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SEPT 1, 2004From bad student to ace teacher
A first-hand experience of the transforming influence of her own teacher led Miss Diana Goh to help weak students discover their strengths
By Ho Ai Li
IT WAS a teacher who helped turn her around when she was floundering in school and yesterday, Miss Diana Goh Siew Hong, 30, was herself honoured for inspiring her own students.
At Admiralty Primary, Miss Goh - one of five winners of this year's President's Award for Teachers - not only had a knack for motivating academically weak students but also for reaching out to fellow teachers, parents and even the canteen vendors.
To be presented today at the Istana, the award, first presented in 1998, recognises teachers who have shown passion, courage and perseverance in nurturing youths.
A total of 1,100 teachers from 182 schools were nominated by principals, teachers, parents and ex-students this year.
Miss Goh credits her CHIJ Punggol teacher, Mrs M. Ahino, for transforming her from a bad student who was not serious about her studies to a prefect.
Experiencing first hand the influence teachers can have on their students' lives inspired Miss Goh to join the profession in 1996.
She said: 'I was very playful. What she did was that she identified me as a leader and I think what I'm doing now is what she did.'
Just as how she was helped by her teacher, Miss Goh built her students' confidence by helping them discover their strengths.
Ex-students like Gabriel Tong, 13, now in Secondary 1, were unstinting in their praise of Miss Goh, who has been teaching for eight years.
He was doing badly in English but was good in mathematics. By getting him to help his peers in maths, his confidence - and command of spoken English - improved so much that he passed his English and made it to Si Ling Secondary.
Miss Goh said: 'I think they appreciate it when somebody notices their particular strengths and they want to show me more. In the midst of doing that, they forget about their weaknesses.'
Agreeing, Gabriel, who still keeps in touch with Miss Goh after graduating from Admiralty last year, said that she was like a friend and second mother to him and his classmates.
He said: 'She's kind and helpful. She likes children very much and really cares a lot for me and my friends.
'She changed me. In the past, I never studied and played every day. Now, I study a lot.'
Colleagues also spoke highly of her. Admiralty Primary's principal, Madam Lim Soh Lian, said Miss Goh helped to groom new teachers and also had the respect of her more senior colleagues.
The school's subject head for information technology, Mr Ramesh Mukundhan, 34, who was supervised by Miss Goh when he first joined the school four years ago, said she was a good mentor and a helpful colleague.
Miss Goh, who left the school in July to study for a biology degree at the National Institute of Education (NIE), was also credited with starting a project to get her pupils interested in the sights and history of Woodlands in 2001.
Called the Heritage Trail, it required pupils to do their research and go on field trips to farms and fishing ports in the area.
And it was with her weakest students, those in the EM3 classes, that she devoted most of her time, chatting after class, going out with them and even working with their private tutors.
She said: 'Some teachers don't think that every one wants to learn, but it's not true. Deep down in their hearts, they really want to learn. But it's just that different people have different learning styles.'
PRESIDENT'S AWARD: 4 OTHER TEACHERS' WINNING WAYS
Mrs Pramageetha Velmurugan, 44, Huamin Primary SchoolTHE veteran of 20 years, whose two siblings are also teachers, does not give up no matter how difficult the students are.
Like Miss Diana Goh Siew Hong, a winner of this year's President's Award for Teachers, she feels that it is important to focus on the strengths of weak students and encourage them.
'Sometimes it's demoralising. But I tell myself I can't give up,' said the soft-spoken senior teacher, who also picked up a school award last year for helping to raise the self-esteem of pupils in the EM3 stream for the academically weak.
Mr Koh Cher Hern, 39, St Hilda's Primary SchoolMATHS is never boring. At least not when Mr Koh teaches it.
He gets his students to play computer games during maths lessons. They pick up concepts such as profit through a game where they run a lemonade stand.
Another game requires them to plot graphs based on the numbers of M&M candies.
His innovative ways have also won him the Hewlett-Packard Innovation In Teaching Using IT award not once but thrice.
The head of department for information technology, who has two daughters, also uses maths to build the character of his pupils.
'When they come across difficult questions, they tend to give up easily,' he said. By encouragement and showing them how the sums can be solved, he teaches them perseverance as well.
Mrs Rabia Shahul, 35, Compassvale Secondary SchoolTHE head of department in English has spearheaded the drive to improve her students' English standard by introducing programmes that get them to read and speak more.
They have helped the school get more than 90 per cent passes in English for the O levels last year, said the school's principal, Mrs Wong-Cheang Mei Heng.
Secondary 4 student Lim Zi Rong, 16, said that Mrs Shahul, who teaches him English, is an effective and caring teacher.
'I think she's someone who's really balanced. Sometimes she is strict, but she can also joke with us,' he said.
Mrs Ranjit Singh, 42, Pasir Ris Secondary SchoolMRS SINGH cannot think of any 'lows' in her teaching career.
That's because of how she has armed herself for the job. In the armoury of the head for pupil welfare are: 'devotion' to teaching, 'drive' to learn more and 'desire' to try new things.
As a result, she has helped organise programmes to raise the self-esteem of pupils and promote racial harmony through home stays. Also, as head of welfare, she rallies the school in raising funds for needy students.
For her, the most gratifying thing is when former students keep in touch or even invite her to their weddings. 'A wonderful gesture', as she puts it.
Copyright @ 2004 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.

posted by Marcus Ang @ 10:47 AM