{"id":24088,"date":"2015-09-17T15:38:53","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T07:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/?p=24088"},"modified":"2015-09-17T16:01:52","modified_gmt":"2015-09-17T08:01:52","slug":"the-tll-experience-student-centered-future-oriented","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifestinymiracles.com\/2015\/09\/the-tll-experience-student-centered-future-oriented\/","title":{"rendered":"The TLL Experience \u2013 Student Centered. Future Oriented."},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cEducation is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.\u201d <\/em>\u2015<\/em> Malcolm X<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n How do we bring Singapore beyond the next fifty years? We all know the answer. As cliched as it may sound, our children are our future. In order to thrive, our children will not only have to acquire knowledge for acing exams. Beyond that, they have to attain wisdom and develop a set of core values and critical thinking skills which will help them make sense of this VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world. Who would be the ones facilitating this process?<\/p>\n Parents and teachers.<\/p>\n In any school or institution, no matter how well researched and well-crafted a school\u2019s curriculum is, the effectiveness lies in the lesson delivery. Specifically, the teacher\u2019s competence, sensitivity and ability to inspire.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Observing Dana\u2019s recent TLL English lesson, I noticed that the lesson didn\u2019t\u2019 start when the child enters the classroom. Instead, the relationship building began first. The teacher commenced by talking to the kids about their day, what they like, their hair accessories, their school, what they did during the recent National Day long weekend etc\u2026Basically, the teacher showed interest in the children\u2019s world and built bridges into their lives. In doing so, she has made a tangible connection with her students, fertilizing the ground for real learning to take place. As a famous adage goes, \u201cchildren don\u2019t care how much you know until they know how much you care\u201d.<\/p>\n The teacher then began lesson proper by using prompts and key words to jolt the students\u2019 memory of what they have learnt in the previous lesson. She elicited spontaneous responses from them, not just coaxing them to regurgitate answers in haste. She was patiently waiting for students to recall what they have learnt and encouraged them to share. When they did, the teacher acknowledged them and wrote the answers on the white board \u2013 how affirmed the students must have felt!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n During the course of this exercise, the teacher was not pushy. In fact, she had noticed a quiet boy in the corner. He was from a make-up class but yet the teacher involved him even though the other students were clamoring to answer due to their familiarity with each other. On this note, I must commend the teachers\u2019 ability to manage the behavior from the 7 other eager hands as she encouraged the quiet boy to respond while keeping the objective of the lesson in focus. It pays too that the teacher knows each of the students by name.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n