Last week I had three educational experiences in three different locations. On Monday I accompanied my daughter’s Primary 1 class on a trip to the Singapore Zoo. It wasn’t an ordinary field trip, though. It was an Open Minds trip. I started to understand the distinction when we got there and the students had clipboards and papers to record their observations. We set off in small groups to different exhibits. They were told to take notes on the animals’ environments and habitat. The students had to consider why they thought the environments were like that. In the afternoon, they had a more structured activity with the Lead Open Minds Coordinator of the school. He read them a book and a letter from someone who had questions about the habitat of the Pygmy Hippo. So, the students studied the behavior of the Pygmy Hippos and talked about its environment with the teacher, with the other students and with us chaperones. It was some impressive inquiry for seven year-olds. They stayed engaged, alternating between examining the animal and its environment, while considering developmentally appropriate questions posed by the teacher. I was so impressed with how this teacher kept 18 students focused and happy to be learning about the hippos for over an hour.

Midweek, I returned to a school to see students play a teacher-created board game Mind Your Money. It was a Singaporean-influenced version of The Game of Life or even Monopoly. Students moved their game pieces around the board, drawing cards for “job” or “market place” or “insurance” or “life” when appropriate. They play for three months – or rounds around the board – and then tallied their assets at the end of the game. All of this is part of the school’s  “post-exam activities,” in which students come to school until the end of May, but have fewer traditional classroom interactions. The semester ends for most students this week, but the Sec 4 students have to return for two weeks for “intensive revision,” or review time. They take the O-levels in October and many schools start reviewing for them now.

On Friday, I attended Student Led Conferences at my kids’ school. I’ve never been a part of such a thing, but I’m ready to adopt it as an educator. We spent about 30 minutes in each kids’ classroom (with two other families in each room doing their own thing, too) while *my kid* talked to us about what she has learned and has been doing all semester. Each teacher said hi to us and that was it, hanging back and letting the students do all the talking. The girls had a plan written out that had the highlights of what they were showcasing and they followed the plan. I loved it. What a way to get students to take ownership of their learning. It makes sense for students to discuss their strengths and areas of growth instead of me discussing them as their teacher. I’m going to have to look into implementing some version of this when I get back. Do I seek permission first? …or beg for forgiveness later? I ain’t too proud to beg, but I’m guessing this wouldn’t forgiveness would not be necessary.

We rounded out the week with another visit to Mount Faber for Lu’s birthday dinner on Thursday, meeting friends for pizza on Friday night, double birthday pool party for both girls at our place on Saturday, a second visit to Sentosa (high ropes, zip lines, and luge course) on Sunday and then a visit to an Italian restaurant for Hazel’s birthday dinner. It was a busy weekend. Our minds were more open after each part, our “students” certainly led with their choices of eating places, but as a result, we didn’t do a good job of minding our money. I guess we have more learning to do in these next few weeks here.