Daily Lessons from Life 20 October 2010 - Not quite gaga, but Lady Gigi wows pupils all the same

"Not quite gaga, but Lady Gigi wows pupils all the same - my paper Wed Oct 20 2010

Her pupils are treated to the attention-grabbing antics of a fictitious character played by Mrs Chia.

When asked why did she played dressed up, she said: 'When you capture their attention, half the battle is won!' She is 1 of 10 teachers being recognized for being creative and innovative in teaching English in the National Teaching Award.

One of her students said: 'I used to not enjoy English lessons until Mrs Chia brought this approach to the class!'"

Kudos to Mrs Chia and the other 9 recipients of the National Teaching Award. Language teaching must be as old as human learning to speak! It is simply a wonder why do we not teach English or Mandarin or any other languages in our world class educational system well! While Mrs Chia and others tried innovative way to teach, they are not really that difficult to imagine! Teaching through play, through singing, and through drama is, I would say, fairly elementary.

Lessons for me are:

1. we have world class educational system and yet we are not doing it quick as well. We must be humble and continue to look for a better systemic approach;

2. when you have the passion and the smart and you married them together, you will be like Mrs Chia. Innovative and willing to go that extra miles. It will be interesting to know IF the Ministry of Education will adopt these 10 winners' methods and ask the National Institute of Education (i.e. Teachers College) to make them compulsory for English teachers to adopt these methods;

3. when you go the extra miles, the beneficiaries will know and will reciprocate the enthusiasm and passion you invested. Of course, there will still be some who may not be up to speed or into it. It will be interesting to find out how does it work for a class of 40 vs. a class of 15 with such instructional methods.

So, MOE, kudos to you too for giving out the awards to these deserving teachers who tried harder. A BIGGER credit to you IF you can figure out how to replicate these success stories across the whole educational system of Singapore!!