A teacher affects eternity...

Recently, we had a small gathering of former school mates. We were all from the same primary and secondary schools and two of us, Singaporeans, were there to meet up with our friend who was visiting from elsewhere. I haven’t spoken to this friend, P, for 40 years so it was great catching up. After a while, our conversation drifted to the topic of our former teachers, and invariably, we talked about the one teacher who left an indelible mark on our memories of school. This was our Maths teacher at secondary school, Mrs A.

I remember writing about my experiences with Mrs A before, but I did not know how my other school mates felt about her; we have never spoken about our individual experiences before. We were all from a convent where most of the girls were of working class backgrounds and a large number of these girls had fathers who worked at the huge railway workshop near our school. Indeed, in those days, most of the houses in that neighbourhood were built for the railway workers (and referred to as railway quarters) and their families although these days, it will cost you an arm and a leg to buy a place there.

The truth is I don’t remember many things about Mrs A, but a few unpleasant  incidents have been tucked away in my memory all these years.  My friend E, remembered her as a rather racist person who disliked dark skinned girls.  She recounted an incident where she saw Mrs A staring daggers at another dark-skinned classmate. “I shook with fear”, she said watching the hatred and anger in Mrs A’s face then.  It was rather dramatic and I did wonder if perhaps E’s youthful imagination went a tad into over drive then.  But I also asked myself why this one memory stayed with E after four decades.

Most of us remember Mrs A for her nightmarish Maths lessons. She would not just shout and threaten but she also slapped all of us freely. This was a woman who walked around during the exam peering into your test paper and demanding to know why you have left some sums unsolved. If your answer was not appropriate, like I don’t know how to do that sum, you were likely to get slapped.  I don’t know if I was born mathematically challenged but I am pretty sure I was terrorised into it by Mrs A. But, still E and I were the lucky ones who don’t remember getting slapped.

There were also all the different humiliating punishments she came up with when we failed Maths. Like being put out on show on the steps leading to the canteen with the test papers pinned on our uniforms. Or being led from class to class like criminals, with the offending test paper folded into a big bow on our chests.  We had to stand in a line in front of each class as examples of failures.  It is a miracle we did not all grow up to be insecure women, although some may have, like I did, develop a phobia for Maths.

So there we were, three grown professional women, sitting in the posh club of the hotel, each with a Singapore Sling in hand, recounting tales of Mrs A and shaking our heads with bewilderment. I imagined our younger selves similarly bewildered by the unnecessary cruelty and humiliation. What possessed her to do those things to us?

Mrs A has migrated to another country but several years ago, she was invited to a gathering of old girls (one that I did not go to).  My friend, P, recounted how she made a special effort during that event, to take a picture of Mrs A.

Why? I asked.

“I needed to show my children the teacher who slapped me two days in a row because I could not do the sums on profit and loss,” she replied.

Professionally, we have all come a long way since those days and we do have our teachers to thank. But that evening, we never once spoke of our favourite teachers or the teachers who helped us the most. Our thoughts, that evening, were consumed with memories of Mrs A and the helplessness and injustice we felt then. True, that was a long time ago and we should let it all go, but somehow, the effect of her actions stayed with us all through the years.   Perhaps she meant well and she just wanted us to work hard.  I’d like to think that too. But perhaps it was because she didn’t think much of us poor girls who, to her, would amount to nothing. As it turned out, we all proved to be one of the most successful batches of students the school has ever produced.  But now, even as successful senior citizens-to-be, memories of the one bad teacher still remain with us. 

Henry Brooks once said: 

A teacher affects eternity:s/he (sic) can never tell where his/her influence stops.  

In the case of Mrs A, her influence is indeed lifelong; we have never forgotten all the things she did to us. And she still remains the very model of a teacher we would never want our children to have. 

On stuff we leave behind...

I went to a sale of second hand books, DVDs and CDs a few weeks ago and came away thinking about my own mortality.

As I went through the many books, some read, some unread and the equally impressive collection of music CDs, some of popular classics, others for meditation and designed to provide relaxation, I could not help wondering about the person who has passed on and left all these behind. I understand he was a librarian before and I could see that we have some interests in common e.g. in wellness, spirituality, exercise, language learning and in travel. But the more I browsed through his things, the more questions I had about this person and his life.   Were these books and DVDs evidence of his seeking for peace of mind and for an understanding of what he was about to encounter?  Were the CDs of relaxation music used to help him sleep at night? Was he looking for peace of mind through yoga and meditation? Did he find any of this in his last days?

I felt some sadness for him and for what he left behind. Clearly, these were his precious things; he found solace and comfort in the books, in his fengshui figurines and in his collection of animals and comic characters. Now they lie desolate, without much worth and only regarded as junk obstructing the smooth handover of the house to the next owner.

As I stood outside the house looking at the intimate detritus of a life, I wondered about my own junk.  What will people make of my stuff when I am gone? Will they analyse my book titles and make judgements about my character or speak of my eccentricities? Is it worth my while leaving behind things I love for my loved ones who may not love these same things, regardless of their value? Is it not better to give the living less work by discarding them when I can and still have the time to do so? But who knows how long we will live, and can we live without the bits and pieces that define our lives and give us comfort?

Perhaps we should consider going the same way we came- empty handed. In the end, all our material goods will come to nought anyway; we can’t take them with us.

Such food for thought for me and for all of us growing old.

Do our children read in school?

I had lunch with an expatriate friend yesterday and as usual we talked about education matters since she is also an educator. She then told me about her friend (another expatriate) who recently decided to pull her son out of a well known local mission school for boys. Her reason? She said that her son did not read a single chapter book in his whole time there. I think Singaporeans will be shocked to hear this especially since getting a place in this school is like winning the lottery. Most people will think that this is a trivial reason for such a drastic decision. After lunch, I thought about this on the drive home and I had to admit that her reason was not all that frivolous.

Think about it. How can a school curriculum offer nothing solid for students to read apart from excerpts of texts which are usually not more than several hundred words long? That has been the situation with the basal texts that we have used, for example, the Primary English Thematic Series (PETS) or even the current supplementary series that I am working on, MC English.  To be fair, these basal readers have been commissioned by the Ministry; the guidelines for developing the texts were given to publishers and writers.  True, there is a place for basal readers in the curriculum and the latest series is filled with adaptations and excerpts from children’s literature. But they are still short texts and cannot qualify as real books.

Some of you may say, “But there are the STELLAR books!" Right, but honestly, how long are they? Should our eleven and twelve year olds be reading more? How do our children learn to read and write effectively without reading any chapter books of quality?

Well, many of you will say that this kind of reading is probably done at home. But most of you will also agree that this kind of reading is crucial to any child's language development. Don’t schools and MOE emphasise the importance of extensive reading all the time? Yet isn't it strange that we don't make our students read and we don't give them grades for reading extensively to motivate them to read?

I have on many occasions urged schools to give out lists of award winning books or create any list of recommended books for their students and make it compulsory for them to read at least 10 books from the list every term. I have yet to hear from any school which has done this. I know of schools which have introduced literature into the curriculum. Their students read a book a term or a book a year. And this book is always the predictable Charlotte's Web or some Roald Dahl title. Some schools even read a rather badly written series of moral stories as literature. The students who really read will finish their book in a day or a week. Those who don't care to read will have their interest killed, either by the long drawn affair with one book or by the boring moralistic tales which are badly written. What then is achieved by introducing literature?

It’s time to seriously consider introducing students to good literature and to make reading a significant component of language learning, instead of confining reading to just comprehension periods. The truth is, we all know that our students don’t do enough reading. It’s time to do something. Let’s stop paying lip service to its value. Nobody would deny that reading is a valuable aid to language learning, to writing and lifelong learning.  But why are we not doing anything to make our students read?

After listening to my friend and thinking things over, I realised too that what she has described is true but it’s a truth that we conveniently ignore. I know I often do not mince my words when I speak about what’s wrong with our education system.  But I must confess that when an outsider criticises the system, and points out the lapses, I do get quite defensive. This time though, I was truly left with nothing to say but to admit to our failing.

Whether our youth turn out to be avid readers or not depends on us, teachers and parents. How do parents feel now knowing that their children never have to read a complete chapter book in their entire primary school career? Does it make us feel confident that our children can proceed to secondary school and be ready to take on the reading tasks there? Or do we think that reading chapter books is something children should do at home and that school should just concentrate on teaching academic subjects? What do you think?

All Children Can Learn

                                                              Miss Seah Jiak Choo

It’s the end of March and for me, the end of a hectic but interesting month. The month began with the Singapore ASCD AGM and our guest speaker this time was none other than our former Director General of Education, Miss Seah Jiak Choo. I have heard her speak on one or two former occasions and each time I have been struck by her honesty, her no-nonsense approach and her genuine love for what she does. Again, she did not disappoint us this time.

My greatest take away from her talk entitled Teacher Leadership has been the fact that all teachers are leaders by virtue of the fact that they all have followers who are growing and contributing to the greater good- yes, their students. I wonder if teachers know this. She went on to say that some teachers are more successful than others as leaders and this is because some have no opportunities to develop their leadership skills.

Another significant gem from her that is related to what I wrote about in my last post is the fact that all teachers must be obsessed with the belief that all children can learn. I thought that this is such an important idea for all teachers to embrace because it is the premise upon which we function as teachers. If we no longer believe in the fact that all our children can learn, we will be no longer effective as teachers and we should then leave the profession.

This message was reinforced for me a week later when I attended the ASCD conference in Philadelphia.  Yvette Jackson spoke about a pedagogy of confidence where educators start teaching from students’ strengths instead of focusing on their weakness.  Yvette described a weakness as an undeveloped skill.  It’s not that students don’t know but it’s that they don’t know... YET! But they will get it eventually.

The secret to teaching these children is to change the input; find another way of teaching them, change the script so that they are not constantly exposed to the same script and the same input. Think of how often we insist on giving weaker children watered down materials and easy tasks. Our intention is always good and that is not to frustrate them.  But the opposite also happens.  Too many dumb down tasks will result in no learning and a loss of motivation. Remember the rich do become richer and the poor can become poorer.  Weak students need more rich input.

I compared this to fertilising plants when discussing this topic with my teachers recently. We need to spread a lot of good fertiliser around in our garden to encourage the plants to grow.  It’s true that sometimes the plants cannot take this. I know this from firsthand experience. Some plants will even die from too much richness, but most will show some growth but there will be some that will blossom and grow even faster and stronger. Teaching must be like spreading fertiliser. If the input is not rich, none of the students will benefit. If it’s very rich, some may be lost but there will be many others who will benefit.

Yvette offered seven principles for a pedagogy of confidence, and in a nutshell they are:

1. Identifying and activating strengths
2. Building relationships
3. Nurturing high intellectual performances
4. Providing enrichment
5. Incorporating prerequisites ( as in providing supporting help and materials)
6. Situating learning in the lives of students
7. Amplifying student voice

Finally, an interesting activity we did together was to develop a bubble map (semantic web) of the strengths of underachieving students. In fact, this activity is best done with students themselves. I bet they never thought deeply about the strengths they have. Once they have identified their strengths, think of how you can build upon each of these individual strengths. Begin your planning with that strength in mind and see if you can give your lesson a new twist.  Yvette’s example was that students do not understand World War 2 but they all understand conflict. Begin with conflict.

Ultimately, as teachers we need to flip the script and reframe the issues. It’s only when we are equipped with a new and more positive perspective of our underachievers that we can begin to help them to learn.  Our pedagogy can then be one of confidence.

                                   

Think Positive!

We all know that classic book by Norman Vincent Peale The Art of Positive Thinking. I must admit that I have never read it although I’ve seen it many times here and there.  I do believe in positive thinking, but like everyone else, I too succumb to negative thoughts every now and then. I have done that often enough to know that negative thoughts are not only unhelpful but are downright draining and they not just affect you but also all those around you. You are truly spreading bad vibes with negative thoughts.

I am thinking about this simply because I have been encountering a number of instances of negative thoughts in the recent months. Usually it’s after I’ve explained how to use a new or unfamiliar strategy for teaching something or a different way of approaching teaching and learning. Sometimes I get enthusiastic response; other times, there’s some doubt and scepticism. These I can deal with. What I have problems with are the people who say to me that what I’ve shown them cannot be used with their students.  They say this not because they doubt the strategy or the activity but they sincerely feel that their students will never learn it even if they repeat the lesson a hundred times. And I see in their eyes the frustration and the resignation. I see in their body language the message that such strategies to write or read better should be shared with the better kids and not theirs.

This is very sad. If anybody needs a new way to help them learn better, it’s the struggling student. Good students find their way despite the teacher. Yet, the very students who need the help are not always given it. It’s true that teachers struggle against time and a host of administrative and marking duties which take them away from focusing on their teaching.  But that does not mean we give up on the teaching. Who says that we can learn something just because we have been taught? Have we forgotten our struggle to learn how to line dance, make a lava cake, create that smoky eye look or even simply to watch our diet? Nothing is that easily learnt.

Sure, some of our students need a much longer time than the others. But in their journey, they should be given support and encouragement. They don’t need to be reminded time and again that they are failures. We do this all the time when we insist on giving them work that they cannot cope with. We do this with good intention, of course, and that is to prepare them for the PSLE. But deep down, we know they are not ready for the PSLE. Do we persist in making them do those tasks and thus having them fail week after week? What will happen to their self confidence and self esteem? Are we really preparing them for the PSLE?

Maya Angelou once said:  I’ve learnt that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you make them feel.  

Every day in our classroom, we make people feel a certain way by what we say or do. We can make our struggling students feel better about themselves by first showing some belief in them. Then we can make them feel better by helping them in the best way we can. Finally, we can help them be better by simply persisting in not giving up on them. We can’t all be Mrs Chongs, but we can all have faith in all our students.

Be positive. Be encouraging. I believe these are the first steps we can take to help our struggling students succeed. 

The Question Formulation Technique: 6 Steps to Help Students Ask Better Questions

The Question Formulation Technique: 6 Steps to Help Students Ask Better Questions: How often do we teach students how to formulate good, in-depth questions? Use these 6 steps to help boost your students’ ability to ask better questions and drive their own learning.

Reading aloud

Jim Trelease's useful book on reading aloud

There are many useful read aloud extracts in this book also by Trelease. 

                                     

On Saturday ( 14 Jan), I shared some ideas with CDAC tutors for helping students to be better readers. By better readers, I mean better at reading aloud.

Reading aloud is a key component in the oral examination, and is a skill that students can learn to master and therefore do well in. A common problem with students reading aloud is their lack of expression. I talked about some ways to help students understand the rhythm of the English language and shared some ideas with   my audience. Unfortunately, these were not in their notes, so here they are:

There are 5 main tones in English:
rise 

fall

rise-fall

fall-rise

level

Intonation can reinforce grammar: 

Wh-questions: fall
What is your name?

Conditional sentences: rise on the first clause & a fall on the second
If I give you a dollar, will you sweep the floor?

Imperatives: fall
Quiet! Sit down!

Yes/no questions: rise-fall
Is this seat taken?

Intonation can reveal attitude:

Expressing surprise: rise
I see that you are still here.

Sarcasm: rise-fall
What a beautiful skirt ; what happened to the rest of the tablecloth?

Politeness: rise ('the polite rise')
May I speak to the manager?

Doubt: fall-rise

I’m not sure you’re right, but it sounds convincing.

Teachers can do a lot to model the art of reading aloud, and one good way is to spend a few minutes each day reading aloud to your students. Here is a  video that shows you how you can do this well. 

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