Some time back, Little Boy shared an incident in school which I find appalling. It happened during a particular Maths lesson where the teacher was teaching the class a very complicated maths concept (one that involved the calculation of nth value). Despite the teacher's thorough explanation, a few students were still confused and were unable to grasp the concept fully. Without giving up, the teacher went on to explain a few more times to help those few students understand the lesson. (I applaud the teacher's professionalism and patience.) While the teacher was repeating her lesson, a student who had understood the concept earlier made a disparaging remark (not loud enough for the teacher's ears but audible to the students sitting around her). She didn't think those few 'slow learners' (in her own words) deserve to be in the same GEP class WITH HER! Such arrogance! And she's only 10!
I took the opportunity to teach Little Boy a lesson on humility using Philippians 2:3-4. and felt mighty pleased with myself for having seized this teachable moment. Alas! In the span of less than 3 days, Little Boy committed the same act of arrogance at home and the victim was ME!
I was coaching Little Boy and made a mistake in my answer. Not only was Little Boy quick in correcting me, he went on to judge my intelligence. I was flabbergasted! I was too prideful to admit my mistake, so, I picked on his arrogance and his prejudice statement. Consequently, we had a big row and he ended up in tears and I, in great remorse and shame.
Later that evening, I shared the incident with my husband and his 1st response was, 'So, was it a mistake to put him in GEP?' My husband was referring to our initial concern that putting Little Boy in GEP may inflat his ego too much for his own good.
I cannot deny that kids in GEP have an elevated status and most do think highly of themselves. Relatives and friends never fail to exclaim in admiration when they found out Little Boy is in the GEP. How not to stick your nose up in the air when you have people around you exclaiming how smart and privileged you are to be in GEP? But, has being in GEP really turned Little Boy into a conceited peacock? I don't think so. Little Boy was never a humble mouse to begin with.
When I shook my head at the student who passed the disparaging remark on her 'slower' fellow classmates, I was already showing my prejudice against her. My pride refused to allow me to admit that Little Boy is indeed cleverer than me in some areas. So, how can I teach Little Boy humility when I am as judgemental and prideful as he? It is very difficult but that does not mean I should stop trying. I guess I can start by consciously putting to mind and living out Philippians 2:3-4 and hopefully, Little Boy will come to embrace these verses and live them out in his own life too.
Pride and prejudice, all of us are guilty of them. But I believe they can be eradicated by us making a conscious effort to value others above ourselves and to put the interests of others before ours. Well, it is easier said than done, but that does not mean it cannot be done.
Thursday, 18 April 2013
Monday, 25 March 2013
Social Studies Project (Part 2)
This is a continuation on the Social Studies Project.
2nd Part: Interview and write-up on a family member
After the 2D family project, Little Boy had to quickly get down to the 2nd part of the project. The 2nd part required him to interview a family member of his choice and write an essay comparing his life with the life of the interviewee. Without much deliberation, Little Boy had decided to interview his paternal grandfather. For this part of the project, there was plenty of guidance from the teacher, hence, I left Little Boy alone to formulate the interview questions and do the write-up. The only problem I faced was to get Little Boy to be on task, check his deadlines and hand in the drafts on time.
Little Boy enjoyed the interview process, as the role of the interviewer gave him a sense of importance. We discovered many things about his grandfather that we were previously unaware of. Little Boy was very intrigued by the childhood games his grandfather used to play. He also felt very sympathetic towards his grandfather who had to go through poverty during his younger days. For me, I was mesmerised by my father-in-law very good looks when he was in his early twenties. Upon closer observation, I do see some resemblance between Little Boy and his grandfather. haha...
This project actually created an opportunity for Little Boy to bond with his grandfather and to get to know him deeper. I could tell that my father-in-law also enjoyed being interviewed by Little Boy and he had gone through all the trouble to dig out his old photos just to share with Little Boy what his past was like. The whole process was really fun and interesting.
3rd Part: Personal Reflection
The last part of the project (which I thought should be the easiest of all the tasks) required Little Boy to reflect on the whole journey he took from the start to the end of the project and document it down on a template provided by the teacher. However, this part proved to be quite tough for Little Boy who had never written a reflection before. He was also seldom asked to reflect on any processes. His initial reflection was irrelevant, superficial and lacked insights. It was only with much prompting and guidance from me that he was able to complete this last part of the project.
I could not comprehend Little Boy's struggles and his contorted expressions (whenever I told him he's not doing his reflection right). It's personal reflection! You just need to write what you think, feel and describe what you had gone through. How difficult can that be? It took me a while to realise that mainstream students are seldom asked to reflect and think. It is very common to have the teachers spoon-feeding the students and telling them what to think. Mainstream students are not given the opportunities to reflect and think on the processes either. Most of the time, teachers are only interested in the final product of a project and often neglect the process. Personally, I feel that writing personal reflection is a very important skill to have and that all students should be taught and be given ample opportunities to do that. Students who just spend all their time mugging exam topics and practise more challenge sums would end up like robots; devoid of feelings and personal thoughts.
2nd Part: Interview and write-up on a family member
After the 2D family project, Little Boy had to quickly get down to the 2nd part of the project. The 2nd part required him to interview a family member of his choice and write an essay comparing his life with the life of the interviewee. Without much deliberation, Little Boy had decided to interview his paternal grandfather. For this part of the project, there was plenty of guidance from the teacher, hence, I left Little Boy alone to formulate the interview questions and do the write-up. The only problem I faced was to get Little Boy to be on task, check his deadlines and hand in the drafts on time.
Little Boy enjoyed the interview process, as the role of the interviewer gave him a sense of importance. We discovered many things about his grandfather that we were previously unaware of. Little Boy was very intrigued by the childhood games his grandfather used to play. He also felt very sympathetic towards his grandfather who had to go through poverty during his younger days. For me, I was mesmerised by my father-in-law very good looks when he was in his early twenties. Upon closer observation, I do see some resemblance between Little Boy and his grandfather. haha...
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| Little Boy's grandfather in his twenties |
3rd Part: Personal Reflection
The last part of the project (which I thought should be the easiest of all the tasks) required Little Boy to reflect on the whole journey he took from the start to the end of the project and document it down on a template provided by the teacher. However, this part proved to be quite tough for Little Boy who had never written a reflection before. He was also seldom asked to reflect on any processes. His initial reflection was irrelevant, superficial and lacked insights. It was only with much prompting and guidance from me that he was able to complete this last part of the project.
I could not comprehend Little Boy's struggles and his contorted expressions (whenever I told him he's not doing his reflection right). It's personal reflection! You just need to write what you think, feel and describe what you had gone through. How difficult can that be? It took me a while to realise that mainstream students are seldom asked to reflect and think. It is very common to have the teachers spoon-feeding the students and telling them what to think. Mainstream students are not given the opportunities to reflect and think on the processes either. Most of the time, teachers are only interested in the final product of a project and often neglect the process. Personally, I feel that writing personal reflection is a very important skill to have and that all students should be taught and be given ample opportunities to do that. Students who just spend all their time mugging exam topics and practise more challenge sums would end up like robots; devoid of feelings and personal thoughts.
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
1st Social Studies Project: Family Tree (Part 1)
Little Boy is currently enjoying his lull period, having submitted the last of his Social Studies project on Monday. This Social Studies project which took him two solid months to complete was his 1st major project.
There are three parts to the project. First, he had to create a 2D family tree (up to three generations), detailing every family member's name, date of birth and his/her rank (in Mandarin) within the family. Thanks to WhatsApp, getting the various dates of birth was a piece of cake. But, we struggled with the ranks. As Little Boy addresses all my husband's brothers, my brothers and their wives simply as Uncle and Auntie so and so, we were clueless how to address them properly, according to their ranks, in Mandarin. In the end, I had to enlist the help of a Mandarin-speaking friend to differentiate between 舅舅 and 叔叔 and also to learn the various addresses for their respective wives. I was secretly thankful that both my husband and I don't have any sisters as that would further confuse Little Boy's already puzzled mind (till date, he still prefers to address his relatives as Uncle and Auntie so and so) :)
Once we had had all the information, we went on to discuss how best to present the family tree. I challenged Little Boy's original idea of using apples to represent the family members as I thought that was too common and lacked creativity. After much brainstorming, he agreed to use owls. Superimposing the pictures and typing the information onto the owls' bodies proved to be tedious but I got Little Boy to do a few each time, whenever he had the time. He was not conscientious on this task and I would have to nag at him numerous times before he actually did some work. It was pure torture! It took him weeks to complete all the owls.
Thankfully, I didn't have much trouble getting Little Boy to do up the tree and stick the owls on the corrugated board. Having experienced the repercussions of his procrastination on other projects (see my previous post), he obliged readily when I asked him to start on the tree during one of the Chinese New Year holidays. Though he did groaned and complained a little when he grew tired of sticking the many leaves to make a tree collage, he persevered and managed to complete the whole tree in about two hours. I was so happy to see this change of attitude and the virtue of hard work he displayed (even if it's just for this short while).
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| Patiently making a tree collage |
When the whole tree was completed, Little Boy couldn't stop marvelling at his own work. 'Mom, I couldn't believe I made this. It is fantastic!' he exclaimed, feeling extremely pleased with himself.
It was fantastic because he put his heart and mind into doing it. It was fantastic because he took up the challenge and tried something he had not done before. It was fantastic because he persevered despite the hard work. It was fantastic because he made it fantastic! And I am so very proud of him.
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| The completed family tree. |
Thursday, 7 February 2013
Ah Boy to Man
Little Boy cried this morning. Though I expected it and saw it coming, my heart still broke when I saw the tears. He cried because he has 2 projects due tomorrow and he is only half way through each project. He has CCA today and will be staying back till 5pm, after which he has an hour of Chinese tuition. That leaves him with only about an hour or so to complete the 2 projects before his bedtime at 9.30pm. This realisation hit him this morning. Why only this morning and not yesterday or the day before? Sigh!
Project no.1 is Photo journal. He is to use 5 photos to write about an environmental issue that he's concerned about and present it to his 'alien' friends (that's the audience determined by the teacher). He has the 5 photos and even the write-up but he has not committed the script for the oral presentation to memory. All presenters are required to memorise their scripts!
Project no.2 is Interviewing a family member. This project requires Little Boy to formulate his own interview questions, conduct the interview, arrange the interview notes in logical order and finally, to write an essay of 250-350 words based on the interview notes. He has done the questions and conducted the interview but has yet to arrange the notes and write the essay. To make matter worse, all these have to be type-written. Not only is Little Boy not a fast typist, he is also not a strong writer. Writing has never been his forte.
I do not know how Little Boy is going to complete his tasks tonight. I was tempted to ease his burden by typing out the interview notes for him and to draft out the essay outline so as to provide a framework for him to write on but, I know I can't give in to the temptations. Thankfully, I have this blog to distract me from going into his thumb-drive and type away...
Part of me wanted to go to Little Boy's rescue and pull him out of the deep waters but the other part wanted him to have a taste of drowning, in hope that he would learn how to swim from then on. In Jack Neo's recent movie 'Ah Boys to Men', the protagonist turned from an immature recruit in the army to a responsible soldier after going through an ordeal and causing his father to suffer from a stroke. I do not hope to be in the same situation as the protagonist's father just so that Little Boy can be more responsible. However, I do hope that today's baptism of fire will make my Little Boy more proactive in his school work and more vigilant in checking his schedule. It is my hope that this incident can turn my Ah Boy to man.
Project no.1 is Photo journal. He is to use 5 photos to write about an environmental issue that he's concerned about and present it to his 'alien' friends (that's the audience determined by the teacher). He has the 5 photos and even the write-up but he has not committed the script for the oral presentation to memory. All presenters are required to memorise their scripts!
Project no.2 is Interviewing a family member. This project requires Little Boy to formulate his own interview questions, conduct the interview, arrange the interview notes in logical order and finally, to write an essay of 250-350 words based on the interview notes. He has done the questions and conducted the interview but has yet to arrange the notes and write the essay. To make matter worse, all these have to be type-written. Not only is Little Boy not a fast typist, he is also not a strong writer. Writing has never been his forte.
I do not know how Little Boy is going to complete his tasks tonight. I was tempted to ease his burden by typing out the interview notes for him and to draft out the essay outline so as to provide a framework for him to write on but, I know I can't give in to the temptations. Thankfully, I have this blog to distract me from going into his thumb-drive and type away...
Part of me wanted to go to Little Boy's rescue and pull him out of the deep waters but the other part wanted him to have a taste of drowning, in hope that he would learn how to swim from then on. In Jack Neo's recent movie 'Ah Boys to Men', the protagonist turned from an immature recruit in the army to a responsible soldier after going through an ordeal and causing his father to suffer from a stroke. I do not hope to be in the same situation as the protagonist's father just so that Little Boy can be more responsible. However, I do hope that today's baptism of fire will make my Little Boy more proactive in his school work and more vigilant in checking his schedule. It is my hope that this incident can turn my Ah Boy to man.
Sunday, 27 January 2013
Land of Milk and Honey
Land of Milk and Honey - that's what Little Boy's Godma referred his current school to. I thought that's an apt description, judging from how everything is going swimmingly for him now.
Looking back, Little Boy's past 3 years in the mainstream education was akin to the Israelites' slavery days in Egypt. There were lots of homework and no freedom! Little Boy's previous school is famous for dishing out homework enough to bury the kids alive (on a daily basis). With most of his time spent on homework, leisure time was rare. All work and no play did indeed make the active Little Boy a dull boy! To make matter worse, Little Boy was unable to join any sports CCA as the coaches seemed to be interested in recruiting only skilled players by making all candidates go through selection tests. Needless to say, the unskilled Little Boy did not pass the selection tests. He was most upset to end up in a non sporty CCA: media com. In class, he was not encouraged to provide answers that do not match the teachers' answer schemes. One also could not question the teachers' answers and instructions. He was required to follow them to the tee. It's not that in GEP, kids are allowed to be brazen and challenge the teachers. It's just that the teachers encourage the kids to look beyond protocols and focus on the purpose and objectives instead. His current teachers encourage the kids to ask questions and challenge the answers. That's a breath of fresh air for my inquisitive Little Boy.
In Little Boy's 'Land of Milk and Honey', daily homework is significantly lesser. Though there are tons of projects to complete, these projects have different deadlines which help in the spreading out of the work. When Little Boy found out that all sports CCAs welcome amateur players, he wasted no time and gaily signed up for, not one but two CCAs: badminton and basketball. Staying back in school 4x a week does not seem to tire him as he still looks forward to school with great exuberance each day and will come back home full of exciting stories to tell.
That was Little Boy's exodus. So, what's my journey like? I have to admit that while Little Boy has the faith of Joshua and Caleb, I behave like one of the other 8 spies who looked into Canaan and saw huge giants impossible to conquer. I am overwhelmed by the many deadlines and depth of the projects. I wonder how Little Boy is going to cope with the collecting of data, researching on the internet, conducting of interviews and writing reports, as all these are foreign to him. I fret over if he is able to follow all the given guidelines and meet all the requirements. Most of all, I worry if my laid-back Little Boy is able to keep check on all the various deadlines and meet them.
At times, Little Boy does feel the heat from the projects that he has to complete but he's taking everything in his stride. Despite the increased in complexity and difficulty of the curriculum, he's enjoying the lessons, his friends, teachers and CCAs. He saw overflowing of milk and honey beyond the giants but I only saw the giants. I just hope I will have the faith of Little Boy in time to come.
Looking back, Little Boy's past 3 years in the mainstream education was akin to the Israelites' slavery days in Egypt. There were lots of homework and no freedom! Little Boy's previous school is famous for dishing out homework enough to bury the kids alive (on a daily basis). With most of his time spent on homework, leisure time was rare. All work and no play did indeed make the active Little Boy a dull boy! To make matter worse, Little Boy was unable to join any sports CCA as the coaches seemed to be interested in recruiting only skilled players by making all candidates go through selection tests. Needless to say, the unskilled Little Boy did not pass the selection tests. He was most upset to end up in a non sporty CCA: media com. In class, he was not encouraged to provide answers that do not match the teachers' answer schemes. One also could not question the teachers' answers and instructions. He was required to follow them to the tee. It's not that in GEP, kids are allowed to be brazen and challenge the teachers. It's just that the teachers encourage the kids to look beyond protocols and focus on the purpose and objectives instead. His current teachers encourage the kids to ask questions and challenge the answers. That's a breath of fresh air for my inquisitive Little Boy.
In Little Boy's 'Land of Milk and Honey', daily homework is significantly lesser. Though there are tons of projects to complete, these projects have different deadlines which help in the spreading out of the work. When Little Boy found out that all sports CCAs welcome amateur players, he wasted no time and gaily signed up for, not one but two CCAs: badminton and basketball. Staying back in school 4x a week does not seem to tire him as he still looks forward to school with great exuberance each day and will come back home full of exciting stories to tell.
That was Little Boy's exodus. So, what's my journey like? I have to admit that while Little Boy has the faith of Joshua and Caleb, I behave like one of the other 8 spies who looked into Canaan and saw huge giants impossible to conquer. I am overwhelmed by the many deadlines and depth of the projects. I wonder how Little Boy is going to cope with the collecting of data, researching on the internet, conducting of interviews and writing reports, as all these are foreign to him. I fret over if he is able to follow all the given guidelines and meet all the requirements. Most of all, I worry if my laid-back Little Boy is able to keep check on all the various deadlines and meet them.
At times, Little Boy does feel the heat from the projects that he has to complete but he's taking everything in his stride. Despite the increased in complexity and difficulty of the curriculum, he's enjoying the lessons, his friends, teachers and CCAs. He saw overflowing of milk and honey beyond the giants but I only saw the giants. I just hope I will have the faith of Little Boy in time to come.
Thursday, 10 January 2013
But I had fun...
It has been about a week since school reopened. I am glad we have finally settled into a comfortable morning routine after fumbling through the first three days. While I was still trying to figure out where the best drop-off and pick-up points were, Little Boy had taken to his new school like a duck to water. It is amazing how a child can adapt so quickly to new environment and friends. I suppose it's easier to make friends when most of his classmates were new to the school too. The many games and group works done in class probably helped in the fostering of friendships as well.
Lessons wise, Little Boy is having a whale of a time thus far. There's hardly any formal teaching in class, much less homework. Lessons are conducted using games and group works with discussions among peers and teachers. Inevitably, this is the best learning model for the active and articulate Little boy. Just three days into school and he had enjoyed every lesson and liked all his teachers. I, on the other hand, was feeling a little ill at ease, having been more familiar with formal classroom teachings and the rigour of homework. I am aware of the benefits of learning through play but still I am concern if Little Boy is able to learn anything when having so much fun. Like many kiasu Singaporean parents, I also worry if he has enough paper and pen practices necessary to score in examinations.
'What did you do in class?' and 'What did you learn?' soon became my favourite questions to Little Boy. Our daily conversation would go like this:
Lessons wise, Little Boy is having a whale of a time thus far. There's hardly any formal teaching in class, much less homework. Lessons are conducted using games and group works with discussions among peers and teachers. Inevitably, this is the best learning model for the active and articulate Little boy. Just three days into school and he had enjoyed every lesson and liked all his teachers. I, on the other hand, was feeling a little ill at ease, having been more familiar with formal classroom teachings and the rigour of homework. I am aware of the benefits of learning through play but still I am concern if Little Boy is able to learn anything when having so much fun. Like many kiasu Singaporean parents, I also worry if he has enough paper and pen practices necessary to score in examinations.
'What did you do in class?' and 'What did you learn?' soon became my favourite questions to Little Boy. Our daily conversation would go like this:
Me: What did you do in class today?
LB: We played games.
Me: What? Games again? What kind of games?
LB: (went on to describe the games in details)
Me: So, what did you learn from the games?
LB: Alliterative Adjectives.
Me: *Phew! He did learn something*
It's indeed a great relief knowing that Little Boy did learn something while having fun but there were times when he didn't.
Me: What did you do in class today?
LB: We played games and did some group works.
Me: So, what did you learn?
LB: Erm... I don't know but I had fun (broke into a big smile).
During those times, I would take a deep breath, push all insecurities at the back of my mind and smiled with him. Little Boy was right. At least he had fun.
Saturday, 22 December 2012
The boy who dislikes reading.
One of the greatest concern I have with Little Boy in the GEP is the extensive reading required by the curriculum. Little Boy has no patience to read chapter books and long novels. His favourite books are The Adventures of Tin Tin and Diary of the Wimpy kid or any book with little words and lots of pictures. So, imagine the 'heart attack' I had when I chanced upon the P4 reading list for the Extensive Reading Programme (ERP). 60 storybooks in the reading list! It was a bit of a relief to know that the students are not required to read every book in the reading list. However, I still need to get Little Boy to read some and I gather it's best to be done during the holidays when he has much free time on his hands.
After a trip to the library and pulling out some books from our own bookshelf, here's the pile for Little Boy's reading 'pleasure'.
As expected, Little Boy moaned and groaned the moment he saw what I had in store for him. To motivate him to read, I exempted him from doing his regular Maths, Science and English assessments. That thrilled him a little and he did start reading immediately. It didn't matter to me that he went for the thinnest book first. His wonderful elder sister (who is 2 years his senior) 'accompanied' him by reading the same book he's reading and, together, they did a character mind map on this particular book 'The Cat Who Went to Heaven'. Though there were some disagreements while doing the mind map, they still had much fun working on it.
It's great having the siblings discuss the books they had read and Little Boy has slowly warmed up to the idea of reading chapter books. Till date, Little Boy has finished reading 4 books from the pile and is currently into his 5th book. Looks like he won't be able to finish reading all the books by the end of the holidays but that's fine with me as this is already a great achievement for a boy who dislikes reading.
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