Greetings to all students, parents, fellow educators and subscribers.
I hope everyone is doing fine and holding up well in this covid-19 pandemic environment.
Over here in Singapore where i am based, our government has taken the necessary measures and try to contain the situation. Not an easy task i must say. Every few days, there will be new measures and guidelines being introduced.
Lessons in Ministry of Education (MOE) schools have also been affected and many have turned to “online-based learning” which varies from school to school. Some have recorded lectures while others give students the printed out notes for self-studying. At the point of writing, schools have started, stopped and re-started proper live-streaming lectures (according to our students) using Zoom technology. Many students have also feedback to us that they are quite lost about some of the Chemistry topics since the pandemic started. As such, some students are already worried about their upcoming exams, which has been confirmed by Ministry of Education (MOE) Singapore to go ahead as per planned, including the PSLE, GCE O-Level, GCE N-Level and GCE A-Level national examinations.
Currently, we are inside the extension of the Circuit Breaker aka “mini lockdown” and students are having their mid-year school holiday month long break, which is being pushed forward by a month i.e. May holiday instead of the usual June holiday.
Students will start to go back to school starting 2nd June but in a controlled manner in order to practice social distancing. Most levels will go back to school on alternate weeks. Which means one week of school, one week of home based learning, etc etc.
Tuition centres and enrichment centres have also been suspended from physical lessons since the start of the circuit breaker. Initially, we were suspended until 30th April 2020 but it has been further suspended until notice.
With the suspension of centre-based tuition lessons, Winners Education Centre Singapore (where i am teaching Chemistry for the last 16 years) have quickly moved all our Chemistry lessons to Online Live! Learning (OLL) TM system.
It has been about 8 weeks (since early April) with the transition and i am glad that lessons are as “usual” for all our Chemistry students in the Sec 3 and Sec 4 O-Level Pure Chemistry & IP Chemistry Tuition Classes as well as our JC 1 and JC 2 A-Level H2 Chemistry Tuition Classes.
In fact, we did a survey in mid April and received 100% Positive Feedback for our Online Chemistry lessons.
We also have quite a number of students who joined our weekly Chemistry Tuition Classes during this period of compulsory online learning and we are glad they are enjoying the lessons.
We started the OLLTM during the March holidays to test out the best approach for online lessons so that our students continue to understand clearly with the change of teaching medium.
Some of our student’s parents have even commented that their child is learning Chemistry from us in a more focused manner since they are not distracted by their friends or peers. Personally, i have also noticed that our Chemistry students are asking me more questions during the online 2 hours class plus the complimentary 1 hour additional Q & A session, as compared to the physical lessons. I have also received a 5-fold increase in the number of questions being directed to my personal WhatsApp which i helped them to clarify their doubts within 1-2 days.
Personally, the transition from physical lessons in the tuition centre classrooms to online teaching is quite smooth and easy for me. As you may already know, i have been producing and sharing Chemistry Videos on YouTube for more than 10 years and have close to 4,000 subscribers at SimpleChemConcepts YouTube channel (O-Level Pure Chemistry & IP Chemistry Videos) and ALevelH2Chemistry YouTube channel (A-Level H2 Chemistry Videos).
Students, parents as well as educators have to embrace this change in teaching and learning. For us at Winners Education, we are committed to support all our students to continue learning effectively (with crystal clear understanding of Chemistry concepts & application skills).
In Winners Education, to allow our students to adapt to the ‘new’ way of learning, we work harder (even on our rest day now) by having an additional 1 hour Q & A Monday session, complimentary for all our current students. This session will allow students to be exposed to more answering techniques and at the same time clarify their doubts.
Our Online Live! Learning (OLL)TM system is designed to be very similar to our physical lesson where it involves:
- Whiteboard teaching of key concepts
- Exam-based questions discussions
- Ask any questions freely without restrictions
- YouTube Chemistry Videos + Chemistry Blog Posts as additional learning resources
- 24/7 WhatsApp Support for clarification of doubts, just like what many students are already doing
- Graded assignments are to be submitted via online for marking after each topic is completed to ensure consistency and improvement
Our online chemistry tuition lessons currently includes the following levels / syllabus:
- Sec 3 and 4 O-Level Pure Chemistry Online Tuition
- Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4 IP Chemistry Online Tuition
- JC 1 and JC 2 A-Level H2 Chemistry Online Tuition
We are grateful that students and parents are embracing this change as we move along with the development of the Covid-19 situation.
Nobody knows when the pandemic situation will be over and things go back to near normal. However, one thing is for sure…the GCE O-Level Examination, GCE A-Level Examination as well as school’s examination will continue as per planned (according to Ministry of Education MOE Singapore).
The all important GCE O-Level Examination and GCE A-Level Examination are just 5 and 6 months away respectively.
Students should stay calm and continue learning Chemistry with interest and understanding.
We are certain that we will all emerge stronger 💪after this episode #SGunited #GLOBALunited
(Online Live!) Lessons as usual at Winners Education. If your child needs help with his GCE O-Level Pure Chemistry, IP Chemistry or GCE A-Level H2 Chemistry, call us today at 88290998 to join the rest of 100+ students to continue learning effectively and Pass Chemistry with Distinction🌈.
To Your “A” in Chemistry,
Sean Chua
