The Inspiring Teacher of English Award is a national award for English teachers in Singapore schools. It acknowledges teachers who ignite a love for the English language and are effective in helping their students speak and write accurately.
Rulang Primary School
Mr Bernard Chan of Rulang Primary School engages his students through ‘Characters Alive Day’, a programme he created where a student will dress up as a character from a story and provide clues for other students to guess who the character is. Mr Bernard Chan also implemented a reading programme which allows students to read from a wide variety of genres, effectively improving their English proficiency.
Anglo-Chinese School (Junior)
Mr Matthew Ong of Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) inspires his students through the innovative use of an interactive classroom game he created, called ‘The Rise of Lit’Tledot’. Students study about a fictitious island called Li’Ttledot and organise offence and defence plans on and for the island, actively learning English through social interaction and expression at the same time. Mr Matthew Ong’s ‘The Rise of Lit’Tledot’ has won the Microsoft-MOE Professional Development Award.
Mayflower Primary School
Mdm Nordiana Binte Sani of Mayflower Primary School heads the Development Through Drama (DTD) programme in her school, which provides her students access to a creative and engaging mode of learning English. Through this successful programme, Mdm Nordiana Binte Sani inspires her students by using stories and drama to improve their communication skills as well as interpersonal skills through roleplay and interaction with each other.
Temasek Primary School
Mrs Nirmala Sharma has been an English teacher in Temasek Primary School for 20 years and has been actively involved the conceptualisation of many programmes in the English Language Department of her school. One of the programmes Ms Nirmala Sharma was instrumental in conceiving is STAGE IT (Speak and Talk about Anything in Good English In Temasek), an English language genre-based programme where students’ literary experiences are enriched and broadened.
Nanyang Primary School
Mr Tan Ying Kiat of Nanyang Primary School utilises many different teaching pedagogies such as Habits of Mind and Paul’s Reasoning to effectively engage his students and to get them to understand the purpose of English. Mr Tan Ying Kiat teaches his students with a ‘teach less, learn more’ philosophy, in order for them to realise that English is not just an examinable subject, but is relevant to their daily lives.
Peirce Secondary School
Ms Hong Wee Fui of Peirce Secondary School engages her students to actively improve their English in a fun manner by going through grammatical mistakes in their essays with them. Students learn correct grammar by discussing how to correct the mistakes and suggesting corrections while having a laugh at the same time. Ms Hong Wee Fui also inspires her students by arousing their senses through ‘chocolate lessons’ where students bring edible items to class in exercises to improve their descriptive skills by using their senses.
Broadrick Secondary School
Mdm Lim Boon Siang of Broadrick Secondary School uses a wide repertoire of activities and strategies, such as podcasts and vodcasts to stimulate discussion among her students. Mdm Lim Boon Siang also instigates her students to think logically and improve their English by predicting the story behind newspaper headlines and analysing ambiguous statements.
Temasek Secondary School
Mr Eddie Tan of Temasek Secondary School leads a team of teachers in examining how best to teach narrative writing for lower secondary students. Through his leadership, the resulting teaching framework conceived from their examination has been successfully implemented and has enabled students to significantly improve their writing skills. Mr Eddie Tan also inspires his students to develop a passion for reading and writing through his lessons.
