Staff Professional Development Committee

Staff Bonding Activity 2019
The staff participated in one of the 4 activities organized for them. For those who are more inclined physical activities, Muay Thai was the choice. Many of them had green fingers and understandably, with their nurturing disposition, were enjoying the Terrarium hands-on workshop.

For those who preferred a moderate amount of physical activity in a different setting. We have Giant Uno game and a Biodiversity Guided Walk to bring them through the new Jurong Lake Gardens

The Singapore Curriculum Philosophy presents our teaching fraternity’s core beliefs about teaching and learning. These beliefs, which place every student at the heart of our educational decisions, guide the design and implementation of our curriculum.

• We believe in holistic education.
• We believe that every child wants to and can learn. We focus on children’s learning needs when designing learning experiences.
• We believe that learning flourishes in caring and safe learning environments, when children construct knowledge actively, through the development of thinking skills and dispositions, and when assessment is used to address children’s learning gaps.

The Singapore Teaching Practice is a model that makes explicit how effective teaching and learning is achieved in Singapore schools. The STP is represented in the form of an orchid to reflect the Singapore context within which we practise our craft.

With MOE’s implementation of STP, our STs are regularly engaging our teachers in the sharing of various teaching areas of STP. Riding on the developmental model of peer observations of Area For Growth (AfG), the STs have been actively using STP Teaching areas to develop our teachers in their classroom practice professionally.

Research has shown that student engagement plays a pivotal role in the development of positive student’s outcomes such as academic achievement and well-being.

This talk will provide an overview on student engagement and its different dimensions; discuss its important role in teaching and learning as well as developing students holistically; and share some strategies to nurture engagement in the classroom.

Sharing by Cluster School, Chua Chu Kang Secondary on “Promoting active transfer of knowledge afforded by Student Learning Space and other ICT tools in Chemistry”

Guided by the SLS Pedagogical Scaffold, the team designed various learning experiences that hope to bridge the gap between factual knowledge acquired on SLS or other ICT tools and the application of knowledge. This lesson package was developed for both Qualitative Analysis as well as Organic Chemistry.

In both lesson packages, acquisition of factual knowledge was achieved through Flipped Learning through SLS and other ICT tools. In the Qualitative Analysis lesson package, transfer of knowledge was reinforced through hands-on activities in the laboratory. The use of ICT allowed us to augment the way Qualitative Analysis and Practical Skills were taught by infusing Thinking Routines and Collaborative Learning in the process. In the Organic Chemistry lesson package, hands-on activities with models allow students to visualise molecules better while developing their spatial intelligence. Students would then use a card sort-mindmapping activity to consolidate their learning.

At least one project from most of the academic departments was represented for the concurrent sessions.

One of the concurrent session sharing was “Choose Your Own Adventure!” from the Physics PLC Team. The main focus of this project is to plan and create a lesson gamified using the idea of “Choose Your Own Adventure”. The team will also test the effectiveness of this lesson in increasing the knowledge of students in Physics using pretest and posttest.

We have set up a first class-based PLC team this year. The class 2T1 was identified and the team decided to work on restoring positive relations through peer mediation. It was reported that conflicts among the students were very common last year when the students were in secondary 1. Hence, there was a need to restore good relationships for the class to move forward and work well together. This will aid in improving their school experience and motivate them to look forward to coming to school. The project was a success as many subject teachers reported the positive transformation of the class when they were from Secondary One to Secondary Two.

We have another concurrent session by CCE PLC Team who explored how Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) lessons centred on contemporary issues can develop students’ citizenship dispositions, operationalized as a sense of belonging, a sense of hope, and a sense of reality, culminating in the will to act.

Two CCE lesson packages that focused on inclusiveness for people with disabilities using the Secondary 2 Values In Action programme and the recent enactment of the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) using the Secondary 3 Cyber Wellness programme were developed.

On 5 Sep 2019, the Staff Well-being Committee organized a Staff Appreciation Lunch at Hotel Jen Tanglin with the theme ‘Pajamas’.  The staff dressed up in different nightwear (presentable ones of course!), some came with soft toys and pillows!

There were various table games and performances by the new teachers and departments. Teachers were entertained amidst the sumptuous buffet spread.

Laughter and applause filled the place. The best dressed department went to Mathematics Department.

Vallani, 1999

Besides the anchor, the mentor is like a lighthouse – guiding and showing the way.