HIke cum Heritage Trail with Hougang Secondary Red Cross

It was a tiring day for me as I brought 17 of our Red Cross cadets on a combined hike cum heritage trail along Singapore river with Hougang Sec cadets today.


Students climbing up the 90 steps from the MRT station up to clark quay. Group photo at Clarke Quay

going under the coleman bridge using the underpass

Group on Elgin Bridge - our first heritage spot understudy - the bridge which connects North Bridge Road with South Bridge Road.

Looking at where Raffles landed and reflecting on his vision - Singapore as the port and trading centre in the Far East.

Combined Unit activity at the Merlion Park

The NCOs from 2 schools

Working on the reflection logs....

Introducing the NCOs from HS

The NCOs from Serangoon Sec

The Sec 2 cadets from HS

The Sec 2s from SSS

The Sec 1 from HS

The Sec 1 from SSS

Walking down Boat Quay

I must applaud esp the Muslim cadets who turned up for the hike as they are still fasting - one thumb up!

Teachers' conference 6 to 7 Sept

Learning journey to the Apple company located in AMK on the first day of the teachers' conference. I must say it was a fruitful trip - getting to know how Apple become so successful today as well as hands on in using the Mac book.

Learning points:

• Time machine for backup. Hard disk plugged into USB of router.


• Design of hardware together with software such as ilive and iwork


• Use of iwork – just like photoshop – alpha – delete background easily (similar to lasso)


• Spotlight on top right hand corner – can be used to search for file, as a dictionary and calculator. Shortcut for spotlight – command and space bar


• To zoom – hold on to control and 2 fingers on touch pad.


• Photo booth – interesting way of using video and photo with special effect and background.


• Work with many universities to launch iTune U. Great resources - many applications created by the universities free for download. Development of ebooks from University of Florida e.g. Moby Dick


• Emphasis on using the best men – many have PHD/master in education


• Millions of ipod sold, branches into ipad and even rechargeable batteries for their wireless mouse, track pad and keyboard.

I like the concluding statement made by Ms Seah in her address on 7th Sept:

Have the conviction, make the choice, be humble to learn and be courageous to lead

Attended 2 sharing sessions on the 7th September.

The first one is on the implementation of integrated humanities by the teachers from East View Secondary.

Making use of the Integration Model - Natural, conceptual and thematic

I also like the idea of their IH Credit System – credit points given (look very similar to the Elsa's dollar) as a form of reward system – positive stroke for the students and effectively engaged the students.

In terms of their Pedagogy, they have made use of:

• Cooperative learning


• ICT


• Experiential Learning

CL – Jigsaw, informal learning groups, think pair share, round robin, games

Experiential learning – fieldtrip to Singapore River
Use of sch heritage wall to learn about change and continuity

ICT based - e-portal lessons, photoblogs, SBQ skills -students to formulate their own inferential questions based on the pictures they have taken. Environmental through photos,
Map reading skills via google maps

The 2nd sharing which I attended was Using Assessment of concepts to increase metacognition and disciplinarian thinking.

A bit more complex as the study was made with students from RGS, some under the gifted students programme.

However it seemed a bit too challenging if we were to apply that to our neighbourhood schools. However one learning point is the use of common meta-lang across disciplines all the way from yr 1 to yr 2
System, Change, Scale, Model

Look similar to the Understanding by Design Model that we are working on.

Using the meta-language of the Geog discipline – spatial and temporal dimension, interaction of the elements which resulted from the man-land relationship.

e.g. Earthquake
1st draft : When earthquakes happen, the damage is more when people are caught off guard
Improved – the severity of damage is determined by the preparedness of the place, whether the people are prepared or in terms of their building structure.

Further improved - The extent, type and severity of the damages caused by the earthquakes are determined by the level of development of the country

Sec 3 – students are required to show the following:
Change is inevitable and it occurs over time, and that the impact can be both positive and negative
Illustrate both metacognitive abilities and disciplinarian thinking
There is explicit use of overarching concepts “system” and “change”