I was awarded the school Caring Teacher 2008. Frankly, the award did not come as a surprise because I saw my monitor gleefully skipping to the general office with a thick stack of forms from the class to drop into the nomination box.

I humbly accept the award on behalf of the many caring teachers out there.

Our school make photocopies of the nominations submitted, with nominees’ particulars masked, for our references. Undeniable the teaching profession is a challenging one which often drains every ounce of my energy and at some junctures robs my passion.  But what parents and students wrote were rejuvenating. What they said truly touched my heart and I am not embarrass to admit that my eyes swelled with tears. They served to reaffirm what I had done not only for the class, but as a teacher all these years.

*****

A Nomination – Caring Teacher 2008

Mrs. Janice Loh took over as form teacher of P3G sometime around August/September of 2007. This must has been a very happy occasion for the children of  this class. They were all very hopeful. After all, their impression of their former form teacher wasn’t that positive. The children opined that teachers are always fierce, unreasonable, inconsiderate, and over authoritative. My sentiments as well; from the many tales our son, [child's name] , brought home. Even as adults, we were too afraid to confront the issue, for fear of possible repercussions. We just hope for better luck (a caring teacher) in 2008. Barely a week after Mrs. Loh took over, I was pleasantly surprised that my son have good things to say about his form teacher. He told us that his new form teacher has brought a lot smiles and happiness to an otherwise very gloomy P3G. I asked how? Was she fierce? [child's name] replied, “Mrs. Loh is both friendly and firm. Like all teachers, she would not tolerate nonsense!” I have not heard him singing such praises about his form teachers for a good 8 months.

At around October, I asked to meet with Mrs. Loh to talk about [child's name]’s progress. To my surprise, she promptly agreed to meet me. I have never have accessed to [child's name]’s form teacher telephone number or email-id (though I have been asking for this) since [child's name] was in P1. We had a good 45 minutes meeting. What impressed me was her candidness; her passion as a teacher was unmistakably obvious. She spoke on and on, on how to motivate her children to learn. She liken her charges to her own children. I walked away happy, confident, but most importantly convinced, that my son has finally got a teacher who do care and wants her charges to have a happy, fruitful, and memorable school experience.

But was it for only one term? That’s what [child's name] and his classmate wondered as 2007 was coming to an end. I was delighted when the school allowed Mrs. Loh to continue her good work into 2008 as the form teacher of P4G. Many of us parents, happy with what we saw and heard (through the innocent heart of the children) about Mrs. Loh, must have lobbied the school to have her continue with the same class. And 2008 got even better. Mrs. Loh set up a website for P4G. Schoolwork, good reference materials, projects are all neatly posted, and updated. The children blogged too, with Mrs. Loh showing the way. This website is not only useful for the kids, but allows us parents to get to know P4G community and its activities, up, close and personal. To celebrate a good CA1 performance and to foster camaraderie , Mrs. Loh organized a pot-luck get together at her house at the start of the June holidays. It must have be another memorable experience for the children and parents. Sadly, as we were abroad, we could not join the party and [child's name] was clearly disappointed.

It’s end of June 2008 now. I have met Mrs. Loh only once this year, at the PTA in April. Maybe one or two telephone calls from her, when [child's name] gets forgetful about school work or misbehaves. That’s all and that’s the way it should be. It is when the children completely trust and respect their teacher and vice versa, is where they learned most. In [child's name]’s own word, “I like and respect my teacher because she is kind, fair, firm, tells us a lot of her life experience, and talks to us like we are friends.” As for us parents, Mrs. Loh is one of a kind. She see herself as a “nurturer” rather than “teacher”, although she probably didn’t realize this herself.

*****

Our school has the practise of reading out letters of commendation. Mine was read out during the staff contact time this week. Unexplainably, I felt a tinge of embarrassment. But undeniably, it made my day.

*****

Letter of Commendation

Dear Principal

I’m mother of [child's name] from P4G.

I would like to compliment my daughter’s form teacher Mrs Janice Loh, who
has made learning so much fun, especially for the Maths, she has shared
with the class a very comprehensive notes with the drawing & charts follow
by the steps by steps to solve the problem sum, she has made Maths come
alive !  This is the first time i received such notes frm your teacher,
it’s also help parents to understand better with drawing model in order for
us to guide our children at home.

Janice always encouraged the class to reach for the stars, beside she is
very much loved by her class, Janice was always available even it was after
school hours, she give parents her mobile no. & email address (which i know
not all your teacher will let parents to have their contact no.)

I thank you for assigning her to be my daughter form teacher & I hope she
can guide my daughter through her PSLE.

Thanks & Regards

[Parent's name & contact]

*****

Sometime back, I received a few copies of nomination for the President’s Award for Teachers in my mail tray. I truly treasure the innocence and the cadidness of this particular nomination written by a pupil. The writing was punctuated with grammatical mistakes – an indication that it was written without help from parents. But it was written in the language of love straight from a child’s heart.

I was no where near winning the award. But I was already rewarded.

*****

President’s Award for Teachers – A nomination

Mrs Loh is a very innovative teacher. She uses the blog to teach us and I like her ideas. Mrs Loh will publish the homework on the blog for those who never come on that day so that the person will not miss out what we did on that day. We learn many things that are not in the textbook. It help us in our studies. She taught us crazy ways of remembering things so that we can score well. She also found a photosynthesis song and publish on the blog. We learn alot more about photosynthesis. She also gave us homework file to keep out homework. I think Mrs Loh deserve the award!

*****

When I went back to school after a good 3 months of maternity leave last year, I thought that the management would deploy me to do parallel teaching or even relief. After all, it was already the 3rd term and the school’s academic year was coming to an end.

To my surprise, the morning I reported back to work, my VP called me in and told me to take over as the form teacher to Primary 3G. She told me to uplift the morale of the class and do whatever I could to help the pupils.

Full load! Full Class!

They class was responsive and fun and we hit off on the right note. The pupils were clearly unpolished gems!Bright but lack motivation and discipline. While they promised to work doubly hard, I had to work triply hard to prepare them for the final exams in a short stint of 8 weeks!

At the end of the year, many parents requested me to follow the class up to the next level. I felt complimented but my well rehearsed politically correct answer was, “I would love to but please understand that the school has to take into account the overall staff resource planning and deployment to best meet the school’s needs”.

Well, some parents did not want to take the chance and petition directly to the management. So, I am with the class for another year of fun and learning.

*****

A Petition

Dear Principal,

It has been a good 3 months since our meeting at your office. As the
2007 school year draws to an end, I would like to take the opportunity
to speak about some observations.

I am happy to report that the kids in P3G is a happier lot these days. I
was surprised with the speed of action taken as well as the tremendous
positive effect in these 3 months. This only shows that the Management
at Ai Tong is serious when it comes to the welfare of its image and
the well-being of its kids.

Here, I must commend Mrs. Janice Loh’s efforts for bringing back P3G to
where it was suppose to be. I’m confident your goodself would have
observe this positive change as well. According to my son (and his
friends who occasionally pops over to our home), Mrs. Loh is both
sincere and caring but firm; absolutely necessary traits for nurturing
young minds. She definitely had made an impression with the kids who
is beginning to understand the value of Respect vs. Obedience for
teachers. This can only bode well for their continuing journey in
academia.

Onwards, I would like to hereby petition Management to consider
allowing Mrs. Loh to continue her good work with the class next year
as P4 is the key foundation year for Upper Primary. The P3G kids have
‘lost’ a good 3 terms this year, with their morale improving only in
Term 4. My concern is that they would have to adapt to a new Form
Teacher so soon after Mrs. Loh.

Thanks and Best Regards,
[Parents' name and contact]

*****

In 2002, my [then] Vice Principal, wrote a comprehensive reference report to support my application to pursue the Masters of Arts in Instructional Design and Technology. I was accepted into the programme and graduated in 2007.

*****

Academic Reference Report

I have known Mdm Chuah since 1995. She was  employed as a relief teacher where I was (and still is) the vice principal. She was an enthusiastic and committed teacher and hence was one of the few sought for relief teaching whenever the need arose. Over the years we have kept contact and I believe I had been an influence in her choice of career.

Mdm Chuah is able to get across her views and instructions clearly and proficiently in writing and I would grade it as very good, She reads fluently and has no problem with comprehension of text.  Her spoken English is good as she is always able to express herself fluently.

Mdm Chuah joined the school in  May 2000 with a Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE). Her professionalism and competence as a beginning teacher was impressive and befitted that of a winner of the Top Student of PDGE (PRI) 2000. She was enthusiastic, not only in the classroom but was able to make constructive criticism to improve the school.

From the onset, her potential was obvious. Mdm Chuah displayed many talents. She was an innovative and effective  teacher in and out of the classroom. She expressed an interest in IT and was put to assist the IT HOD in the IT Club as her  Co-Curricular Activity (CCA). She is self-motivated and undertakes her job and all duties with passion and drive. Under her guidance, a team of 5 pupils won a Gold award  in the ThinkQuest Junior Competition 2001, a web design competition in Singapore. This year, she has prepared and entered three teams in ThinkQuest in 2002 and is hopeful of bagging a Platinum award.

Mdm Chuah’s interest in IT has also benefited her colleagues. Last year she won the Outstanding Contribution  Award (Individual Category) announced under the Edu-Pac Plan and given out in schools to encourage and recognize significant value-added employee contributions that have made an impact in schools. She developed a Power Point template to facilitate teachers in developing their own web-based lessons.

The school recognised Mdm Chuah’s capabilities and appointed her the Media Resource Library  coordinator last year, in spite of her having been only a year in the service. She was not only able to revamp and update the system but has even initiated new programmes successfully.

As a classroom teacher, Mdm Chuah is responsible, caring and firm. She strives to do her best for her pupils and does not hesitate to check with her supervisors/mentors when faced with difficulties. Because of her care and concern for her pupils, she was identified at the end of last year to be the form teacher of a class with an autistic boy. In preparation she signed up for a 3-day seminar organized by the Autism Research Centre in November, 2001, so that she would be able to give of her best.

In the seven years that I have known Mdm Chuah, she has always been ambitious, diligent, forward-looking and persevering. When challenged to do something new her answer is always, ‘Let me think about it.’, never an outright ‘No”.

Name of referee : Mrs May Chan
Designation : Vice Principal
Address : Yio Chu Kang Primary School, No 1, Hougang Street 5, Singapore 538720