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Teachers awarded for using innovative teaching methods in school

SINGAPORE — As an aircraft technician and computer service engineer, Mr Jahangeer Mohamed Jahabar used to troubleshoot and identify problems with machinery, looking at the smaller components for analysis and repair.

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SINGAPORE — As an aircraft technician and computer service engineer, Mr Jahangeer Mohamed Jahabar used to troubleshoot and identify problems with machinery, looking at the smaller components for analysis and repair.

Today, the 45-year-old mathematics teacher at Endeavour Primary School also breaks complex tasks into smaller parts when teaching upper-primary students, to inject some fun during learning.

For his lessons, he makes it a point to browse through reading materials and pick up interesting bite-size facts about the topics he covers. For instance, when they were on the topic of geometry, he told them about the ancient Greek mathematician Eratosthenes, who made the first accurate measurement of the Earth’s circumference by measuring the angles of shadows and distances between poles. Then he challenged them to find the answers using the same method themselves.

Apart from stimulating their minds, he also builds a rapport with his students, saying this is the first thing a teacher has to do. “If you don’t have that rapport with the students, half the battle is lost. I want to be as sincere with them. If they don’t see my heart, they won’t give me their heads and hands.”

On Friday (Aug 25) evening, Mr Jahangeer was one of six educators who received the 2017 President’s Award for Teachers from President Tony Tan Keng Yam at the Istana. The six were picked from more than 4,000 names nominated by school leaders, parents, teachers, and former and current students.

The award is given to teachers who adopt innovative approaches in their lessons and help students to develop their potential fully.

As the head of the mathematics department two years ago, Mr Jahangeer led the set-up of an interactive kiosk next to the school canteen. It featured iPads preloaded with numeral games, display cabinets of old currency notes, and his own prized ancient dice collection, among other things.

While they might not be directly linked to school subjects, they “hone the students’ alertness and sharpness”, he said, which is vital in solving mathematical problems.

Now in charge of the character and citizenship syllabus in Endeavour Primary School, Mr Jahangeer would like to work more with parents and students, to help the students build confidence when it comes to their academic abilities.

He had started working towards this goal three years ago, when he devised annual two-hour workshops for parents leading up to the exams, to help them understand the common mistakes made by their children in schoolwork.

Once, he got a call from a mother in the months leading up to the Primary School Leaving Examination. Her child was “in danger of being ungraded”, so Mr Jahangeer offered to meet parent and child for a week over the school holidays to prepare them for the exam.

Although the student still failed, she earned herself a grade and moved on to a secondary school.

On his award, Mr Jahangeer said that it was “an honour” he was selected out of “many teachers out there who have worked equally hard”, and to win it on behalf of Endeavour Primary School.

The award this year was extended to include educators from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and polytechnics, and Ms Asrina Abdul Samad from ITE College Central was one of two from ITE to win it, for designing an innovative classroom to teach engineering.

The 37-year-old sees the award as a motivation to expand her teaching methods to engage millennials.

When ITE College Central moved from Tampines to Ang Mo Kio four years ago, the mechatronics (electrical, electronics and mechanical) engineering lecturer grabbed the opportunity to reconstruct the “standard classroom setting” into a hands-on, interactive space for students.

Together with a colleague, she came up with the Innovative Lab at the School of Engineering, where students may interact and work on projects in a futuristic setting.

It is equipped with walls and tables which allow users to write on them, digital tablets installed with augmented reality applications, as well as interactive and portable projectors. The lab is also installed with a camera recorder, used to help teachers and students review and critique one another’s teaching and presentations respectively.

Ms Asrina, now a master mentor at ITE Academy, said: “As an engineer, you are not talking to machines, but your team and supervisors. Other skills, like communication, teamwork and presentation, have to play a part in preparing them for the industry.”

 

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