SAS

I am beginning to see what is extra amazing here at SAS (Singapore American School) now.

 

Laminating and bulletin boards everywhere.  Anyone that knows me knows that I have a bit of a laminating addiction.  I brought only three plug in appliances from the states. The things I just couldn’t leave behind.  They were my Kitchen Aid, my sewing machine and my beloved laminator so you know I appreciate seeing laminated stuff.  Seems like they laminate the kids projects all the time and display them.  Or bind them like a book.  Or provide multiple fancy plastic folders.  Everything is always printed big and in full color.  They also have bright and colorful bulletin boards outside every classroom that are completely updated every few weeks and typically show the kids cool art work and writing samples.

 

There is a science teacher just for first grade (of course there are 13 first grade classes as opposed to 4 in a regular US elementary school).  She has her own classroom with lab experiment supplies and the works.  You walk in her classroom and you just know it’s going to be a cool lesson day.  There are lots of hands on things to do and above the lab table up front a ten foot long giant mirror hanging from the ceiling like you see in college classrooms so you can see what the professor is doing on his table.

 

Art class is fantastic.  I helped in Ben’s class during art time a couple times and it was lots of fun, but he never came home and talked about it.  He comes home and tells me all about art class here. He talks about Monet and other artists and all he learned about their lives on a regular basis.  Now I have seen some of his art work and their supplies are just cool.  They use expensive paint and huge paper and bright things.  Remember the difference in your art class from elementary compared to junior high?  It’s kind of like that.  There’s just more cool stuff to do.

 

The facilities in the gym are super cool. They have a tall rock wall for the HS kids and for the elementary kids there is an entire wall of the gym covered with climbing space about twelve feet tall.  They love it.  They also have all the gymnastic mats I could only drool over as an/ elementary school kid.  They were only used by the after-hours community groups that paid for them.  They have hockey gear and play other cool games that require equipment.

 

Ben’s response to music is about the same here and in Virginia.  He sings as many songs from music here as he did in Fairfax.  I’ll be interested to see what comes in the future for music.

 

There are only 22 kids in his homeroom class and they have a full time aide.   The aide handles all the homework collection, getting daily reading books for the kids to take home on their own level, delivering the students to and from their special classes, parent notes and money for fundraisers or buying kids lunch tickets, etc.  Because of that his teacher appears to have enough time to be a teacher.  She can prepare her lessons, reply to parent emails promptly and devote individual time to all the little things that seem to be the challenges most moms felt with the schools back home.

 

Fieldtrips.  We went on a fieldtrip to Bollywood Farms in a charter bus with seatbelts.  It was supposed to be basically a vegetable garden.  At first glance a waste of time to a western girl that grew up weeding a garden all summer long in the heat and eating the nasty beets and green beans her mom grew.  My attitude was basically “everyone knows about that stuff, duh” but I did find a way to chaperone the trip and am glad I did.  As I mentioned, there are 22 kids in his class.  There were 14 parent chaperones!!  In your head right now you are saying, “WHAT?!?! That’s nuts.”  But it’s true.  And the fieldtrip was super cool.  They showed us all sorts of vegetables and herbs from this area of the world.  Lets just say I didn’t grow bananas, dragon fruit or noni plants in my Rocky Mountain backyard!  (By the way, noni smells like vomit and they call it the “vomit fruit.”  Makes you want to join the Tahitian Noni pyramid scheme now, right?  It was beyond horrible!!)

 

About that many parents showing up.  I can’t yet figure out if it’s because the expat community tends to be highly motivated people up for an adventure or what.  Is it because all the “trailing spouses” as we are affectionately known are here on dependent passes and thus are not working?  Most people have live in house help so they are free to be engaged.  I think that plays a huge roll.  All parents want to be involved in their kids’ education and here a lot people have the opportunity to do that.  It’s awesome.