The syllabus is changing again! Over the years, my little website has gotten attention mainly for my essays, but I’m feeling a little bit uncomfortable with them now that the syllabus will change for those taking the O-level exams in 2023 (though 5N and repeat 4E students will be taking the old 1128 syllabus in […]
My child would be homeschooled (a private tutor’s perspective)
If I had a child, I would not subject her to mainstream schooling in Singapore. Perhaps if we were living in a country like Finland, I would happily send her off to school there. But not in Singapore. In Singapore, we don’t have enough of an emphasis on play, and way too much emphasis on […]
One way Singapore’s schools make you stupid: the fixed mindset
Which do you believe to be more true? Consider the two statements while you read the post below. Statement 1: Intelligence is set in stone at birth. (If a person is really stupid, he can work hard to learn new things, but he will never be very good at anything.) Statement 2: Intelligence is dynamic, changeable, and […]
Creepy lullabies and close reading
Last night, I tried to illustrate what close reading should feel like to my student, and I used the example of our childhood lullabies. Do you remember the lullabies from your childhood? I give you my personal favourite: Rock-a-bye baby on the treetop, When the wind blows, the cradle will rock, When the bough breaks, […]
(A response to..) Don’t keep calm! And don’t carry on!
This post is a response to the article in the link — Dont keep calm! And dont carry on! – Opinion – Al Jazeera English. Mr Seah cares about students, and if you care about students, you have to care about politics as well, because what happens in the political realm impacts students too. If, for example, the […]
A trip down memory lane, and how religion affects my teaching
I took my O-levels in 1999, after spending four years in ACS(I). It was a time when the administration and teachers seemed to take their Christianity very seriously. Even as a teenage boy, I could tell that the prayers did not come from a place of mere duty. The teachers did not seem to drag […]
(WARNING: sappy ending) An attentive tuition teacher spots things that parents don’t
Sometimes, a tuition teacher (me) is faced with students who are, by and large, intelligent. However, they inexplicably end up doing worse on tests than his teachers and parents expect. When that happens, we have to look at the student’s life in totality, and not just concentrate on his academic performance. The things that hold students […]
Why I don’t teach “to the test” (especially at the O-Level)
“Teaching to the test” is the practice of teaching for the sole purpose of getting students to do well in standardised tests. For an English teacher, this would mean breaking down the O-level English paper into its parts, and drilling students like crazy in those component parts. For example, one could break down the questions in the […]
Tip #5: You are the sum of your choices
(cross-posted in “approaches to teaching” section because parents need to know this too!) You are the sum of your choices. If you choose to eat supersized fast-food meals every single day of your life, you will be unhealthy. You may not be fat if you exercise a lot, but all that sodium and sugar and […]
Education should never JUST be about grades, but…
Education should never JUST be about grades, but the reality of it is that my students are in a system that is very unforgiving for students who don’t perform well. So here’s my solution: I take my cue from my own teachers, the brilliant people whom I’ve had the absolute privilege to be taught by. […]