This term ended off with a blast at our inaugural Drama Fest. It was an exciting and playful time for the whole school to bring everyone on a tour around the world in 80 minutes. We went from the Middle East to Africa, with recitation to love stories, dances and singing - a variety for all senses. The teachers and students worked really hard and with a special rapport that I would say is the envy of others. I feel much blessed.
This has been an exciting fortnight in the school: Teachers' and Staff Day last week and the P5 and 6 trip to Singapore this week. I am so proud of my students for more than rising to the occasion for Teachers' Day. Through secret Guardian Angels, the teachers were surprised with little gifts each day of the week leading to Teachers' Day. This in turn inspired the teachers to do the same for the non- teaching staff. On the day itself, the students took full charge of the school running station games for all the teachers. The staff dinner at Hilton was a fitting crown in a wonderful week. This week, 25 students had a fun, enriching and tiring educational trip in Singapore. Besides 3 mornings of school immersion, there was a variety of activities from discovering Little India to a special drama workshop. They also had a taste of the Singapore lifestyle in trying out MRT and public buses and eating at a range if places from food courts to hawker centers. They behaved very well and it was a superb field trip. As part of a series of assembly talks, I am sharing about the 5C's for the 21st century - character, communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. Last week, the focus was in communication. I had everyone spend a few minutes to list as many ways as they could to get a message across. What was interesting was when I compared what the teachers listed with the students' lists was the overwhelming number if digital platforms from the younger ones. No surprise perhaps but still interesting to note it. And I spoke about the need to be versatile and skillful across the whole range of communication. Later that week, I personally learned a previous lesson about communication. In a schedule prepared by a team of my teachers and sent out by me to the staff, there was the word 'MUST' next to a colleague. It didn't quite stand out for me and my reading was that this colleague is a key person for that event. However, thus offended the colleague as he read it as me shouting at him in front of everyone. In his email to me, he was clearly affected by it. Although not my intention, I felt the need to apologise for the hurt he felt. Moving on, this week we chose to celebrate Teachers' Day at the end of the week. Some students took the initiative to have secret guardian angels prepare gifts throughout the week for each and every teacher. The teachers were certainly touched by the gesture. What's even better was that the teachers then paid it forward by preparing gifts for the non- teaching staff. More than the lessons in the classroom are the lessons in life that leave a lasting impact. |
About this blogThis will be the occasional records of Moses' adventures living and working in Bandung, Indonesia. He is an educator at large who started working in Bandung from July 2013. Archives
June 2016
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