Begin with the end in mind

Coming home from yoga on Sunday morning, I saw one of the condo cleaners at work in the basement. This man was transferring the rubbish from the huge bin under the rubbish chutes into his cart. After this, I guess he would drive the rubbish to the bin centre for disposal. It is not a pleasant job, and it is often made worse by the loose rubbish, that is, rubbish that had not been placed in plastic bags and tied up. This morning, the sweeper had the unpleasant job of picking up bits of leftover food, wet and soggy tissues, and other types of yucky stuff with his hands. Not a nice thing to have to do on a Sunday morning or on any other morning.

All residents have received reminders about bagging rubbish before disposing of it, but I guess not many people take heed of this. Maybe they think they can do what they like since they pay a maintenance fee. And it’s really quite easy to forget the rubbish once you’ve put it into the chute and closed the lid; out of sight, out of mind. But do we think about what happens to the rubbish at the other end of the chute and of the people who have to pick up after us because we were too lazy to put our rubbish into a bag? So unwittingly, we have made life harder for someone else because of our thoughtlessness.

And I am reminded of Stephen Covey’s begin with the end in mind. Clearly people who litter, people who don’t bag their rubbish, and people who thrown glass bottles down the rubbish chutes do not have the end in mind. Certainly the end is more than some convenience for them; the consequences of their actions also go a long way beyond merely inconveniencing a cleaner. And I am not just thinking of the politically correct and tired slogans about saving the environment.

But what has this got to do with the classroom? As a teacher, do we bear in mind the consequences of our teaching decisions for our children and for teachers in the next levels who will receive the children into their class in the coming years? Many consequences can and do arise from our decisions and actions. For instance, if you don’t teach a child proper penmanship, the child may end up a slow writer and may hate to write in the upper levels. If you don’t ensure that your child can read while she is with you, this problem will grow out of control later. If you don’t insist on certain standards of behaviour or demand quality work, these may not be learnt in the later years when the curriculum becomes more crowded. But like the person who dropped his leftover chicken bones down the chute, no one is there to witness what you do in class. But whatever you didn’t do becomes your colleagues’ load to bear.

Like chucking rubbish down a chute, it’s convenient to ignore some issues when teaching in favour of what seems more urgent. It is also easy for us to forget what we did not do after the children have left our class and our charge. In the upper levels, it’s easy to focus on just drilling children for the exams and neglect other broader issues related to life and education at large. If we are all attentive to what we need to do each at our own level, instead of allowing ourselves to be drowned by the curriculum, the exams or by other seemingly more urgent issues, we won’t be treating our colleagues like the cleaner who has to pick up what we have carelessly discarded or failed to take care of. We don’t want to be treated like that, do we? So, take a long view. When making any decision about teaching, begin with the end in mind.

A New Year Makeover

Recently, I organised a makeover session for my sisters-in law and my husband’s nieces because I was tired of giving them the same humdrum Christmas gifts. The session turned out to be quite a hit and the ladies, ranging from 24 to 58 years old, left the session with new ideas on how to improve their dressing styles. All made resolutions to overhaul their wardrobes and their looks for the coming year. Being properly groomed and dressed is not just a matter of being vain. Let’s face it; nowadays, looking the part is just as important as being able to do the job.

Every year, I do a personal makeover too. But this is not a matter of getting a new wardrobe or a new look. Instead, I give my courses and my teaching a makeover. I try to think of new ways to organise my courses and create new activities for my teachers. Sometimes I add new materials and throw out the old. Other times, I try to recall what has worked and what didn’t, and I trim the latter from my classes.

New teachers attending my course may not even know that I have modified or changed the course so it’s not for them that I do this makeover. It’s for me. A makeover gives me a fresh approach to the course; it keeps me interested and engaged in the subject. I often get asked about how teachers keep things interesting and fresh when they teach the same subject for over thirty years. I don’t know how others do it but for me, teaching is always exciting because I teach different students all the time. Meeting and working with different learners every year helps keep my job exciting because I can never predict how new students will react to me and to how I teach the subject. I remind myself that I am teaching people, not a dry subject or dry facts, and people are always unpredictable.

Every year too, I learn something new about what I am teaching, and this fresh understanding contributes to a novel approach to teaching the topic. So I develop more courses every now and then, and I try to deliver these in different ways. True, I sometimes fail, but this constant experimentation helps to keep the teaching spark alive.

So as you work your way into the new term, think about giving your teaching a makeover. I gave this topic some thought and came up with 8 ideas for you to consider here.

8 tips for giving your teaching a makeover.

1. Update your materials. Change your Powerpoint presentations. Create a new template for your worksheets or change the look of your materials. Don’t let them look exactly like last year’s.

2. Clean out your workspace and throw out stuff and papers you no longer need. There isn’t that much space in your cubicle anyway, and a cluttered cubicle only blocks the good chi from flowing smoothly.

3. Introduce a new routine into your classroom. If you’ve never read to your pupils, begin your lesson by doing this. If you’ve never made much use of your bulletin boards, begin posting some of your students’ work up there. Start taking pictures of your students and their work with your mobile phone camera. Do something you’ve never done before.

4. Pull out your notes from all the workshops you attended last year. Consciously apply one idea that you’ve learnt from the workshop into your lessons. Work at it for a term and see what results you get. Then begin working with another idea. Profit from all the time you’ve spent in professional development.

5. Read a book about your subject. If you are a literacy teacher, read a new book about teaching reading, writing or a related literacy topic. If you’ve always depended on one book as reference, make a conscious effort to look for another book.

6. Work together with a colleague to begin a reading group to actively read and discuss new ideas in teaching and learning. Working collaboratively to create new lesson plans, to co-teach or to do some action research are all ways to give your work a new dimension.

7. Join a professional organisation and try to be active in it. Being a part of a professional organisation says that you value the idea of a community of professionals with like minds.

8. Plan to attend a conference this year if you have never done so. And when you have attended one, offer to share your experience and learning at your staff contact time. Be the lifelong learner that you read about all the time.

I am sure you may have many other ideas about how you can give your work a makeover. Do share your ideas. And while you are mulling over the ideas I’ve suggested, may I add that a style makeover is not a bad idea too? Teachers should do their job well, and there’s no harm at all if they do this while looking good.

Read my column in TODAY!

You can find an edited version of my blog entry "And so on to P3" in the TODAY newspaper under the column "Spotlight on Learning". That's nice although I haven't got a copy of TODAY. But it's a great start to the work week so hurray!

Theme for 2011

It was New Year’s Day; we had gone for a long morning walk along the Macpherson park connector all the way towards Kallang River and had stopped at Bendemeer Road. We then decided to take a taxi to Serangoon Road for some breakfast. During the short trip, my husband’s phone fell out of his pocket and was left behind in the back seat of the taxi. Although we did the necessary reporting, we lost all hope of finding it by the time we reached home. That was not a good start to 2011. But everything happens for a reason, and my husband philosophically said that the lesson for him is not to be so attached to material things. Still, like all good lessons, there was a sting to it.

Later, I tried to imagine what the person who took the phone was doing with it. He (could be a she of course, but for convenience, I’ll say he) must be thrilled because it is a fairly new top of the range IPhone with some neat apps including Angry Birds. My husband had devoted days to reaching level 4 of the game. The person must also be looking at his pictures since my husband took many pictures with a new photo app, and the many parties we had offered numerous photo opportunities. And the person must think that he has had a great start to 2011 since he made such a good find. Ah well, I thought, maybe he needed the phone more than my husband.

But the incident reminded me of the time a snatch thief on a motorbike drove by my trishaw in Hanoi, and took away my purse with my hand phone in it. After a small tug of war, the strap broke, and he calmly drove off while we looked on helplessly. There was nothing to be done but to head on to our destination and do the necessary calls to cancel the credit cards etc. My husband congratulated me for being so calm but what else could I do? Again, I thought of the man going through the things in my little travel purse, and then laughing at the photos in my phone and listening to my eclectic selection of songs. I did feel a sense of loss but I told myself then that he probably needed it more than I did. It was his lucky day. Still, Hanoi left a bad taste in my mouth although my faith was restored when a Vietnamese woman I met went out of her way to help me filed a police report.

But the New Year loss left me thinking about my attitude to things and to life. I was a bit upset initially at my husband’s carelessness. But then I reminded myself that my husband is rarely careless. It’s just one of life’s unfortunate and random incidents. But is the lesson really about attachment? If that’s the case, maybe he should not have a new phone after this but to reuse his old phone. And if our family belief is really people first, then money, and then things, an IPhone is but a thing and not that important in life’s big scheme. Even after such careful rationalising, the loss was upsetting.

I pondered over this for a long while because I have also been thinking about what my one-word theme for 2011 would be. For those of you curious about this, you can visit this website to find out more about New Year themes. I have always tried to live by these beliefs: to be mindful, to care, and to focus on the now. This loss is a reminder that I need to pay more attention to my beliefs. True, I was not the one to lose the phone, but the lesson is equally applicable to me. So, if I were to summarise my one word theme for 2011, it has to be mindful.

When I am mindful, I won’t be careless with things, people and with words and actions. When I am mindful, I won’t indulge in unnecessary eating, shopping, and am apt to be less idle. When I am mindful, I am better able to regulate my emotions, thus avoiding getting angry, upset or agitated over small things. Being mindful will also lead me to a calmer frame of mind, and being calm was one of the themes I contemplated selecting. Being mindful will also help me let go of stuff, of old grudges, of old relationships that have for a long time been going nowhere and of work that I no longer care for. Letting go was another possible theme for me in 2011 and in particular, I wanted to let go of friendships that have stopped growing. I have long been able to let go of material things although I also contemplated reducing as a theme in an effort to cut down on physical clutter and material things. I was able to chuck out a whole lot of papers and books just before Christmas in a spring cleaning attempt and that has been invigorating. I considered nurturing too as a theme although I see it as the natural outcome of letting go, especially of old grudges. I want to be able to nurture and cultivate better relationships in my life so giving was yet another option.

I found this exercise very helpful and when I finally settled for mindfulness, I did wonder if I was opting for the safe and familiar. Perhaps I should explore and wander into new paths for 2011. Whatever it is, a theme does not need to tie me down.

Looking back, 2010 has been a busy but good year. I’ve enjoyed the work, have travelled extensively (USA, France, Malaysia, China, the Philippines, and Indonesia) and have embarked on teaching beginning yoga and briefly, on leading my yoga group. I have been good about exercise, particularly yoga and have made some progress in my meditation. I haven’t gained excess weight, I have taken time out for friends and family and I’ve contributed my services to the community. At home, my husband and I continue to share our life together meaningfully. I feel a better connection with Junior and while there are many things I still ask of him (and mothers will have no end of things they ask of their kids) I feel I am at a better place with him than before. I did, on occasions, lose my cool, but by and large I was able to let go of bad feelings and focus on the positive.

Still, I wonder about 2011. It seems that I need to do more although at my age, I should contemplate conserving my energies. That’s something to mull over this year.

What about you? How was your year and what will 2011 be like for you? Take a little time and take stock of your life. Make a plan and a goal for 2011. But whatever it is, here’s wishing you a wonderful year ahead. It’s another chance to make a new start.