SWiSS EL Learning Journey #2DaVinci The Genius Exhibition, 14 Aug@ Singapore Science Centre

Dear 1T1 & 2T1,

In preparation for our Learning Journey #2 that's taking place next Friday, please view the YouTube links below on the life & times of Leonardo DaVinci, a programme done by BBC that will help you understand a bit more about him as an inventor, artist and scientist



As you are watching the video (simply click on the links below to view), do reflect on the following and think a bit more about it:

a) Where was DaVinci born and what was his family background like?

b) What was DaVinci interested in as a youngster?

c) How did DaVinci learn how to write? What was so unique about his handwriting?

d) Where did DaVinci go to school?

e) What is DaVinci's most famous painting?

f) Why was this painting so famous?

g) What was DaVinci's reason for drawing his famous Vitruvian Man?

psssst... the answers can be found if you watch the videos really, really carefully :)

"Leonardo Da Vinci" (2004)

Episode 1:
"The Man Who Wanted to Know Everything" (Parts 1-6)

Episode 2:
"Dangerous Liaisons" (Parts 7-12)

Episode 3:
"The Secret Life of the Mona Lisa" (Parts 13-18)

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18

Runtime: 02:39:36

This is the story of one of the greatest minds in human history. A scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer, Leonardo Da Vinci (1452--1519) was a polymath and arguably the main figure of the Renaissance. He set out to learn all there is to know, conceived new ideas and inventions that changed the world, and created artistic works of astonishing elegance and beauty, including the most famous painting in history, the Mona Lisa.

Produced by the BBC, "Leonardo Da Vinci" (2004) is a portrait of a genius of extraordinary diversity. The three-episode docudrama reconstructs the life of Leonardo from early childhood to death. Religious attention to detail along with masterful acting and brilliant costume bring Leonardo to life in a way never seen before. The atmosphere and scenery of his time are given a beating heart, conveying a believable feeling of a society rising from the middle ages.

Each episode of this captivating series is infused with brilliant academic commentary and includes the building and testing of some of Leonardo's inventions. Among these reconstructions are his tank, hang glider, underwater suit, and parachute. Did these amazing concepts, way ahead of their time, work as Leonardo intended?

This is a documentary of the kind the BBC (and British TV in general) is rightly praised.

Category: Education

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The Great SWiSS-DaVinci Challenge



This special challenge is open only to SWiSS Drama students from 1T1 & 2T1!

There will be 1 champion from each class, and 2 runner ups (total 3 winners each class) - try your best and aim for the top prize!

There will be a prize presentation ceremony on Friday, 14 August.

Panel of judges include EL teachers, Mr Raj (HOD SWiSS) & Mdm Norain (HOD EL).

The Prizes!

Top Prize (Champion): ONE item of your choice from the Leonardo DaVinci exhibition gift shop @ the Singapore Science Centre NOT EXCEEDING $15 in value.

2 consolation prizes (Runner ups): Special SWiSS Goodie bags

Competition will open from 11 Aug - 13 Aug, final entries must be submitted to your EL teachers latest by 3pm on 13 Aug.



Contest details!

You are to write a PERSONAL LETTER, where you are Leonardo DaVinci, and you are writing to tell your mother about the inventions and paintings that you have created, and how these inventions and paintings are now being exhibited @ the Singapore Science Centre.

Your letter must be at least 200 words in length and you must include in your letter the following:

- identify and describe 2 of your scientific inventions, detailing what they are for and how they can help people

- identify and describe WHY you painted the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper

- how you feel about being chosen as an artist to be exhibited at the Singapore Science Centre

- what you hope visitors & students who visit your exhibition will benefit from and gain when they visit the Science Centre

*standard letter writing format, English grammar/spelling rules still apply.



May the best SWiSS student win - good luck & have fun!!

Happy Birthday Singapore!Love, Team SWiSS

The excitement and anticipation was palpable in the air that Friday morning - we all knew it was coming.

Preparations had been made, rehearsals had been done, all the props had been put into place, the stage was set...

All that was left to do was the big performance itself!

Food, fun & festivities reigned galore here with the SWiSS family as we all got together to celebrate our nation's birthday with song, dance and games - the perfect recipe for a rockin' good time :)

The SWiSS classes had prepared performances with singing and dancing segments, all with a national day theme and lyrics that had been re-mixed (in a matter of speaking) to the tunes of songs that our students adore like Guns & Roses' Sweet Child of Mine etc... big shout out to all our students for being confident, fun-loving and enthusiastic/sporting performers that day!

Here's a peek at us rockin' out Singapore's 44th birthday celebrations... SWiSS style!






























We heart you, Singapore!

Happy Birthday from all of us here at Team SWiSS :)

SWiSS - Dramatic Insights # 1

"Through storymaking and drama, those who make, tell and perform stories learn something about who they are, develop a sense of their own authentic voice, and begin to appreciate in a new way, their value as human beings."

- Nancy King, Storymaking And Drama, Heinemann, 1993

SWiSS Update: A Sneak PeekOur Wholistic Teaching Approach

Ms Feng helping Akmal's group plan and develop their drama segment derived from the comprehension passage


Here at SWiSS we believe in achievement for all - achievement of all types, for all types of students.

Which is why our students are given a wealth of exposure and experiences in not just academic study and their Literacy through Drama programme, but we also hope to simultaneously stimulate all the aspects of creative intelligence - Art, Music, Inter-personal and Intra-personal projects.

Our students have been involved in various Art projects, the most recent one which was organised last weekend by the SouthEast CDC at East Coast Beach, to give them creative license to express themselves and to also build their sense of Accountability and engagement with their environment and others around them, promoting both creativity, purpose and teamwork.

Giving up their precious weekend, the blazing sun and tough competitors did nothing to faze our team of SWiSS graffiti artists! Led by the immensely talented Taufiq from 4T1, Umar, Farid and Ibrahim from 1T1 followed his directions patiently, earning them kudos from all their Art teachers who were there.

Great job guys!







Art was the first small step - after that initial foray, music became our next unexplored territory.

Music enrichment workshops which were targetted at our SWiSS class is ongoing every Saturday morning, where our students learn how to play their favourite pop pieces under the guidance of the one and only Ms Feng, where the language possibilities of teaching EL through lyrics is brought one step further to the realm where the music that moves those lyrics are then combined together for the student, making learning fun, practical and a rockin' good time! This is especially true for our international students from China who have been very engaged by this endeavour.

Ms Feng & Junqi from 2T1 rockin' it out @ TKSS Blackbox

Other recent projects like the SPCA Learning Journey and the booth sale have also been able to foster better interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships among our SWiSS students - classmates who didnt used to work together started bonding and solving problems that cropped up together as a team, and displayed admirable responsibility when helping each other to take account of the sales that took place for the day.

Plus spending time with the SPCA animals has helped them to increase their awareness of the situation and plight of animals, forcing them to look outside of their own world view, and to develop empathy for those less fortunate than them - be it human or otherwise.



Plus our students are keen to form a weekly volunteer group to spend time with and ensure that the SPCA animals are not lonely and will always have a group of friends from TKSS SWiSS to visit them regularly - those who are keen, do let your EL teachers know and they will help to put into place the volunteer project with you!

But the intention to move our students from didactic one-way teacher initiated class-based learning, to extend their learning to beyond the classroom and into areas of character development and to include instances of hidden curriculum into our teaching and learning - has always been a SWiSS motive from the very outset.

Hopefully all these steps and initiatives will stay with the students and will benefit them positively at a later stage of their lives -

Here's to our SWiSS Team for a job well done so far!

Lets continue to work hard for our students, so that our students will continue to work hard for themselves and their classes, and for both of the teams to continue flying the SWiSS flag high and proud :)

Term 3 Week 5: Guest Bloggers #3 & 4 Ashraf & Umar 1T1

Umar :)

I like this school because all the teachers are very kind and helpful. The thing I like about this school is ‘Drama’ because it is fun and it helps us how to act. Ms Islin and Ms Feng are very kind teachers because they help us how to act, which then helps us in our English. English is a fun subject because it can help us to pronounce properly. I want to be in school forever because this school is interesting!

- Umar, SWiSS 1T1

Ashraf Khan

This school is fun! The teachers are kind, but some teachers are strict. I like the school programmes, and my favorite lesson is English because we always do drama. I like going for class because the lessons are funny and enjoyable, but I wish that there could be more learning journeys!

- Ashraf, SWiSS 1T1

SWiSS Update: Teacher TrainingProfessional Development Courses

Here at SWiSS we recognise the importance of building up a teacher's professional competencies, for them to be able to better offer quality lessons and high standards of teaching to the SWiSS students.



As a result, our EL teachers underwent the course 'Assessment for Learning' (AFL) held by the CFBT and MOE kindly hosted by TKGS on Wednesday , and we learnt a lot about how to match our assessment criterias to the strategies that are being used in class, and also to highlight some of the existing strategies (peer review, self-critique post performance) that we currently already use in class, and to see how to bridge other gaps in students' learning.

Some of the EL teachers' takeaways for the course includes a plenary table of statements cut out on strips of paper and arranged in a diamond shape in accordance with our own personal take on the levels of importance we appropriate to each statement in our capacities as teachers in our own individual classes - with the statements that we 'Most Agree' with were placed right at the top and statements that we 'Least Agree' with were placed near the bottom. This simple activity acted as a powerful visual tool to instantly help us to address our concerns in terms of our aims and objectives in the classroom, and really helped us to refine the way we were already teaching by putting into perspective the various understandings about AFL approaches we already knew.



Lastly the teachers also consolidated a personal mindmap of what we perceived AFL to mean to us in our Literacy through Drama class in the future - good stuff was learned and clarified, and we do see a lot of potential to be able to incorporate lots of AFL strategies to run concurrently with our Drama project that will hopefully pave the way for students to do more with their English Language and Drama competency development in class.



Without the school and department's support and encouragement to constantly upgrade ourselves in terms of pedagogy and teaching practices, it would be hard for us to deliver good lessons to the students - which would in turn benefit them as we would be better able to play our part as mentors, leaders, facilitators, teachers.

We'll update you again once we try these out in our classes!

Till the next one :)

SWiSS Joke Of The Week

While walking up the stairs to the TKSS Library Info@sis for the NLB Outreach Programme, Mohd Noh turns around, looks quizzically at his EL teacher and then asks with a completely straight face...

"Cher, why do we LOL? Why not LS?"

"Why, Mohd Noh, what's wrong with LOL? And what's LS?"

"No lah cher... why always must Laugh Out Loud? Cannot Laugh Silently is it?"


- Mohd Noh, SWiSS 1T1

T3 W4 Updates SWiSS-SPCA Booth Sale Success!

Admist being hard at work completing their English lesson dramatisations in class and doing up their comprehension questions as homework, our SWiSS EL Drama class still found the time to contribute back to society and help spread awareness to the TKSS family by setting up their SWiSS-SPCA booth in the canteen last Friday and today.

Deepest thanks and much love to all the lovely supportive TKSS staff and students who had donated generously by purchasing all the SPCA products - our students had a great time chatting to you about animal welfare and playing the spokespeople of these creatures who badly need a voice!

A total sum of almost four hundred dollars was raised through our students' hard work and PR skills over a period of 3 hours - excellent job, guys!

We thank SPCA for the opportunity to work with them and allow our students the chance to be able to give back a bit to their community, have a bit of fun and taste the humility and selflessness that comes from doing something not for themselves, but for the sake of those who are less fortunate and able than them.

Two solid thumbs up for all our SWiSS Lower Sec students from 1T1 & 2T1!

Here's to a small step in the right direction :)

Ms Feng and James setting up the booth and stressing out over how to arrange the products..


Lovely teachers who came to support us :)


The Mysterious Masked Crusaders try their best to peddle their wares while speaking out on the behalf of the SPCA animals that need their help...


Big hug out to dearest Valerie & Louisa from 5N2 for their generous donations and great support!