OYEA 2007: Lessons about Life, through Sports

An interview with OYEA 2007 winner, Mdm Huang Yiyan

Teaching PE isn’t only about ball games and having a good time in the sun. For Mdm Huang Yiyan at CHIJ Katong Convent, the challenge was to motivate her students to take an interest in healthy living. So even for something as potentially mundane as training for the 2.4 km NAPFA run, she jazzed up PE lessons with an improvised orienteering run, Amazing Race-style.

The students had fun – and ran well! But the more important lesson Mdm Huang hopes they will remember are the lessons in life and values that PE can teach them. “Sports teach us life lessons, like learning to persevere and focus on the goal ahead. Students can apply these to their studies as well as other areas of their lives,” she affirms.

It’s not only on the sporting field that Mdm Huang has an influence over her students.

Besides being the Acting Head of Department for PE and CCA, she also teaches Mathematics. Bringing lessons from different disciplines together thus comes naturally to her. And then there are those aspects of teaching that are important, no matter what subject or school one teaches in.

As the form teacher of an academically weak class, for example, she has been tireless in trying to find ways and means to motivate her students. “Many of the students planned to drop out from school as they had no interest in their studies. It was a trying year at first as I spent most of my time counselling and lending a listening ear to them, emailing and calling their parents to update them on their daughters’ progress,” Mdm Huang recalls.

But her determination and efforts paid off: “With all my regular phone calls and emails to the parents, they became my friends!” Together, parents and teacher could better find ways to help the students, who are now preparing for their ‘O’ Levels exams.

Little wonder then that Mdm Huang is well-liked by her students. When MediaCorp ran an island-wide contest to find the “Favourite Form Teacher” in 2001, she was nominated by her class – and eventually won the award.

Now she has the Outstanding Youth in Education Award under her belt as well. It could be that the gift for teaching’s simply in her blood – her father is a retired teacher as well – but Mdm Huang also gives due credit to the support of her colleagues.

Ultimately, her motivation and enjoyment comes from the simple things: ex-students remembering and greeting her at shopping malls; students doing well, such as when a former head prefect was selected to represent Singapore at the Global Young Leaders Conference in New York; and her daily interactions with students. “It’s gratifying to be able to teach and share something new with them,” she says, “and also gratifying when they can teach me something in return!”

Mdm Huang Yiyan, Miss Sukhjeet Kaur and Miss Esther Ong Chin Chin received the 2007 Outstanding Youth in Education Award (OYEA), in recognition of their passion and commitment to the teaching profession. Look out for the interviews with Miss Sukhjeet Kaur and Miss Esther Ong Chin Chin over the rest of this week.