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.

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."

Live Classes Are WAY Better Than Virtual Ones. Change My Mind?

Not too long ago, I was back in a classroom, teaching live.

Yes, everyone had masks on and inter-mingling wasn't "allowed", but it was miles better than running the class online.

I'm no fan of virtual versions of hands-on activities, because a lot of the learning points and, let's face it, fun, are in the unpredictability of what may happen and how your group members will react.

Dissecting a virtual mouse is nowhere near the learning experience of dissecting a real one (that has been humanely killed).

So, I'm glad to be back after so many months.

Based on what I heard, my students had a memorable learning experience.

And that’s what makes it all worth it.

Making Mistakes Isn't a Death Sentence. Learn From Them. Help Others Learn From Theirs.

I make tonnes of mistakes.

Not every second of every day of my life, but while at work, I may spell something incorrectly, mess up a presentation slide, or mispronounce something when I'm teaching.

In my interactions with people, I may speak too quickly, say the wrong thing, or commit some social faux pas that I wasn't aware of.

Even while doing something as innocuous as ordering food, I may get a meat dish that's sweet (I know a lot of locals in SG love sweet sauces on meat dishes, but I hate them with a passion) or forget to tell the lady boss at the soy curd / drink stall to make mine with less sugar.

Each mistake I make gives me an opportunity to learn so I don't repeat it (until or unless it happens to slip my mind before I've formed a habit or I "get it").

I figured at some point that I should extend this opportunity to my students.

If they answer incorrectly, miss a step in their experiment that causes it to fail, or do the wrong thing at the wrong time, I get them to try again when they're ready.

Not all of them always take me up on my offer, but enough of them do that I've noticed it's not a trivial thing to them.

Perhaps they have always been harshly penalised for making mistakes, and this is a relief to them. I'm not sure.

Whatever the case, I want to keep giving them opportunities to learn and better themselves.

Because that's my job as an educator, isn't it?