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BCIS Reporting: My Favorite Teacher

gurkriti.singh — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 02:00:00 +0000

My favorite teacher is my Grade 5 teacher, Melanie Agustina who taught me at the International School of Tianjin. There are a lot of reasons that I like her: she is extremely diligent, good-natured, and friendly. She is constantly willing to help and encourage students to become problem solving risk-takers and the philosophy of seeking to understand before being understood is obvious in her teaching.

Mrs.Agustina only taught me for a year but I had known her for a few years before I entered Grade 5. In grade 3 and 4, our classes involved a large amount of singing with her and our teachers brought us to her classroom during homeroom to learn a few songs with her while she played her guitar. In grade 4, I decided to join the guitar club and began taking lessons from her after a hard days of school. I realized my fondness for the instrument and how soothing the sound of it was for my soul. Many times we sang together in assemblies and I even received a certificate of great effort during one of those short and sweet guitar lessons. Although my fingers were sore and throbbed for the first few days, my passion for music flourished under her instruction. As an ensemble, we enthusiastically strummed and harmonized songs like River and Uncle Jed. Till today, I enjoy humming those melodious tunes when I feel blue or find myself weary in anxiety. I smile as they remind me of the fascinating times we had during those lessons and of her effortless teaching.

Although she taught me for only a year, she affects my life at an immense level even today. In elementary school, our homeroom teacher taught us all subjects except for arts and languages other than English (for me, this was Chinese). I would say that I gained huge amounts of knowledge from her on the subject areas that I was passionate about and developed an interest in those that I had disliked. Her enthusiasm and love helped me to become more inquiring. She brought a smile to her students and colleagues. a wave of happiness into the classroom.

I often recall Mrs.Agustina helping me with my math questions and how I could easily understand and apply my knowledge after she had helped me. I think the teacher’s attitude has always been critical for me; when I put in hard work, I want to be appreciated. Mrs.Agustina always kept a “you can do it” attitude which raised my self-confidence. The way I live is highly influenced by her teaching over those years and I believe I will always feel nostalgic for those moments. I love you Mrs.A!

Teacher’s Questions:

What is your name?
Melanie (Mel) Jane Agustina (Maiden name West)

If you have a family, please list everyone’s FULL name and nationality. How old are your children?
My husband: Erwin Agustina is Indonesian. Our son Ameer Nathan Agustina is 6 years old and was born in China (he thinks he is Chinese but the name is Arabic). Our daughter Ambieka Jane Agustina is 4 years old and was born in China, but she is Australian/Indonesian. Her name is Hindi.

Please list your occupation and your spouse’s occupation.
We are both teachers.

How long have you lived in China? What brought you here?
I lived in Tianjin for 5 years from 2004 – 2009, we got an opportunity to teach in an international school in China

Why did you become a teacher? Have you always been a teacher or did you do something else before?
I have always been a teacher – I began by teaching when I was 13 – teaching
children recorder and flute. I continued through my university to support myself. I worked in Tasmania as a teacher in the state educational department for three years and then moved to Kalimantan (Borneo – Indonesia) for 2 Jakarta for 6 months, Malaysia Penang for 2 and a half years, China for 5, Tasmania for 1, Indonesia for 3 and now Saudi Arabia.

Who was your favorite teacher? Why?
My parents – they were both teachers too and what they taught me in life has been more valuable than any mathematical equations. But at school my favorite teacher was my Geography teacher in college. I found the subject really interesting and her projects extended my interests and abilities. I especially loved the field work.

What is your teaching philosophy?
The role of an educator is not to merely transmit facts, ideas and knowledge to students but rather to facilitate the development of skills and nurture the growth ofeach individual in ways that are engaging, challenging and relevant. Students who are motivated, inspired and curious will naturally become knowledgeable and thoughtful individuals. It is our role as guardians of these students for a period in their lives, to instill a positive sense of self that will endure and ensure their development as thoughtful and reflective lifelong learners.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?
Making learning fun and interesting and watching the growth of students over time. Their ability to think, reason, find solutions and their creativity is always amazing.

What has been your greatest success as a teacher?
I can think of many things that I have been excited and happy about -but the best feeling is when you connect with the students personally as well as in a professional sense and are able to see them as individuals and unique people and help them grow and develop in ways that they feel are important for them. In a way my greatest successes as a teacher are not my successes-they are my student’s successes-I am just the facilitator to help them achieve these.

What is the most challenging aspect of teaching?
The parents, the meetings, the constraints of the curriculum, working with others who do not view or work with students in the same way, or who do not hold similar philosophies of teaching – anything that takes me away from my class, students, and their needs.

Gurkriti Singh is a Grade 10 student at Beijing City International School. She writes for the school magazine, BCIS Xuexi, and participates in inter-school debating competitions. Through her blog posts, she hopes to share unique and exciting experiences at BCIS as well as share experiences and topics related to her own life.

The beijingkids student correspondent program gives high school students with an interest in writing and journalism a resource for guidance, feedback, and real-life training. If you are a student interested in becoming a beijingkids student correspondent, or you know a student who is, please contact aislingobrien@beijing-kids.com

Photos courtesy of Gurkriti Singh and Melanie Agustina

CISB Shark Week Protects the Top of the Food Chain

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 05:00:00 +0000

While a shark’s dorsal fin might be cause for ominous music at the movies, it is a precious resource to be preserved in the real world, and the Roots and Shoots club at the Canadian International School of Beijing (CISB) is doing something about it. The club dubbed November 26 to 30 “Shark Week” to raise awareness of the cruel process of shark finning, in which the shark’s dorsal fin is sliced off and the shark released back into the ocean to die a slow death.

The demand for the Chinese delicacy of shark’s fin soup and some traditional medicines has increased shark finning in the past decade, and CISB students circulated a petition in which people would pledge to no longer consume shark’s fin soup. Students screened documentaries about sharks and finning, and also sold out of bracelets supporting the campaign. The sale of bracelets raised RMB 2,550, all of which will be donated to WildAid, an organization that fights the shark finning industry.

Photo courtesy of CISB

Hot Diggity Dog! CISB Students Raise RMB 3,700 at Charity Barbecue

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 05:00:00 +0000

On Friday, November 2, middle and high school students from the Canadian International School of Beijing (CISB) fired up the barbecues to grill up some hot dogs for charity. The students, who are part of the Global Issues Network (GIN), and raised RMB 3,700 for the Love and Hope Center, an organization that supports education for migrant children and rural women.

GIN is a community service group geared toward aiding global and local charities. Past charities GIN has supported include Whizz Kids, Wokai, animal shelters, and migrant children schools. GIN plans to reach out to more organization this year.

Photo courtesy of CISB

All A-Gourd! CISB Students Showcase Their Pumpkin Carving Skills

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Preschool and elementary students at the Canadian International School of Beijing (CISB) were up to their elbows in gourds on Wednesday, October 31. In celebration of Halloween, the students donned their spookiest costumes for a day of on-campus trick-or-treating, celebrating, and pumpkin carving. Check out the winning pumpkins below!

Katrina McDonnell’s grade three class came away with first prize for an outside-the-box take on Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage, with smaller pumpkins as wheels and a picture of Cinderella inside the carriage. Second prize went to Jade Harrold’s grade four class, which utilized many small pumpkins and one huge one. Third place was awarded to Karen Chu’s grade four class for a pumpkin who had eaten too much candy.

Photos courtesy of CISB

Does Bilingual Education Make Kids Smarter? BIBA Talk Covers Changing Currents of Modern Education

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 05:00:00 +0000

The chief concern of many parents nowadays is how to ensure their children are receiving the adequate education to allow them to thrive in a changing international world. Dr. Susan Sclafani, former Assistant Secretary for the US Department of Education visited Beijing International Bilingual Academy (BIBA) on Monday, October 15, to discuss the innovations being made in education and the benefits a bilingual education can bestow. Dr. Sclafani, who is currently vice president for programs at The Pearson Foundation, spoke to BIBA students and parents about how education must evolve to prepare our children for a world that has changed faster than education has.

Dr. Sclafani, who is also an honorary principal at BIBA, shared perhaps the most relevant and important piece of research within the first few minutes of her lecture: that children who started a bilingual education in kindergarten would, by grade 5, function at a higher language and cognitive level than students who learned just one language. Students with bilingual education processed both languages in the same lobe of the brain, allowing for a fast transition between the two languages, while those who learned one language and then learned another had to switch between opposite lobes of the brain for each language. Dr. Sclafani did note that children in bilingual programs may post lower results in the initial years of the program, but the slower learning pace would pay off five years later when they could outperform their monolingual counterparts.

Dr. Sclafani also discussed the changes that need to be made in education in order to prepare students for a world in which manual routine jobs are being replaced or erased by technology and computers. She stressed that students need hands-on, real-world projects that teach life skills, responsibility, creativity, and technological fluency. Dr. Sclafani acknowledged that parents and teachers may wonder how to reconcile educational innovation with the realities of standardized testing, and stated that the change cannot happen overnight, and that the standardized testing system in the US is already beginning to change. Chinese parents worry about the national college entrance exam or gaokao, and Dr. Sclafani expressed confidence that over time, the gaokao would evolve in a way that would be fair to all students.