Were we nervous about it? Not at all, at least not about Renzo's school results since he brings home worksheets often, and we know roughly how is he coping academically. We were more interested to know how's his behavior in school and in general, the feedback is he's pretty consistent in school and at home so there's no surprise at all, which is a great thing! It's interesting that Renzo's form teacher mentioned that we parents know our own kids the best so he doesn't have too much to feedback, which is 100% true for our case. (If you feel you do not know your kid well enough, maybe this book "The 5 love languages of your family" is a good starting point.)
Unlike the PTM we attended after term 1 which was held as a group event, this time, it's a one to one session and besides meeting the form teacher, we were also given the option to meet up with Mother Tongue, music, art and even PE teacher.
We had a very quick chat with his form teacher for merely less than 5 minutes, but a rather long chat with the Mother Tongue teacher.
Firstly, we were presented with Renzo's report book, I love the fact that his school made things very transparent by providing us the statistics on class mean and level mean marks for each subject, on top of individual's result, which also comes with a detailed breakdown on how the marks are calculated. For example, maths result is purely based on term 2 paper test result, whereas for Chinese, it's a combination of situational dialogue, listening comprehension, read aloud and paper test. Let me take this opportunity to thank all our beloved preschool teachers who have prepared Renzo well academically, they are truly amazing and I must give all the credit to them for saving us so much money in sending Renzo for any enrichment lessons!
My mummy friends had a good laugh sharing our first PTM experience in a group chat, and I jokingly reminded a mummy about how chatty she is, when she's expressing concerns about teacher's feedback on how talkative her son is. Lol.. Seriously it's no surprise that kids are mirroring their parents. We also chuckled when Renzo's teacher commented that he's very quiet and often in his own world, what's new?! Let's just say it's a Chan family's "trademark". And I was really glad that no one compared results since it can get rather sensitive as all parents definitely wish their own kids to do better. So nope I'm not going to touch on any figures in my post here either.
So my biggest takeaway from this session, was that TEACHERS ARE SO IMPORTANT!!
I always believe that parents are children's best teachers. But after our PTM session, I have to agree to certain extend, that teachers play the most important role in a kid's learning journey. Let me explain why..
Renzo's English teacher is an amazing lady who has tons of ways to motivate her students. All notes jotted down in Renzo's student handbook, are from the English teacher most of the time. They come in very neat and organized form, which reflects how the teacher manages her class in my opinion. (Of course Renzo also derserves some praises for copying the notes down accurately.) There are many reward programs and once a while, Renzo brings home some congratulation cards for good result or good behavior during English lessons. We can easily spot some reward cards hanging on the classroom wall, which helps to promote positive competition and encourage greater achievements. And we just found out recently that his English teacher is a Year Head for Primary 1 and 2, so that pretty much explains why she's so enthusiastic and passionate in her job. We didn't get to see her this round but she shared a very inspirational speech with all parents during the first PTM session after Term 1. No wonder she's Renzo's favorite teacher and Renzo scored very well for English. No brainer right??!! You love the teacher, you love the subject, you put in more efforts in the subject you love the most, and you score well.
Renzo's maths teacher, who is also his form teacher, is rather the "old school" kind of person, my definition of "old school" basically means the typical kind of teacher whom you could find in your school 20-30 years ago. Strict, direct, and has zero tolerance in mischievous behavior. He commented many times that Renzo seems to love maths so much and one thing not so positive that he brought up, was that Renzo needs to focus and concentrate more during class, but he added, Renzo can multitask very well so although he appears to be "day dreaming", he's able to absorb the knowledge and score well for his tests.
And interestingly, Renzo's Chinese teacher touched on the exact same point, but she gave us a slightly different perspective. Her exact words in describing Renzo were: "Renzo is a very special student. He has found his own learning method so it can be a little frustrating at the beginning, when he didn't seem to follow teacher's way of teaching, but slowly I realized he has his own way and when he's focused, he doesn't get distracted by anyone else so it looks as if he's in his own world, but he's just absorbing." The Chinese teacher even noticed Renzo's potential in arts and commented that she's very impressed with his handwriting, drawing as well as coloring. I was truly touched by this teacher because we've heard hundreds of times about "Renzo seems to be in his own world", for the past 3 years from his childcare teachers, and also for the past 3 minutes from his Maths/form teacher. Whereas his Chinese teacher, is the first person who managed to put the message through to us in such a positive way.
As parents of course we know Renzo's personality and we try to accept it even we are not 100% sure why he behaves that way, but I am so grateful that this teacher has paid extra attention to understand Renzo better. She even mentioned that when there's a need to hand in worksheet, sometimes she will go directly to get it from Renzo because she feels "Renzo doesn't like to be bothered much about such stuff, he rather gets focused on the knowledge". Wow wow wow!! I am not trying to say that it's right to encourage him to be less independent, we all know that handing in his homework is his own responsibility but seriously, for a teacher who sees him for less than 10 hours in a week, I think she truly deserves a pat on the back for being so patient and observant. And this is the exact reason why I emphasized that "TEACHERS ARE SO IMPORTANT!!". Guess what??!! For a kid who doesn't go for any Chinese enrichment lesson, and doesn't have a Chinese speaking environment at home, Renzo's Chinese result is the best among all 3 subjects! So obviously there's some truth behind the "good teacher = better result" logic. And throughout our conversation, Renzo was happily "playing" around as he heard the teacher mentioned that she really likes him, he's so comfortable in front of the her but just a while ago, with the form teacher, he sat still and didn't "dare" to move or talk. LOL..
So yes, result isn't everything and even Renzo's Chinese teacher mentioned that "Everyone knows that knowledge taught in school is often boring, so how to keep the kids motivated in learning is the key!". And personally, I always believe that handling a kid is just like managing an employee, you don't find ways to motivate an individual, instead you provide them with an environment to self motivate. To achieve that, one of the things I always love to do is to make our home environment more conducive, and we went ahead to expand our book collection by visiting the Popular Book Fair at Singapore Expo right after the PTM session. I am certain that Renzo has found himself some pretty good reading materials to keep this June holiday fun and fulfilling!
I always believe that parents are children's best teachers. But after our PTM session, I have to agree to certain extend, that teachers play the most important role in a kid's learning journey. Let me explain why..Renzo's English teacher is an amazing lady who has tons of ways to motivate her students. All notes jotted down in Renzo's student handbook, are from the English teacher most of the time. They come in very neat and organized form, which reflects how the teacher manages her class in my opinion. (Of course Renzo also derserves some praises for copying the notes down accurately.) There are many reward programs and once a while, Renzo brings home some congratulation cards for good result or good behavior during English lessons. We can easily spot some reward cards hanging on the classroom wall, which helps to promote positive competition and encourage greater achievements. And we just found out recently that his English teacher is a Year Head for Primary 1 and 2, so that pretty much explains why she's so enthusiastic and passionate in her job. We didn't get to see her this round but she shared a very inspirational speech with all parents during the first PTM session after Term 1. No wonder she's Renzo's favorite teacher and Renzo scored very well for English. No brainer right??!! You love the teacher, you love the subject, you put in more efforts in the subject you love the most, and you score well.
Renzo's maths teacher, who is also his form teacher, is rather the "old school" kind of person, my definition of "old school" basically means the typical kind of teacher whom you could find in your school 20-30 years ago. Strict, direct, and has zero tolerance in mischievous behavior. He commented many times that Renzo seems to love maths so much and one thing not so positive that he brought up, was that Renzo needs to focus and concentrate more during class, but he added, Renzo can multitask very well so although he appears to be "day dreaming", he's able to absorb the knowledge and score well for his tests.
And interestingly, Renzo's Chinese teacher touched on the exact same point, but she gave us a slightly different perspective. Her exact words in describing Renzo were: "Renzo is a very special student. He has found his own learning method so it can be a little frustrating at the beginning, when he didn't seem to follow teacher's way of teaching, but slowly I realized he has his own way and when he's focused, he doesn't get distracted by anyone else so it looks as if he's in his own world, but he's just absorbing." The Chinese teacher even noticed Renzo's potential in arts and commented that she's very impressed with his handwriting, drawing as well as coloring. I was truly touched by this teacher because we've heard hundreds of times about "Renzo seems to be in his own world", for the past 3 years from his childcare teachers, and also for the past 3 minutes from his Maths/form teacher. Whereas his Chinese teacher, is the first person who managed to put the message through to us in such a positive way.As parents of course we know Renzo's personality and we try to accept it even we are not 100% sure why he behaves that way, but I am so grateful that this teacher has paid extra attention to understand Renzo better. She even mentioned that when there's a need to hand in worksheet, sometimes she will go directly to get it from Renzo because she feels "Renzo doesn't like to be bothered much about such stuff, he rather gets focused on the knowledge". Wow wow wow!! I am not trying to say that it's right to encourage him to be less independent, we all know that handing in his homework is his own responsibility but seriously, for a teacher who sees him for less than 10 hours in a week, I think she truly deserves a pat on the back for being so patient and observant. And this is the exact reason why I emphasized that "TEACHERS ARE SO IMPORTANT!!". Guess what??!! For a kid who doesn't go for any Chinese enrichment lesson, and doesn't have a Chinese speaking environment at home, Renzo's Chinese result is the best among all 3 subjects! So obviously there's some truth behind the "good teacher = better result" logic. And throughout our conversation, Renzo was happily "playing" around as he heard the teacher mentioned that she really likes him, he's so comfortable in front of the her but just a while ago, with the form teacher, he sat still and didn't "dare" to move or talk. LOL..
So yes, result isn't everything and even Renzo's Chinese teacher mentioned that "Everyone knows that knowledge taught in school is often boring, so how to keep the kids motivated in learning is the key!". And personally, I always believe that handling a kid is just like managing an employee, you don't find ways to motivate an individual, instead you provide them with an environment to self motivate. To achieve that, one of the things I always love to do is to make our home environment more conducive, and we went ahead to expand our book collection by visiting the Popular Book Fair at Singapore Expo right after the PTM session. I am certain that Renzo has found himself some pretty good reading materials to keep this June holiday fun and fulfilling!
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