The Alternative Story (TAS) - Discussion

[ccgoh]

My kids do not have much homework. I think in TAS, not much homework is given. Like hquek says, it is good to hear negative feedback so I also know have a realistic expectation. However, I must still say although i wish classrooms are not so packed, I find that overall experience a good one. I think finding a good centre is a painstaking one. It is not enough to take in someone’s good feedback and join. Need to monitor, need to feedback, need to know what is going on. The moment i find certain things I do not understand, I will check with the teacher and so far the teacher from TAS is always able to explain things clearly to me. And my children love going and learning there and there is improvement.


And when I went for the TAS parents workshop, I also understand more of their methods and can work better with my children at home to help them improve.

[lostlostmom]

one question, it as shared in some post previously they have a reading program where kids is allowed to borrow a book weekly. Is it happening?


Understand from my friend tat there are worksheet with only a few question done and the kids are told that they will go through the rest in other lesson, but never happen

[hquek]

they used to have the book borrowing; but it’s been discontinued for some time already. i half suspect it’s becos there are so many kids and not as many books to spread around.

[LOLMum]

my ds took back 3 books to read recently. the last entry on his reading log book was in april.

[pixiedust]

My child is not with TAS weekly classes but I have followed their development in interest and attended their bookevents and parents talk. He is in P5 and he/I cannot afford the time and energy to "test" out too many classes.


I can accept that there are different methodologies of teaching - what is important to me is effectiveness - can the child make improvements ? I can also accept change of teachers due to circumstances beyond control of the founder/center.

However, for a center charging premium rates and generally having the reputation of good teachers, I would expect the center to :

1) be able to resist the temptation to take in more students so as to maintain the quality of teaching. 16 pupils to 1 teacher (+1 assistant teacher), crowded classrooms etc give me doubts about the center’s passion and commitment to maintain the teaching quality and programmes (eg. borrowing of books).
2) select good trainee teachers and provide support to them - one or two off the target - okay, we are all humans but wrong marking, homework not marked etc are very serious problems. I would expect the center to step-in immediately and provide an experienced teacher to help the current class move up to speed.
3) motivate and have proper teacher assignment discussion so there is minimum of such cases where a teacher took a class and then decide he/she "doesn’t want to" teach afternoon class.

There is no perfect school or class. So it is the severity of the problems reported by parents that will affect my perception about a center. Many thanks to all who have contributed.

[smurfette3]

From reading the posts, it seems as though TAS teachers do not mark some of the questions or complete the worksheets. My child just joined TAS since late May. My friend's dd has been at TAS since March this year. Both are under different teachers. I find that the worksheets they cover is quite a lot. They do a compo or at least half of a composition, 1 comprehension (most of the time), a grammar worksheet and usually another synthesis worksheet in one lesson. Sometimes it is more wksheets, sometimes less. But to me this is quite a lot to cover so there are times where my child comes back with maybe half of a vocab worksheet not done or maybe 1-2 compre questions not done. I understand that the teacher cannot cover all the questions in the 2 hours.


So the teacher may leave out some questions from the worksheet. It is acceptable to me. It is still early for me to say and my child has not gone for enrichment classes before but I do like TAS and their teaching methods. I see my child very motivated and his understanding and ability to answer comprehension questions has improved.

For book borrowing, I also heard about it but my son has not borrowed any books yet, I asked the teacher and she said that they are going to get the children in one class to all borrow the same 2-3 titles so it is easier for the teacher to make sure they read and they are in the midst of getting the titles ready. I think for any centre be it good or bad, it is better to ask questions yourself and look at what is done in class to get a better understanding. But of course there may be a few teachers who are not committed and spoil the name of a centre but from what I see and hear, their teachers seem dedicated.

I may not be the best person to speak as my child is in TAS for just a short while but I want to add a little here as I find that my child has benefitted from TAS.

[Gooby]

Hi,


Any parent here whose kid is attending lessons at the Sing Post branch?
How are the teachers there? Thanks!

[bumblebee35]

I just transferred one of my child over to Sing Post branch as I cannot make it for the AMK timing anymore. My kid used to be under teacher Martin at AMK. He is very good, can really engage my child and his teaching is thorough. Now he is under teacher Elaine. Teacher Elaine is also very good. She will explain to me what she has taught and now that they are teaching more application of phrases, they use strategies like building tension line to plot the story etc, she will explain what it means. And when my child is not clear of anything, she will stay back with my child to explain.

[Laurenwkids]

My kid used to be at the higher ability P5/6 class at AMK. I liked the teaching and teacher but my girl could not cope as the pace was too fast for her. So we switched

to a more average ability P5/6 class also at the East. It is taught by teacher Martin. My girl likes the class and her composition improved from getting 22-25 marks to 31-32 marks now.

I have no issue with questions not being completed. Sometimes there are a few questions not done but the teacher will tell them to cross them out as they do quite a bit in class and would not have time to complete. I see how detailedly they cover each theme or comprehension, comprehension cloze, synthesis and besides getting the children to do the questions on the paper, they also give them questions to do on their own white board to make sure they understand first. I rather they cover fewer questions but explain thoroughly than do all the questions but my kid is still confused.

[Monster Mummy]

Yes, i think that their teaching really go into very detailed whether I think is good for kid. Of course, it is quite subjective to individual parents and how they view whether it is suitable for kids.