Padlet as a Class Reflection Tool

Here's what my class did for these two particular activities in the year.

The first being, the Secondary 3 Camp. They logged their feelings about the camp and some areas for improvement on Padlet.

3I6 Sec 3 Adventure Camp

The second for having won the Star Class Award in 2013, they reflected upon their journey together as a class and 1 thing that they learnt about each other along the way.

3I6 Star Class Award Outing

If I were to sum up my thoughts on the use of Padlet:

1. It's user-friendly and intuitive

2. It allows embedding pictures and videos

3. It's colourful and attractive

My main gripe about it is that it may be laggy at times, especially when too many people are using it at the same time. This is because it is a free web 2.0 tool and most tools do not have extensive funded server space unlike paid ones.

My Grandfather, The Cleaner

This winning video of the "180 Short Film Competition" (Professional Category) by Ray Pang Yoong Hui depicts the story of a teenage girl who recalls her memories of her grandfather whenever she encounters elderly cleaners.

The "180 Short Film Competition" was conceptualised to heighten the appreciation and encourage respect for frontline workers in the Cleaning, Security, Landscape, Floristry and Social Service sectors, and the important role they play in society. Often, in our busy lives, it is easy to forget the people who have done the invisible work for us - the uncle who cleans up after us at the hawker centre, the aunt who washes the toilet in the shopping mall and the janitor who carries a heavy load of garbage after clearing our bins.

Life lessons on empathy and appreciation.

Cookie Monster learns about Delayed Gratification from Loki

What better way to teach our students about patience and virtue in a delayed reward system than using two of my favourite characters - Tom Hiddlestone(Loki) and Cookie Monster?

I love Cookie Monster. He is so unpretentious and genuine. He really reminds me of an impatient kid who can't wait to get his hands on the next cookie.

Here Tom Hiddlestone teaches him about the intrinsic value of self-regulation and delayed gratification. Tom: "Didn't it taste better with waiting?"

Respect for Others - Cyberwellness

This is a very inspiring lesson plan by Kranji Secondary on cultivating respect for others and to be sensitive and mindful of posting remarks in the cyberworld. The teacher has used the Action Learning approach to get students to reflect on the impact of their actions.

Trigger Activity:

Draw a self-portrait of oneself. Then in pairs, A will tear up B's self-portrait. The emotions of B is solicited after the portrait is torn. Then A will have to piece back B's self-portrait. Again, students reflect on how they felt having to piece together the pieces.

Main Activity: Case Study Analysis

The CSI questioning technique is used here.

DEVELOPING 21CC IN OUR STUDENTS - A CCE LESSON IN KRANJI SECONDARY SCHOOL

Ah Kong's Pawn - Cine65

I don't know if people understand the hard work and toil behind producing a movie. Many a times, I feel that there are many unsung heroes in our local movie industry who labour on despite the fact that many movies may never come to light on our local big screens nor become box office hits.

I am glad that we are starting to give recognition to our local movie-makers in small ways and to honour them in a way that we had never done so in the past. Cine65 celebrates short films by our very own people, telling us their very own stories. As I'm not a connoisseur of film-making techniques nor cinematography skills, I can only enjoy the simple storylines in these short films. Many of them contain life-lessons that we can bring into the classrooms to teach our students about life in itself.

The local cinemas are previewing some of these short films to movie-goers just before a blockbuster movie comes on. I caught one of them, titled 'Pawn'. Spoilers ahead, so skip the next part if you don't want to know what it is about.

As his grandson is a few days away from NS enlistment, Ah Kong imparts his advice and wisdom over a game of chess.

He asks his grandson a pertinent question, "Who do you think is worth protecting in a chess game?"

His grandson gives him an expectant answer.

Here's the clip from Youtube.

The True Story of the Original Panyee Football Club

Shared by Mr Rames, an inspiring true story of how the boys in a fishing village kept their football dreams alive by building their own floating football pitch over the sea using wooden stilts. Against other villagers' mockery and insults, the boys held onto their own dreams and gave life to a new soccer establishment as they played on over the years. This is the True Story of the Original Panyee Football Club.

Eyes on the Star, the Captain of his own starship enterprise.

I love this animated short of how a would-be American astronaut, Ronald McNair, stood up against racism even at the tender age of nine, without once ever giving up on his quest for knowledge. This animated short from StoryCorp features a voice over by McNair's brother, Carl.

 

To This Day - Shane Koyczan

Shane L. Koyczan is a Canadian poet and writer.

He is most well known for his spoken poem, "To This Day", which received almost 5 million views on YouTube in just over a week.He presented it at the TED conference in California in March 2013.

Here's the video that went viral. It touches on the issue of bullying in school, acceptance, self-identity and prejudice. What does beauty actually mean? Find out in this video.

Another video that I found very useful is Educate the Heart. Do we educate youths for the right things in life? Are we teaching them to value the things that truly matter?

 

Argumentative Writing

Here's a series of 7 lessons by LearnZillion on writing an argumentative essay. It is suitable for middle school students. It takes you through a step by step process writing approach to writing an argumentative essay.  

Crafting an argumentative essay involves the process of brainstorming, planning, drafting, revising, and editing.

Topic: Water as a precious resource and the impact of not saving water right now.

8th Grade Argumentative Writing