I suppose there’s no better day than today to pay a tribute to a great group of teachers – my ex-lecturers and tutors at the NIE who patiently guided me through my two-and-half-year Master of Education course. Because of them, I actually changed the way I look at my own students and the way I impart knowledge and skills to them. These inspiring teachers are (not in order of awesomeness):
(1) Dr Theresa Alviar-Martin (Curriculum Theory);
(2) Assoc Prof Deng Zongyi (Critical Perspectives);
(3) Ms Mardiana Abu Bakar (Critical Perspectives);
(4) Ms Betsy Lim (Crafting The Curriculum);
(5) Ms Fong Lay Lean (Crafting The Curriculum);
(6) Dr Christina Lim-Ratnam (Curriculum Implementation);
(7) Dr Fang Yanping (Teacher Knowledge and Teacher Learning);
(8) Mr John Yeo (Teacher Knowledge and Teacher Learning);
(9) Dr Koh Kim Hong (Mastering The Art of Authentic Assessments);
(10) Prof Lam Chi Chung (Programme and Curriculum Evaluation);
(11) Assoc Prof Katerine Bielaczyc (Critical Inquiry).
In my line, I don’t need a Ph.D. But if there’s a good reason to do one, then it has to be the chance to work with them again.
Happy Teachers’ Day.
Sincerely from,
Happy Teachers’ Day!
I would like to wish all Teachers (including myself), a Happy Teachers’ Day. May we continue to facilitate wonderment and awe in our students about their experiences so that they will be ready to think for themselves when the time comes.
Here I would like to print a quote (from Maxine Greene) that I learnt in my Master of Education course at the NIE:
“We who are teachers would have to accommodate ourselves to lives as clerks or functionaries if we did not have in mind a quest for a better state of things for those we teach and for the world we all share. It is simply not enough for us to reproduce the way things are.” (Greene, 1995, p.1)
Rgds,
References:
Greene, M. (1995). Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, the Arts, and Social Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Grades & Improvement: more reasons to be happy …
Just got my daughters’ CA2 results. My Sec 1 girl obtained 4 A1s, 2 A2s and 2 B3s. My P4 girl got 3 A-stars and one A. It’s quite a relief because having both parents as teachers, a lot is expected from them and from us! I’m also mindful of the fact that many parents, even teacher parents, are not able to teach their own children. Fortunately, we take steps to ensure that THAT does NOT happen in our family, because I don’t see how parents can have confidence in my tutoring ability if I can’t even tutor my own children. I’m a firm believer in hardwork and discipline, because intelligence and creativity alone cannot ensure academic success Singapore-style.
Many reasons to be happy …
I’m so happy this week. A few of my tutees, who have been failing math all the time this year, have managed to pass their latest school tests; they even surprised their teachers. And a few minutes ago, i received a personal message in FB from an ex-tutee, who informed me that he had won the MOE Teaching Award. I tutored him when he was in sec 3 and 4 and in JC2. He was always struggling with his Math and Physics, but I knew he would succeed some day in his chosen field as he was very hardworking.
Many of my ex-tutees have obtained places in JCs and in universities, with at least two obtaining 4 A’s in their A-level H2 subjects. A few of them have even become tutors at my centre. Sometimes I ask myself, why is it that I do not put up testimonials from them on my website? I guess because the reason is that, and you should know it by now, testimonials displayed anywhere can actually be faked. It is easy for any tutor or tuition centre to just come up with names and write their own testimonals and assign grades to these names. A centre can also pay top students to sing praises about its programs. Being a parent myself, I’m skeptical about the testimonials, supposedly from students, that I have read all over the place.
Maybe I’m new to the world of advertising, but it doesn’t matter. My tuition service has run for 8 years already, and there are hundreds of students and parents out there who will do the advertising for me, without me asking them to. : )
Rgds,
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Academic “progress” update … mainly Math …
The end of another week. A lot of sad news in the mass media – crime, violence, recession etc. But one thing has kept me spirited and looking forward to the many weeks ahead – the progress of my students and my own children.
1. A tutee, from the N(A) stream, reported getting a very high mark for her recent class test on the Angle Properties of Circles.
2. Another girl, from an independent IP school, showed me her two common test papers on Math. She did fairly well in one and very well in the other. She regretted doing a lot of careless mistakes in the former, something I warned her about before. But overall, I was quite happy with her performance. When she first came at the beginning of this year, the Math questions she asked kind of frightened me; I mean, it was not the kind of standard that I expected from a student of a top school. But she continued asking lots of questions every week, and now she has outperformed most of her classmates.
3. My Economics tutee from SIM is now able to tutor his classmates, something he’s proud of and I’m proud of him too. He also did well in his Math module, which included Calculus, although he had not done A. Math before. But like all my performing students, he had asked me lots of Math questions and did lots of practice. There is no secret (except one, which I’ll post somewhere else) and no short-cut to doing well in Math.
4. My eldest daughter, who is in Sec 1 in a Band 3 school, obtained full marks (14/14) for her class test on Algebra and Number Patterns. She is also did very well (top 10 to 20% in class) in all her other subjects. My Pri 4 daughter also did exceedingly well in most of her class tests this year, even obtaining 97% in an English test! People may say that their academic results are due to having both parents as teachers and tutors, but I do know of many teachers and even principals whose children are not doing well in school. Raising kids is not easy, and the real challenge is to bring up well-rounded young people.
Of course, not all of my 50+ tutees are showing good progress in school. One of my Pri 5 tutees had just failed his Math class test, which I will have to analyse thoroughly once he gets back his paper. Every ‘failure’ is feedback that some re-strategising is needed. Students do badly in tests for all sorts of reasons, and we have to identify accurately the cause of the problem before applying any kind of remedy. One of the worst things to do as a parent, teacher or tutor is to respond wrongly to a real or perceived setback. Using the wrong medicine for a poorly-diagnosed ailment can lead to even more disastrous results.
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Education partnerships and ventures …
Hi, I’m Ilyasa, Principal Tutor at Singapore Learner. Singapore Learner has potential to grow and I’m planning to open a learning centre at Bukit Batok and either at Sengkang or Punggol.
If you are teacher-qualified (preferably), passionate about teaching and tutoring, keen to run an education business and are seeking a partner in this business, do give me a call (97860411) and we can have many rounds of discussions before making any commitments.
Now a bit about myself. I taught Physics in a secondary school for 3 years before striking out on my own to give tuition in Physics and Math at secondary and JC levels (since 2005). Currently I’m also a part-time lecturer in H2/H1 Economics. I hold a Bachelor of Science degree with Merit from the National University of Singapore, a Postgraduate Diploma in Education with Credit from the National Institute of Education, and a Master of Education (Curriculum & Teaching) degree also from the NIE. I’m 40 this year, happily married to a school teacher, and we have been blessed with three daughters, two of whom are still in primary school.
I look forward to working with anyone who is sincere and passionate about making a difference to the academic lives of students.
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JC1 H2 Math reflections …
I had my first JC1 H2 Math tutee yesterday. True enough, I expect some JC1 students to start looking around for a tutor sometime in March, when most would have received their first test results at JC level.
The topics we covered were Binomial Series and APGP. Not surprisingly, the student had scored A1 for her Additional Math last year, but still struggling with beginning H2 Math topics. Didn’t I say this before, that H2 Math is significantly more difficult than A. Math? JC1 students must take their H2 Math very seriously, else I can guarantee that their Math results would mostly be S’s and U’s throughout the whole year.
For example, Binomial Series is much more difficult than the O-level Binomial Theorem. They may have the same fundamental formula, but the former has many more ‘tricks’ to look out for; ironically, it is this familiarity with the binomial expansion that deceives students into taking this topic lightly, as in the case with Inequalities. As for APGP, although it is not really very difficult, it is very new to most students who have never studied Series and Progressions before. In fact, the Summation sign itself is very alien to most new JC students.
To be good at Binomial Series and APGP, you first have to be very competent in Algebra and Indices. Additionally, you have to have this habit of writing out the first few terms and the nth term of an unfamiliar sequence or series when confronted with the difficult questions. But if you are good at being careless, you are finished.
Lastly, I have one advice for H2 Math students: Beware of the topics Vectors and Complex Numbers. : )
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H1 Physics reflections …
Was tutoring on the topic Current Electricity just now. For this topic, students normally have difficulty in understanding the concept of internal resistance of a cell and terminal potential difference, as these concepts are not covered at the O-Levels. It is important for students to deeply understand the equation E = V + Ir, and its related graph of V against I, as well as the significance of I being zero.
If you are a H1 Physics student, you’d find that many of the topics are quite similar to the O-Level topics; so focus on understanding the new stuff, the A-level stuff, such as F = BILsin(angle), for example, and concepts such as magnetic flux density.
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March holiday classes, crash courses, intensive revision etc …
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ORIGINAL POST (OUTDATED):
PSLE MATH MARCH HOLIDAY INTENSIVE REVISION
O-LEVEL E. MATH MARCH HOLIDAYS INTENSIVE REVISION
O-LEVEL PURE PHYSICS MARCH HOLIDAYS INTENSIVE REVISION
O-LEVEL A. MATH MARCH HOLIDAYS INTENSIVE REVISION
A-LEVEL H1 PHYSICS MARCH HOLIDAYS INTENSIVE REVISION
A-LEVEL H2 PHYSICS MARCH HOLIDAYS INTENSIVE REVISION
A-LEVEL H1 MATH MARCH HOLIDAYS INTENSIVE REVISION
A-LEVEL H2 MATH MARCH HOLIDAYS INTENSIVE REVISION
What to do if your A-level results are bad …
It’s ok if you cried at first, because chances are, you are below 21 and legally, you are still a child. But let that be for just one day, and no more after that. The past is over. You cannot change your past, but you can still influence your future.
(1) Do not blame others. The first step in making any kind of improvement to yourself is not to blame your teachers, your tutors, your notes, your handphone etc. Blame yourself. It was YOUR show. Only YOU can fail your self and only YOU can make your self succeed.
(2) Reflect on yourself. What went wrong?
(3) Search and find your true self. What are your real interests? What is your passion?
(4) Plan your next course of action. What can you do with poor A-level results? Here are some options:
(a) Redo your A-levels. If you didn’t get an overall pass, redo it in your own JC; you’d still need the right environment and the support. If you obtained a bad pass, you will not be allowed to redo it in your JC, yet you will not be given any place in any local university. So you either self-study, get tuition, or enrol yourself in a private school like SLA or MDIS College. But re-taking A-levels will not bear fruit unless you do steps (2) and (3) above properly; if you continue your bad habits and bad strategies or you simply did not like the subjects you were taking, it’d be very hard for you to be self-disciplined and to maintain focus. You don’t get different results by doing the same things the same way over and over again (in fact, Einstein called that kind of expectation, “insanity”).
(b) Go overseas (if you have the money or get some kind of sponsorship, loan or bursary). Do the SAT and go to the US, or do a foundation year in Australia and move up.
(c) Apply to a local polytechnic to get a Diploma (but make sure you do steps (2) and (3) carefully first). With a good poly diploma, you can still get into a local university. But I think you should apply to a poly using your O-level results instead (it worked for some students before). With a poly diploma, you may even apply to be admitted directly into the 2nd or 3rd year of a recognised overseas university. REMEMBER THAT MONEY IS NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR. IF YOU HAVE TALENT OR PROVEN ACADEMIC ABILITY, THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A SPONSOR.
(d) If you have poor A-level results but very good O-level results, you might want to apply to the NIE to become a teacher; either you will be allowed to do a degree course or you might have to become a non-graduate teacher first before moving up later. Remember that a non-graduate teacher can become a graduate teacher via the Open University Degree Programme run by SIM. But the non-graduate teacher scheme is gradually being phased out.
(e) Apply to SIM to get a Diploma in something you like. Some SIM Diplomas are sought after by employers.
(f) Apply to a private education provider like MDIS, Kaplan, Stansfield or PSB Academy to get a Diploma or if you have two A-level passes, you might still get to do a degree course. But bear in mind that these degrees or diplomas may not be recognised by the Singapore government. But if you intend to work in the private sector, it should be alright.
(g) If you are tired of studying, work for at least two years first and when you reach 21, apply to SIM University (UniSim) if you have two A-level passes. UniSim degrees are recognised in Singapore, even by our government.
(h) If you want to be an accountant, self-study for the exam conducted by the ICPAS.
(5) Take action. Strategise. Gather resources. Believe in youself and your abilities. Adopt the right values and attitude. Set your short-term and long-term goals clearly. Write these down somewhere. Be positive, and be with positive people.
You see, there are so many ways to move on. Do not let setbacks affect you too much. Pick up and join back the pieces. Get up if you are down. Don’t go anywhere near Bedok reservoir (oops!). Spend time with your loved ones instead. Remember these lines from Miley Cyrus’ song (if you don’t hate her of course):
“But I gotta keep tryin’
Gotta keep my head held high
There’s always gonna be another mountain
I’m always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I’m gonna have to lose
Ain’t about how fast I get there
Ain’t about what’s waitin’ on the other side
It’s the climb.”
Do not worry about being left behind as your friends move forward. Chances are, you are going to live for another 60 years or so. When you look back someday, it wouldn’t matter that you ‘lost’ one or two years somewhere along the way. Setbacks happen to everybody; I had my fair share of failures and setbacks. How we respond to these setbacks matter.
If you still feel down, then please watch this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOlTdkYXuzE. It might help you a bit. : )
Good luck!
Best Regards,
Ilyasa
Related page: A-Level Results: What to do if you get BAD or DEAD, i.e., the ‘middle class’
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