This is our first Teacher-Parent meeting for this year. Infact, mom joked that her teachers have nothing else to say to me because I'm checking on her progression almost daily; and poking my face into her class more often than any other mothers. (you can't blame me.. mom stays just above her school. Sometimes we would need to walk past her school on our way to the coffee-shop etc..)
We first met up with her English/Maths and Science teacher Ms Chan. And she did say that Athena is opening up herself and talking to her classmates now. She does better than her classmates in terms of recognising the alphabets. However she notice that she don't like to go into the Art & Craft corner at all. Asked if I've done any Art & Craft with her at home, I said "not as often, I don't do as a weekly thing coz' I'm afraid of cleaning up the place. But I do let her do painting; stamping; colouring and sometimes simple crafts." With that she did say that I should let her do things that will make her fingers more agile, like cutting papers or doddling. (when she said that, what went through my mind was "oh shucks! I'm a useless mother. I've only been concerned about her academic performance & not being an all-rounder. And when she does doddle, I scream at her.") *guilty guilty*
I think I should slot in a time in the weekends to do that with her. Having said so, I think I will pop by ELC on Tuesday to find some things for her (darn! waste money again!!)
We then met up with Mdm Qiu, her chinese teacher. She told us Athena has recently been paying more attention in class, and striving to show her capability. And she knows some chinese words even before she teaches the class. Of course Mdm Qiu have spoken with me since the beginning of this year, and I've lent her a couple of Athena's chinese books for her use in their class. She will not talk in class or asks any question, but if they're doing a small group activity she'll sit next to Mdm Qiu and talk to her. Asked about her proficiency in terms of phrasing sentences, she let out "mixture of English and Chinese. But good thing is that she doesn't have the English accent like some other kids."
Somehow I've brought up to her that I was initially more concerned about her Chinese as we speak English at home, which was why I started on the Chinese program as well. In the end, turned out that her Chinese is better than English.
I was concerned about the way she pronounces her chinese words. Because usually we will get a list from the teacher every fortnight on what had been done in class. But for 2 weeks, I've been squinting my eyebrows when she says something which I don't understand (and not like my chinese is that fantastic to be able to join the sentence fully for her especially those poems). It's only when I get the list then I'm able to correct her. But then.. she has been mispronouncing the words wrongly. I have also questioned on the way she teaches - memorizing instead of recognising the word. She said that once after they reach K1/K2, she will point to the word which they had memorized the text or poem. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that she's wrong but I did raise my point to her on the Chinese VCD we have at home which shows you how a word derives, and shouldn't that be the way to make a child recognise a word?
Overall the meeting was alright as we're able to understand her progression in class. And going through her report book later, I made this comment to hubby :" wow! at least she made alot of good progression from N1 , where she scored a C for Moral Development:knows what is right & wrong. Now she scored a B." She did well academically too.
We first met up with her English/Maths and Science teacher Ms Chan. And she did say that Athena is opening up herself and talking to her classmates now. She does better than her classmates in terms of recognising the alphabets. However she notice that she don't like to go into the Art & Craft corner at all. Asked if I've done any Art & Craft with her at home, I said "not as often, I don't do as a weekly thing coz' I'm afraid of cleaning up the place. But I do let her do painting; stamping; colouring and sometimes simple crafts." With that she did say that I should let her do things that will make her fingers more agile, like cutting papers or doddling. (when she said that, what went through my mind was "oh shucks! I'm a useless mother. I've only been concerned about her academic performance & not being an all-rounder. And when she does doddle, I scream at her.") *guilty guilty*
I think I should slot in a time in the weekends to do that with her. Having said so, I think I will pop by ELC on Tuesday to find some things for her (darn! waste money again!!)
We then met up with Mdm Qiu, her chinese teacher. She told us Athena has recently been paying more attention in class, and striving to show her capability. And she knows some chinese words even before she teaches the class. Of course Mdm Qiu have spoken with me since the beginning of this year, and I've lent her a couple of Athena's chinese books for her use in their class. She will not talk in class or asks any question, but if they're doing a small group activity she'll sit next to Mdm Qiu and talk to her. Asked about her proficiency in terms of phrasing sentences, she let out "mixture of English and Chinese. But good thing is that she doesn't have the English accent like some other kids."
Somehow I've brought up to her that I was initially more concerned about her Chinese as we speak English at home, which was why I started on the Chinese program as well. In the end, turned out that her Chinese is better than English.
I was concerned about the way she pronounces her chinese words. Because usually we will get a list from the teacher every fortnight on what had been done in class. But for 2 weeks, I've been squinting my eyebrows when she says something which I don't understand (and not like my chinese is that fantastic to be able to join the sentence fully for her especially those poems). It's only when I get the list then I'm able to correct her. But then.. she has been mispronouncing the words wrongly. I have also questioned on the way she teaches - memorizing instead of recognising the word. She said that once after they reach K1/K2, she will point to the word which they had memorized the text or poem. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that she's wrong but I did raise my point to her on the Chinese VCD we have at home which shows you how a word derives, and shouldn't that be the way to make a child recognise a word?
Overall the meeting was alright as we're able to understand her progression in class. And going through her report book later, I made this comment to hubby :" wow! at least she made alot of good progression from N1 , where she scored a C for Moral Development:knows what is right & wrong. Now she scored a B." She did well academically too.
No comments:
Post a Comment