My Blog

As a lecturer, most of the blogs relates to my lecturing experiences … Having taught for "n" number of years, emm, my learning has yet to stop. Sometimes, I hope it stops. If it does, this shows that I have mastered the art of managing students. To manage students, a few things need to be done.

First, the need to sustain their attention in class. Generally students’ focus diminishes over a period of time but for some, the rate is terribly fast. … ha, ha .. for this group of students, more work needs to be done.

Next, comes the need to motivate them. I think I have scored badly in this aspect. My A-level students will be able to provide supporting evidence. Most of the time, I make the students feel very guilty after listening to my words of advice. Perhaps I need to phrase my advice in a more positive and motivating way. (If you are one of my A-level students, perhaps you can give sir a bit of suggestion.)

What about attitude and character? In my opinion, a lecturer has to instill positive attitude and character among the students and this is part of student management as well.

If anyone were to say that a lecturer’s job is pretty easy, I disagree. As my years of lecturing increases … I find the job more challenging and tougher.

I rarely get to the stage of feeling "down" and "demotivated" when entering classes…. up to the point that I would "chin-chai chin-chai" teach in the class.  Shockingly, this is what I am experiencing.

I realize the problem and begin to search for answers. At the end of the day, it really boils down to THREE simple steps: 

1. Stop having expectations over my students and my own ability. No expectations … no disappointment. 

2. Take things less seriously …

3. Continue to do my best and enjoy life …..

That will be the new year resolution for me … hopefully, not too late.

Once again, the festive mood of Christmas sweeps me. I began celebrating Christmas since 5 years old … well assuming that I got the data in my memory bank right. I am neither a Christian, Catholic or a Protestant but Christmas gives me that kind of special warm and joyful feeling. Not forgetting the spirit of forgiving and giving. … (would you all imagine snow falling as you step into the shopping malls and smile in your heart as you hear your favourite Christmas song is played in the mall? For your info, I do …. ha, ha … crazy fellow.)   

Back in the old days, my uncle used to buy presents and placed them under the Christmas tree on the Christmas eve nite. I was actually conned into believing that Santa exists. Although the existence of Santa has been refuted, somehow there is this child in me that continues to believe in his existence. Ha, ha … Now that I have grown up, it’s now my turn to buy the gifts and give them to my family members. With such meagre salary, the gift buying session could be a headache at times …. but I just love it. I have no words to describe how much joy it is.

If you are one of my students and you happen to read this, sorry …. sir won’t be sending gifts to you. It’s exclusively for my family members and of course my colleagues. Unfair it seems …. ha, ha … wait, I do have gifts …. Merry Christmas from the bottom of heart. Have a wonderful holiday and take this opportunity to spread some cheer to the less fortunate … if you can. Merry Christmas. Miss you girls and boys out there.

(PS: as I was writing this blog, I am listening to "HOME" by Westlife … I want to go home ….)

This blog is specially created for the SAM students … I had the opportunity to teach three different batches of students. The second batch of students is expected to graduate soon after they complete their final exams in November. Time flies and it’s time to part … sob sob. 

Well, to my first batch of students … Mr. Yee remembers u guys … (David, Latha … Latha … I hope she sees this, Ayra, Sat …). To my second batch of students, work hard for the remaining weeks. Sir will continue to send "sms" to God asking God to watch over you guys. Don’t "monkey" around too often. Ha, ha ….

For most of you out there, the HK singer, Jacky Cheung may sound alien. …. This is another sign of generation gap, hai …..

Last week, I had the opportunity to drop by for his concert at Bukit Jalil. Being a fan of Jacky since the late 1980s, getting to see him perform live was definitely awesome. This guy, in my opinion, really "sings". With great control over his vocals, he managed to keep the audience glued to their seats for 3 and a half hours.

Well, there were some surprising elements thrown in during the concert as Jacky shared some of his life experiences with the people who attended the concert. He acknowledged the fact that life exhibits the cyclical patterns of ups and downs … (which resembles the business cycle in economic theory … ha, ha … must be a penyakit profession). During the bad times, it was important, in his opinion, to stay tough and continue to face the challenges …

I wonder how many people appreciated the message at the moment. Well, the truth is, I did … simple words and yet powerful enough to inspire and keep me reminded that we need to be tough to overcome the obstacles in life. That makes life beautiful.

Before I go, I would like to deliver a message to those reading this blog. If you have the opportunity, take some effort to say a FEW INSPIRING words to the people that you know. You will never know how powerful those words are …. especially to the people who are currently experiencing their "lows" in life. A person may look tough from the external, there is still a fragile component deep within … we are simply human beings … not steel. INSPIRE for a better tomorrow. ………………………………………. ha, ha …

If I were to leave this world tomorrow, well I have done my part. Ha, ha ….. 

Currently my students are sitting for their final A-level exams. Thus  I am currently having less teaching hours and this give me the opportunity to relax sikit sikit. As I sit down to enjoy my morning breakfast, this thought came up. "What are those UTAR kids up to now?" This triggered some nice memories of the places that I used to go while I was at UTAR.

Assuming that the new semester has already started, some of those kids might be having breakfast at the Bandar Sg. Long coffee shops. One of my favourite breakfast items is the "chui yuk mei fan mee" (pork mee + mee hoon). The guy who prepares this provides an additional bowl of soup with green "choy sam". Simply wonderful.

Ha, ha …. In the afternoon, those kids could be eating at the "chap fan stalls" which me and my colleagues (ha, ha … the usual gang, Mr. Eugene, Mr. Kelvin, Miss Toh, Miss Pok, Mr. Har …. and me, Mr. Yee) usually go to. One of those stalls is operated by a lady. She addresses the male lecturers as "leng zhai" while the female lecturers as "leng lui". For those who eat at the Chinese coffee shops, these terms may be quite commonly used by some waiters or waitresses. I don’t consider myself to be good looking (hmm … ), but the way the "chap fan" lady says it …. it helps to uplift my mood for the day! Ha, ha … 

In the later part of the afternoon, there is this van that sells various types of buns, cakes and tarts. Though I may not be a daily customer, I can consider myself to be quite loyal to this stall. My favourite … the EGG TART!! I am crazy over egg tarts. The egg tarts from this stall are pretty Ok … but they are not great because I had tried better egg tarts before and this raised my expectations. Ha, ha …

As for the evening, I do have quite a variety to choose from. Tuesday evenings … simply superb! With the pasar malam around, there are so much food. …. Laksa and curry puffs in big sizes, they are irresistible.

With this trip down memory lane, I am now back to my first question. How are the kids doing so far in UTAR? I bet they are all doing very well. I am also very sure that they will all graduate from UTAR as a better person after experiencing all kinds of ups and downs in their university life. Ha, ha … Best wishes from sir.

I have not been "blogging" for quite some time … but "some issues of similar themes" have been popping up recently and they kind of caught my attention although I have been bz grading assignments, preparing test questions and conducting classes lately. Thus I have decided to "pen" a few words on those issues ….

Various events happen in a day. Some events are certain while some others are less certain …. As a lecturer myself, I have all this while viewed my daily lectures as the certain events for the day while getting "compliments" from students is uncertain. (pss .. they are rare!).

However, some events that happened for the past few weeks and days have challenged my perspective. DEATH! I got news of people passing away due to accidents, sickness and old age. Death is a CERTAIN event that comes after birth. Being a great fan of Grey’s Anatomy, the recent episode showed Dr. Burke been shot as he carries out his daily duties … The point is, can I be certain that I am able to lecture again tomorrow? Ha, ha …. Now my daily lecture routines become UNCERTAIN because DEATH is CERTAIN!

All the recent events have served as an important reminder to me that I and those reading this blog got to live life meaningfully …. There is a HIGH probability that I will be lecturing tomorrow but there is NO CERTAINTY that I will be lecturing tomorrow.  ….         

I have this question frequently ringing in my head … why has God not created everyone equal? Equally that smart, equally that rich, equally that beautiful, …. equally that fortunate, equally that rational etc.

Perhaps God is into statistics. Applying the idea of random sampling, God has chosen some to inherit the better "conditions" while others … emm slightly worse. The random selection process, I believed is not a joke that God intends to play.

On the contrary, the random assingnment of "qualities, fortune and conditions" allow God to test each and everyone of us in various aspects.

A person endowed with great wealth could be a tested on kindness. Will a wealthy person willingly part with his or her wealth to share them with the less fortunate? The poor on the other hand is given a test of endurance. Will the poor endure hardship and work towards the achievement of better fortune?

So, what’s ur current condition? … whatever it is, God is waiting for all of us to go through the tests and build a stronger character at the end of the day. Good luck …

I bet my students will laughed at the title of the new blog. Lecturing has always been my interests and it started off back in Form 5. Ha, ha … back then I was good in Additional Mathematics, one of my favourite subjects. In the class, I got the chance to share with my frens the knowledge that I gathered from the tuition teacher.

Two and a half years later, an interesting event happened. At that time, I had just completed my STPM exam. My Form 6 Economics teacher, a beautiful lady, was looking for a "guru ganti" to take over her classes because she had to take one month maternity leave (cuti bersalin). She called a few former students and asked if they were interested … To let you guys know, I was not on her first lists of names … hee, hee (this shows how bad I was in Economics class!)

Well, I took up the task because I wanted to know how I fare in teaching. Managed to earn some $$ as well, that’s the other reason I accepted the job. It was difficult to convince some of the Lower Six students that I knew my stuff …. anyway, it was a good experience.

My interests in lecturing continued to grow. Upon completion of my first degree in Economics, I took up a lecturing job in a private college. ……fast forward to the present, I am still lecturing in a private college.

It is indeed fun to become a lecturer. The same materials may be taught over and over again but the outcomes of the lectures are very different. …. At times, however, things can be very frustrating. Perhaps I am getting old … and thus I can longer understand how the new generation thinks. Maybe I am expecting too much from them … ya, I guessed so. … hopefully, they will grow as time passes by.    

I have decided to start off the blog by having a bit of reflections on my teaching …. I remembered the day that I stepped into the A2 Economics (Sept 2006) class. The truth is I was quite stressed at that moment. Ha, ha, quite happy that luck was on my side. In my opinion, I managed to "tipu" the students and get tru the class successfully. Actually, my techniques of "tipuing" the students have not fail so far … thank God. 

As time passed by, I got to know the students better. There were some that I talked to more often. …. Although they may be young in terms of age … hey, their level of thinking is quite mature. I am really impressed and in fact I have picked up some philosophies in life from them.

Let me have a quick run down on my thoughts towards a few students…(not in any order of importance):   

Lydia, in my opinion, is an optimistic girl, who always look forward and sees the best in everything. "We may be surrounded with problems but we must be brave to handle them. More importantly, stay positive!" … This is the message that comes to my mind after talking to her.

Kit Jing, emmm … a knowledge dispenser. I have a feeling that this girl values friendship highly …

Pink Wan … quite an independent learner that offer little compromise on her academic performance. There are times where I wish she could conduct the class on my behalf so that I can take a break. Hee, hee ….

Lik Wei and Stephanie … if i were to have a debate on gender inequality, I must definitely have these two students in opposing teams. Listening to their opinion makes me laugh most of the time. In addition to their ability to debate fiercely, Lik Wei and Stephanie, in my opinion, defy the norm by having the mind of an "older" person. Their thinking reflects higher level of maturity and for this reason, they have been sometimes labeled as old man and old lady. Keep it up guys and I do admire your sense of maturity.

All students are GREAT and unique in their own ways. I am sad that I missed the opportunity to know the others better. If I had longer time, I would have discovered and learn more from you all. For the last time, let me take this opportunity to wish the A2 Economics students (Sept 2006) all the best …. may you have fond memories of the college, friends and the classes … hee, hee … Do keep in touch! Will miss you guys.

Regards, Yee