First day at 2nd school, Singapore Zoo and Night Safari

Monday-Wednesday 26-28 February 2018

Today was my first day at my second attachment school and I'm excited to spend the next 6 weeks here.  I got up around 5am this morning to meet Shirley at the MRT station and head to the school early enough to have a tour before the morning opening assembly.  One of the things I have noticed in both the schools I've been at are how present the school values are all over the building--on the walls, on school sponsored clothing, in the school information brochures--the values are clearly embedded in the school cutlure and visually apparent throughout the building.     

 

After spending the morning learning more about the school and meeting with the math department lead to plan out my schedule and time at the school, I headed out to meet up with Bren, Maureen and Daniel at our apartment.  We decided to go to the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari.  The zoo was unlike any zoo I've been to before.  Although I love going to the zoo, it often is sad to see the animals caged up and look so lethargic.  The animals at the Singapore Zoo were all so active though and many were in "flexible" cages.  For example, the monekys were out and about throughout the zoo and did not have to remain in any cages.  Other animals had large habitats that rather than having a fence would have a mote or metal cage walkway that they wouldn't cross over.  My favorite part of the zoo was feeding the elephants bananas!

We also took a group picture with an orangutan!

During the fall of 2006, during our senior year in high school, Maureen, Courtney, Melissa, Rebecca and I went to the Atlanta Zoo.  Maureen and I took a picture back then next to a sign that said "Can you jump like a kangaroo?"  When we saw a sign of a kangaroo at the Singapore Zoo, we simultaneously said, let's redo that jumping photo!  Almost 12 years have pasted between the bottom and top photo, and so thankful to still be best friends and able to jump as high as I could in high school haha.

The Singapore Night Safari is a nocturnal wildlife park.  It was a cool experience to see the animals that are generally sleeping at the zoo, up and about at night. 

On Tuesday Maureen, Daniel and Bren did things together (explored Gardens By the Bay and city sites) while I was at my attachment school and then grad school class.  On Wednesday, I went into school for the morning and then was able to leave and get sushi for lunch with Mo, Daniel and Bren.  Maureen and Daniel are heading off to Thailand for the next week before heading back to Atlanta.  It was so fun to have them visit, and I'm thankful they decided to add visiting us in Singapore to their traveling list!

Maureen and Daniel arrive! (Chinatown and Marina Bay Sands)

Sunday, 25 February 2018

Maureen and Daniel arrived around 12:45am (between Saturday night and Sunday morning)!  I'm so excited to have them here visiting and to show them around Singapore!  Also, Maureen, like a true friend brought us 3 big bags of Skittles and a bag full of Chickfila sauces--so pumped about these things that I miss!

We visited with them for a bit and then all went to sleep to get rest for a full day when we woke up.  We headed out to Chinatown to see the shops, hawker center, and temples.  In the wet market, we intersected a lion dance.  Lion dance is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture and other Asian countries (like Singapore) in which performers mimic a lion's movements in a lion costume to bring good luck and fortune.  The lion dance is usually performed during the Chinese New Year and other Chinese traditional, cultural and religious festivals.  In Singapore, lots of shops hire lion dancers to come perform at their shop entrance for good luck, fortune, and properity throughout the coming year. 

After getting lunch at the hawker center and seeing the lion dance, we headed to the Buddhist Sacred Tooth Relic temple in Chinatown. 

Next we went to the hindu temple in Chinatown.  Although I have been here before a few times, I feel like I learn something new and see a new detail each time.  The Sri Mariamman Temple is Singapore's oldest Hindu temple.  The temple was founded in 1827 by Naraina Pillai, eight years after the East India Company established a trading settlement in Singapore. Pillai was a government clerk from Penang who arrived in Singapore with Sir Stamform Raffles on his second visit to the island in May 1819.  Pillai went on to set up the island's first construction company, and also entered the textile trade.  He rapidly established himself in business and was identified as a leader of the Indian community.

From its inception, the temple served as a refuge for new immigrants, particularly South Indian Tamil Hindus.  Besides providing an important place of worship for these immmigrants, the temple granted them shelter until they found work and more permanent accomodation.  Historically, the temple was the registry of marriages for Hindus. 

The focus of the main prayer hall is the central shrine of Mariamman, which is flanked by the shrines of two secondary deities, Rama and Murugan.  The main prayer hall is surrounded by a series of free-standing shrines, housed in pavilion-like structures with decorated dome roofs, known as Vimana.  These are dedicated to the following deities: Durga, Ganesh, and Shive.  The shrine to Sita is the second most important in the temple, as she is central to the annual timiti or firewalking festival held in this temple.  After exploring the temples, we stopped for a cocunut drink and then headed back to our apartment to change and go to dinner.

Maureen and Daniel were so kind to get us dinner and drink at the roof top bar and restaurant at the Marina Bay Sands hotel.  We had been to the observation deck with Kara and Eddie, but it was a different and fun experience to dine on the roof top.  And it was obligatory to order a Singapore Sling (the signature drink that originated in Singapore).  It's a gin-based cocktail that was developed sometime before 1915 by Ngiam Tong Boon, a Hainese bartender working at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel.  It was initially called the gin sling--a sling was originally a North American drink composed of spirit and water, sweetened and flavored.

Dinner and drinks were delicious and it was so nice to just relax and chat with Mo and Daniel for a couple hours on the breezy roof top with the pretty city skyline.  After dinner we attempted to find the famous infinity pool.  We got pretty close, but still not in :) With hotel rooms starting at $500 a night, I don't think we will ever be getting in it. We headed down to the front of the hotel to catch the light and water show over the bay.  Having friends visit us is here is the best!

Ran 7 miles at East Coast Park to the Chingay Parade

Saturday, 24 February 2018

I love Saturday's in Singapore because it means sleeping in, video chatting with friends and family, and exploring the city with Bren!  This morning I Facetimed with Rebecca and her parents who were in Atlanta from St. Simons for the weekend.  I also went out for a walk and to pick up some breakfast bread treats for Bren and I.  The flowers below are bougainvillea (thanks Elizabeth for identifying them for me) and they are everywhere here, and so beautiful!

I worked on my inquiry project, read up about the next school I'll be starting at Monday, and caught up on emails and tasks from my school in Atlanta.  Later in the afternoon, Bren and I headed down to East Coast park.  Our plan was to run about 7 miles down the coastline and end near the Chingay Parade.  We didn't buy the expensive tickets to the parade, but were hoping to stand on the street in the "free section" towards the end of the parade route.  I had heard from collegues that the parade would be full of vibrant floats, dancing dragons and lions, stilt walkers, wushu masters (Chinese martial arts), and performers of many different ethnicities in their traditional costumes.  We ran our 7 miles down the trail at East Coast Park and then ended on the opposite side of the river from where the parade had started.

The park area was closed off because of the proximity to the fireworks so we went up on a bridge that turned out to be awesome!  The bridge went over the river, but also provided a perfect "sky" view of the Chingay Parade.  This event is the largest street performance and float parade in Asia and epitomises the dynamism of Singapore's vibrant and multicultural society.  The word Chingay is equivalent to the Mandarin zhuang yi (妆艺), which means "the art of costume and masquerade" in the Hokkien dialect.  The first street parade took place on 4 February 1973.  In 1987, Chingay featured its first foreign group when the city's main English newspaper, The Straits Times, sponsored four pop singers from Tokyo.  Since then, the event has extended invitations to international artists and troupes.  Today, Chingay has become a uniquely Singaporean Lunar New Year tradition, held during the first weekend of the Lunar New Year.  It was such a fun event to see and the fireworks at the end were awesome from up on the bridge!

Last Day at 1st school and Problem Solving class

Thursday (22nd) and Friday (23rd) February 2018

I can't believe 6 weeks at my first attachment school have already passed.  Our time in Singapore seems to be moving faster each week.  I have been looking at the materials for a problem solving course this school offers for their Sec 1 Express students.  It focuses on a series of non-routine problems that require students to apply Polya's four step approach to problem solving and the various heurtistics they learn in primary school.  Many students have shared with me in the focus group interviews that they really enjoy the class days they get to work in the problem solving course.  They expressed that they feel a higher level of challenge and therefore a higher level of success when they work through the problem solving course problems.  Although problem solving skills should be integrated into all math classrooms, it is interesting to consider offer a separate course to students that explicitly teaches approaches to problem solving using non-routine, multiple entry point problems.  I was able to observe this class in action today.  Secondary 1 students were presented with this problem:

You are given two jugs, one holds 5 litres of water when full and the other holds 3 litres of water when full. There are no markings on either jug and the cross-section of each jug is not uniform. Show how to measure out exactly 4 litres of water from a fountain.

Students began to work on the problem right away and with more excitement than I had seen them approach problems in their genereal math class.  It was great to see so many of them using the heuristics they had learned (draw a diagram, act it out, guess-and-check, use equations/algebra)--and using objects they had on hand to represent the two "jugs":

The teacher had four student groups show their work on the board and then the class discussed the methods and approaches as a group as the student pairs presented their strategy for the problem. 

Seeing the level of engagement and genuine excitement the students showed while solving the jug problem, makes me quite interested in this course.  I am going to try and find out more information about it, as I think it could greatly influence the final product for my Fulbright inquiry project.  I can't believe 6 weeks at my first attachment school have passed.  I've loved working with the math department teachers and students and will miss this school (but not the commute)!  I got the math staff a little treat as a "thank you" for being so welcoming and helpful during my time here.

I'm sure going to miss Kah Ping! She is a senior teacher here that has really made me feel at home.  I taught some lessons and co-taught some classes with her over the weeks.  

To finish out the week, we also FaceTimed with Majorie and Lucy and it was the best! I can't believe how big and mobile and talkative Lucy is getting <3