The Birth of A Small Idea

My student made my day today.

I am currently teaching 2 Pri 6 students for tuition and after teaching them for a month or so, I realised they have a common problem in recognising present and past tense; singular & plural verb. It caught my attention that I needed to devise a method to allow them to understand the concept easier, even without my assistance. So I invented (I had not seen anything close b4) a window that organises what verb to use for a singular present tense or a plural past tense etc. I thought it was rather effective when I explained to them how the window works & they could grasp the gist of it rather quickly. I thought that was it.

Today my female student told me of what happened in her class yesterday. I was elated to know about it & that gave me a great boost to teaching. As I had reminded her to revise on the assessment book which I had gone through with her, she had heeded my advice & brought it to school yesterday. That was also the book which I had drawn the learning window on. As she was reading it in class, her teacher walked past her table & chanced upon the window. She picked it up & asked my student who did it for her. She explained the principle of the window & her teacher said: "You have a good tuition teacher. Can I borrow this to photostat for the whole class?"

"Wow! That's great!" I shouted in my heart. A teacher recognised my efforts! Not only did she borrow the window, she even photostated the maths assessment book & the PSLE Model Composition book for the class. Actualie I am happy not because Im capable or what, it is that the initial thought of wanting to help my students overcome their weakness actualie turned out as a blessing for her whole class. Who knows one day the teacher might adopt the window for her future lessons, then even more students will benefit.

An idea started small may eventually blossom into a tool important for others to learn from. That's what Im hoping for. I will continue to think of creative ways to help my students overcome their learning weaknesses, turning them eventually into strengths.

With perserverance, anything can be possible.