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Right Or Wrong Answer
By peace | September 12, 2008
If a child is motivated at school, he/she would come home energetic and happy. If my child is inspired in school, he/she would come home, TELLING me what she had learned on that day. I can feel her spirit and her energy… Sometimes, they told me things which I do not know of, and we ‘discussed’ about the matter.
A good teacher inspires the students
Lately, or not so lately, Clara’s form teacher had given birth and now was unable to teach in the school. Relief teachers were called for, at least two. Ever since the change of teachers, I did not see the enthusiasm in her studies — coming home with ‘no words’ to share. When Mdm Chua was teaching her, she came home always saying,”today teacher says….” or even asked me questions! But the relief teachers now, she also told me, “lousy”, “always asked the children to do this and that…” I asked the names of the relief teachers. At the time of change, she told me that the Principal had told them about it. But we parents are not informed of the change. (Even for my son’s case, their Chinese Class also undergoes several changes last year, but I was not informed of any changes. I called the teachers, and NO HELP at all…. what kind of collaboration is this?)
Relief Teachers
I was told that the relief teachers were very experienced teachers. I had seen ‘older generation’ teachers, fat, thin, Malay, Chinese, men and women. Sometimes the ‘older generation’ teachers did not ‘brush’ up on their skills, did not ‘upgrade’ themselves, and their ‘knowledge’ remain stagnant. Consider the education of last time, what the people used to study; and compared it with now, our Primary School Students are learning more things than the last generation of Primary School Students.
Work Load of Teachers
Teachers need to mark a lot of things, and it is not easy to be teachers. There are demanding parents you have to entertain, there are lots of responsibilities not only over the children’s academic areas, but also their safety in the school. In the school, the teachers still have other duties to cover… and plus their own personal life after work…. But these are the things you ought to know and be prepared if you want to ‘earn the money’.
Answer Sheet
Multiple Choice question is the easiest to mark. 1,2,3 or 4; or a, b, c, or d. Clear-cut marking. But when it comes to open-ended question, teachers need to read each and single questions….. very time-consuming and ‘headache’ especially for higher Primaries — there are so many pages! (I look at my son’s exam papers, I also feel ‘giddy’…. imagine the poor teachers need to mark for 43 pupils in the class!)
(a) Describe, meaning what you see…. Based on the drawing, the stem is indeed thin.
(b) The stem creep up the fence because it cannot stand upright itself. It needs support so it can stand. Why wrong?
So this is one of the ‘Specified questions’ I asked the relief teacher to look into.
The first day returned the papers, with no answers/corrections done. As usual, I am not satisfied with some of the markings… I wrote a letter to the teacher, asking her to go through the specified questions…
The next day, the relief teacher called me, and explained to me. After that corrections was done…
Model Answer: (a) The plant has a weak stem.
(b) It creeps to get maximum sunlight.
Are you plants before? What is really meant by weak? If the plant is weak, would it have ENERGY to CLIMB up the fence? Are you describing what you see or ‘Interpreting’ what you think of the plant?
No marks were given or awarded to any of the ’specified questions’(I was not satisfied with the answers). But who am I? I am not even a qualified teacher! People teaching in the school! I go fly kite!
How is the electromagnet useful? Model Answer: The electromagnet will separate magnetic materials from non-magnetic materials. This is what the electromagnet CAN DO. Isn’t it what the electromagnet does? But when we want to talk about USEFULNESS, what is usefulness? Useful means how it can HELP people, how it can HELP people to reduce time and reduce energy. To move or transfer vehicles (scrap cars, damaged vehicles) from one place to another and even to stack up the vehicles is its usefulness!
Why the fish die? The oil caused the fish to die, is it wrong? Children’s brain, Primary 3 only, and simple answer like that is wrong! Only more complex answer like “there is not enough oxygen to make the fish stay alive” then is perfect answer??? (1 mark only!!! so simple question yet so difficult…)
Or Would You Prefer Suffocation
When I squeeze your nose, do not allow you to breathe, do you say you died of ‘no air’ or do you say you die of ‘not enough oxygen’?
Science, Do you know everything under the sun?
Aren’t you confusing the kids even more like that? I, 大学生(Da Xue Sheng), University graduate, From National University of Singapore, I dare not say I know everything. I have many things yet to discover. Say what you want about 大学生, and see our NUS standard, our MOE standard, our teachers in Singapore…..
Topics: All Posts, Children, Health, Humour, Motivation, Personal, school |
September 12th, 2008 at 11:18 am
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