Term 1 Week 1

It's been pretty draining already, even for the 1st week of school, though considering that I've never fully cooled down during the holidays I'm still warmed up to handle the intensity.

Last Sun - was chionging more admin stuff and looking through Alkenes Tut and SPA Expt 1 in preparation for the week. Finished at about 1.30am but I couldn't sleep until about 3am. Kept tossing and turning in bed thinking about my expectation talks during lec and tut in an effort to motivate the students and impress upon them the importance of being consistent and putting in their max effort, amongst other stuff.

Mon - Pretty ok, quite pleased with my opening lecture in terms of my talk and lecture, trying to mix seriousness with doses of humour/suanning at times to keep them awake, e.g.
(1) When talking about their chem files I said that some of those I've seen last year were DIIIIIS-graceful. I said I've changed from "disgusting" to "disgraceful" since it's 2009 so new year, new vocabulary.
(2) Showed them a picture of a cute sheep with droopy eyelids and suan some of them who are like that sheep, dreamy and passive, with a stoned look during lessons and how they should be more like the ox, this being the year of the Ox.
(3) Told them to learn how to manage their time due to the many different commitments so they need to cut down on their "Other Stuff", for example, blogging.
(4) Told them to be "even more serious" and that we think the best of them and that they are already serious (though some may not be).
(5) Told them to learn their lecture notes properly to internalise the content and not read it like some Harry Potter book or Twilight series.
(6) Was joking about some fire extinguisher thing during my opening lecture slide, though when I thought about it again, I was wondering if some might have thought I was insensitive. Hopefully not, didn't mean to come across that way.
(7) My favourite and something that I really wanted to say (if the occasion arose) since I thought about it during the holidays... When asking a student a simple question who couldn't answer, I said, "You're already in JC2. You need to raise your standards! Right now, the only things you've raised are my eyebrows!"

Tue - Lecture was disappointing by my standards and I was greatly irritated when I couldn't pause an animation because I was in the writing mode and when I rehearsed beforehand I was in the normal mode so I didn't encounter problems earlier on. Also, because the animation didn't match exactly to the example in the lecture notes, things weren't so clear. Maybe we need to develop our own animation next time, if possible... Anyway I didn't feel good for the rest of the day and my friends said I was too hard on myself since technical difficulties crop up at times so yeah, guess I shouldn't let my perfectionist streak get to me too much. Learn from mistakes and move on!

Wed - Had Chrystal programme workshop again in the morning before lessons, which now starts at 9.35am in view of the Staff electives that we can take up. I signed up for social dancing though I'm not so sure what they'll be teaching - hope it's not line dancing though cos I think that's quite uncle-auntie kind of dance!

Had our 1st session of CCA where I told them my new expectations and also gave another motivational talk and to write down something like what they want ultimately in their testimonial so that we can work towards it and to put my foot down on certain behaviour. Was very fun, esp. when playing Taboo to destress cos the people gave a lot of funny descriptions and expressions (though by right it's not allowed). Can't rem offhand what they did but I laughed my head off at their antics. Rattlesnake was also very interesting and I laughed when they first took out the magnets and some of them screamed when the magnets all started clumping together cos they're super strong magnets. Sitting Ducks was also a very cute game, kinda like Family Business concept, but much simpler and I figure would be much more appealing to kids cos the cards are darn cute.

Thu - Dr. William Tan came down to MJC again for another motivational talk and this time it was even better. I enjoyed his video presentation at the start because it told his life story rather than him telling us, as he did the last time. Josh Groban's "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)" was also a very powerful and apt song for his video so it was very engaging.

He also spoke about the 4D's that we all need to achieve our goals - Desire (intense burning desire to want something), Decision (making the right decisions that leads towards our goals), Determination (to overcome the many setbacks in our way), and Discipline (to follow through our plans and not allow ourselves to be distracted). Hopefully the students would've been inspired by his life story to do something more meaningful with their lives rather than wasting their time away on meaningless stuff.

Fri - Finally the end of the week and Nina told me a very lame but pretty funny joke. It goes something like, "How are angels made?" (Answer at the end of my post) We had an IT workshop from 2-5pm and it was quite tiring though it was quite fun with the people around me cos I was v. competitive and wanted to finish doing the things asap by reading through the manual myself and doing my independent work so I was furiously flipping the pages, much to their amusement.

Went for dinner with some of my friends after that and saw Pangyu and Leon on the way out of MJC. Dinner at The Manhattan Fish Market was pretty good and we chit-chatted about the people around us. Pretty fun but too bad more people couldn't join in cos it was arranged at the last minute.

Miscellaneous happenings during the week - Shared my Robin Hood analogy in class about curly arrows, which I thought was quite funny (at least they laughed about it) and good for remembering an impt concept. SPA was draining cos of the long briefing as usual for the 1st lesson and the best part was starting the expt and going through the answers for Skill D and when I tried to draw a datalogger with my minimal artistic skills. Also had a little joke with them about the tough financial times so we need to cut down on wastage of reagents and avoid breaking glassware.

Oh, and I've also been forcing myself to do some exercise when I wake up at about 5.40am, just simple abdominal exercises to get some blood circulation and build up more core strength since I don't have the energy to exercise when I get home. I shall try to emulate Dr William Tan and incorporate pushups into my morning workout - 450 pushups is scary though! Haha, must set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely) - Let's start from 20 pushups this coming week first. =)

Sat-Sun - Slept well to catch up on my lack of sleep during the weekdays and marking test papers, which was sadly, by and large very disappointing to say the least. I also have 4D's about my feelings which I may share in lecture if other tutors also feel the same way.

That's one thing about teaching that's very xian for me - the fact that you can give your best but you may not get the best back. I can accept that not everyone is smart but I can't accept the lack of effort shown by some. And worst of all, some think you're being an * when you chide them for not giving their best. Thankfully there're also the angels who will try their best and I guess that's partly what keeps me in MJC for now, together with my friends in the workplace and the gradual improvements in the working environment.

Ah well, looks like it's back to work again - gonna look through their Arenes tutorials. Will take a little break later on at Bugis cos I'm gonna go for a little walk as well as to buy donuts for 2 students who answered my questions during my Arenes lecture last year.

Hope I don't fall sick, esp. this week cos seems like a lot of ppl are having flu, sore throat, etc. Updates next weekend! Oh ya, the answer to Nina's joke: "Halogenation" LOL. =)