Speaking at LLiBrary

Today, I spoke alongside Eugene Seah and Claudia Ong on Personal Branding. As it is Eugene's specialty subject, I had a little research to do so I would do the topic justice.

The talk itself was rather short, at an hour. It was meant to be a lunchtime seminar, so participants could come in during their lunch hour to benefit. From what I understand, these events will occur every Thursday at the same time - 12.30 pm to 1.30 pm.

I met Kevin, who runs these lunchtime events for the National Library Board (NLB), and is already planning far ahead and looking for speakers for 2017.  It's certainly an intriguing avenue to expand into and I'll keep in touch with him.

After the session, I got to talking to a few of the participants and one of them explained that she was exploring a work path that is similar to what I am doing now. I offered to link her up with one of the companies that I work with. Hopefully, this will be of benefit to her.

Speaking at the event was good experience and a great opportunity to meet other people and to add value to their lives. It's something that I intend to continue doing.

Here's to many more future events to touch lives and change mindsets!

Updates!

It's been awhile!

This being close to the beginning of the school holidays, it's been a really busy period as schools are starting to ramp up end-of-year programmes.

At the same time, I am preparing for the final touches of my book. The manuscript is done, but there are a few other details, like back cover text and so on, to submit for editing.

I'll also be a guest speaker with Eugene Seah on the 20th of October (tomorrow) at Lifelong Learning Institute, 12.30 pm - 1.30 pm.

Many things are happening near as the year comes to a close. Exciting stuff!

Major Project This Week

I just ended a major project this week - teaching a series of Forensic Science workshops at a prominent local primary school (yes, primary school students in Singapore are learning pretty advanced stuff).

There being five different classes, each had its unique class culture and interesting individuals. Some were more united as a class, while others were clique-y or slightly fragmented. Some were faster on information uptake while others preferred to simply experience the activities.

As such, different teaching styles needed to be adopted for different classes. Certain concepts could be elaborated upon for certain classes while others needed to be skipped altogether for brevity.

Of course, as a result of a personal teaching style preference, the teacher will appeal more to certain types of students, and not quite as much to others.

All in all, it was a great reminder to be versatile in when teaching different groups, as well as to be mindful of the needs of my learners.

Finding Key Result Areas (From The Introvert Teacher)

As teachers, we not only want our learners to come away with new knowledge and skills but we also want to be a positive influence in their lives. We want to make an impact on them.

What, then, is the skill set we need in order to make the largest impact? Also, how do we perform these skills with excellence?

You may not have the skill set yet, or your skills could be at a low level of competency. Hence, development of the skill set is as important as identifying it.

How do we get this going? Let’s find out:

1) Write a list of the things you do in your work on a day-to-day basis.

You should do this for a fair period of time – two to three weeks at least.

For example, I research my topic and produce presentation slides for my sessions, procure useful videos, prepare for my session mentally and logistically, travel to my destination of teaching, start the lesson, go through my presentation, conduct activities, check for learning and evaluate my lesson.

What about you?

2) Answer this question for each of the listed things: ‘Why am I doing this?’

This boils down to your personal motivation for your tasks. If you cannot find a good reason for doing them, either discard them or delegate them to someone who is better at doing them.

3) Answer this question next: ‘What is a better or more efficient way to do this?’

Once you’ve come up with something, can you do it that way? Sometimes, we are encumbered by red tape and other obligations. It isn’t always possible to do things in the most efficient manner, but if you can, by any means, then do so.