I'm just wondering though, what would happen if the first Friday of September coincides with the one-week school holidays (which is a likely scenario)? Would there be a makeup the following Monday? I'm sure the teachers wouldn't welcome being cheated of an extra day of rest!
This year, to mark the occasion, Lesley-Anne and her best friend decided to bake muffins for their teachers. Not their secondary school teachers, mind you, their primary school GEP teachers. Incidentally, when her friend's mum heard about their plans, she commented, "your teachers are very brave."
Heh. The girls wisely decided not to make anything fancy - just muffins made from Betty Crocker's yellow cake mix and lots of chocolate chips added.
While waiting for the muffins to bake, the girls created personalised cards for each of the teachers.
The muffins were then wrapped in pretty paper and delivered personally to the recipients when the girls returned to their alma mater on Tuesday.I thought it was a sweet gesture - it showed the impact their teachers had made on them over the past three years. We always remember all the good teachers we've had... as well as the bad. I'm glad that for Lesley-Anne, it's clearly been more of the former.
I was thinking of the same thing about teachers day falling on the one-week holiday. Not only teachers, I'm sure the kids would like to have an extra day off. But I still prefer to have Childrens' Day on 1 Oct. It's more significant to remember 1 Oct than 1st Fri of the month.
ReplyDeleteMrs Cheng
Mrs Cheng: I also prefer Children's Day to fall on 1 Oct but it's more vested interest - it's so Andre can enjoy a holiday the day before his bday!
ReplyDeleteThe muffins look really delicious right out of the oven. And it's a really thoughtful gesture by LA and Janice. I think teachers definitely appreciate these more than photoframes and other decorative items (which is what I would give). By the way, I don't really remember giving teacher's day gifts when I was a kid :P Seems like it's celebrated in a bigger way here than in Malaysia.
ReplyDeleteLilian: I usually buy the decorative stuff for my kids to give too! Since the girls decided to bake, saved me the problem of buying. I used to only give to teachers whom I really appreciate, definitely not to all. Perhaps parents are more pc these days. And the kids nowadays have so many teachers too! Besides school, there's piano, tuition, etc etc...
ReplyDeleteWow, Lesley-Anne and her friend are so thoughtful. Yes, there has been a trend of these secondary sch children returning to alma mater on special days to visit teachers and spread the good word for their secondary school. V sweet indeed. I can see that you are more hands off when L-A went to secondary school. Is it becos the teachers are finally teaching properly (oops!)? Or the children suddenly become very independent in IP schools becos everyone else is plus no time after CCA and long days in school? I also see that L-A has minimum tuition. Seems like the school teachers there are doing a great job! Do shed some light becos I am deciding if my girl is suitable for IP. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSL
SL: Definitely, I've been very hands off with L-A this year, often I don't even know what she's learning! Largely cos she's thriving in sec 1. I don't think it's because the teachers are better, in fact secondary school teachers tend to spoon feed less. My personal opinion is that the sec schl syllabus is more straightforward - if you do your work regularly and study, you should do reasonably well. Whereas in pri schl, I find that the exams tend to go all out to "trick" the kids. They don't test what the kids know, they test what they don't know! So the parents/ kids become very kancheong trying to second guess what sorts of exam questions will appear, moving the focus away from actual learning.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to generalise and say all kids will do better at sec schl as I really am not sure whether it's just the type of learning that suits her better (less memorising of facts, more writing and humanities) or the school itself. I like the IP cos it takes the pressure off preparing for another national exam in sec 4 but I do hear of kids who are finding the more independent type learning a little tough. Again, not sure if it's the school.
Both L-A and Andre have always only had tuition in Chinese. I don't believe in indiscriminate tuition cos I find that their time is already so limited and I want them to make the most of it - don't forget they also have lots of other activities - piano, ballet (L-A) and badminton (Andre). However, that's not to say that they're brilliant. I find that it's hard to do well in primary schl if you don't get some help, for the reasons stated above. Eg even though Andre only has Chinese tuition, I do revise his work with him and help him with areas he struggles with. Since I know what he is weak in and can zoom in on those areas, I find this more productive than tuition, ie I can probably cover more with him in a hour than a tuition class can in 2. So if you look at it this way, I'm still saying kids benefit from help - it's just a case of whether the help is outsourced.
Hope this clarifies a little!
Thank you very much for your great information. My child will be treading the same path very soon and really looking ahead to the straight forward learning in secondary school. Finally. Life should be simple.
ReplyDeleteSL