Meet Our Outstanding Young Teachers

“Winning the OYEA affirms my belief that every child matters. Teaching is a privilege that should never be underestimated. A teacher’s words and actions can inspire, motivate and encourage the hearts and minds of students. As a Social Studies teacher, I get plenty of opportunities to spark students’ interest in topics and issues ranging from textile wastage to global sustainability and regional cooperation. I often draw from authentic learning contexts and engaging sources of news media, and would harness the Student Learning Space (SLS) to make learning fun and relatable. As learning journeys were curtailed due to COVID-19 restrictions, I created some assignments based on some immersive 360-degree Virtual Reality videos of Singapore buildings and disseminated the homework via SLS. This got the students excited about exploring our local heritage sites virtually and learning about different architectural styles.”

Mr Mohamad Faisal Bin Jamain (Class of 2010)
HOD (Leadership, Engagement, Advocacy & Partnerships), Qifa Primary School

“Teachers teach students, not subjects. All OYEA recipients and finalists have a heart-warming story behind every lesson, innovation and programme. However, it would take more than just the teacher to truly mould a young individual. For this, we thank parents, peers as well as community partners. At Springfield, we started a Milestone Programme for students with low motivation in academics. We curated a series of ‘structured play’ using games and activities, and allowed students to choose from novel learning experiences which may involve Segway transporters, laser tagging and even escape rooms converted from classrooms! Students were required to recall and reflect on embedded lessons that were related to language, mathematics or science topics in their curriculum. Needless to say, the students loved the experiences, and the joy of learning was quickly reignited with their excitement.”

Mr Ng Jia Jun, Justin (Class of 2015)
HOD, (Educational Support), Springfield Secondary School

“The OYEA came as a surprise., I think of it as a celebration of our collective effort as a school and teaching fraternity to bring out the best in students. It is reminder to me to always put students at the centre of whatever I do. My students and I share a love for mobile/video gaming, as well as watching YouTubers commenting and reacting to gamers’ strategy. We wanted to do something similar for our History class, and this sparked a spontaneous collaboration with my students to develop a learning experience using the Oculus Quest 2 VR device. We did a virtual exploration of Anne Frank’s home, conducted research about her family during the German occupation in the Netherlands, and curated historical commentaries to accompany the gameplay recordings. Eventually, the students produced a game-based video and a learning resource that could be shared with the school and other teachers.”

Mr Koh Kar Loong Kenneth (Class of 2014)
Subject Head (History & Social Studies), Catholic High School (Secondary)

“I’m humbled to be an OYEA recipient, and honoured to have worked with many like-minded and inspiring educators who give their best to students each day. To teach is truly to impact lives by creating opportunities for students to try, achieve and grow. We’ve had a tumultuous two years in schools due to COVID-19. To foster a culture of peer support, I mobilised our student leaders to create a video on “Study Strategies and Self-Care Tips”. We invited the peer support leaders to share their ideas for physical and mental well-being, and recorded the interviews over Zoom. The students from the Audio Visual club edited the footages and had fun discovering new editing software while exercising creativity. The final product was aired during the school’s sharing sessions on Mondays. The students teams really enjoyed the project as they got to learn interesting skills, and explore the power of digital technologies and becoming positive peer influencers.”

Ms Moritza Lim (Class of 2015)
Subject Head (Student Well-Being), Serangoon Secondary School

“I am greatly inspired by the work that all the award recipients and finalists have done. As educators, we don’t merely teach subjects — we would frequently strive to inculcate values and dispositions that help students to lead fulfilling lives. The formative assessments that I prepare often appear like games to my primary school students. They’ve shown me that offline activities like life-sized number lines and giant whiteboard quizzes, and online ones using apps like Quizizz and Blooket, can be great fun when it comes to learning and practice. I have also spearheaded a Math Games programme in my school, where puzzles like Blokus and Quoridor that improve strategic thinking are featured in structured lessons. Apart from learning to think logically, these games impart valuable soft skills, like sportsmanship and what it means to be persistent.

Ms Ou Xin Ying (Class of 2015)
Level Head (Mathematics), Farrer Park Primary School

“I am thankful for the award, and humbled that my efforts to teach and impart the right values to my students have been recognised. It has affirmed my belief that a teacher’s work should always be centred on the students. As an art teacher, I have always felt that art is innately a fun activity. In fact, my art classes provide students the opportunity to play with materials that they are unlikely to handle in everyday life, such as cutting Linoleum. Additionally, I’ve organised the school’s annual arts appreciation and ArtsFest such that students can be introduced to a variety new art activities. This year, I pushed myself to take on a ‘30-day challenge’ where I would have to engage in an unfamiliar field of aesthetics. Through video documentation of my own progress, I hope my students would realise that the learning of aesthetics is not too different from ‘levelling up’ in a game to become better.”

Mr Victor Gan Yi Xiang (Class of 2017)
Subject Head (Art)(Internal), Nan Hua High School