First Week of January 2024: Short but Hectic

Had a pretty hectic 1st week of January.

Started off with a rather unusual dining etiquette workshop for Queensway Secondary on 2nd Jan, followed by an MBTI workshop for Beatty Secondary 5’s.

Re-designed the whole workshop to give them a more comprehensive and positive outlook on their future careers, as well as a lot of tips on getting a head start in their future work.

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The students expressed their appreciation. I hope that they learned something useful that they will remember and can put to use soon.

Following that, 2 days at Anchor Green Primary School, teaching them motivational and study skills. I get the sense that a number of them got something out of it.

Ended the week with the final session for the Student Leaders of Bowen Secondary, who will be facilitating their school’s Secondary 1 level camp.

Can’t be sure that I’ll be there, but I happened to bump into a student that I had taught in a primary school just a couple of months ago. He had graduated and was now in Bowen Secondary. Interesting.

Just came back from Singapore Mineral Fair - the first of 2024, with a bunch of stuff. Probably needn’t have bought so much, but I did. And I’m not displeased about it.

Put What You Know to Use, Whether it’s Professional or Not

Somehow, I've managed to put a lot of what I know to some professional use, whether it's my ability to write, edit, speak, teach, take good photos, or, most unexpected of all, my love for gemstones.

I suppose honing skills that can be used in multiple domains is never a waste, even if you don't consciously think that you are developing those skills.

And perhaps that's the secret - to unconsciously improve them, not necessarily as part of your professional life.

The Benefits of Being Master Of Your Own Programme.

It's just one day before the enrichment programme runs, and an idea sparks in my head for an activity that, though straightforward, connects 3 of the modules that I'm teaching. That's pretty hard to come by!

Because I'm the one who wrote the programme, I can integrate it right away and see if it works as well as I think it will.

And because it's a simple activity that doesn't require a lot of additional materials and because I don't have to ask anyone to provide these materials or explain it, it's also much easier to implement.

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, I love testing new activities out.

I can't be sure this (or a modified form) will stay in the programme or in another that I've written, but, at the very least, I'll know that it's been tried out and I would have seen the response first-hand.

Very exciting! I love my work.

If You Cannot Explain It, You Don't Know Know It Enough.

There was a mentoring programme when I was in Temasek Polytechnic studying Biotechnology.

Senior students were matched with their juniors, who could seek their help in understanding difficult subject concepts.

The programme was meant to benefit both the juniors and the seniors (and, I suppose indirectly, the lecturers as well).

As one of my lecturers put it,

"If you cannot explain your subject to someone else, you don't know it well enough."