Food for thought.

Fri, 15 Aug 2008
1 min read
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Currently, our students do acquire values, as a result of being in school. In fact, this is an inevitable process. But the values that they truly acquire are not the ones that the teachers deliberately teach, as part of a formal plan like National Education.

Instead the values that the students truly acquire are simply a consequence of their personal experiences and observations, in school. And it is mostly an unconscious, automatic, ongoing process.

I thought this was quite an interesting post, and something that all of us, as educators, should include as part of our reflection process – are we meeting the needs of students, or are we merely trying to make numbers work?

In white and blue.

Fri, 15 Aug 2008
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The long awaited blog post from the Saint Gabriel’s 55th Anniversary Dinner.

I was thinking of putting in some personal thoughts and comments but decided against it. Instead, I’ll just leave you with a photo narrative framed within the secondary school song lyrics. The lyrics of the old school song and the Primary School version are here.

See you back here on Monday, when there are more exciting posts in store.

~

In white and blue, boys full of mirth and life

From early morn, we flood the green playground

In every hall, soon starts the daily strife

Of school routine, lessons and work all round

With spirits bright, our will well gladly bracing

From teachers kind we learn what’s good and right

We thus do hope to attain with God’s blessing

Virtue and Truth, Virtue and Truth

Of life’s true beacon light

Saint Gabriel’s School dear

Here willing hearts behold

When duty’s call rings clear

Mid sorrows as through joys

For Singapore and God

For Justice to uphold

Let us live and thus prove

Saint Gabriel’s boys!

Reflections: Session One.

Sat, 2 Aug 2008
2 min read
2 Comments

  • K: What I already KNOW about this week’s topic.
    While I am no computer scientist, I think I am moderately proficient in Web 2.0 technologies and how they work. The introduction has thus helped reinforce the rationale and impetus for this course, which run roughly in concordance with my own beliefs: we have already plunged head-first into the Digital Age, hence the need to incorporate what is new today into the classrooms of tomorrow, before it becomes yesterday’s news.

  • W: What I WANT TO LEARN.
    In the virtual landscape of today, technologies come and go in a blink of an eye. An example of this: I taught myself how to use HTML in secondary school and was the proud designer of a few webpages in the past. Today, however, even modifying the template of this blog has proved to be a major challenge, because I don’t know what language Blogger is using now! Hence, what I want to learn is this: how does one keep current with current technologies? Or is the answer simply “WITH GREAT DIFFICULTY”? 🙂
  • L: What I LEARNED this week.
    I learnt that I am quite excited about this course because I think it will be very relevant to what I want to do in the future, both as a teacher (definitely) and as an academic (hopefully). As an English major, I am of the opinion that the way forward for Literature is for us to start seeing ‘texts’ as more than just print on paper; I feel very strongly that ‘texts’ must also refer to digital media like Youtube, Facebook, etc. The thesis of my argument has not been fleshed out fully yet, but I believe that this course will be very useful for me in finding my way to the answer.

  • Q: What QUESTIONS I still have .
    Please refer to ‘W: What I WANT TO LEARN’.