Jetsetter


While I fully agree with what you have said, it’s the way the appraisals are given that should be tweaked.
I’m not sure how it is at MOE schs level, but last time at poly, the emphasis was not on core teaching. there is no incentive to teach the kids well or come up with a good curriculum. No matter how good you are in your core function, your grade will only be C. But for someone with a mediocre or even bad teaching attitude, the person can get grade B or above because of all the ra-ra shows that he/she puts up. This is totally wrong.
The emphasis of a teaching staff should still be the core teaching. Somebody should vet the quality of the handouts/ worksheets/ marking. This should form the basis of the appraisal. This is a teacher’s fundamental responsibility. If a teacher is able to do this well, AND still be able to do the rest of the ra-ra shows, then yes, the teacher deserves an A. The performance of all the ra-ra shows should never be at the expense of teaching, which unfortunately is happening now. If teachers cannot cope with both, then maybe cut down on the number of classes that each teacher have to take, not sacrifice the quality of teaching and lesson preparation. I thought we have a falling birthrate? Why dun we have enough teachers?
Somebody needs to look into teacher’s appraisals systems, and reward the teachers who are really teaching well fairly.

jetsetter:

sembgal:

If 97% of Singaporean students are enrolled in tuition in 2008, then what are MOE teachers doing?

I've this nagging question too. Read this to understand why MOE teachers hv no time to teach your child adequately.

http://therealsingapore.com/content/former-moe-teacher-reveals-school-penalise-teachers-focusing-teaching

I can totally relate to what is stated in the link. The same happened when I was teaching in the poly. I was an adjunct there and I was the one who went to set up the lab/ fine tune the lab protocol, etc, because my full time colleagues were too busy, they had to bring the kids to China for exchange programme, or admin work such as time tabling.

Alamak still talking about the candle and the room :slapshead:

Maybe this is the real reason that 97% of SG kids go for tuition. Ambigious questions, a marking scheme which only a small proportion of the education adult population agree, and therefore we need tuition to teach the kids HOW to answer exam questions the way school teachers want. The tuition has no relations to education in terms of knowledge and skills building :siam:

Schweppes/Slmkhoo


No choice leh, I need to execute military precision. Cos I am almost one woman show most of the time since DH works very long hours. So I need to be a full time employee + DD's chauffeur, cook, maid, mummy, tutor, everything roll into one. So thermal pot is really my saviour.
It's easier for me cos I cook really simple meals, and there is only 2A+C so small portions lah
Slmkhoo, great! yeah, endo pots will do the job but definitely need to warm up again at the end of the day. Now can experiment with other food/soup!! It's also great for desserts like red bean soup.
I'm so waiting for the day that DD can come home from sch herself and help me cook rice!!!

schweppes:

Just to share.


My thermal pot is from Tiger. Think it's the 5L capacity. Personally, altho it's a little pricey, I find Tiger and Zojirushi good cooking utensils to invest in. I've got the Endo thermal pot too (2.5L) but don't find it useful as my Tiger. NOT saying that Endo is no good, but get the utensil that best suits your family and lifestyle. I'm a working mom so have to be efficient when it comes to cooking for my family.

I usually cook soup-type dishes (bak kut teh, herbal soup, chicken soup, etc) in my thermal pot and cook stews in my dutch oven. These are 2 of my fave cooking utensils. I don't have a helper, so everything is DIY

To save time, I cook my Mon and Tues dishes on Sunday. Monday's meals are usually the ones that I cook in the thermal pot. The food keeps well and the meat is soft and tender. We don't find the meats drying out nor tasteless.

When I come home from work, all I need to do is reheat the pot again. If I want to add leafy veg (i find xiao bai chai the best), then just throw it into the pot during the evening's reheat process. Rice is cooked that morning itself before going to work. Dinner can be ready in 10 mins.

For stews, I cook it in my dutch oven on Sundays and when the pot is cooled, just put it in the fridge for Tuesday's meal. All I need to do is to reheat on stove or put it in the oven to grill, depending on what dish I cook.

I don't have the time to cook in the mornings. Too rushed. Have to be out of the house by 6.45am. So, the next best thing is to cook on Sunday for the week's meals.

Schweppes, I am sure tiger and zojirushi works better. But if I buy THREE of different sizes then it's close to $1k, definitely out of budget for me.
Anyway, just to share with you how I use my thermal pots for weekdays. I also leave house by 6.45am. What I do is I will wash and cut all the ingredients the night before, including blanching of the pork ribs. And put all ingredients (incl red dates, whatever else) into the inner pot. Then I will put a cling wrap and then cover it and leave in the fridge overnight. In the morning, the 1st thing I do is to take the pot out, fill with water, then put it over fire to boil. Then I go wash up, prepare etc. Then I will wash rice and put into the rice cooker and set timer to cook 11 hours later. By the time I am done with washing up and getting DD ready etc, the soup would have boiled for at least 20min. I will just off fire and put into the thermal pot before leaving the house.
The night before, I would prepare fish for steaming, or cut/marinate meat for stir fries. So next evening come back home, just steam fish, fry veg/meat and heat up soup. Dinner served within 20min while DD bathes.

slmkhoo:

Dora1:

part time is actually the best option. If I can find long term part time work with career progression, I will definitely jump into it. Problem is not easy to find in SG still. Good for you!

'Long term' and 'career progression' are the hard parts to achieve. For me, I don't care about that now. I'm nearly 50, and my main reason for working is that I am getting rather bored now we're back in Singapore and one kid is full-time in sec school and the other should be next year. They are both too old to want or need me to breathe down their necks! After being a SAHM for so long, I am happy to have a chance to do something outside the home in my (long-abandoned) profession. The extra money is welcome, of course!

To bring the thread back to the topic - my stew yesterday was rather watery and not very hot when I took it out. I have tried again today with less water and some thickening, and put 2 portions in the pot to fill it up more. Let's see how it goes!

Yeah, it is definitely a nice change for you. All the best!
Have to play around with the proportion of ingredients vs water for thermal pot, because there is no water loss at all, compared to the slow cooker. Also sometimes when I over estimate the water, I boil it over high heat uncovered for 15min before serving to evaporate off the excess water. Not exactly conventional, but sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures :oops:
Have fun experimenting!

At my parent's place, it's the neighbours upstairs that smokes, and the balcony will be full of ash..... there were a few times, they threw cigrette butts down and burnt my mum's flowers/leaves! Go to town council/HDB all no use ..... and it has been going on for the last 20 years , long given up....


I have a brilliant idea :idea: ban cigrettes in SG just like they did with chewing gum!!! :siam: (okay okay dun bash me.... and dun OT... just a wild idea)

slmkhoo:

I saw the 2.5-litre ones but they are too small for my family, and there wasn't anything in between (Endo). My daughters are teenagers and eat more than I do, so our portions have to be fairly substantial.

Then sounds like 5L is a good choice for your family. If I used the 5L to cook stew, I will probably end up with eating the same stew for 4 days in a week

part time is actually the best option. If I can find long term part time work with career progression, I will definitely jump into it. Problem is not easy to find in SG still. Good for you!

Slmkhoo


Hahaha I think everyone makes the same mistake. I also started off with a 5L pot because it was only $10 more than the 2.5L pot :oops: But there was only the 2 of us back then so no way to finish all the soup. So I went on to buy a 2.5L one which is just nice for the 2 of us. Then DD came along and started solids, and I bought another 1.2L to cook porridge for her. The 5L is only used 1-2 a month when the extended family comes over for lunch. So now I have 3 thermal pots at home!!! :evil: Hubby already gave up on me
But the 2 small pots come in handy nowadays. The 2.5L to cook soups, and I braise soya sauce chicken or duck in the 1.2L one. Just nice for 2A +1C.

Slmkhoo


How exciting, returniing to work after so many years as SAHM!! Even part time also very exciting! All the best!!

Do experiment with the thermal pot. You may need to tweak your recipe proportions a little for thermal pots, e.g. reduce water by about 20% since there is minimal water loss compared to slow cookers and conventional cooking over fire. Also remember to make sure that the pot is at least 80% full so that it can retain heat and cook well. And for cantonese type of soups, do boil over high heat for at least 15-20min so that the flavour can be released.
Once you get used it, you will love it. It’s a life saving device for FTWM like me. I now use it to cook soups/ desserts even on weekends since it saves electricity/gas. Have fun!