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Posted in Educational Advice, Kindergarten, Schools

Every pre-primary child should attend kindergarten

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I’ve recently had the privilege of interviewing two needy students under my free tuition scheme. One is in P6 and the other in Sec 1. Both have done badly in school from P1 to P6, and both did not attend kindergarten.

I wonder if parents are aware that the academic standard of our P1 level is quite high. P1 has not been designed to teach a child the English alphabet or the Numbers 1 to 10 for the first time. BEFORE a child enters P1 he must already know how to spell ‘apple’ and be able to understand simple English instructions. He must also already know the numerals 1 to 10 and is able to do simple addition and subtraction. These things are learnt in good kindergartens and some kindergartens teach even further than those.

Thus a child who has not attended kindergarten will be quite ‘lost’ in P1. He may be placed in the school’s Learning Support Programme but this only means he is singled out and stigmatized from a very young age. More likely than not, such children will perform poorly throughout their primary school years, end up in the foundation classes for PSLE, and in a way become destined for the Normal (Tech) stream in secondary school.

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@ BLK 644, BUKIT BATOK CENTRAL, #01-68. S(650644).

CALL 65694897 OR SMS 98530744 OR 97860411.

 

 

Posted in Personal, Schools, Teaching

Mixed feelings during relief teaching

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I’m now in the staff room of a school in the north, during a break in relief teaching for the day, to cover the work of a Physics teacher. I still enjoy teaching in schools, seeing students clowning about and teachers cracking jokes now and then, and of course, the free parking.

But it saddens me when, at the end of a lesson, the students ask me if i’m coming back to teach them again, or if I can replace their regular teacher. It’s not that I’m such an outstanding teacher; I just do what I thought all teachers should do in class, such as giving real life examples, doing demonstrations, injecting humour now and then, and finally drawing their attention to what the examiners would always look out for in their answer papers.

It has happened just too many times, this thing about students asking me whether I can be their classroom teacher for the long term, that I’m beginning to wonder how many teachers in service are actually passionate about their jobs and possess the right mixture of attributes that can capture students’ attention and make them think about what they are learning. Sometimes, even my own tuition students ask me to teach in their schools.

I’m happy to know that I have the right teaching techniques and the personality to connect with students. But I can be sad thinking about how many students out there are wishing that they have a different teacher for whatever they are learning right now. I’m sure there is a sizeable number of good teachers out there, but perhaps it’s still not enough for the around 30 000 students in every cohort.

Just because you are highly educated in a certain field, it does not mean that you are able to transfer that knowledge to others. So to aspiring teachers out there, please do not enter teaching because (1) it is a stable job, or (2) it gives you many holidays, or (3) you think it is an easy job, or (4) you want free parking, or (5) a job near your home, or (6) you want cheap food. Of course, nothing wrong with all these perks(I myself enjoyed most of these for 3 years), but you should make sure that you possess the right mixture of knowledge, temperament and communication skills for the job. Teachers are the most powerful people on earth; they have influenced leaders like Obama and even Hitler, and others you have not yet come under.

Posted in Career Opportunities, Tutoring Opportunities

I need another part/full-time admin assistant

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Hi there.

My current admin assistant cum tutor will be enrolling in a uni course soon, so she can only work a few days a week. However, my business and work are expanding so I’d need another admin assistant very soon (if you can tutor as well that would be a bonus).

You should preferably be someone who is staying in Bukit Batok or nearby. You should possess at least a PSLE cert (because it is possible that you are bright but only have a PSLE cert, such as ex-IP students), and can write/type (you’d have to type letters and emails) and speak good English (you’d have to answer the phone). The only Math you’d need to know is arithmetic and percentages (this is true of most jobs, so why are students asked to learn a lot of things in Math?). Anyway, you can use a calculator in my office, so no drawings of models or number bonds please. : )

If you have at least an A-Level cert I might ask you to help me out with tutoring, so please don’t tell me you are afraid of children and teens. My home office is in a HDB flat, so if you bother about prestige don’t bother applying. The tuition rooms are air-conditioned but the office is not, and I’ll only cool the whole flat if the haze returns.

In general, you’d be taking students’ attendance, collect fees, update simple accounting records, looking up the internet for information, updating my website and doing simple marketing. Because Singapore Learner is a small business, we’d all have to multi-task. I’m not interested in your experience as I am in your resourcefulness.

The working days, hours and times can all be negotiated. I’m open to all possibilities, including that of hiring full-time staff. Your work place is very near West Mall, the Bt Batok bus interchange as well as the MRT station.

If you think you can work with me, please send your resume/CV to principal@singaporelearner.com.

There is no perfect job, or perfect boss or perfect employee. We just do what has to be done. (I don’t know why many job advertisements list a whole lot of qualities that a candidate must possess, but when I walk into the buildings of these organisations, I don’t see the kind of people that their job ads are supposed to attract).

 

Posted in Pure Physics

A good O-Level Pure Physics question for you to try (answer given)

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Question:

A car of mass m has an engine which can deliver a maximum power of P. What is the minimum time in which the car can be accelerated from rest to a speed v?

(A)  m(v^2) / 2P

(B) 2P / m(v^2)

(C) P / mv

(D) mv / P

Good Luck!

Rgds,

Ilyasa

Scroll down for answer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answer: A

 

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TUITION CLASSES:

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EDUCATIONAL SERVICES:

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alevelprepbutton                   olevelprepbutton

______________________________________________________________

By EX-MOE TEACHERS & EXPERIENCED TUTORS

@ BLK 644, BUKIT BATOK CENTRAL, #01-68. S(650644).

CALL 65694897 OR SMS 98530744 OR 97860411.

Posted in Humour, Personal

We Didn’t Start The Fire

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Forget the haze. Take a break from your studies and find the following song, and learn a bit of history.   : )

WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE (by Billy Joel, 1989)

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television,
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenberg, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye,

Eisenhower, Vaccine, England’s got a new queen,
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No, we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiov,
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron,
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn’s got a winning team,
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev,
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No, we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac,
Sputnik, Zhou Enlai, Bridge On The River Kwai

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball,
Starkweather Homicide, Children of Thalidomide

Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia,
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No, we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichmann, Stranger in a Strange Land,
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatle mania,
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex,
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No, we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again,
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock

Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline,
Ayatollah’s in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide,
Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shores, China’s under martial law,
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can’t take it anymore

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning since the world’s been turning.
We didn’t start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on…

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No, we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No, we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6POmPgeLW2U

Btw, do you know what PSI stands for?

Cheers,

Ilyasa

Posted in DSA

Suggestions on how to answer DSA (P6 to Sec 1) essay questions

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Related links:

O-LEVEL | SEC | PHYSICS TUITION

O-LEVEL | SEC | A. MATH TUITION

O-LEVEL | SEC 1-4 | MATH TUITION

O-LEVEL | SEC | CHEMISTRY TUITION

O-LEVEL | SEC 1-4 | ENGLISH TUITION

O-LEVEL | SEC 1-4 | MALAY LANGUAGE TUITION

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The DSA tests can consist of many parts and vary from school to school. Typically you will have MCQs and short structured questions on English, Math and Science. The hardest section of these MCQs would be on Abstract Reasoning (AR), because students are not prepared for it. (Thus I intend to conduct a holiday workshop for AR in Mar and June 2014. For this year, I may conduct an AR course in Sep, Nov or Dec for those who want to be exposed to it early).

Another difficult section of the DSA tests is the short essay part, where you will be asked to write, in about 300 words, about something you are passionate about, or why you want to enrol in the school, or about your personal characteristics. I believe Singaporean students find difficulty in writing such essays, probably because (i) their passion in something non-academic has never been encouraged or groomed, (ii), they are applying to the schools only because their parents ask them to and (iii), they are not sure about their own strengths and weaknesses in non-academic areas.

Since some parents have asked me to give advice on the matter, I shall write about my suggestions on how to write the essays in a manner that might catch the assessors’ attention (but if everyone of you were to follow my suggestions, then you WON’T get the assessors’ attention, so you’d still have to innovate and add the flesh of the essay yourself).

Let’s examine a typical essay question that you might get:

Q1. In not more than 300 words, describe something you are passionate about or something that is important to you, as it helps us to understand you better.

My advice:

(1) DO NOT WRITE MORE THAN 300 WORDS (or whatever they specify, such as ‘Do not use more than the space given’), not even 301. You must at least show that you understand English, that you can count, and that you can take serious instructions seriously. I’m serious. Ignore me at your own risk.

(2) If they ask you to write and not type, then they are studying your handwriting as well. Please check up the internet on what your handwriting tells others about yourself. But it’s hard to change your handwriting, and many horrible hand writers become doctors anyway.

(3) You should not be writing about what you USED to be interested in (because if you are passionate about it, why did you stop doing it?) or what you would like to explore in future (because if you are passionate about it, why haven’t you started on it?). What you are passionate about is something which you have started some time ago, which you are currently doing, and which you intend to bring to greater heights in the future. It can be anything from a musical instrument to a sport or even a CCA. It should NOT be something academic; imagine writing that your passion is to attend lessons in school, or having tuition, or doing lots of assessment books or reading textbooks ( do you realise that most applicants to top schools are already doing all these intensely?) So let’s say your passion is badminton (I hope you realise that LIKING to play badminton is different from being PASSIONATE about IT). You should be describing about how and when you got introduced to it, why you liked it, how often you play it and where, the big brands and the big names in the sport, the major tournaments, your discoveries about the sport, your efforts to improve your performance in the sport etc.

Q2. In the space given, write down the reasons why you would want to be enrolled in our school.

Here, you have to praise the school. You’d need to do a quick research on the school’s history, motto, emphasis, strengths and niche areas, and why the school would be able to allow you to reach your full potential, and if you can, why only this school would be able to accomplish that.

Q3. Describe some characteristics about yourself that might differentiate you from other applicants.

Here, you have to praise yourself a bit, in a confident way without sounding arrogant. Besides personal traits such as diligence, persistence and resourcefulness, the school would also be interested in your leadership and inter-personal skills. You can’t just say that you are a team player; do you have evidence to prove it to some extent?

Q4. Write about your academic interests or your reflections on your studies.

Here, you can’t be writing about how you love reading books, doing homework and completing assessment papers. It’s about how deep your interest is in certain subjects and what you do to nurture that interest. As for reflecting on your studies, you’d need to be metacognitive in your approach; what your academic strengths and weaknesses are and your learning styles.

 Q5. Write about your future plans.

Here, it is not just about what your ambition is. It should be more about how the school you are applying to will facilitate your entry to the next stage. For example, if you ultimately want to be in a certain college, course or university in the future, how would the secondary school you are applying to prepare you to succeed at these future stages. But for the short term, you can still write about how you can contribute to the success of the school, for eg., in CCA and so on.

 

Posted in A. Math, Personal, Pure Physics, Schools

Do not drop a subject if you still have interest in it.

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This is the time of the year when your school may ask you to drop certain subjects that you are weak in, using the lame excuse that even if you work hard, you will at most obtain a B4 or a C5. In reality, your school is more concerned about its own academic reputation, not about you. Schools are worried that if weak students continue to sit for certain exams, their national exam results (percentage passes or distinctions) will worsen. Yes, it’s not about you or your future; it’s about the school’s image.

Thus you must be wary when any of your school teachers call you in to give you hints to drop a subject. The teacher will say that if you drop one subject, you will have more time to study for the other subjects. While this may be true, what about the months that you have spent learning that subject? And the extra hours that you create by dropping a subject, will it all go into learning the other subjects? Having less subjects also mean that you will be taking a bigger risk should the unexpected happen to your remaining subjects, as you would be relying on a narrower band of subjects.

Two subjects that schools like to ask students to drop are Physics and Additional Math, the two most conceptually difficult subjects to master, in my opinion. So should you drop any of these subjects if you are asked to?

For Physics, the answer depends on whether you still like learning about Physics. If you still do, then continue doing it and take the exam, even if you have hardly ever passed Physics before. Why? The reason is, Physics has always been a difficult subject for most people. Thus the minimum mark to obtain the A1 grade for Physics may still be in the 75 to 79 range, significantly below that for Math (which is probably around 88 to 91). Hence you still stand a good chance of getting a B3 or above for Physics if you are willing to spend enough time practising Physics questions. This is only possible if you don’t mind studying Physics.

I have a tuition student who is very weak in Physics, and true enough, his teacher has been pestering him to drop Physics. So his mum turned to me for advice. Since he still likes Physics, I told the mum not to give in to the teacher. The boy finally passed Physics for his recent SA1 exam, and is now doing exam papers to get a better grade for his upcoming Prelim exam. The boy is mentally slow, but since he likes Physics, the school should have helped him improve instead. Isn’t it the purpose of schools to develop each student to his maximum potential?

The boy had also been asked to drop A. Math. But like I’ve said elsewhere, NEVER EVER drop A. Math, as knowledge of it is useful for many future courses such as Business, Engineering or Science. Although he still failed in his SA1 A. Math, he has been making significant progress as he still likes doing Math. Where there is a will there is a way. Let children and young people learn what they want to learn, even if it means getting poor exam results for the short term. A school should not be telling students to stop learning this or that, or to stop making effort, or to give up on something good that they have started.

If you need more advice (or even tuition, see below) on Math, A.Math, Physics or Chemistry or Combined Science, do whatsapp me at 97860411.

Ilyasa

An NIE-trained Teacher, Mr Ilyasa has been coaching students in O-Level & IP Chemistry, Physics and Math for more than 12 years. An alumnus of Raffles Institution, Mr Ilyasa holds a a Bachelor of Science degree from the NUS as well as a Master of Education (Curriculum & Teaching) degree from the National Institute of Education. Mr Ilyasa’s thinking and metacognitive approaches to problem solving has helped many students of varying abilities to excel in Math and the Sciences. He has coached students from many different schools and streams, including IP, SAP, and IB.

If you need academic help, kindly click on any of the following programs:

REVISION AND RE-LEARNING (NOV-DEC)

HEAD START (NOV-DEC)

STANDARD WEEKLY TUITION (JAN-OCT)

INDIVIDUAL TUITION

SCIENCE PRACTICAL TRAINING

Posted in Pri Math

P5 Math Coaching for Weak students

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For our latest timetable, click here =>  pributton

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ORIGINAL POST(OUTDATED):

 

To register, kindy sms to or call 94468012 or 97860411.

Level/Subject:  Primary 5 Math

Day/Time:

(1) Every Friday, 4.00 pm to 5.30 pm, OR

(2) Every Saturday, 5.30 pm to 7.00 pm

Location: Blk 627 Bukit Batok Central #07-640

Focus: Conceptual Understanding, Drill, Familiarity, Exposure to difficult questions

Fees: $120 for every four sessions.

Class Size: 3 to 8 students.

Tutors:

Mr Jay Lim. A Master degree holder, Mr Lim is a very effective and experienced senior tutor who has been tutoring students in PSLE Math & Science for more than 5 years, both in private and in successful learning centres.

Mdm Anu. A Bachelor of Science degree (with Distinction) holder, Mdm Anu is a very caring and passionate tutor who is experienced in coaching P1 to P6 students.

To register, kindy sms to or call 94468012 or 97860411.