Parents, I want your opinions.

I have spend my lovely Saturday afternoon doing marking! While I must say that everyone had performed much better in this PBT test there is something that disturbs me pretty much.

I still find pupils not showing proper working despite numerous reminders in class. This means that quite a handful of pupils still use the top down approach and scribble their working all over the space provided. They did not use the left to right approach, writing line by line on how they arrive at the answer.

This time round, I still award working marks to the pupils but I am afraid in official exams I will have to follow strictly to the marking scheme. I know in some cases that other teachers do deduct some marks from pupils. The reason is that since it is a practice where marks are not recorded down, teachers want to allow pupils to understand the importance of showing proper working.

As such this results in some confusion, parents will wonder "Why this teacher never deduct marks while others do or why last time never deduct now in exams marks are deducted." Do your think that I should deduct marks even for practice to set things right from the start? Parents, I would like to hear from you. You can email me your feedback to Low_kiah_wee@moe.edu.sg

Thank you.

Mr Low Falls Sick......

Hello everyone. How was the PBT test today? Was it easy? I sure hope everyone can do much better than the mock paper. Bet your must be really happy right then I didn't come school these 2 days. I am down with fever and stomach flu in case your are wondering why I did not come to school these 2 days. Yucks had to eat all the plain porridge that my mum cooked (Make sure your don't tell my mum about her horrible porridge else she is going to come after me).

Well I miss everyone. Hope your did not give the relief teachers a tough time eh! Alright I am gonna get your PBT papers tomorrow to mark them . Please don't give me more heart attacks ah!!

See your on Monday! = )

Addressing all Parents!

Hope everyone is very familiar with the word PBT by now. By explaining more about PBT I hope that not so many parents will lose sleep over this PBT. = p So sorry for not being able to update the blog as frequent this week. Well I would like to give everyone a summary in case you are wondering how your child had fared based on his grades as well as how he/she fared as compared to his/her peers.

Basically the class did not do well with almost half the class scoring 30 marks or less. For the first time, pupils this year have to sit this problem based task as such they are not really comfortable with the questions. Instead of the usual "one answer only" problems, pupils now have to give all the POSSIBLE answers and as such they tend to overlook. For most pupils, you will observe that they did not do well in the areas where they are asked to list possible answers like the arrangement of chair and table combination, as well as questions asking them for their opinion like which is a better deal 10 or 11 chairs. This is very common amongst pupils at this level. So fret not! I am sure they will do better in this coming test on Friday.

As the schedule is very tight for me due to the upcoming Shanghai trip. This Friday's paper may only be returned to pupils when school reopen. As for those parents who wishes to view the paper, I am afraid this can be done only when school reopens. I am sorry for any inconveniences caused.

Amendments to the date of Problem Based Task

Dear Parents, the date of the actual problem based task should be on the 29th of Feb which is next Fri and NOT 1st of March. So sorry for the confusion caused. Ha ha I managed to sneak and take a few pictures of all my "Genius at work" while they took their mock PBT test today.

"What is the right Answer!!"

"Does anyone have a coin for to toss??"

"Genius at work!! Do not disturb!"

Test Date for PBT

Dear Parents,
Please kindly take note that the official test for the problem based task would be conducted on 1st of March. The actual test would be 1 hour and 45 minutes long. There will be a mock test some time this week and pupils will be allowed to bring the mock test paper back home. As I will be bringing pupils to Shanghai from the 5th till the 11th, I can only show the paper to those who wants to see when I am back. Any parents who are concern with the progress of your child and would like me to give you a call or meet in person, please feel free to email me. Thank you.

Best Rgds,
Mr Low

Problem Basked Task Test in week 9.

Dear Parents,

I would like to inform every that there will be a problem based task coming up in week 9. It would coincide with the upper primary CA (P5 & 6). The grades of this test will not be considered in the report card but just as a gauge of pupils' progress where problems based tasks is concern.

We will do a practice paper with pupils in week 8. ( the questions are from last year's test). For this coming test in week 9, pupils will not be allowed to bring the paper home but instead a copy of the rubrics which requires parents' signature will be given. The reason being that we might want to re-generate or modify the questions again. However if parents do wish to see the paper, please feel free to make an appointment with me. I would like to inform parents that they are only allowed to see the paper.

Please reinforce the following ideas which I have shared with the pupils in class.
1) Pupils are to do question by question as the questions are related to one another. E.g. they cannot do part C without getting the answer in part B.
2) There will be questions whereby there are more than one answers.
3) Unlike normal questions, problem based tasked usually has questions bounded by a few constrains. As such pupils have to consider ALL constrains carefully

Please feel free to clarify any doubts with me. Thank you.

On the 5th day of the new year

Welcome everyone back to school and hope everyone had a wonderful New Year over the past 4 days ( heh heh I am sure the pockets are full of red packets while Parents pockets just grew a little thinner.) Well for a start we had an opening speech coupled with the Lion Dance. The pupils were really well entertained.

Up next is the presentation of Mandarin Oranges to the Board of Directors. Well surprised to find many of my pupils over there.

Notice our new monitor badges?

That's Yu Keng at the back. His Dad was my professor in NTU and now I am his teacher. What a small world...

The rest of the P4 kids had Hui Chun at the courtyard. What a beautiful scenary to see so many pupils taking part in it and of course our very own pupils in their Lunar New Year customs taking part in the Hui Chun. Very lovely isn't it.

The following photo was taken during the Ai Xin Hong Bao. Every year we always take a little time off to think about the needy during the festive season. Well not everyone has a family to reutrn to. So it is a really good gesture to help the needy. Han Wei collected from the whole class and dropped the red packets into the sharity box.

And lastly Mdm Serene Leong would like to wish everyone a prosperous New Year.