The purpose of this sharing is to relate how I have changed as a result of my interactions with children, as well as the broader implications of teaching in a primary school.

First up, a bit about my teaching background. I taught at a polytechnic, of which my vivid memories include working with Mercy Relief to chaperone 20 students to teach oral communication skills to Vietnamese children from 7 primary schools. Subsequently, I spent two years living in Japan and working as an Assistant Language Teacher under the Japan Exchange Teaching program. You can safely conclude that my prior teaching experiences didn't prepare me sufficiently for the challenges of teaching in a primary school!

The most memorable lesson I learnt from my stint is that children are fearless. During my first year at Naval Base Primary, my third graders happened to love the performing arts and possessed an admirable innate curiosity about performing. So, that year, I signed the entire class up to perform during Children's Day celebrations. Can you imagine 9-year-olds performing for their peers during an occasion that they were supposed to be passive participants of? Yet, everyone went on stage and performed "This Is Me" from The Greatest Showman.

However, not all kids are that fearless. I also taught low-progress students who took Foundation English. Their dismal mid-year Oral results sent the alarm bells ringing. I was aghast at how poor their communicative skills were. In hindsight, I picked up many useful insights regarding the communicative difficulties of high-needs students. Many students at NorthLight School are introverted and need time to warm up to PSLE. Not only do they have low self-esteem as a result of having failed the Primary School Leaving Exam; they also have low language ability. Coupled with their fear of being judged by their peers, they have trouble stringing proper sentences together as they don't know what to say half the time. Overnight, I changed my teaching approach so that I could prioritise oral communications in my lesson. I prized communication skills due to my array of personal and professional experiences. I had changed so many jobs and undergone so many interviews. I had also taught many students how to do oral presentations, either in polytechnic or in junior college.

This led me to increase student voice in the classroom. For instance, my best spellers with loud voices were asked to read aloud spelling words. In addition, I got my students to choose between two options and explain why.

My second takeaway is that children have the ability to hone their project management skills. The student leaders in Naval Base undergo a rigorous process when they plan self-initiated projects. For example, we got 26 Primary 4 and Primary 5 prefects to organsie the Teacher's Day celebrations in 2020. Mind you, that was when Covid was still a serious threat and all meetings had to be conducted over Zoom.

How did we guide students to manage projects? First, we encouraged them to ask questions, a far cry from the compliant kids most teachers expected them to be in the classroom. We then taught them the skill to not only categorise related questions together, but also answer their own questions. Having found solutions to their projects, they then decided on the direction and articulated their WHY. This solution-focused approach helped to fine-tune their decision-making skills and convince their stakeholders of their conviction. The main committee of the Teacher's Day team even presented their proposal in front of the principal and vice-principals, thus garnering first-hand insights on their elders' concerns!

These student leaders subsequently divided themselves into 3 teams and rehearsed hard before executing the event on the actual day. As a teacher-facilitator, I never told them what to do. I learnt to let go as I empowered students to explore and honoured their ideas.

My last takeaway was how Naval Base embraced the joy of learning. I was fortunate enough to be involved in a program titled "Reading Under the Stars". On this fateful night, we invited Primary 1 students and their parents to come to school at night and participate in activities that aimed to foster the joy of reading. It was fun to watch students and their parents snuggle together to read a book together in makeshift tents at the school hall!

Over time, I learnt that enabling students learn in unexpected ways was integral to the learning process.

To sum up, I am returning to NorthLight with: