Today our students went to SYF and they did a great job! I was incredibly proud of them and the work they had put in, watching them go through the show for the last time. It seemed like every small thing we've spent weeks coaching them on and correcting they did and used our feedback to deliver an amazing show. It was a great feeling to be able to honestly tell them afterwards how well they had done. Of course, they still wanted us to criticize and pick apart their performances and we had to remind them that it was over!
It was a harrowing day, starting with preparations and make up, costumes and warm up. Once the kids were all dressed and ready to go with their props and set downstairs in front of the school we waited for the truck and bus to come to pick up their respective loads. It was only when we were a few blocks away from the school that we realized that the bus driver was taking us to Plaza Singapura, and that we had accidentally taken the wrong bus! There are so many groups of students going out into Singapore every day on trips or for other performance competetitions that it is possible to get on the wrong coach bus. So back we went to school to wait for the correct bus for a harrowing 10 minutes while we desperately watched the clock tick and get closer to the time that we had to be at the school.
Saying goodbye to the kids as they went backstage and leaving to head for the audience was also really stressful, knowing that everything was out of our hands and that there was nothing more we could do to help them was a scary feeling. Ultimately, I felt very proud of the kids and this is one of the reasons that having a group that mostly runs itself pays off because the students have defined leadership roles and are accustomed to running things without us so it isn't a big shock when they enter a competetion and go it alone.
The next terrifying moment came as I timed the performance, as the students were allowed to have 20 minutes on stage and after that they would lose 15% of their mark. As the last moment ended on stage Abidah and I wached my iPhone stopwatch hot 20:00...20:01..until it hit 20:04. I've got my fingers crossed that I started it a little earlier than the judges did based on when the curtains opened but we don't find out our marks until tomorrow.
All in all it was a long day, but a very fulfilling one and I think that the students were proud of the work they had done. We stayed to watch one other school's performance and I was impressed with the cailber of work that the other schools were putting forth. Their show was called "No Friend You" which I guess is something that Singaporeans say when they don't like someone and don't want to hang out with them.
I took pictures at various stages in the production process and have put them on photobucket here for you to see. The photos of the kids on stage are from our tech rehearsal last week so only a few of the kids are in costume but you get a bit of a sense of what they looked like on stage today.
Tomorrow we find out the results and I will be sure to let you know, they will be posted on the website that I linked to in my previous post.
On a sidenote, on the bus ride home, Melody told Abidah that the club had a question for her. She asked her "Meess, we want to know if we can go on exchange. To Canada?" and the entire bus started chanting "Canada! Canada! Canada!" so we will see what the future holds. If we get a Silver medal tomorrow we might have the funding we need to at least start planning such an event...
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Singapore Youth Festival
Tomorrow my Drama Club students are participating in the Singapore Youth Festival's English Drama competition. Since I arrived at the school I have been attending their rehearsals and watching the progress as they come into the home stretch of their performance preparation.
St. Hilda's hasn't had a Drama Club for very long, from what I understand they have been working together for two or three years. SYF is on alternating years so the years that they don't prepare for the festival they put up a play, last year they did Lord of the Flies. This year is an SYF year so they have been working on a short play that is an adaptation of a book called "Raider's Run" which is about gangs.
It's always a bit hard to figure out where you fit in the group when you arrive and there are two teachers already working with the drama club and a trainer who comes from an outside drama group that prepared the kids for this performance. My role has mostly been giving feedback after performances and helping to supervise rehearsals and give suggestions on things such as enunciation and diction which are the biggest challenges and focuses here in Singapore where kids speak Singlish.
Our competition is tomorrow morning so it will be the evening back in Canada, the results go up on this page.
They should be up by the following day which will be Thursday for us, Wednesday back in the tundra. The kids are hoping to at least get a silver medal, last time around they got a bronze and if we get a silver we will get more funding from the school I think for the production next year which we are thinking might be a modern interpretation of Shakespeare, possibly the Scottish Play if the school will allow us to practice some witchcraft in an Anglican school. ;)
St. Hilda's hasn't had a Drama Club for very long, from what I understand they have been working together for two or three years. SYF is on alternating years so the years that they don't prepare for the festival they put up a play, last year they did Lord of the Flies. This year is an SYF year so they have been working on a short play that is an adaptation of a book called "Raider's Run" which is about gangs.
It's always a bit hard to figure out where you fit in the group when you arrive and there are two teachers already working with the drama club and a trainer who comes from an outside drama group that prepared the kids for this performance. My role has mostly been giving feedback after performances and helping to supervise rehearsals and give suggestions on things such as enunciation and diction which are the biggest challenges and focuses here in Singapore where kids speak Singlish.
Our competition is tomorrow morning so it will be the evening back in Canada, the results go up on this page.
They should be up by the following day which will be Thursday for us, Wednesday back in the tundra. The kids are hoping to at least get a silver medal, last time around they got a bronze and if we get a silver we will get more funding from the school I think for the production next year which we are thinking might be a modern interpretation of Shakespeare, possibly the Scottish Play if the school will allow us to practice some witchcraft in an Anglican school. ;)
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Excellence
Today in class I was observing students writing a test and my mind started to wander. I've been thinking a lot lately about the cultural difference here and the level of expectation that students have placed upon them here. I recently read the famous "Tiger Mother" article by Amy Chua about her demands on her daughters and how Chinese mothers expect more from their children and how she believes that this is why their children attain such levels of excellence.
I've been thinking about the difference in what is expected of students here and I can see how students strive for the best in many aspects of their lives. My drama club students rehearse their play and then sit down afterwards to critique the piece and the minutiae of their performances. When they ask me how they did, they don't just want to hear me say "Good!" they want to hear me rip apart each part of what they have done and give them areas to improve on. It's been a learning curve from our culture of building self esteem and trying to help kids like themselves that we have in Canada but I kind of wonder if this system doesn't end up building self esteem in a different way.
When you are able to criticize a student's work and have them accept and acknowledge the criticism they are showing maturity and a dedication to improvement. It's not enough to be told that you are doing a good job because that is ambiguous and doesn't give them the room to grow and develop what they are doing. When a student is given a criticism and they take it and work on it and use it to improve what they are doing they build character and show discipline. At the end of the next time you see their performance you can see a marked difference and I can see every time I watch their play ways that they have taken criticism and actually made changes and strides to make the parts better. At the end of SYF on Wednesday I know that the performance that these kids put up was the product of hours of work and lots of concrete improvements on their part. That is something that they can really be proud of. And it's not as ambiguous as just going up there and doing a good job because of some intangible element of who they are, it's that they have worked hard at what they do.
I remember in either first year or second year of DRED talking about how I think that the idea of a self fulfilling prophecy is really true in education. That when you go into a class of students who are identified as not being able to do whatever because they have X Y and Z learning disabilities and you treat them like they can't, then they won't. If you expect them to do better, or even if you don't know that they have X Y and Z, I've often found that they can rise to a higher standard because you expect that they can. Obviously, this isn't a magic bean that makes everyone capable but I do think that the expectations of a person play a huge role in what they end up being able to do. I've often cited that as a reason that I think streaming kids can be very harmful because it tells a segment of people that they just can't. So they often don't. Conversely, in Asia, the expectations are extremely high. We worry so much in North America and the West that we will harm students by being demanding, that we will ruin their sense of self worth if we drive them hard. But, maybe we are telling them that we don't think they can be driven hard and in that process, by not expecting and demanding more of them, we show them that they can't.
Obviously, I am in a school right now where I am working with students who inherently can. They are students who have been selected and streamed for their entire lives to get them into this place in this school and a lot of that is based on their abilities and the tests they have written up until now. I don't know what happens to students here if they have a learning disability because I've asked a bunch of people and they have either said that students who have learning disabilities don't come to the kind of school I teach at so I don't have to worry, or that other people in the school deal with those issues so I don't have to worry or it's been vaguely mentioned that a student here and there might have autism, or ADHD but I don't know who they are or how you find that out. They don't have IEPs here, and I don't have any assigned classes yet so I don't know what kind of profiles for students I will have access to.
No system is perfect but it's been interesting to see the differences here and what students strive for has so far been very impressive. I'll get back to you when I have a better idea of what their self esteems are like.
I've been thinking about the difference in what is expected of students here and I can see how students strive for the best in many aspects of their lives. My drama club students rehearse their play and then sit down afterwards to critique the piece and the minutiae of their performances. When they ask me how they did, they don't just want to hear me say "Good!" they want to hear me rip apart each part of what they have done and give them areas to improve on. It's been a learning curve from our culture of building self esteem and trying to help kids like themselves that we have in Canada but I kind of wonder if this system doesn't end up building self esteem in a different way.
When you are able to criticize a student's work and have them accept and acknowledge the criticism they are showing maturity and a dedication to improvement. It's not enough to be told that you are doing a good job because that is ambiguous and doesn't give them the room to grow and develop what they are doing. When a student is given a criticism and they take it and work on it and use it to improve what they are doing they build character and show discipline. At the end of the next time you see their performance you can see a marked difference and I can see every time I watch their play ways that they have taken criticism and actually made changes and strides to make the parts better. At the end of SYF on Wednesday I know that the performance that these kids put up was the product of hours of work and lots of concrete improvements on their part. That is something that they can really be proud of. And it's not as ambiguous as just going up there and doing a good job because of some intangible element of who they are, it's that they have worked hard at what they do.
I remember in either first year or second year of DRED talking about how I think that the idea of a self fulfilling prophecy is really true in education. That when you go into a class of students who are identified as not being able to do whatever because they have X Y and Z learning disabilities and you treat them like they can't, then they won't. If you expect them to do better, or even if you don't know that they have X Y and Z, I've often found that they can rise to a higher standard because you expect that they can. Obviously, this isn't a magic bean that makes everyone capable but I do think that the expectations of a person play a huge role in what they end up being able to do. I've often cited that as a reason that I think streaming kids can be very harmful because it tells a segment of people that they just can't. So they often don't. Conversely, in Asia, the expectations are extremely high. We worry so much in North America and the West that we will harm students by being demanding, that we will ruin their sense of self worth if we drive them hard. But, maybe we are telling them that we don't think they can be driven hard and in that process, by not expecting and demanding more of them, we show them that they can't.
Obviously, I am in a school right now where I am working with students who inherently can. They are students who have been selected and streamed for their entire lives to get them into this place in this school and a lot of that is based on their abilities and the tests they have written up until now. I don't know what happens to students here if they have a learning disability because I've asked a bunch of people and they have either said that students who have learning disabilities don't come to the kind of school I teach at so I don't have to worry, or that other people in the school deal with those issues so I don't have to worry or it's been vaguely mentioned that a student here and there might have autism, or ADHD but I don't know who they are or how you find that out. They don't have IEPs here, and I don't have any assigned classes yet so I don't know what kind of profiles for students I will have access to.
No system is perfect but it's been interesting to see the differences here and what students strive for has so far been very impressive. I'll get back to you when I have a better idea of what their self esteems are like.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Cluster Games...Or Cluter Something Else...
A week or two ago an e-mail came through the ministry's Intranet inviting us teachers to sign up for what was called "Cluster Games" which sounded like fun. As an incredibly isolated young lady I thought to myself, I should sign up for this, it sounds like a good chance to have some fun and hang out with the people I work with.
This week has been a very long one as the students prepare for SYF (Singapore Youth Festival) and I've had a couple of 12 hour days. So I was really looking forward to my Saturday morning lie in. No dice.
Turns out that Clutser Games means a phsycial fitness test that consists of running or walking 2.5k and then having your heart rate taken to see if you are in the goods or the bads based on your height, weight and age. At 7 am. On Staruday.
This idea made me very sad, especially when I was invited to have some Peranakan food with Iain, Michael and some teachers from his school. I ended up going and it was lovely, but I had to come home to be ready for my Cluster Games.
I decided to try and make it into a positive and in the end it actually wasn't too bad. I got the chance to spend some time with my Vice Principal who invited me for Chinese food next weekend and I met a bunch of other principals and the superintendant of our Cluster (like our school board sort of). I also found out that we get some sort of bonus based on our heart rate and mine was good so I think I get like $100 on my next paycheque. Not bad!
The young teachers that Michael introduced me to are having a Scottish themed party next weekend which they invited me to and it sounds like they know a good group of expat teachers who are from Canada, US, UK and elsewhere so I am excited to meet them and hopefully actually start making more friends.
This week has been a very long one as the students prepare for SYF (Singapore Youth Festival) and I've had a couple of 12 hour days. So I was really looking forward to my Saturday morning lie in. No dice.
Turns out that Clutser Games means a phsycial fitness test that consists of running or walking 2.5k and then having your heart rate taken to see if you are in the goods or the bads based on your height, weight and age. At 7 am. On Staruday.
This idea made me very sad, especially when I was invited to have some Peranakan food with Iain, Michael and some teachers from his school. I ended up going and it was lovely, but I had to come home to be ready for my Cluster Games.
I decided to try and make it into a positive and in the end it actually wasn't too bad. I got the chance to spend some time with my Vice Principal who invited me for Chinese food next weekend and I met a bunch of other principals and the superintendant of our Cluster (like our school board sort of). I also found out that we get some sort of bonus based on our heart rate and mine was good so I think I get like $100 on my next paycheque. Not bad!
The young teachers that Michael introduced me to are having a Scottish themed party next weekend which they invited me to and it sounds like they know a good group of expat teachers who are from Canada, US, UK and elsewhere so I am excited to meet them and hopefully actually start making more friends.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Japan and School
Some of the students at my school have been working hard on fundraising for Japan Relief, and some of the form classes made these videos to raise awareness about the disaster. You can sort of see what my students here look like and the kind of work that they can produce, so I thought I'd share them! Also, it will make them happy to know that they have lots of views on YouTube.
Walking to school this morning I was feeling really down about missing Ben and my friend Iain who sent me a text last night saying he's really miserable here and might be leaving soon. But ya know what, my life didn't get destroyed by an earthquake or a tsunami, so I'm not going to complain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4PRUqD6J_8&feature=player_embedded#at=25
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6SeWpanp6o
Walking to school this morning I was feeling really down about missing Ben and my friend Iain who sent me a text last night saying he's really miserable here and might be leaving soon. But ya know what, my life didn't get destroyed by an earthquake or a tsunami, so I'm not going to complain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4PRUqD6J_8&feature=player_embedded#at=25
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6SeWpanp6o
Monday, April 4, 2011
My Own Skin
Slowly I am becoming more comfortable in my own skin here in Singapore. I know more how to navigate my way around so I feel less lost and I find less people looking at me. I was talking through the bus interchange yesterday and I saw an older white lady looking around like a deer in the headlights and I realized that a few weeks ago, that was probably me. Now I know where I'm going and everything isn't new anymore so I'm not gawking like a small child at every thing I see. I still giggle to myself when I hear the man in the courtyard outside the mall singing "Killing Me Softly" but I think that will never wash off.
On Saturday night I went with Iain and Michael to Chinatown to meet up with other expat teachers. I stopped on the way and got a massage because they are $20 and my back hurt so why not? It was good to meet other people who have gone through the transition that we are going through now and to find a community of people that go out and do fun and social things. I gave them my email and handphone so I'm hoping that this weekend there will be something afoot that I can join in on.
This week at school is going to be very busy as our drama club gears up for their performance at the Singapore Youth Festival next week so I anticipate a lot of late nights and early mornings but I'm happy to be working with these kids and I am still super impressed with their dedication and maturity.
On Saturday night I went with Iain and Michael to Chinatown to meet up with other expat teachers. I stopped on the way and got a massage because they are $20 and my back hurt so why not? It was good to meet other people who have gone through the transition that we are going through now and to find a community of people that go out and do fun and social things. I gave them my email and handphone so I'm hoping that this weekend there will be something afoot that I can join in on.
This week at school is going to be very busy as our drama club gears up for their performance at the Singapore Youth Festival next week so I anticipate a lot of late nights and early mornings but I'm happy to be working with these kids and I am still super impressed with their dedication and maturity.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Gotta Get Down on Friday (Or Collapse in a Sweaty Heap...)
I survived my second week! Hurrah!
I'm finding I am more able to navigate the confusing world known as Singapore, and though I still get lost it's less frequent and easily managed. I learned a while ago that when something scares you it's often best to just go grab it by the ass instead of waiting for it to grab yours so I look for scenarios where I can get a little lost and I'm used to it now and I get found again pretty quickly.
I wish however that I'd taken some course on "Mastering Ambiguity" or something like that because it seems that is the world of Singapore. You ask a clear and direct questions such as "Who is my Reporting Officer?" and Singaporeans have mastered the non-response that is sort of a response so you can't really say they didn't give you one but at the end of it all you're more confused than you were when you asked it and you still don't have an answer. So, my position at the school sort of remains in that state, but at least I have a few things like the Drama Club where I have slightly better sense of exactly what is going on. Sort of.
Today the acting HOD for my department came up to me at about 11am and said that there was the MOE Excel Fest and that the HODof Aesthetics wanted me to go, so off I went at the end of the school day to the other side of Singapore to attend a workshop on Teaching Skillfully which is a program I deduce but still had some interesting information. Lots of it is sort of what I already know from my teacher training, but it's good for me to see the Singaporean interpretation of things and it's nice that the school is investing in the idea of me going for courses and such so that's a good sign. I think.
On the soul/mind side of things I am still rather isolated but there were a few good developments. One of them is that I remenbered that I have my iPod with me. The thing is, I was afraid to listen to music for the first two weeks because I was emotionally raw and I knew it would make me cry cause it would remind me of the people I don't have with me now. But, I decided the other day I needed some badassery and got out my iPod and made a shuffle list of songs from "Heads Will Roll" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and I found a plethora of good shit on there that is rock out with the cock out kind of music that I have been carrying in my pocket for years but never took the time to find. I have spent years collecting music that I knew I would one day want to listen to but wasn't ready for yet and I think that slowly I will make my way through the thousands of hours of music I have picked up here and there from different people in different times and discover new meanings in it.
As well, I met a drama instructor who comes to the school to work in DEP which is the only drama class the kids get and she put me in touch with some drama groups here in Singapore that do theatre productions which I could act with and some facebook stuff and meet up things for expats which could very well save my life in the future.
Lesson of the week: Art will save you. It will find your sorrows and it will articulate them, it will light the way in the dark and if you can find the art you need when you need it that art will bring you back from the dark places while acknowledging what they mean and how important they are at the same time. Art is the language that will transcend and it will keep you company when no one else will. Find the music, the books, the stories, the pictures, the photos, the television shows, the novels, whatever it is that fills your holes and grab on to it like it's a life raft. Because, friends, it is. It brings you back to the shore of who you are when you're lost at sea and forget for a while.
I'm finding I am more able to navigate the confusing world known as Singapore, and though I still get lost it's less frequent and easily managed. I learned a while ago that when something scares you it's often best to just go grab it by the ass instead of waiting for it to grab yours so I look for scenarios where I can get a little lost and I'm used to it now and I get found again pretty quickly.
I wish however that I'd taken some course on "Mastering Ambiguity" or something like that because it seems that is the world of Singapore. You ask a clear and direct questions such as "Who is my Reporting Officer?" and Singaporeans have mastered the non-response that is sort of a response so you can't really say they didn't give you one but at the end of it all you're more confused than you were when you asked it and you still don't have an answer. So, my position at the school sort of remains in that state, but at least I have a few things like the Drama Club where I have slightly better sense of exactly what is going on. Sort of.
Today the acting HOD for my department came up to me at about 11am and said that there was the MOE Excel Fest and that the HODof Aesthetics wanted me to go, so off I went at the end of the school day to the other side of Singapore to attend a workshop on Teaching Skillfully which is a program I deduce but still had some interesting information. Lots of it is sort of what I already know from my teacher training, but it's good for me to see the Singaporean interpretation of things and it's nice that the school is investing in the idea of me going for courses and such so that's a good sign. I think.
On the soul/mind side of things I am still rather isolated but there were a few good developments. One of them is that I remenbered that I have my iPod with me. The thing is, I was afraid to listen to music for the first two weeks because I was emotionally raw and I knew it would make me cry cause it would remind me of the people I don't have with me now. But, I decided the other day I needed some badassery and got out my iPod and made a shuffle list of songs from "Heads Will Roll" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and I found a plethora of good shit on there that is rock out with the cock out kind of music that I have been carrying in my pocket for years but never took the time to find. I have spent years collecting music that I knew I would one day want to listen to but wasn't ready for yet and I think that slowly I will make my way through the thousands of hours of music I have picked up here and there from different people in different times and discover new meanings in it.
As well, I met a drama instructor who comes to the school to work in DEP which is the only drama class the kids get and she put me in touch with some drama groups here in Singapore that do theatre productions which I could act with and some facebook stuff and meet up things for expats which could very well save my life in the future.
Lesson of the week: Art will save you. It will find your sorrows and it will articulate them, it will light the way in the dark and if you can find the art you need when you need it that art will bring you back from the dark places while acknowledging what they mean and how important they are at the same time. Art is the language that will transcend and it will keep you company when no one else will. Find the music, the books, the stories, the pictures, the photos, the television shows, the novels, whatever it is that fills your holes and grab on to it like it's a life raft. Because, friends, it is. It brings you back to the shore of who you are when you're lost at sea and forget for a while.
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