Month: November 2017

Focus on Food: Who We Are and What We Do

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Today we celebrated Universal Children’s Day at UWCSEA East. There were a number of events taking place to help celebrate and raise awareness for the partners of Friends of Fiji, Green Umbrella, and Jakarta Street Kids GC’s. These three GC’s came together to organise a Readathon where students (and teachers) were encouraged to come by the 5th floor, make a donation (books or money), write a story about literacy, and of course, read. At lunch, the GC’s set up their stalls to raise further awareness amongst the UWCSEA community. My focus group, Focus on Food, was also involved in this event, helping to raise money for the Blue Dragon GC, and I am happy to say that we were able to raise just over $100, of which 100% was donated to Blue Dragon.

Just some of the amazing students of Focus on Food!

Focus on Food began as a very small focus group just a few years ago. Our purpose is to increase the understanding of how food affects our health, animals, and the environment. We try to promote a plant-based diet without sounding preachy. Mainly, we discuss topics surrounding nutrition and the sustainability of food. We are all passionate about how to make healthier food choices and we want to share our ideas with the UWCSEA community. Our intention is not to “convert” anyone to become vegetarian or vegan; rather, we want to educate people to make better choices about the food they eat.

Look at all that yummy plant-based food!

Last year, my friend and colleague Mairin Raisdana joined me as a supervisor; together, we have been supporting a budding group of teenagers as they question how food choices can affect their overall health as well as the environment. Today’s event helped to show people that plant-based eating is not just about leafy green salads. We had chocolate fudge brownies (vegan), puffed rice treats with chocolate chips (vegan), guacamole (vegan), pita bread (vegan), tortilla crisps (vegan), as well as hummus (also vegan). According to students, the food was very tasty; in fact, many of them couldn’t tell that the food didn’t contain any egg or dairy products!

I am very proud of our Focus on Food students who worked hard to help support today’s event. When I saw them this afternoon, they looked happy and engaged. I watched from afar as they answered questions and dished out the delicacies. Our next event will hopefully be a movie screening where we can raise even more awareness about how the food we eat can affect the health of our bodies, the lives of animals, and the environment in general. Watch this space for upcoming events!

If you are interested in learning more about our focus group, please contact me at uza@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg or Mairin at mar@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg. We will be sure to pass your messages along to our students.

What does POETRY in Grade 9 look like?

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Just before the October break, I introduced my Grade 9 classes to our unit on Poetry. We studied the requisite terms and looked at different forms of poetry, but I felt that something was missing. There didn’t seem to be the same type of excitement that usually surrounds our study of poetry, so I decided to mix things up a bit.

Enter Taylor Swift.

I told my class that it was #TaylorTuesday (on a Tuesday, of course) and introduced them to her song “Look What You Made Me Do.” Many of my kiddos were excited at the prospect of studying a Swift song in class rather than another poem (note: lyrics are also poetry, so I wasn’t veering too far off the curriculum). We read the lyrics, watched the video, and studied the context (I didn’t realise she had so many feuds with so many different celebrities!) My plan was working: students were annotating her lyrics to look for devices and effects. They were excited again!

An example of how one student annotated Swift’s lyrics.

We spent a long time on this. I scaffolded their learning by introducing them to commentary writing, paragraph by paragraph. I wanted them to really understand how writers (including songwriters) use various devices to create a particular effect on the reader. They created thesis strands and used the PEEEA method (Point-Evidence-Explanation-Effect-Anaylsis) to organise their commentaries. They worked collaboratively to outline and draft their ideas, then submitted them to me for feedback. I’m excited to read their interpretations of Swift’s lyrics of self-reflection. I’ll be using CheckMark (a Google Extension) in addition to my own comments to help guide them as they apply my feedback to their final drafts.

The Fast and the Furious

These #TaylorTuesday lessons (which also took place on Wednesdays) were the perfect segue to a formal piece of poetry (“Nettles” by Vernon Scannell) on which I also wanted students to practice their annotation and writing skills. The difference here is that I only gave them one class period to work on it. No, I’m not a monster; I am trying to get students used to the idea of timed-writing. In both IGCSE and IB, students will be given a limited amount of time to write certain assignments. It is therefore vital for them to get used to writing in a finite timeframe. I call this The Fast and the Furious, mainly because I love Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock), but also because I can see my students’ brains working overtime as they quickly write down their insights and ideas.

What started out with cries of “What? One period? How??” turned into sighs of “Wow. I can’t believe I did that in one period.” I’ll be honest: I don’t think all of my students finished the entire commentary, and that’s okay. What matters is that they used the skills they’ve acquired and tried their best to complete their commentaries in a detailed and thoughtful way.

The efficiency of their writing will come … in time.

 

CultuRama 2017

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I have been a teacher supervisor (one of four!) with CultuRama for three years now. It’s an event that I look forward to every year and I love working behind the scenes. Organising, liaising, and then re-organising … that’s my jam. (note: choreography is definitely NOT my jam)

This year’s CultuRama was different, though. I don’t know if it’s because of the number of students involved (well over 200), or the number of cultures being represented (thirteen), or how quickly the tickets sold out (two days), but there was something special about this year’s show. When we had our meetings and rehearsals, everyone seemed very chill … they knew what they were doing; they didn’t really need us. Even on the night of the show, the students were happily putting on their own makeup, doing their own hair, drawing their own tattoos, all without any assistance from us. I guess this is what happens when you supervise a truly student-led activity. I mean, just look at these photos and you’ll see what I mean …

Yes, the kids were amazing. But in addition to these wonderful kids, we also worked closely this year with the Parents’ Association. As always, the UWCSEA East parents really stepped up to the plate and delivered an incredible display of cultural artefacts and delectable food. Whether their country was represented or not, the parents of the PA volunteered to set up their tables (and bar) and feed the masses both before and in-between shows, and for this we are both grateful and thankful.

Thanks to everyone for making this year’s show the success it was. Your continued support of our students is much appreciated.