School Teachers Working as Tutors

[MMM]

Joy:

I just heard from my dd, her teacher told them that few parents in the class actually approached her to be their private tutor.Teacher almost faint upon hearing that.

Yes getting current teacher as tutor seems alittle too much. I feel that there is obvious conflict of interest.

My cousin is currently teaching my p2. It was a concidence. She just graduated and was posted to my kids' school. She had declared this to the principal. I usually discuss behaviourial or general academic questions with her. I believed as parents, we also need to behave with integrity. The kids simply adored her with her approach, writing small notes on their test papers on what is wrong and watchouts. Spend $ to decorate their classroom to a cozy place, giving stickers/ encouragement words when they do well, etc... Really passionate and I've not seen such a passionate teacher so far. My hubby was like... maybe just graduated so still has alot of passion. It's a pity, she will only be their teacher for a few more months. Because of her influence, I know my son will do his best for his SA2 this time round. It's amazing how a passionate teacher can make such a huge difference.

I know I cannot ask her to tutor my kids but I was thinking of asking her if she has any mates who are passionate about teaching (just like her) who is willing to give part time tuition for EL.

[N.029275Lo]

jesschan:

verykiasu2010:

the principals also want to meet their own kpi mah, so the teachers kena lah, so many targets to meet

Talking about KPIs, I am not sure if parents are aware that the MOE does send an external team of assessors to check on the school's processes, strengths etc... once in every 5 years by interviewing the students, teachers, parents and related external vendors. It is actually a very good system to identify the areas of improvement but unfortunately, some schools start to \"train\" the students and teachers how to handle the assessors and not to be too \"negative\" in order to score well in the assessment. So in the end, the whole exercise becomes a time-consuming process with inaccurate findings....

Hi jesschan,

I have heard about that as well. Actually, nowadays I find it hard to know whether a school is good or not. The brand name schools could have good reputation but there are many teachers and even the management in there that is frankly not up to the standard. My nephew was a relief teacher for the past few weeks at a pri school and he said that some of the teachers can teach the wrong facts. They come to him and ask him how to teach certain maths questions. Some students even tell him that the teachers do not know how to answer them when they ask certain questions.

When external vendors came to conduct a creative writing course in the school which he found very good, the other teachers all were talking among themselves. When the vendor stayed behind to give feedback and explain certain things, some teachers did not even want to listen and said it was time for their break anyway.

My question is this: Do teachers behave like that because they think no one is observing or is it because it is a job that is one which is an iron rice bowl one and no matter how they perform, they will still not lose their job.

I think tutors in well-known centres are good because they know that if they do not perform, they might lose their job.

I don't mean to rant here, just very bewildered at the state of teachers in schools. My own son's teacher is always on MC and usually on friday so personally I also have quite bad experiences with the teachers.

[verykiasu2010]

jesschan:

mrswongtuition:

[quote=\"Brenda10\"]If give too many homeworks parents complaint


If give too little homework parents also complaint

If worksheet too difficult parents complaint

If worksheet too easy parents also complaint

Hard to be a teacher lah

if discipline kids, parents complain.
If dun discipline kids, parent also complain.

Actually, sometimes, it is subjective. The class size is 40 and made up of children with different abilities. For instance, in my son's class, his Maths teacher gives 3-4 pages of homework everyday. The brighter ones are able to complete them in class but the others struggle to finish them at home. So is it too much and too difficult or otherwise?[/quote]then I think the school has not been good at banding the students in the right class, or has not been seriously looking into the details of the make up of each class

for example, some schools has been able to group the kids very well into the same class, as in the top marks is around 100 and the bottom marks in the class is 80+...and in terms of aggregate raw scores, the range of the top 20 in the class is separated by less than 20 / 400, and for the prelim t-score, some of them were separated by 0.001 ~ 0.1....there is lots of friendly competitive spirit in the class too (they help each other to get works done in super fast speed)

[Jennifer]

verykiasu2010:

then I think the school has not been good at banding the students in the right class, or has not been seriously looking into the details of the make up of each class

Some schs do not practise banding at lower pri levels.

[Brenda10]

Jennifer:

verykiasu2010:

then I think the school has not been good at banding the students in the right class, or has not been seriously looking into the details of the make up of each class

Some schs do not practise banding at lower pri levels.

Some school banding based on EMS only, therefore there will be HCL group and CL group in the same class for EMS lessons.

[Michteach]

It seems that there a number of parents who feel the teachers in schools are not too good.


I am a teacher myself. I have to say that there is some truth in what many of you are saying. But in every school, you will have your dynamic, go-getter, efficient teacher. However, these are rare (if the school management is weak). If the school management is strong, then I find that many of the teachers tend to give more of themselves and they also develop stronger pedagogies in teaching. I think it is like companies out there, if you have a weak management, the staff also do not perform very well.

So to choose a good school, you must really listen out for feedback on the management and also on the HODs (if they have strong pedagogies developed for the department they are heading)

This is just my 2 cents worth as a teacher.

[sleepy]

atutor2001:

I think we have hit the nail. The root of the problem is principal. Mostly young MOE scholar out to shine.


Soon a young man with many theories came. Ever since, the school has no more top PSLE student. Even the GEP's results were mediocre (by GEPs' standard)

Excellent observation!

Personally crossed fire with one such principal. Ladies card slogan applies here too 'Men just don't get it' :rant:

[rains]

Daddy

Ironic though... teachers/tutors who have been thru SG education system during their sch days, cannot stand the system in adult life.

It's a totally different system now. When I was a student, our form teacher slapped or pinched us on the face if we did the work wrongly. We were scolded 'idiots', 'cowdung' and we didn't feel traumatised or so badly hurt that it left unhealthy shadows on our lives. When teachers talked, we listened totally.

Now, you discipline the kids, the kids disrespect you, say you're lousy, not friendly, refuse to do work, don't bring books, lose their worksheets and books, give you lousy survey results and the school come tell you you have no rapport with the kids. If still no improvement ie. kids don't like you, you get D. These idiots jump around in class, chase after friends, talk and play loudly when you're teaching. Same meh? How can compare? You can stand this kind of 'love and nurture' system? Be a teacher.

[wonderm]

Read this from Zaobao yesterday, wonder which school is this?



读毕蓝国维读者9月28日在《联合早报·交流站》发表的《问题在于你孩子读的是邻里学校》及苏金枝读者在9月27日发表的《老师频频换　学生难适应》，我有感而发，不吐不快。

　　对于苏女士孩子的处境，我十分同情，但是我也强烈地认为，“老师频频换”的现象并非如蓝读者所言，只限于邻里学校。其实，我也感同身受，因为我的孙女今年也是中三，她也面临着同样的困扰。原本，我们以为她今年被编进“第一班”，也就是全年级最好的班，更何况她是就读于本地的“顶尖”女子学府，照理也应该得到最好的老师。但是，事实并非如此。由于她的学校今年也有“老师出走风”（老师先后离职），导致我的孙女，单是数学一科，就换了三个老师，社会学换了三个老师，物理更是有四个老师之多。

　　如果老师们都“质量好”，那也无可厚非，问题就出于这些老师的质量参差不齐。好的老师，是有碰到一两个，但是特别懊恼的是，其余老师似乎都不懂得如何“教书”。比如说，她最新一任的数学老师，上课时只是把答案写在白板上，让同学们抄，说有问题再问老师。但是，当学生发问时，老师不是“答非所问”，就是直截了当地说“我不知道”。雪上加霜的是，孙女的年底考试快到了，而老师自己连考试范围都不清楚，以致孙女得问别班的同学，然后再“通知”老师。

　　众所皆知，老师是任重道远的，老师的好坏，直接影响了学生的学业发展。而孩子们，无论是乘搭“直通车”的“资优生”，还是普通源流的学生，都面临着同样的问题，说明了“老师频频换”已成为了一个普遍的现象。这是令人感到忧心忡忡的，绝对不能小觑，因为学生都是我国未来的栋梁，如果现在接受的是这样的教育，将来又如何成为我国的接班人，领导我国继续迈向美好的未来呢？

[MdmKS]

Came across teachers in IP school who don't teach much but when ask for regular worksheet sand model answer for self learning, the answer was simply : in IP school students are suppose to be able to learn independently. :? Friend's child in an Ip school got to learn his lesson thru a classmate who learn it from his tutor. Find the \"teach less, learn more\" slogon has been abused, and so is IP school system.