Blogs
English Comprehension – Fair versus Unfair Inference Questions
Poorly set comprehension questions are often landmines for heated arguments between the question-setter and the indignant comprehension-doer. Don't land yourself in hot soup by setting inference questions that are irreverent of actual content in the comprehension...
Newton would approve
'Tis Joyous Learning Science
A Case for The Thinking Writer
Why do many students dread Composition? This, is a question worth asking, considering Composition is one of the few components in the PSLE English paper where students have a chance to express a little bit of creativity. The answer could lie in the way Composition is...
Maths-up before your next McDonald’s visit (part 2)
This is how the prices look like: I steal a furtive glance behind me. The coast is no clear - no impatient customers peeping over my shoulder. I make it My mission in life, at least for the next 5 minutes, to find the most cost-efficient way to place my order....
Maths-up before your next McDonald’s visit (part 1)
It's 9:25 pm and I haven't had dinner yet. I've just spent the better part of the last hour discussing with Mr Sim about how melting ice affects the level of water in a container. It's for one of the questions he's setting concerning volume. No, it's not for Science,...
Maths-up before your next McDonald’s visit (part 3)
Time to reassess my objective. What I'm really interested in is the cheapest way to place my order. That means what I should be focusing on at this point is the price discrepancy among the different combos, rather than the absolute total amount. With this in mind, I...
How to be Knight Rider (or Creating Coding Curriculum)
"Hour of Code, Scratch, App Inventor, they're okay. They're useful for teaching kids. But ultimately, the finished product - the software - resides inside the computer. The only result kids see are avatars or sprites running around the screen." "App Inventor takes it...
Enriching English Exercises – The Only Tip You Need
Day in and day out, primary school students plough through the standard examinable components of Grammar, Comprehension, Synthesis and Transformation, Vocabulary, the list goes on... By the time students reach the ripe old age of 12, few would greet yet another...
Get Your Hands-on Science – 3 Ideas
When we talk about hands-on activity in Science, the first thing that pops up in our mind are experiments involving test tubes, magnets or microscopes. While that will generally be the case for post-primary Science curriculum, hands-on activities for primary level...
Singapore Maths – A Towering Force of PISA
You’d expect Singapore maths to be taught only in Singapore, right? But the local teaching method has proven so successful that teachers are employing it in primary schools all over the world, even as far as South America. A UK study done last year showed that British...
Secrets of Scoring in PSLE English Compo
2017 is almost upon us, and that means kids going to primary school will soon be putting pen to paper to write compositions. Here’s help on how to start a composition, especially when you have no idea where to begin. In the current PSLE format for compositions, three...
In Pursuit of Grade Happiness
What does every parent want for their child? If a parent could choose just one thing, chances are the answer would be a simple: I want my child to be happy. Few, if any, parent would say: I want my child to be the top PSLE student / score 100% in Maths / get into the...