Nothing like accidental entertainment and coincidental encounters

from a nursey kid's imagination into an artist's rendition of it.

a working postman

into beautiful letter-posting angels

Doodle for Unity.

By Selangor FM

Venue: University of Malaya, KL

Date: 2 - 28 September 2013

International Jazz Festival at UM, KL, 14 Sept 2013

Saturday, 14 Sept 13'

A long weekend here. With approximately 8 hours to spend.
A shortcut route to go for a movie by myself.
An advertisement at an entrance.
A gallery walk.
A familiar name in a guestbook.
A spontaneous lunch with a friend who insisted he drives this time
An outdoor stage.
A coincidental encounter with a tutor-friend and a course junior, and add-on compliments!
2 free access tickets into a jazz show.

Sunday, 15 Sept 13'
A nearly-empty parking lot
Breakfast with an ex-roommate, with a beautiful photo taken together
A new mall to explore with a coursemate
A roadside stall selling lala porridge.
An indecisive message to send.

Monday, 16 Sept 13'
A finger-licking breakfast with a graduating aunt.
A debate on religion philosophy
A lunch meet-up with a friend, relived the debate with this more pious friend.
An overloaded brain.
Another unexpected encounter with a couple.
A drive home with a 40 min jam.
Hobbits: An unexpected journey
A weekend experience exchanged.

中秋节快乐

celebration at quarters

celebrated with cousin's family

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2012

1 year and half a century later~

courtesy of youngest sis, Shern

He may not know how to express his love for us that well, but when he does, EPIC!
Happy Birthday, Papa!
I love you!!

Of greens and a housemate

Sharon n I

jumping shot (a must it seems)

~time of arrival~

Green is a soothing colour... Indeed...

Happy Teacher's Day 2012

You believed earth is round because of your teachers.
You know 1+1 is 2 because of your teachers.
You know the 2 facts above can be argued upon because you are educated by teachers.
Also, you can read this because of your teachers.
For every knowledge transferred, 2 characters are involved; one will be the teacher, sharing; and another a student, learning.

To all educators worldwide, for the fact that you are going to school every weekday to educate.
To all my teachers and mentors, for molding me into who I am now.
To all Teach For Malaysia fellows, for not taking education as a course to study but chose it as a career (for 2 years and perhaps more) and bracing through storms every single day.
To my educator cum parents, Pa and Mie, for nearly everything in my life.

"Thank you" is the only 2 words I can offer now.

Crazaay Night

Had one on Saturday, 12th May, which is also the last day of semester 1 for my Post-Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE).
Like any other undergrad, we celebrated the break.
A group of us went to RedBox at IOI Mall to sing our hearts (or throat) out.
Sang a good 5 hours, it was insane!
Had great fun but K.O. right the next day.
Worthied!

To the edge and back

sunrise on the way to school

I went to the edge... of my school field... and back.
I jogged... a little... and panted a lot.
It feels great to sweat it out, just like my housemate, Sharon said.
This is week seems to be the awesomest out of all weeks here.
Monday blues was neutral-ed with Tuesday as a holiday (Labour's Day) ^^
Came Wednesday which was already half the week gone. (and I slept from Wed-5pm to Thu-5am >.<)
Thursday was a short-er day while Friday is the shortest!
The cherry on top: I have the weekend to myself!!
Felt so free I actually manage to get more things done.. Kinda...
Got books marked, not a lot but at least finally managed to get some marked.

Finally had a cool meter going for 1USM. Did it within 5min or so.
Gonna give away 2 Trg-Senyum Sokmo Tshirts.
Gotta pick 2 awesome kids for it!
Things seem to be going well. So I'm gonna enjoy my day tomorrow, TGIF!!
Not gonna let anyone ruin it! =D

Laws of attraction indeed!

Going to school feeling more positive.
Getting things done kinda according to plan, which, thank goodness, I have.
Aaaaand... A student messaged me and told me I'm in his top 5 list of favourite teachers!
Another teacher in school complimented me for my seem-to-be-adapting behaviour and attitude!
*basking in the proud moment*
**Power UP**

I sel~fish in class

I am selfish and evil and disguised as a teacher.

Muahahahaha~

I taught fractions and did a little survey in class, which indirectly is an ego-booster for myself.

I did a data collection of their favourite subject in school which will lead to writing of fractions and drawing diagrams of the fractions.

Number of students: 20.

Number of students that wrote Maths and ICTL as their favourite subject: 8 and 6, which equals to 14.

I teach them both Maths and ICTL. XP

EGO BOOSTED! FTW!!

my pace

for once, got my pace right!
sacrificed a lil time off my schedule... plan n re-plan my sleeping time, which just kept being postponed.
But guess what?! I got work done and the postponing of my sleep time should be worthwhile!
Now just need a pace for marking papers n books.
FTK!

My kids fuel me!!!

Non-academic analysis. I like to think of this as a refilling of "fuel" for what I am now doing.
I am starting this "on-book" conversations with my kids now. It is also a nice way to help me keep my kids occupied when they finish their practices quick.  They write how they feel about getting their answers correct during guided practice. These are some of those who wrote to me. I shall reply them as I mark their assessments in their books. How cool is that?! A conversation with the teacher, in their books! And the teacher replies!
It's like Tom-Riddle's diary in Harry Potter!! In a good way of course...
They got it now, hopefully they really show mastery in their assessment too!

This is what drives me! Knowing they actually understood what I taught and like Maths because they now know that they can master it. Because of them, I shall strive more. For they will be the one running the world soon and the world should be a better place, for you and for me...

May the Dragon ROAR this year!

May peace, health, prosperity and happiness always be with you and your family.
Spend some time with your loved ones and indulge yourself in some great snacks this new year!
Avoid gluttony though and avoid wasting food too...
Happy Chinese New Year and Have an AWESOME Dragon Year, yallz!

Music saves the day!

Never underestimate the power of blasting instrumental music in class.
I thought the kids would not buy it. Instrumental music sounds lame and old-style... Or so I thought they would think.
But guess what?! Miracle happened!
I requested 5 minutes of silence before I can allow music into the class.
We did subtracting using our own fingers. They had to stay silent but showed me they got the correct number when I checked how many fingers are closed or opened.
It was kinda cute, cos I stayed kinda silent too, only nodding and putting a thumbs-up sign if they were correct.
Amazing effect!!! They were learning too! I might missed out a few but most of them got it while I walked around the class checking their fingers.
Then, I requested them to copy the questions on the board and try to finish it silently while the music is being played. Music ON!
Track:
1. Howl's moving castle theme song
2. Aerith's Theme - Final Fantasy 7
3. Kaze no toori michi (Totoro theme song) - Joe Hisashi
4. Romance de amor - Richard Clayderman
5. By My Side - David Choi
6. Valentine - Kina Grannis

Students in class continued staying silent and putting effort in answering the questions given. I went around checking and marking their answers as they answered. They raised hands to ask for help and they whispered their inquiries to me when I stood next to them. AWESOME!!!
FYI, they were the most overly-active kids in the whole form! FTW!! FTK!!!

However, I released them too early, confused by the school schedule. One of my kids went and disturbed the next class and caused a HUGE scene!!! My bad~ so sorry~ ='(
Note to self: Must prep extra questions for seriously fast-learners!! and get blasting speakers...

SMK Juasseh

Life has been hectic and swell at the same time.

I'm blogging in the midst of planning lessons for tomorrow. 

My kids deserve a lot more than I am giving, and I will better myself day by day.

Tomorrow will be my first real lesson in Maths.

Diagnostics will be marked as soon as I am free, but lessons come first.

I'm not sure if I am just cheating myself so that I don't stress out, but my 2UPM kids are doing better by the day.

The number of listeners I get in my class now is more compared to my first week.

One use-to-be-rowdy kid actually nudged his friend to not be disrespectful (kurang ajar) cos the teacher is in front. AAAWWW... *melts* he got teased a little by his friends when I thanked and complimented him for that. 

When I see progress in culture, I will see progress in learning. Right? 

I trust that they do want to do well, and my pep talk seem to work. Hope it works for all my other classes as well.

I leave you with serene scenes from my balcony.

Spectacular sunset from my balcony

My school for these 2 years, or maybe more?

I love singing Christmas songs!!

I love them! Christmas songs!!
I love harmonizing for caroling!
And I get warm and fuzzy when a stranger tells us that we sing well...
FYI, my friends and I were just queuing to go on the cable car to Genting. We were self-entertaining ourselves and started singing. Caught up in our own crazy world, practising our caroling songs, when this uncle guy complimented us. Aaawwww...

This is one random year I got to do this, don't know when else I can sing loudly in public with friends anymore after this. One memorable moment I'll never forget!

Baby step to becoming a teacher

Teach For Malaysia (TFM) Training/Institute has been on for 2 weeks.
I may or may not have mentioned this, but I am very honoured to be on board as a TFM fellow and contributing towards the education sector in my beloved country.
I'm very amazed and surprised, with myself and all 49 other fellows and the TFM staffs for still being able to maintain smiles and laughter.
Kem SKORlah will be happening in 2 days time, on this coming Monday.
Here we are, on a Saturday, photocopying diagnostic test papers, catching up on lesson plans, classroom culture management plans, preparing colourful charts and diagrams to kick off and boost the excitement of the students who missed their holidays for this camp.
Here I am, drawing cute lil graphics and diagrams on my mini assessment for my students.
Work will continue tomorrow, a Sunday. But I can ensure you, although there may be butterflies, dragonflies, beetles and bugs in my tummies, I shall still go on with a smile.

Salute to everyone in TFM for being so energetic all the time and feeding my drive to walk down this path together.

My dreamworld

Where work and play goes hand-in-hand. A new terminology for it shall form.
Weekend and weekdays ceased to exist.
7 days a week is a continuous activity filled with everything positive and nice, just a hint of negativity to allow comparison of what is great and what is not, in all aspects, be it physically, mentally, emotionally, intellectually, morally, etc...

Dreams do come true, right?

AWESOME SEND-OFF!!

courtesy of Joshua Chew

Memories of the 3 years in UM kept flashing in my mind...
Flooded with nostalgic feelings now and then.
All the friendship I've made, all the fun experience, joy and pain (mostly joy), all the crushes I had, the learning and sharing, the smiles and laughter I've seen and heard, the love I've seen grown...
It was a super-duper fantastical, end-with-a-bang, wonderfully memorable send-off on my official-final-day-as-a-undergraduate!
I can't thank all my friends enough for the colours they have painted in my university-life-canvas.
My apologies for all my misbehaviour towards any of you.

To all who graduated with me, congratulations and best wishes in your future undertakings!
To all who had graduated and still came back for the celebration, and to all coming-soon-graduates, Thank you is an understatement of how I want to express my feelings.
I'm missing all of you already.

Life's short; candles burn, brief;
Fear not of death but life unlived.
(Mine is well-lived with all of you in it!)

Lots of love,
Juin

Speechlessly touched!!

My very close friend being proposed to on her graduation day in UMT. 2 Oct 2011.
Congratulations. All the built up lactic acid these 2 weeks, travelling and all... absolutely worthwhile by just thinking of this occasion.
Double joy on your convocation, Feng!!

SHE is one of the reason I have to come home~

Pantai Pandak. About 30min from home.

She used to be hidden. Like our (and a handful of other locals who know about this) very own private beach.

Coming here in the evening, shades of pretty blue greets you, and behind you, rays of sunlight peep through the clouds, producing glorious mixture of colours.

I'll let the pictures do the talking now.