Inaaya Saliha Ansar, MOE Kindergarten @ North Vista
Inaaya is a humble and eager learner. As the newest member in the class this year, Inaaya made an excellent effort to mix around and learn about her new friends, including those who have added needs such as Karen and Rae.
When Inaaya first noticed that Karen seeks the teacher’s assurance for comfort in the middle of lessons, Inaaya observed from a distance. As the days progressed and the teacher taught the children about being mindful of other friends’ learning progress, Inaaya would often be seen as the first helper to remind Karen gently to regulate herself before encouraging Karen to complete a task.
During Tamil class, Inaaya would take the initiative to teach Rae and pretend play as a teacher to re-enact the instructions given. Rae responds positively to the casual tone and excitedly completes the task given by Little Teacher Inaaya.
Inaaya noticed that Karen enjoyed art and craft activities. After calming Karen down at times, Inaaya would offer to be her buddy and draw some pictures during Learning Centre time so that Karen would not be alone.
During Motor Skills Development lessons when the children learnt about balance, Karen was anxious of falling off from the balance beams. Inaaya went up to her and asked, “Can I help you?” When Karen nodded, Inaaya extended her hand for Karen as a support, and walked beside her to complete the activity. When Karen was upset that she could not complete the activity, Inaaya comforted her by rubbing her shoulders and said that Karen’s brain needs time to learn‚ and that she “can do it if she didn’t give up.”
Before certain lessons, Inaaya and her friends would affirm themselves ahead of the new skills taught by telling themselves, “I can do it!” Inaaya would often turn to her friends such as Karen and Rae and affirm them, by pointing to them and saying ‚ “You can do it!” Her friends have caught on the habit of affirming one another, which in turn quickly became the class culture of before a challenging task.
Inaaya’s patience when interacting with her friends has been a powerful force of positivity when modelling pro-social skills. She listens carefully to the teachers’ sharing on how to befriend the people in her class and acts on the new knowledge.
Her other friends in class take cues from her and can often be heard using the phrases that Inaaya champions around the class, such as, “can you say it again‚” or ‚ “we can do it together‚” especially when Karen’s speech cannot be heard clearly, or if Karen shows hesitance doing a new activity.
In private conversations with her form & Mother Tongue Language teachers, Inaaya would inform her teachers that at times, she “also doesn’t know why‚” her friends would react in a certain manner. However, she has never stopped their differences from coming in between them and would continually find ways to calm her friends down by mirroring the actions of her teachers. *Children's names have been changed to maintain anonymity.
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