, 2009

Imagine spending nearly a week on a remote hill in north Thailand. But this is no free-and-easy getaway. The days are hot and the nights bone-chillingly cold. And the first order of the morning is not breakfast but a trudge to nearby sheds with baskets of bananas and shovels - all the better to feed the resident elephants and clean up after them.

"Early in the morning, we had to use the shovel to clear the elephant dung," recalls Sec 3 student Triston Cheong. "It was tough and smelly - but very fun!"

Fun?

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Ideas from India

April 28, 2009

For Tamil language teacher Mdm Raman Pearmavathi (known as Mrs Pannier to her colleagues and pupils at Bukit Panjang Primary School), India is a land of rich culture, aesthetics and learning. That's why in October 2007, she packed her bags and headed off to Chennai on her self-organised Professional Development Leave trip - her first learning trip since she started teaching 30 years ago.

Over three weeks, Mrs Pannier played the observer in the primary school division of five schools: Abacus Montessori School, Velammal Matriculation High School, SBOA School and Junior College, Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School and DAV Boys' Senior Secondary School. There was plenty to see, lots to learn and many ideas that she could bring home at the end of it.

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To India and Back Again (Part 2)

April 7, 2009

Read Part 1 of this article here.

In March 2009, ten students and two teachers from Pathways World School returned the visit to Nan Hua High School, which rolled out a variety of activities over five days to show them what Singapore had to offer. Besides classroom immersion, the group also went on a hiking trip to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and educational tours to the Science Centre and Marina Barrage.

How did the Indian students find Singapore?

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To India and Back Again (Part 1)

April 3, 2009

Compare the rowdy bustle of Delhi's streets with the predictable order of Singapore's, and imagine crossing from one world to the other. That's the experience that 21 Nan Hua High School students had in November 2008, when they spent eight days on an immersion programme in Delhi, accompanied by their vice-principal and two teachers.

At every turn, they were fascinated, intrigued and sometimes overwhelmed by the new sights, sounds and smells that challenged their senses. At the same time, they experienced the warmth of the local people. Recalls Sec 4 student Samuel Ng, who is also the student leader for the trip, "I didn't expect people to be so friendly. Once, we were trying to walk to our destination and almost lost our way. People not only offered to help us, they even took us there!"

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To Vietnam to Lend a Helping Hand

August 26, 2008

There’s a world of difference between being a mere tourist and a true traveller who contributes something to the place he or she visits - that’s what my 29 students from Yio Chu Kang Primary School found out during a six-day trip to Vietnam in May.

Forget theme parks and shopping malls. Instead, the Pri 4 and 5 students and their four teachers, including myself, embarked on a journey of discovery into a world of natural wonders and remote villages, trekking across hills to see ancient trees and setting up water filtration systems at shelters for victims of war.

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Rock on with Shakespeare

June 10, 2008

Bowen Secondary School students presented their own version of the opening scene of A Midsummer Night's Dream. “Shakespeare rocks!” - you might think it’d be hard to get a teenager today to agree with this, but six students in Bowen Secondary School would give a rousing cheer in response. Fresh from their well-received dramatised reading of the opening scene of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, these students have a newfound appreciation of the art of Shakespeare and the magic of drama. “The scene explored a wide range of human emotions at different points, such as love, anger, sorrow, joy, justice...

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Making Their Mark in Foreign Lands

April 30, 2008

What was it like participating in a competition in a foreign country where none of the organisers and production crew could speak English? Or how did it feel to perform in the world-renowned Carnegie Hall in New York City? Students from Victoria Junior College’s dance ensemble and band can answer all these questions and more.

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SMART Robots, Student-Made

April 28, 2008

Clambering over fences, moving items across the playing field and scoring goals - sounds very much like an obstacle-filled telematch, doesn’t it? It sort of is, except that the “players” were robots competing to edge out the competition by accumulating the highest number of points. The venue was the FIRST Tech Challenge in the United States, and two of the robots hailed from Singapore, escorted by two SMART teams.

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Holistic Teaching through PoETEL

March 3, 2008

Imagine learning about Social Studies through drama, or story-writing through comic strips. Sound fun? These interesting lessons are what pupils at Tampines Primary School experience in their classrooms, making learning a thoroughly engaging affair for the pupils!

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Helping Children in Thailand

February 27, 2008

While many visitors to Thailand have taken part in the Loy Krathong festival, our group of 20 upper secondary students from Bowen Secondary School had a somewhat different experience. We were the guests at Phayao Centre, a home for abused children in Thailand, and as we made traditional krathongs (floating candles) with the children, we gained a whole new perspective on the hope that this festival can represent.

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Building Bridges through Social Studies

January 30, 2008

“Welcome to sunny San Diego!” the hotel front desk officer greeted me when I was checking in. That was certainly a welcome sight after a tiring 20-hour flight. And even though there was a heavy downpour on the first day of the conference (so much for sunny San Diego), we refused to let the wet weather dampen our mood. We were here to learn about how American teachers inculcate citizenship values and prepare their students for a world that is fast becoming ethnically and culturally diversified.

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A Doublebill of Achievements: Discipline & Drama

December 17, 2007

A teacher who can get students to take charge of their own behaviour, yet lets them let loose in the classroom (well, dramatically speaking) - that’s Mr Yeo Leng Quee of Peirce Secondary School. One of the four recipients of the 2007 President’s Award for Teachers, he has spearheaded a year-round system to improve overall school discipline, as well as injected a successful drama component to English lessons.

A few months ago, we featured Mr Yeo’s personal take on his 10-year teaching career; now we take a look at his “extra-curricular” activities, beyond the textbook.

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Seeing Italy through Art

November 26, 2007

Earlier this year, 14 students each from St. Andrew's Secondary School and St. Andrew's Junior College plus 7 teachers set off for Italy. We were Art students taking the subject at either 'O' or 'A' levels, off to learn more about the Renaissance era and art history. It was also a chance for us secondary school students to learn from our seniors in junior college through their mentoring and sharing.

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OYEA 2007: Inspiring by Example

November 9, 2007

An interview with OYEA 2007 winner, Miss Sukhjeet Kaur

When Miss Sukhjeet Kaur taught English Language to a Normal (Technical) class at Swiss Cottage Secondary School, she developed such a rapport with the students that by the end of her two years with them, they were correcting her English if she ever slipped up. "It was initially a challenge to win them over, but after some time, they amazed everyone - and themselves, I think - with what they could achieve," she reflects.

As for them playing teacher to her language skills, Miss Sukhjeet took it all in her stride. "I didn't mind them correcting my English. After all, they were getting better at the language and were using more sophisticated vocabulary - what more could I ask for?"

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Travel Blog Keeps Parents in Touch

October 29, 2007

To our pupils at Rivervale Primary School and their peers, blogging is nothing new. But Jasmine and her schoolmates still got a real kick out of hearing from their families while they were on a school trip to Kuching, Sarawak. For their families, our school’s travel blog was a novel and convenient way to be assured of their children’s whereabouts overseas.

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We Sang Our Hearts Out …

September 10, 2007

… and the screams were ear-splitting when the results were announced. Everyone immediately leapt out of their seats and hugged each other in delight. The Victoria Junior College (VJC) choir had clinched the Jury Prize in the international choral festival A Voyage of Songs 2007. The choir also emerged category winners for the Open Mixed Voices and Open Equal Voices categories, and came in second place for the Youth Equal Voices category.

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Trekking the Himalayas with My Sons

September 7, 2007

Crisp mountain air, magnificent scenery like something out of a National Geographic magazine - and 30 of us screaming for joy when we reached Dharva Top, a peak 4,150 metres above sea level. No, it wasn’t quite the typical family vacation, not when I was travelling with my sons on a school expedition to the Himalayas, organised by Whitley Secondary. While I was the only parent in the group, I thought the trekking trip would be a golden opportunity for me to bond with my sons, who are in Sec 2 and Sec 3. In fact, our bonding opportunities started well before we left Singapore, as I had to join the group for training sessions. But first we had to get there.

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