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| At the NIE Teachers’ Investiture
Ceremony on 12 August, three outstanding young teachers were
honoured for their dedication to the development of youth that
went beyond the formal curriculum. This year’s Outstanding Youth
in Education Award (OYEA) winners were selected from 265 nominees.
Find out what drives them. |
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“If I were to go off tomorrow
to meet my Maker, I would have no regrets because the
time that I’ve spent in teaching, I have given my best.”
Lena Soh, North View Secondary School
“Miss Soh is humorous and very
caring. Whenever you don’t understand anything, she’ll
explain and explain until you do.”
Lim
Mingjie, Secondary 1E2 |
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IT IS NOT unusual
to see Lena entering her class with an orange, a cake or her
pet tortoise. Neither is it odd if you chance upon her narrating
a ghost story in the midst of an English lesson. These are just
some of the means Lena uses to engage her students in learning,
and her students love her for it.
But there was a time when teaching was a struggle. “When I first
came into teaching, it was a culture shock. I had difficult
moments coping with students,” recalls Lena, who has been teaching
for four years now. “It wasn’t until I saw them as human beings
whose spirits can be broken if you don’t handle them properly.
From then onwards, I tried to handle them the way I would want
others to handle me if I were a kid.”
Lena’s efforts to reach out to students extend beyond the classroom
to even after they have left school. Earlier this year, she
initiated a programme called NESTS (Nurturing and Equipping
Successful Teenagers in Society) to meet the needs of ex-students.
“We don’t want to stop at just preparing them for exams. We
want to be there for them during crises or breaking points in
their life, so they know they’re not alone.”
Looking back, Lena says she has no regrets. “Winning awards
are not important now because I have seen the more crucial aspects
of being a teacher. I have seen how I’ve contributed to the
growth and development of children, and how people can be changed
through the way we relate to them. I’m happy with the way things
have turned out.” |
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“The most fulfilling part
is knowing you have done your best for the children. And
whatever little successes they get, you feel very proud
of them, like a proud parent.”
Mdm
Sharida Batcha Sahib, Tampines Primary School
“Mdm Sharida is very creative
in the way she teaches. Her lessons are very interesting
and fun.”
Afiqah Nur Fitri
Bte Suhaiem, Primary 5/5 |
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WHEN SHARIDA was
assigned her first form class in 2000, she set herself a goal
- to get to know every pupil in her Primary Three class and
their parents by the end of the semester. “As I was going to
follow them through to the PSLE, I felt I needed to get to know
them and their parents. I think home support is very important,
and also the support of the children themselves because they
must be the ones who want to learn.”
Sharida wrote letters, notes and reports, and made countless
phone calls to parents. “People might say it is very exhausting,
but I felt that it was necessary for me to build the bridge.
By the time they were in Primary Six, I knew the kids like the
back of my hand.” Now in Secondary One, her ex-pupils continue
to remember her. In fact, the whole class just returned recently
to celebrate her birthday.
“Winning this award is actually
a tribute to my school because it has moulded me into what I
am today,” says Sharida. “In all the six years that I’ve been
teaching, my principals and vice-principal have had a lot of
faith in me. That really motivated me to try out new ideas as
I knew that they’d be there to help me if I should falter. The
teachers here are also very warm and helpful. Every day, they
give their 110% for the kids, and that has inspired me to do
even more for my kids.” |
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“I feel that youth have a
lot of energy. What they
need is someone who
can guide them to find
a purpose.”
Stewart Teng, St Hilda’s
Primary School
“Mr Teng is very patient, very caring, and sometimes very funny.”
Rachel Tan,
Primary 4/1 |
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AS A PARENT would care for his child, Stewart
patiently tends to his pupils with the same love and
attention. “Every child is different; certain methods
that can be used for one child may not be applicable
to the next,” says Stewart. “I always start by trying
to understand why they do certain things, to find
out what makes them tick to build rapport.”
He recalls one 11-year-old boy in his class who
came from a single-parent family, lacked motivation to learn and displayed violent
tendencies. “I worked with his mum and slowly got to know him more. Initially it was
hard, but towards the second half of the year, he started to respond.”
There was another boy who would talk at all the wrong times to get attention. Out of
desperation, Stewart asked the boy to lend him a CD of his favourite band. “The next day
he remembered, not the homework I’d given him, but that CD. I listened to the CD and
talked to him about the songs. After establishing that rapport with him, I managed to get
him to work in sync with the class. Now he’s doing well in secondary school.”
These successes did not come easy. It was time-consuming and laborious, but
Stewart is in it for the long haul. “I believe that other than basic literacy and numeracy
skills, what will carry the children through to adulthood is their attitude and character,”
he says. “You may not see the results within the six years that you are teaching them,
but keep sowing. Your labours will not be in vain.” |
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