*Scroll down to for video interviews with the 9 winners.

Of these 163 inspiring teachers, 9 were selected as recipients of the Inspiring Teacher of English Award 2008. The 9 winners each received a trophy and a personal cash award. Their schools were also awarded a plaque.

The Inspiring Teacher of English Award ceremony took place on 29 October 2008 at The Pod at the National Library Building. RAdm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Senior Minister of State for Education and Information, Communications and the Arts, attended the ceremony as the guest of honour.

Speak Good English Movement Chairman, Mr Goh Eck Kheng, delivered the welcome address.

On the award, RAdm (NS) Lui said, “We recognize and salute the continuing efforts of all our English Language teachers to seek ever more meaningful ways of engaging our students in their learning. In particular, we celebrate the qualities of the nine awardees who have demonstrated their ability and determination to inspire.”

Before the winners were announced, the Temasek A capella Group from Temasek Secondary School entertained the audience with their harmonious and upbeat songs. Students from Broadrick Secondary School also regaled the audience with a dramatic enactment of a poem from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The 9 winning inspiring teachers went through 2 rounds of selections and an interview before being chosen as the recipients of the Inspiring Teacher of English Award 2008. The panel of judges included English Language Master Teachers from the Ministry of Education, and representatives from the Speak Good English Movement, The Straits Times, and British Council.

The English Language Master Teachers and representatives from British Council received tokens of appreciation at the Inspiring Teacher of English Award ceremony for their generous support.

The Inspiring Teacher of English Award is jointly presented by The Straits Times and the Speak Good English Movement, and supported by the Ministry of Education.

Winners of the Inspiring Teacher of English Award 2008 

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.

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. 

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 role-play and interaction with each other.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ms Elizabeth Mesenas of Millennia Institute inspires her students by provoking them to think about controversial ideas, issues that impact their lives, and their own value systems. Ms Elizabeth Mesenas engages and involves her students in these discussions and inspires them to not only improve their English, but also to speak out, read widely and listen carefully to other points of view.

Links

Media coverage of the Inspiring Teacher of English Award

Speak Good English Movement YouTube channel

Downloads

 Inspiring Teacher of English Award 2008 Media Release (23 KB)

 Mr Goh Eck Kheng's Welcome Address (15 KB)

 Guest-of-Honour's Speech (24 KB)