It was the moment of truth we all have been waiting for:the Release of your child's PSLE results.
That results which will determine the next 4-6 years of your child's life.The night before 26/11 was tough one for you to sleep well. How much will he/she get?What if he/she didn't do well?Which secondary school is the most suitable for your child?Hundreds of question clouded your mind while you are trying to get some rest.
The next day when you entered the sch hall,tension came upon every single person.The principal started of with her speech.Followed by the recognition of the top 10 students in the PSLE. While calling the names,you were hoping that your child would be up there.To your dismay, your child wasn't among the top 10. Next your upon receiving his/her results,he/she showed it to you with face down not daring to look at you.Your child scored below 230.Which sch can he/she go?Soon, your phone begin to ring and relatives call to ask about your child's results.You did not know how to answer to them and rejected their calls.You are disappointed,worried,heart broken,embarrassed. You do not know what to do.
The next few days calls still keep coming in with tuition teachers,relatives,friends asking about your child's result.You have "no face" to speak to them. Even your child stays at home and don't dare to be out,to avoid people asking them about their results.
You do not have any mood to carry out your activities,let alone work.You keep worrying about choosing the right school for your child.Being a parent of three kids, i have been through this experience twice when my two older sons are in P6.I could understand exactly how you feel.
How to choose a secondary school?
1.If you do not have a school in mind that is suitable with your score ,start with choosing the school with a decent avg L1B5 "o" level banding.It is equivalent to the average score the the sch students have at the end of their 4 yrs education.This will give you a good gage at what the school can offer for your child's secondary sch academics.
2.Next you might want to consider looking into the discipline of the school. So that you will not end up letting your child enter a sch with bad company.
3.Thirdly take into consideration your child's interest and talents.Aft that see if there's any enrichment programs and CCAs that will develop their potential.This would allow your child to enjoy the next 4 yrs of education with meaningful and educational programs.
4.Fourly distance play a factor.
Most importantly, discuss with your child the choices of the schools for it is them who will be entering secondary school.Give them more freedom in having important choices in life.
I wish your children an enjoyable and meaningful secondary school life .
2.
23.11.09
COULD THE TRUE STORY HAPPEN TO U?
P3 Alex from St.Gabriel Pri is a very cute boy.When I first hear about his result,i was shocked. As SA2 is only 3 months away, how can i pull his overall from 28 to a pass? But when i saw him, i saw a bond between us where i find him very special.He was actually a very emotional boy and quite a hyperactive boy.
But when i had my first lesson with him,I found him quite different. He follows everything i say, and when i told him some stuff,he will laugh cheerfully.This shows that the boy is very imaginative in relating what i had said to funny incidents.He has also enjoyed the lesson. I practiced with him Chinese Spelling by asking him to write with his finger on my hand,with just two times he was able to get full marks for his spelling. When i teach him he will pay 100% attention to me.This can be shown in his mock test results which he had passed. All the comprehension answers were all accurate and correct and he had really used what he had learnt from the tuition.One month prior to his exam i gave him extra lessons. I really pinned my hopes on him that he can pass.
But during the SA2 itself,not only did he scored 46 marks but had scored only 16 marks in the main paper. His mom was very disappointed in him and with me. She felt that all the time spent on attending the extra lessons was a waste.I was very shocked with the outcome and thus called his teacher up to find out his class performance and the reason behind his marks. She told me Alexandra is a very cheerful and shy boy,just sometimes very emotional maybe because of the scoldings from his parents. He pays attention in class and takes pride in his work. A sudden drop in his marks was caused by the comprehension in the main paper segment. The comprehension was set to be very tricky and have no direct answers.They involve inference. But the marks of all the other components had improved. He is a very intelligent boy and has a very good memory. He could only rely on the sentences and phrases he had memorised for the exams.His comprehending and application skills are not very good. We cannot say he had not improved because the teacher told me that he had shown improvement in his attitude and work.
We should handle children with care and patience when they did not do as we expected. Even though Alex dropped by 12 marks for only the main paper,his sch teacher and i agreed he had really tried his best and had put in effort where he had improved in his oral,listening comprehension and composition components.If this carries on, he will give up on Chinese as he had put in hard work and not only did not reap the results but also got pressured.. I only guarantee for 1 year and only when the student has the right attitude and adequate lessons.
But when i had my first lesson with him,I found him quite different. He follows everything i say, and when i told him some stuff,he will laugh cheerfully.This shows that the boy is very imaginative in relating what i had said to funny incidents.He has also enjoyed the lesson. I practiced with him Chinese Spelling by asking him to write with his finger on my hand,with just two times he was able to get full marks for his spelling. When i teach him he will pay 100% attention to me.This can be shown in his mock test results which he had passed. All the comprehension answers were all accurate and correct and he had really used what he had learnt from the tuition.One month prior to his exam i gave him extra lessons. I really pinned my hopes on him that he can pass.
But during the SA2 itself,not only did he scored 46 marks but had scored only 16 marks in the main paper. His mom was very disappointed in him and with me. She felt that all the time spent on attending the extra lessons was a waste.I was very shocked with the outcome and thus called his teacher up to find out his class performance and the reason behind his marks. She told me Alexandra is a very cheerful and shy boy,just sometimes very emotional maybe because of the scoldings from his parents. He pays attention in class and takes pride in his work. A sudden drop in his marks was caused by the comprehension in the main paper segment. The comprehension was set to be very tricky and have no direct answers.They involve inference. But the marks of all the other components had improved. He is a very intelligent boy and has a very good memory. He could only rely on the sentences and phrases he had memorised for the exams.His comprehending and application skills are not very good. We cannot say he had not improved because the teacher told me that he had shown improvement in his attitude and work.
We should handle children with care and patience when they did not do as we expected. Even though Alex dropped by 12 marks for only the main paper,his sch teacher and i agreed he had really tried his best and had put in effort where he had improved in his oral,listening comprehension and composition components.If this carries on, he will give up on Chinese as he had put in hard work and not only did not reap the results but also got pressured.. I only guarantee for 1 year and only when the student has the right attitude and adequate lessons.
16.11.09
To all P6 next year watch this video!
P6 Shiling who has taken 8 intensive lessons is ready for her PSLE!
15.11.09
P4 ACS student's breakthrough results!
Jian Chen's results has definitely shown a shocking improvement in his results.From 66 marks for Chinese in SA1 to 74.5 in SA2.All his language components have improved greatly,with Compo 16/20,Compre 35.5/50,listening Compre 7/10, Oral 16/20.
With just 4 months attending my tuition he has improved greatly. But before 4 months ago, it was a different story. My first impression of him was that he was a very active person who could not sit still(not necessarily bad but a difficulty).He does not like written work and during lessons he will not pay attention. Originally in a group tuition with another P4, he tends to get distracted during lessons and talk with him.It was quite a headache because i was quite worried about his exams which will be coming in 3-4 months time.How can I improve in such a short time? He is a intelligent kid with a high potential,just a bit lazy and easily distracted. I talked to his mom and we decided to withdraw him out of the group tuition into 1-to-1 tuition so that he will not get distracted.
1 month before his exam, i keep giving him extra lessons as I feel time is running short.He will come to my house during the weekends from 8am-12pm,lasting 4 hours. It was still quite a task getting him to do his work. Sometimes i will need to be flexible and Go through with him the exam papers and include many short breaks in between lessons. I also need to be patient and talk to him nicely.
His committment play a huge part. During the PSLE marking days, where primary sch students need not attend sch, he is the only one who went for intensive lessons. Consecutively for 4 days he keeps coming from 8am to 12pm for tuition. Even though, he lives at Bukit Timah,His noble mom takes time to drive him to my place despite a busy schedule.
As a result of his hard work,he has shown improvement....
P3 ACS student
Indo-chinese student,Marthen is a intelligient and smart but only has a weak subject Chinese.With a score of 51 in the SA1,he improved by 10 marks and scored 60 for SA2. He started home tuition three months ago so theres a lot of intensive lessons. With his standard, he should at least score an 75 for Chinese. It is just his short concentration span and illegible handwriting.I have spoken to his Chinese teacher about his situation in class. He is quite a well-behaved boy just very easily distracted.His teacher praised him for his 10 mark improvement within 3 months which is considered remarkable.Thus sometimes I need to speak with the language teacher in school to find out his problems. I hope to see him improve to 75-80 marks after solving his main problems in his character.
12.11.09
Letter to the WORRIED Parents
Dear Parents,
Hi!It's the most important time of the year we all have been waiting for where most of the students get their results back. Being a parent and a tutor myself i understand many of you will be worried. You want your child to reach their highest potential especially in the area of academics but he or she isn't performing. When you look at the report book, it beats you that your child's weakest subject is Chinese. When you are called to the Meet-the-Parent session, the teacher complained about your child's negative attitude towards Chinese.He or she did not hand in homework even if he or she hand in the work is sloppy, don't pay attention during lessons and even tried all means to avoid Chinese. You were fuming with rage and those things are the last thing you would like to hear. You have been asked to consider your child's options to stay in Higher Chinese or drop to Express Chinese,stay in Express Chinese or drop to normal Chinese,or in Primary School's case stay in Chinese or drop to foundation Chinese.You do not know what to do whether to give up or to stay.If he or she stay in that subject level, He or she might continue to drop in her results. If he or she drop to another level, would it be a waste?It's not like he or she didn't prepared for the examination. You signed your child up for tuition classes or home tuition, gave them assessments or exam papers and he or she also went for remedial or supplementary lessons. Does it mean that the time and money invested to help your child isn't helpful at all? You feel disappointed and helpless at what you can do for your child. If i were you i would also feel that since my child has lost interest in Chinese.What should I do? Without tuition, his results will drop
further.With tuition, he or she would not like it. You are caught in a total dilemma!
Even though i myself is a Chinese language tutor, I don't place my profit as my priority. I am more committed in helping these types of student regenerate their interest towards their Mother tongue. Nothing is more satisfying than to see my students motivated to learn Chinese in an enjoyable manner which I feel is my greatest accomplishment.Sometimes your child does not fit with traditional methods of teaching. Not that reading and memorising the textbook or just drilling into assessment book are not helpful at all but they only do so to the hardworking ones. If students are taught continuously with these methods, they will continue to dread Chinese until they reach a state of a complete abandonment of the language. They just need innovative methods using IT which give sight,sound and light so as to make learning animated. Youths and kids nowadays are in touch with technology. Is your child always smsing their friends, going on facebook,msn,twitter and updates his or her blog everyday. Or does he or she plug in to music which annoys you. Don't despise these gadgets as they can be the bridge to your child interest to Chinese. Using technology which they would prefer, they would recognise that Chinese is not as worthless as they thought it was, instead they could be applied in daily lives especially in technology. Unfortunately many parents have the misconception that typing Chinese will not allow exposure to Chinese handwriting. When your child learn how to type Chinese characters they are indirectly checking dictionary increasing their vocabulary. These are the ways i teach and the ways my program can be tailor-made.
The next thing to look out for is the chemistry between the teacher and the student. If the student hates the teacher, of course he or she will detest the subject. But if the teacher becomes sombody the student look upon and find comfortable learning under, there would be a high chance of your child excelling in Chinese. The most important thing would be to open the hearts of students and to treat them like a good friend, and young adult. They would then feel somebody cared for their feelings and thus respect what the teacher said. There would be no stress in sending your child for tuition. Under this atmosphere, your child could learn enjoyably and effectively.
I welcome you to discuss with me your child's situation if you can't send your child to tuition to my i will share 30 yrs experience teaching Chinese.You can or email me at kokhs@hotmail.com or vincentkokhs@yahoo.com.
Below are the specific details of some common situations that might be affecting your child:
Below are the main problems that might deter your child from achieving their deserved result:
- Loss of interest in Chinese
- Loss of confidence towards Chinese
- Hyperactiveness
- Difficulty in recalling what he has learnt
- Exam Fear
- Ineligible Handwriting
- Find that Chinese is useless
The types of students not able to perform as expected:
Students with short concentration span
Their concentration usually varies between 20 to 60 min. They might not be hyperactive just active and belong to the more sporty group of people. Thus they will only concentrate on the things that catch their interest. Teachers might complained that they will always be leaving their seats and be excused to the restrooms in between Chinese lessons whether in school or tuition. Signs of tiredness like yawning are shown but they are transited into students being energised and refreshed as their dreaded lessons are "finally over". They will always be late for lessons but leave early.
Students who are willing to work hard but not able to get result
They are the hardworking ones, those determined to do well in Chinese. Even if it's not much interest, they still care about their marks.They put in effort in their work but don't reap the expected results.It's understandable as the Chinese is a difficult language to embrace. And language, unlike Science or Maths which are study subjects, needs time to master from the basic foundations Soon, they start to get demoralised by the repeated failures and lose the confidence. From then on the worst thing could happen that is they might give up Chinese.
Below are the profiles of my students who have benefited from my tuition......
Hi!It's the most important time of the year we all have been waiting for where most of the students get their results back. Being a parent and a tutor myself i understand many of you will be worried. You want your child to reach their highest potential especially in the area of academics but he or she isn't performing. When you look at the report book, it beats you that your child's weakest subject is Chinese. When you are called to the Meet-the-Parent session, the teacher complained about your child's negative attitude towards Chinese.He or she did not hand in homework even if he or she hand in the work is sloppy, don't pay attention during lessons and even tried all means to avoid Chinese. You were fuming with rage and those things are the last thing you would like to hear. You have been asked to consider your child's options to stay in Higher Chinese or drop to Express Chinese,stay in Express Chinese or drop to normal Chinese,or in Primary School's case stay in Chinese or drop to foundation Chinese.You do not know what to do whether to give up or to stay.If he or she stay in that subject level, He or she might continue to drop in her results. If he or she drop to another level, would it be a waste?It's not like he or she didn't prepared for the examination. You signed your child up for tuition classes or home tuition, gave them assessments or exam papers and he or she also went for remedial or supplementary lessons. Does it mean that the time and money invested to help your child isn't helpful at all? You feel disappointed and helpless at what you can do for your child. If i were you i would also feel that since my child has lost interest in Chinese.What should I do? Without tuition, his results will drop
further.With tuition, he or she would not like it. You are caught in a total dilemma!
Even though i myself is a Chinese language tutor, I don't place my profit as my priority. I am more committed in helping these types of student regenerate their interest towards their Mother tongue. Nothing is more satisfying than to see my students motivated to learn Chinese in an enjoyable manner which I feel is my greatest accomplishment.Sometimes your child does not fit with traditional methods of teaching. Not that reading and memorising the textbook or just drilling into assessment book are not helpful at all but they only do so to the hardworking ones. If students are taught continuously with these methods, they will continue to dread Chinese until they reach a state of a complete abandonment of the language. They just need innovative methods using IT which give sight,sound and light so as to make learning animated. Youths and kids nowadays are in touch with technology. Is your child always smsing their friends, going on facebook,msn,twitter and updates his or her blog everyday. Or does he or she plug in to music which annoys you. Don't despise these gadgets as they can be the bridge to your child interest to Chinese. Using technology which they would prefer, they would recognise that Chinese is not as worthless as they thought it was, instead they could be applied in daily lives especially in technology. Unfortunately many parents have the misconception that typing Chinese will not allow exposure to Chinese handwriting. When your child learn how to type Chinese characters they are indirectly checking dictionary increasing their vocabulary. These are the ways i teach and the ways my program can be tailor-made.
The next thing to look out for is the chemistry between the teacher and the student. If the student hates the teacher, of course he or she will detest the subject. But if the teacher becomes sombody the student look upon and find comfortable learning under, there would be a high chance of your child excelling in Chinese. The most important thing would be to open the hearts of students and to treat them like a good friend, and young adult. They would then feel somebody cared for their feelings and thus respect what the teacher said. There would be no stress in sending your child for tuition. Under this atmosphere, your child could learn enjoyably and effectively.
I welcome you to discuss with me your child's situation if you can't send your child to tuition to my i will share 30 yrs experience teaching Chinese.You can or email me at kokhs@hotmail.com or vincentkokhs@yahoo.com.
Below are the specific details of some common situations that might be affecting your child:
Below are the main problems that might deter your child from achieving their deserved result:
- Loss of interest in Chinese
- Loss of confidence towards Chinese
- Hyperactiveness
- Difficulty in recalling what he has learnt
- Exam Fear
- Ineligible Handwriting
- Find that Chinese is useless
The types of students not able to perform as expected:
Students with short concentration span
Their concentration usually varies between 20 to 60 min. They might not be hyperactive just active and belong to the more sporty group of people. Thus they will only concentrate on the things that catch their interest. Teachers might complained that they will always be leaving their seats and be excused to the restrooms in between Chinese lessons whether in school or tuition. Signs of tiredness like yawning are shown but they are transited into students being energised and refreshed as their dreaded lessons are "finally over". They will always be late for lessons but leave early.
Students who are willing to work hard but not able to get result
They are the hardworking ones, those determined to do well in Chinese. Even if it's not much interest, they still care about their marks.They put in effort in their work but don't reap the expected results.It's understandable as the Chinese is a difficult language to embrace. And language, unlike Science or Maths which are study subjects, needs time to master from the basic foundations Soon, they start to get demoralised by the repeated failures and lose the confidence. From then on the worst thing could happen that is they might give up Chinese.
Below are the profiles of my students who have benefited from my tuition......
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)