Diversity of children in schools...

I noticed that there may come several occasions where we have to neglect some of these needs. Perhaps not neglect, but hold of for another time outside of curriculum. As I mentioned in my earlier post, some parents think that teachers are gods and that we are omnipotent. Well, we aren't.

It seems very necessary to engage the help of others, namely the parents. Especially when dealing with children who are not as quick in learning as others, we would need to seek the help of parents in coaching their children.

In the case of a child diagnosed with ADHD, compared to the average attention span of a child of 10 to 15 minutes, ADHD children probably sport a good 5 minutes. That would mean that they would only have absorbed a third of the lesson, or even less! Thus it would be wise to find strategies to cater to these children.

However, considering how children are being brought up these days, it would seem apparent that almost every child would eventually be diagnosed as having ADHD. The development of handheld entertainment devices and the way that parents are using them as a means of pacification, would just be catering to their lack of attention. Perhaps, to help us teachers, it might be necessary for the MOE and MOH to collaborate (once again) in targeting early childhood parenting. Just like how the two ministries are collaborating to curb child obesity, they could also help to curb ADHD.

The use of television as a means of entertainment these days is disgraceful. The methods producers use to capture a child's attention, selling their programmes as "educational". If anything, children only learnt to be impatient.

This may seem like a regressive mentality in an advancing world, but do we necessarily have to adopt advanced technology in order to progress? Why do we need to resort to showing cartoons in class just to gain the attention the children? Their brains would be too busy processing the colours they are seeing, instead of actually processing the lesson being taught. Like Singapore as a society, we are attempting to progress, but trying our very best to not lose our roots. We do not openly accept capitalism, else we end up like the EU and the US.

Thus concludes my reflection, catering to the different learning styles of children is one thing, but I honestly think more can be done in the home during a child's early years to reduce such problems.

the MOE and MOH can collaborate in so many areas just to aid in children's health.
- Having children early (before 35)
- Abstinence from drugs and alcohol during pregnancy and even attempting to conceive
- Reduce stress while pregnant
- Healthy eating habits (instead of packing processed food in children's lunch boxes)

Communication Skills

Though it has only been a couple of weeks into the module, it actually is coming to an end. I've learnt so much from the module, from being diplomatic to projecting my voice in the most proficient manner. 

Like many languages, the English Language relies on many forms of communication to ensure a message is delivered. Through the many different activities that we had undergone, I was able to determine that a strength of my was my speech. This was no surprise as I've spent a great deal of my life speaking in English, and only English. 

I guess I would want to improve on my ability to articulate my thoughts. 

Principles of Games Individual Assignment

Age group: Middle Primary 

Game category: Invasion Game

Concept: Creating and moving into space

Introductory game: Running Monkey

Concluding Game: Tag Quidditch

Jemuel-MP-invasion

ESE 03: Making the Connection

Being at Beacon Primary was a golden opportunity in itself. I was able to observe fellow colleagues design curriculum around ICT to better engage the students.

At Beacon Primary School, Primary 4 students are strongly encouraged to purchase their own notebook computer (referred to as a "Personal Learning Device" or PLD). Students would be able to purchase their own PLDs at a heavily discounted rate from the vendor along with additional software and insurance.

Using their PLDs, students are able to further enhance their skills in working as a team. Teachers would cater their lessons around these PLDs, delivering a lesson as necessary and students would thus go straight to their PLDs for further assignments or research. With the PLD at their fingertips, students are able to pursue any form of research at any time they are free (recess, before or after school) to aid in their learning.

By a plain observation, what can be observed in a Future School environment, is that teachers are able to apply ICT to a great extent. To the best of a teacher's ability, teachers are able to maximize the use of ICT in the classroom. However, as mentioned, how much ICT can do, is based on the teacher's ability. Hence, the environment of the school strongly encourages professional development and upgrading, especially in the field of ICT. Upgrading in the field of ICT has become a core component that upgrading in terms of pedagogy also means upgrading in ICT skills. With upgrading, teachers are sharing their techniques and allowing other teachers to develop in their pedagogy.

As I mentioned in my second post, with teachers vying to develop themselves, they impart this same spirit to their students. This has come to a point that students seek to do more things with their PLDs and though held back by the lack of ICT skills, they become resourceful enough to search for solutions and even workarounds. They eventually share these solutions with their teachers and it becomes a cycle for learning. The teachers facilitate the learning of the students and the students share their knowledge with the teacher.

In conclusion, ICT in the schools is playing an important role. Teachers are able to develop themselves as professionals and students are driven to learn.

ESE 02: MOE ICT Masterplans

When the Internet was first introduced to the world in 1995, major software companies like Apple and Microsoft jumped on the bandwagon to make their presence known. Attempting to market to the world the many uses of the Internet, namely information through search engines (Alta Vista and Yahoo) and a completely new medium of communication, E-mail (Yahoo, Lotus Notes and Hotmail). It was the beginning of a new era for productivity.

ESE 01: Classroom Observations of ICT Use

Being posted to Beacon Primary School for both my contract and Enhanced School Experience (ESE) has landed me several opportunities to observe how ICT is implemented in a "Future School" environment.

NIE e-portfolio

Somehow, the idea of creating an e-portfolio crossed NIE's path and here we are.

Although Blogger/Blogspot has been very reputable as a blogging tool, I am not sure about the use of a blog as an e-portfolio. I would have to decide how I would like to arrange this blog and how many pages I would be creating.

The general tone of this blog would be casual and I'll be really frank about my opinions.