A short note

House - all done up. Slowing moving bags of stuff there every few days when we can. Think it will take ages to do clear the mess there now. I thought my utility room will be just great for my gear, but now I'm having second thoughts on whether everything can fit it! I fixed up a bike hook on the wall and now my bike's hung vertical, really cool! Show you pics next time.

By the way, wait till my open house invitation if you wanna take a look at it, don't want to spoil the surprise!

Wedding prep - lots of people has been asking me how's it going, and well, it's not really fully thought out. Still got much loose ends to tie up, but we'll get through it slowly. If you haven't reply to my email invitation, go do it now!

School - pretty good! Waiting for the exams, and things are already kind of slack. Will take lots of leave between my 2 weddings, so looking forward to that. Things are really much better with the new principal in charge, and my school is really quite a nice place at this moment of time.

All in all, things' good! Hope to see you all soon!

Go green!

Here's a picture of a plant I got about a month ago from Ikea. At the time I bought it, it was really cute; all the leaves were standing uniformly tall like the beansprouts we eat, with mostly identical-sized round leaves.

With some tender loving care from me, it has now grown bigger. Some stalks are standing much taller, some extending to the side beyond the small pot, and the leaves are definitely larger. On Fridays, I will water it a little more, and put them in this conference room behind my office table, where it can get some sunlight during the weekend.

Isn't it ironic to know that this plant, this life, costs only $1.50? That is exactly the same price as the saucer below the pot which I bought together with it. Humans are really filling the world with cheap and useless things, consuming endless resources in the process, while neglecting to treasure those things that are alive and precious.

Paddling future

It was really good to see my former group of coaches last week, and the reunion sort of draw me back in into a small paddling community again.

Some of us are still doing freelance work, a few on a regular basis. Some are in the outdoor industry, and some specifically in the paddling sports industry. For only a few, there is still things that they look forward to in terms of personal development and in how they can forward the industry's practices, while most others like me are just engaging with the sport on a recreational basis.

It does awaken some dreams in me though, perhaps bringing back memories of my former self who is industrious in acquiring personal skills development. One suggested to JB that there should be a level 3 course just for us because so many of us are stuck at level 2 for so long. I wouldn't want to be coaching freelance unless it's for my own students or my friends, but I guess it'll look good on paper for me.

More expeditions and trips? I think I'm really rather sedate now, and weekend getaways to malaysian rivers will simply stress me out if I have to work on Monday. I do look forward very much to sea expeditions though, and will want to go for the yearly folding kayak trips (and persuade you-know-who to go with me!)

Special trips - I do dream of going on a park-and-play playboating excursion on a river, compared to a river-running trip. Somewhere with a nice wave that you can try surfing on, and do wave moves. And of course, go kayak surfing! Somewhere on a cheap Indonesian island perhaps. If the whitewater stadium does appear on this island, I'll want to try slalom too.

Can't hurt to dream right? I think it's fortunate I got a bunch of friends who have time to get these lobangs for trips sometimes, and each trip really invigorates you for months.

Annual kayak course

It was time for the annual paddling courses for my Odac kids again. Every year, I have to say that it's a hell lot of trouble to organise the course. Loads of paper work, admin processes to settle selection of vendor, mode of payment, edusave forms to chase, name list for each course, indemnity forms etc, and it's so crazy that almost a week after the course now, I am still trying to clear up the paper mess, chasing after forms/MCs/payments.

But it was felt really good to be able to rally the old coaching group together to do it with me, I have so much trust in them, and it's really nice to work together again as we hardly ever see each other, not to mention do coaching together these days. And when we started the course that day, everything ran smoothly like the old times, with good communications or through common understanding.

And I delighted in doing the unconventional in my 2 star refresher course. This year, there was only a grand total of 5 participants for my group, but that disappointment was offset by the fact that everyone had more individual attention to them. They learnt about their 2 star skills in depth, learnt hybrid strokes and several others not in the entire syllabus like the 'C' stroke and the bow draw, and covered everything in 3 star except for towing too!

Learning and practicing sprinting and rolling is a daily affair, and after they got to know about the characteristics of different boats and their uses, I got them my playboat and polo boat to try. It was really an eye-opener for them, and they really went away appreciating different paddlng activities.

Some notable achievements by my class:

• Turning 360 degrees using hybrid strokes in one smooth action
• Successful C to C rolls by most of them
• Good sprints with boat control in my polo boat
• 2 successful ends in a clean lean
• Successive hanging draws!
  

Not bad for a 2 star refresher course eh?

Holistic education

There's almost something thought-provoking that comes up everytime I talk to James. He was sharing with me about how his brother-in-law (with only an O' level certificate) set up a business at age 30 with only $5000 and is now the biggest distributor of its kind in Singapore.

His questions

• What are the sort of values and attitudes that someone must possess to find success in such unconventional way? Compared to scholars who breeze their way up through the ranks of a civil service job, for instance.
• What experience in education can imbue a person with these values such that they can replicate such successes?

This is what I meant by holistic development - thinking about what skills the students need, and then working backward to see how we can provide it. MOE tries its best, but ultimately most of its efforts is only geared towards academic excellence. Providing life skills and inculcating good attitudes are only things that schools try to do outside of curriculum time.

And also, he differs from the typical educator who believes that lessons should always help students achieve success, no matter how small, in order to keep them going. To him, learning to manage failure should be an integral part of character education, and the only way to build resiliency. There should be situations where teachers have lessons which plans for failure, with a stake that's symbolically important but realistically trivial, such that students can be led to reflect on their experiences.

But then again, motivation is the objection of building successes, and without that, I think many of my school's kids will not attempt something again after meeting with failure once. But I think a knowing what your end objective is for the students, and having a balanced curriculum is important.

The impact of CCA teachers

The most vivid memories of my secondary school life is probably of my time spent in my school band group. I remember going to the band room immediateloy after school, doing homework there, running around with my guy friends there, the fun and challenge of music practice, and interacting with a group of very interesting band seniors, whom I still remember fondly.

Today, I think CCA life is still a big part of students' life, and there are a hell lot of kids who pursue their CCAs more actively than their studies.

However, I see many teachers in my school who have no interest in putting effort into their CCAs to develop their kids' potentials and help them gain achievements. As a PE teacher, I think it's a shame that many teachers who are indifferent to sports are managing sports CCAs. They do not know, or care to find out, how to give the best training to their students, and merely go to CCA sessions to mark attendance.

Students can attend sessions religiously weekly, even train hard, but never able to excel or fully develop their potential, and probably end up getting trashed in zonal competitions. I can imagine them leaving the CCA after 4 years with bittersweet feelings, having developed a love for their sports but always regretting and wondering why they failed to achieved anything significant in their CCA lives.

With each CCA having more than 50 kids across the levels, the failure of CCA teachers in helping their charges gain success is a major failing of their duties.

I'm an idiot!

Sigh, it seems that every time I arrange for my school kids to go for their star courses spectacular problems will crop up. Last year, I went into extensive discussion with a vendor before realising in the end that they are too expensive and cannot meet my needs. It was also hard to arrange for things to happen because I had to update my boss at every twist of the plot.

The same happened this year too - next week's the course and things are still not fully planned out. I am lucky to get most of my coaching buddies along, but I realised that I myself can't teach my 2 star refresher course because my first aid cert expired!

MOE does have a first aid course that happens to fall on the 7th-9th April, but my boss is adamant in not letting me even ask for permission to go, as it is too late notice and will (in her opinion) get me in my P's black books. Luckily my kids all have 2 star already, so I can still take them and they do not need the extra 2 star cert.

And I just purchased my third Pentax Optio camera, this time a w60; I soemhow misplaced my last one during my last trip out to sea, and never found it since.

I got it over the popular Olympus waterproof versions because I can get 5x optical zoom at the same price. I bought it on eBay and the seller actually has free shipping, so I sent it to borderlinx which will consolidate all my US online shopping together in a parcel to forward over.

And when I traced the parcel delivery status today, I realised that the item was actually shipped from Hong Kong! Which means I have to waste time waiting for it to reach US before I can forward it over, and also waste money sending it here. Now I'm really doubtful I can use it before my kayak course next week ends, seeing that Friday is a public holiday.

OMG I'm damn stupid la...