The Day I Love - R

The Day I Love – R

It was a cold night. My father came back from work. Suddenly, he took out a box. I saw the cover of the box. I asked my father if it was a PSP 2. He replied, “Yes.” I was feeling excited.

My mother told me once when the meet-the-parent session comes; she will choose one of us.

Finally, after much waiting and anticipation, the meet-the-parent session came. She said she will choose one of us. When the results came out, my mother told me that I would get the PSP 2. I was feeling very happy with myself. I was feeling proud of myself and it was the same with my parents. We should always aim for excellence.

Now, I know that we should study hard.

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Side note from Mdm Chan:

Personally, I would say that studying forms part of our lives. Yes, it is important to acquire useful knowledge through studying which would be useful in our later part of our lives. Yet, have you realized; apart from the formalized studying which is part of our curriculum in Singapore, there is also informal studying which can take place anywhere and everywhere. For example, we should be actively aware of our surroundings and ask questions which may pique our interest. Asking questions would be one useful component of seeking knowledge.

Some of the students learn by asking questions. If you are sitting in the classroom and you have never asked any questions that would also mean that you have never learned anything for your entire lesson, which is such a waste.

One precious lesson to all – understand how you learn at all times, and this means you can study smarter and less as hard as others. By clearing all your doubts earlier, you will also free up the time needed and do other more worthwhile things. :)

How to study for English

How to study for English

There is no hard and fast rule.

To score and do well for that language, you need to immerse yourself unconditionally in that language.

Think, Do, Plan, Act in that language.

For children who are not using English as their first language, you literally need to do a switch into English and perform the daily tasks using English. You need to be actively aware that you need to use this language to acquire more information.

Another social factor would be to immerse yourself in an environment where English thrives!

These are the following tips (although they are not all exhaustive!)

1) Read a story book for at least 30 minutes every day. (And I mean everyday!)

2) Learn one new word every day and try to include into your daily conversation the next time.

3) Listen to a English radio channel. Start small with 30 minutes which you can progress to a few hours.

4) Listen to some online short stories. Librivox provides a lot of free audio recordings which you can use for your listening.

Check out this link: about the Aseop Fables which you can listen. You can access this page to download this: http://librivox.org/aesops-fables-volume-1-fables-1-25/

The file is about 22 mb. http://www.archive.org/download/aesop_fables_volume_one_librivox/aesop_fables_volume_one_librivox_64kb_mp3.zip

5) Write – without fail, you need to start writing. Start small. Start write with a comfortable topic that you like to talk about.

6) Talk to others using the correct forms of English. (and not Singlish)

7) In school, get into an environment where others are also using English as their first language. Do not hesitate to use English and only English. For those who like to use their mother tongue, it takes a while before you can make that change in you.

Hope the above helps.

Cheers,

Mdm Chan

Memorising Tables(Maths)

I can never stress the importance of memorizing the multiplication tables again and again. Even with the daily mental sums that I have assigned the class, I still face some students with the same learning difficulties, that is, they do not know how to get those numbers memorized in their heads.

This is also another major headache for me as it is very important and efficient that they can get these numbers in their heads. You never know that having these numbers in their heads go a long way in aiding them in their work especially in the higher primary when they are exposed to a higher level of mathematics. It is never too early to start memorizing.

In fact, when they are much younger, they should have started with these rote-memorizing instead of suffering as they get older.

Why is it that when I have never encouraged blind memorizing but this is just too important that they should just remember it by heart. Well, I cannot explain more or say more, but these formulas are just so useful, and it would go a long way, and making you more sensitive towards numbers when you are familiar with them.

So, please start learning them now and ensure that you are certain that you do know your tables. The starting journey may be quite difficult but you should never give up.

As I have always mentioned in the class, never say Never! If you believe in yourself, you can do it. :)

E.g. if I can also memorise those tables since young, I am sure my students should also be able to do it!

Gambatte (work hard when translated from Japanese)

Mdm Chan