The Teacher Commendation Election

 

 

 

Every year, the Staff Development Committee holds a teacher commendation election in collaboration with the Student Union. All students, and sometimes teachers, are invited to vote for their favourite teachers. The primary objective of this activity is to encourage students to express their gratitude to their hardworking teachers.

The 2 teachers who obtain the highest votes will be nominated to attend the government's teacher commendation ceremony held in September every year. In school, the top 5 teachers will be presented with a prize during the morning assembly by the current President of the Student Union. This also symbolizes the expression of appreciation from the student body.

Furthermore, all teachers will receive the number of votes they obtain in the election by email, providing some sort of indirect feedback to the teachers.

Different ways have been used to run the election. Some years ago the voting was voluntary. Students and teachers had to go to the school hall, show their student cards, obtain a ballot sheet, fill out the sheet and drop it into a ballot box. In recent years, thanks to the advancement of IT, students are given a voting sheet to mark in their classrooms during the morning assembly. Their votes will then be counted by an MC reader and the results of the ballot can be out almost instantly.

In 2008/09, the Student Union suggested commending knowledgeable and humourous teachers for their abilities in widening students' perspectives and their impressive teaching methodology in the classroom. Three teachers from each category were presented with special gifts by the SU president. Without surprise, students would enjoy the humourous teachers' class much while learn a lot from the most knowledgeable ones.

This year, however, the students were back to the basics. They would like to bestow their gratitude on the most enthusiastic and caring teachers. They also decorated a board to promote the campaign and to announce the results of the poll. You would not be surprised to find that our counselling teachers were on the list for caring teachers but the students also wanted to thank our Discipline master for his industry in teaching. They all have sharp eyes!