Why do I want to be a teacher?

That's a question that many people have asked me. These people ranged from the MOE interviewers, to my friends and to my family members.

I think every teacher must really ask themselves that.

Honestly, there can be many reasons. And there's really no right or wrong. It's just a matter of opinion.

For instance,

1) Some go into teaching because it pays well.

2) Some go into teaching because it is a stable job (iron rice bowl).

3) Some go into teaching because they simply love teaching.

4) Some go into teaching because they love children and youths.

It is true that money and job stability can be part of the reasons why we choose teaching, but if they are our main source of our motivation, I think it's hard to last long in the education scene. Perhaps that holds true for every job too.

We need to be passionate about the job that we have. Then we can last long.

I really respect those senior teachers, who have taught for so many years. I believe most of them really have the passion for it.

Well, I chose teaching because I want to be MAD - Make A Difference to my students (positively, of course, I hope)!

Keep On Persevering & Inspiring Community

Last Friday evening, we had our first every KOPI-C Event at Touch Centre! For those who don't know, KOPI-C stands for "Keep On Persevering & Inspiring Community", and it's for teachers-to-be or actual teachers. The event was very successful, and we saw more than 50 teachers turning up for it!!!

It was really a nice evening of sharing by established teachers. We were very honoured to have Shirley (a President Award for Teachers receiptent), Lay Leng (Most Caring Teacher Award recepitent) and Daryl (Maths level head of Yusof Ishak Sec) to share with us their valuable teaching experiences and philosophies.

Our Inspirational Teachers!!! -> Lay Leng, Shirley and Daryl

It was truly an inspirational evening! And a relaxing one too!! There will be more KOPI-C events in the future. Last Friday was just a start. We will keep everyone informed. Remember to visit the KOPI-C Blog for latest updates!

Below are some photos of last Friday's event!! =)

Our Wonderful Receptionists!! -> Kelly & Melissa

Our Eloquent MC!! -> Debbie

My Friends and I!! -> Me, Yi Fei, Tze Kun, Ronghua, Heng Leng & Junhao

Our Memorable Door Gifts!! Thanks to Issac and Melissa Quah

Good food on that day too!!

姜(jiang)还是老的辣

For the sake of those who's not very proficient in Chinese, the literal translation of "姜还是老的辣" is that an old ginger (姜 jiang) is more spicy than a young ginger. Basically what it means is that someone who's older, would have an edge over someone who's younger.


Today I just went for my appointment at CGH to see the skin specialist. The skin specialist that I iniitally saw was a gentleman who's around mid-thirties. He doesn't seemed very sure of my condition. He told me what he think might have happened. Then he asked me to go and see the senior doctor opposite his room later. Obviously I was quite surprised.

I waited for a while, and the nurse led me into another room. There was a much older doctor, who's a consultant in his sixties (means very very senior doctor), and the young doctor whom I initially saw was there too. The consultant took a look at my rashes, and asked me a few questions. Then he was quite sure of my condition, and he used me to teach the young doctor what happened. The latter listened patiently.

I was very intrigued by the whole process - that the older doctor was imparting his experience to the young doctor and the young doctor was listening patiently. The photo belows show a good mix of old and young doctors.
I think that older people really have a lot of experience & wisdom that we young people don't have (yah, I'm quite young too, haha). If we willing to be humble and learn from them, we would be able to avoid some of the mistakes they have made before.

I Not Stupid... Err.. Intelligent

Today, I just did an online Multiple Intelligence test. The result for the test is shown above. For those who don't know, there's this guy called Howard Gardner who believes that people have Multiple Intelligences (MI). He categorized them as Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Music, Natualistic, Body/Kinesthetic, Visual/Spatial, Mathematics and Linguistic.

For example, in my test, it says that I'm someone whose strengths are in interpersonal skills (means I can relate to people well) and mathematics (which implies I'm logical). I think those two things are good to have as I'm going to be a teacher. But of course, my weaknesses are in the areas of linguistic (which means I can't write or speak very well) or and music (yah, I'm tone deaf).

You can find out more about yourself. Try it!! Do the test at this website.

My leader in church shared this with me, which I found to be very true. After knowing which intelligences we are weak at, it doesn't mean that we become resigned to it. Instead, we should actually work hard at it.

In life, we might suddenly be thrown into situations whereby we need to make use of the intelligences that we're weakest at. If we can persevere on, we might see improvements. And even if we didn't improve much in that area, our character will grow because we persevere.

Intelligences and giftings are good. But a strong character is even better.

Good News & Bad News

As we all know, there has always been friction between Vatican City and Israel.

One day, the Israelites wanted to organize a friendly golf game with the Vaticans so as to ease tensions between the two states. The Vaticans came together and disucssed who to send for the golf game. They really wanted to win and beat the Israelites.

One Vatican cardinal suggested, "I heard that there's this very good golf player by the name of Jack Nicklaus. Why don't we make him a cardinal and get him to represent us against the Israelites? With him on our side, we sure can win."

Hence, Jack Nicklaus became Cardinal Jack Nicklaus. He went for the golf game and came back to report to the Pope later on. He told the Pope, "I have one good news and one bad news for you, your Holiness. Which one do you want to listen to first?"

"Good news, of course!" the Pope replied.

"I had a great golf game that day. My shots were accurate and my driving was fantastic. In fact, I think that must have been one of the best games I had ever played!"

"That's wonderful! Then what is the bad news?" the Pope pressed on.

"Well, I still lost the golf game by 3 strokes to Rabbi Tiger Woods."


'Sometimes, we are given both good news and bad news. We often just want to hear the good news and ignore the bad news. But the fact remains, we need both the good and the bad news to give us a complete picture of what's happening.'

Rashes, rashes, rashes...

I have been down with rashes for the past few days. My upper body is filled with many many many small & itchy red spots.

To be honest, I can't bear to look at myself in the mirror without any shirt or t-shirt. And I can't help but scratch them sometimes.

I went to a private doctor 2 days ago. The doctor gave ne some cream to apply and some pills to take. However, both medication didn't help.

Today, I couldn't take it any more. I decided to go to a polyclinic and get a referral to see a skin specialist.

I was at the polyclinic and the doctor told me that I might only be able to see the skin specialist next year because of the long queue. I was shocked. Next year.. Gosh.

However, when the nurse helped me make my appointment, I was in for a plesant surprise. I was actually able to get an appointment next Thursday at CGH. I was so thankful for it!! :)

I have decided that I will not let my circumstances overcome me. But I will overcome my circumstances. I choose not to allow the itchy rashes on my body stop me from performing my daily routines. (Yah, but I will not be silly and do anything that will make me sweat as that would make my rashes worse)

On top of that, I'm really glad and thankful that I can see the skin specialist next Thursday, and not next year. Somebody once told me, "In life, pain is inevitable. But misery is a choice".

Are you living in misery now because of some unplesant circumstances? Choose to overcome them instead. Choose to see the positive out of the negative.

Be like an eagle and soar above every circumstance.

Perservere on & Serve!!

Yesterday morning, I brought a group of youths to Toa Payoh to clean the homes of some elderly people. The first house that we went to belonged to a Malay lady.

As she can only converse in Malay, she couldn't understand us and we couldn't understand her much. Communication was a problem indeed. But thank God she let us in and we were able to clean her house.

However, it wasn't easy. She tried to tell one of the youths, Timothy how she wants the toilet to be cleaned. Due to communication problem, we couldn't really understand her. She was quite frustrated and sometimes will raise her voice. The youths and I tried to be as patient as possible and do what she wants us to do.

Eventually, at the end, the Malay lady saw that we were sincere about serving her and she was really very thankful for us. "Terimah Kasih" she repeated again and again. We were also glad that she was glad. We then came together and took a nice photo. It was a very good experience for all of us.

In life, there will be many people that we meet who appear unloveable at first. But if we perservere on and serve them, they'll eventually know that we care, and change. For me, as I'm going to be a teacher soon, I know that I will definitely meet students that are not so easy to handle. But if I perservere on and serve them, they will know that I truly care.

Do you have anyone in mind that appears unloveable? (Especially your family members) If so, perserve on and serve!

Community Living

All these photos were taken on the day of my graduation earlier this June in NUS. As I look at them, I was really reminded of my NUS days.

I realised that all of the friends that I took photos with, they have touched my life one way or another. I really want to say a very big THANK YOU!!

As I reflect, it is really true. We need to be in a community. I had a great community of friends when I was in NUS. Life wasn't boring at all while I was there. In fact, it was filled with joy and laughter despite all the tests and exams.

Are you in a community that gives you hope, strength and encouragement when you truly need it?

For all the teachers out there, the KOPI-C event is really to help us build a community of teachers who will share our experiences (good or bad) and be an encouragement to one another. It is simply not easy to be a good teacher nowadays. We need one another! (Haha.. Resources sharing is also important of coz!)

Come and drink KOPI-C!!

Dear teachers, are you apprehensive about going to school everyday? Are you tired out my classroom management rather than finding joy in teaching? Are you running out of creative juices for lesson plans? ..... Don't drown your sorrows alone! Come check out KOPI-C!

Teaching is no longer a lonesome routine with KOPI-C, where teachers can gather, share ideas and encourage each other as they journey together in their teaching career.

Inviting all teachers out there!!! Come along for a chill out session with fellow teachers on 17th November 2006!

Limited seats available. $5 per person. Cool drinks and cool food. A time of fun, laughter and inspiration. Networking among fellow teachers (gathering of FUN teachers).

Not to be missed! Register by 9th Nov 2006 via email! Drop and email to Guanghan at kinchio@yahoo.com

Give me a 2nd chance...

Today, as I was driving home late at night, I wanted to get home as quickly as possible. I stopped my car at a junction, waiting to turn right.

There was this car in front of me. When it was time for us to turn right and go, the car in front didn't move at all. At first, I thought the driver didn't know that he can go. Hence I flashed (or highbeamed) him once to get his attention.

Now, that didn't work. I became a bit irritated. I flashed him a few more times, and when there's still no response, I sounded my car-horn a few times. It became clear that the driver made a mistake. He wanted to go straight, but he stopped at the lane that only allows right-turning.

I was thinking that even if he did make a mistake, he should still turn right. That's the traffic rules, in a sense. I flashed and horned him a few more times, hoping that he would co-operate.

To my horror, instead of turning right, the car in front went straight ahead when it was still red light (to go straight)!! The driver actually broke the law. After that, I quickly turn my car to the right and went home.

Upon relfection, I realized that I was pressurizing the driver to either turn right (which is what he didn't want) or go straight ahead. I thought the driver wouldn't break the law even if I flashed and horned him. I was wrong. He actually did. I could have indirectly caused an accident.

Couldn't I just be patient and wait for the next time the traffic light turns green for me to turn right again? Perhaps the driver in front wasn't familiar with the roads in that area, and hence made that mistake. I myself do make many horrendous mistakes when I'm in unfamiliar territory. Perhaps, I can just give him a second chance.

In life, too often than not, we don't give people chance to explain. We judged and condemmed far too fast. And that might cause them to do something rash and unexpected. Today's incident taught us that we need to give others a second chance. Furthermore, sometimes we ourselves can be the one who needs that second chance.

Would you give another person a second chance?