Ten things I love about my CHS job:

1.  My coworkers.  I’ve got a serious bunch of kick-ass colleagues.  I’m certain that I’d not be as wildly enthusiastic about my job if I didn’t have these people around me every day. The math teacher and the social studies teacher in particular really rock, but they’re all pretty damned great in their own ways.

2.  My students.  While there are a bunch of them that make me stark-crazy furious (“are you KIDDING me right now?!“), most of them are really great kids. I love it when the light bulbs go on over their little heads…

3. The rest of the students. There are a bunch of kids at CHS who aren’t in my classes, but with whom I have a relationship, anyway. They hang out at my table at lunch, they come to me for SAT help or to ask me to proofread their college essays or to challenge me to a game of Scrabble (to their detriment) – there are a lot of really great kids at this school.

4. The work environment. While I’d love to have, you know, BOOKS, I really do love the environment at CHS. We teach in an old building; the place has a lot of character, it’s sufficiently warm in the winter (once we got that whole no-heat thing worked out, of course) and we’ve got a perfect mix of private and public space. We’re close enough to be cozy, but we’re not up in each other’s stuff all the time; it’s really kind of great.

5. The hours. Yes, I work a lot more than the hours would indicate – every teacher does (don’t even start with me about summer vacations, either). I have a good schedule worked out, though; I drop the girls off at school and head right to work, giving me about a half hour to do copying or grading or whatever, then I teach two back-to-back, hour-and-a-half classes, then it’s lunchtime. I very often stay through the rest of the day (though, technically, my responsibilities end at 11); I get a lot more done if I stay at work than if I come home and start blog-surfing.

6. The administration. Technically, the administration consists of Carrie, my boss and the director of the school. She is the mistress of walking the line between talented professional educator and capital-G-Girlfriend. She’s supportive and no-nonsense, she is fair and even-handed, and she’s funny as hell.

7. The professional freedom. Essentially, I was hired and told to “do what you do.” I don’t have to follow a set curriculum, I don’t have to teach to tests, and I don’t have to justify every single thing I do in the classroom. In fact, I have been tasked with coming up with a whole new English curriculum for next year (I’m still waiting to hear back from those of you who said you’d think about it and get back to me…). While I’m excited at the prospect, I’m also a little intimidated by it, so help a girl out, would you?

8. Location, location, location. I have, no lie, about a six minute commute. It takes me about as long to walk from my car to the top floor of the building where the school is located as it does for me to get from home to the parking lot. LOVE. THAT.

9. Electronic classes. Our goal is to never have a snow day, so we’ve set up virtual classes that we’ll hold when the building is closed. This means that we’ll not be in school until nearly July. I’m totally behind that.

10. I’m getting paid (albeit, not very much, but still) to do something that I would happily do for free. I LOVE the job that I do, and I actually look forward to going to work every day. So few people get to say that, and I know how lucky I am to have found my professional place in the world. Someone once said that, if you find a job you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life. That person wasn’t far off the mark…

Happy Tuesday!

According to Dr. Lumpe’s lecture the factors necessary for managing complex change include an action plan, resources, incentives, vision and skills. Goals must be SMART: Specific, Measurable, and Attainable, Results oriented and Time-based. DuFour Mentions many barriers to action (p. 226-246).

Discrepancy between knowing and doing is the first barrier.

School administrator’s decisions do not automatically result in action.

Planning is not the same as acting.

Plans that are too complex are difficult to accomplish.

Plans with mindless precedent include teachers that are not interested in changing habits.

When it comes to attitudes, you can’t expect everyone to totally agree on the plan.

It is up to educators to create solutions rather than blaming or waiting for a higher power to solve their problem.

Badly designed measurement creates a barrier. Focus should be on the process rather than the end product. Formative assessment is the process assessment and summative is the end of the process. Summative assessments have little use in guiding behavior. “It is more important to measure a few things frequently than to measure a lot of things infrequently.” (p. 242-243). Our department and school are working on ways to incorporate more formative assessment and less summative assessment into the curriculum.

Internal competition involves teachers who don’t want help from colleagues. A lot of winners are better than one single winner. The focus becomes more on the celebration of accomplishments and creates a sharing culture. One strategy to encourage this is proposing a common goal that can only be reached through cooperation. I often prefer to work on my own, but when I work with colleagues I learn new ways of doing things, and together we form new ideas to make our teaching better.

After a wonderful weekend with family and friends, it is back to the office for another week of “work”. Fortunately, I am one of the lucky ones. I believe in what I do for WQLN, I genuinely enjoy spending time with my colleagues, and I am currently fulfilling a long-time aspiration to work for a PBS station. So as we continue to give thanks for the things in life that bring us joy, today I add to my list WQLN and my Q-buddies.

Where else can you find such an incredible group of people making great strides to improve, change, and save lives every day? And I am not only referring to the work done for WQLN, I am also referring to the volunteer adventures the WQLN staff members embark on occasionally.

For example, today a crew of Q-buddies traveled to the Community Blood Bank to donate blood during the lunch hour. As a community-minded organization we feel our community is stronger when we all work together and that makes it easy and very satisfying to give – time, resources, and even blood! So this week as you continue giving thanks for all of the blessings in your life, why not volunteer for or donate resources to a local organization that is striving to fulfill a mission you believe in? Now more than ever, our community will be stronger with your help!

Dannii Minogue has said that she doesn’t think of fellow X Factor judge Cheryl Cole as a friend.

However, Minogue added that she does get on well with the Girls Aloud star.

In an interview with the News of the World, she said: “We’re colleagues, not friends. I don’t have her phone number. I don’t ring her up. We don’t go shopping or have dinner together.”

Minogue also suggested that she has a better sense of style than Cole, adding: “I know Cheryl has two stylists and I have none. I put a lot of work into it. I style myself. I choose all my outfits.”

Nevertheless, she dismissed rumours that the pair don’t get on with each other.

“She’s really nice to me,” she said. “We have a laugh. People think there’ll be a drama between two women but we don’t care about that. It’s not in my nature to be jealous.”

Source

You know when the battery is running out on your smoke alarm and it emits a high-pitched ‘pip’ just regularly enough to make an interesting and effective Ministry of Intelligence torture device, but not often enough that you can be fagged to change it?  Well that’s like being stroked by a handsome, interesting person carrying a tray with Ferrero Rocher and a pot of coffee on it just for you, compared to the irritant factor of a bored flancer.  Bored flancers are the death knell for anyone else nearby with real work to do, what with their sleeve-tugging insistence that they need a cohort to skive off doing nothing with, so that they feel less guilty about avoiding doing anything about having nothing to do.

Flancers love to share their boredom.  They are uniquely generous in this way.   If you are a naive first timer, you will feel pity and invite them over. And then you will learn, and fake your own death so that they stop calling.  They’ll come and hang out with you at work, twiddle with things on your desk, empty and then break the coffee machine and re-arrange everything so that you mistakenly send a Ikea brochure meant for your ‘take-home’ pile, to a client that sent in a letter of complaint. You will wonder why you have a vaguely insincere letter of apology in your hands when you get home that night and wish to browse for wardrobes.

 If you have already alerted security to the fact that the flancer must not be allowed to enter the building on any circumstance, they will either hassle the security guard to play cards or to help them try and name as many bands with ‘The’ in the title as possible in ten minutes. Or, if turned away they will telephone you ’just for a chat.’ When you say you have to go because everyone else has now packed up and left for the day, they will beg you to come for a drink  or try and convince you to take tomorrow off work and go and play Mini golf with them.

If you rebuff them, they will get the huff on and wander off like a child denied the biscuit tin kicking at the ground with their bottom lip stuck out and then probably start doing something that results in a tapping, scratching or beeping noise that makes you want to gouge your own eyes out with the fruit you brought in for lunch.

On discovering that bananas just aren’t a sharp enough de-ocularising* tool, you come up with a better plan and send them out to buy batteries for the smoke alarm, and sneakily emigrate whilst they are at the shops.

TODAY’S FOOTNOTES

*for any student doctors reading, before you use this word in an essay – I thought I ought to point out that I made it up.

I, my head of department and my colleagues S and M were sitting at HoD’s room having a general chat when the topic diverted to marriage and wives.

HoD :- That day I was having  some problem with my mobile. My wife solved the problem whereas I could not!! I didn’t think she can even use a mobile. You know one is lucky to have a simple wife.

M :- Oh yes sir! And in this matter I can say I am a very lucky man.

HoD :- What about you, S? When are you getting married?

S :- Parents are searching for a girl, sir.

HoD :- Good good. You should look for a simple girl. One who is not working and will look after your home and kids nicely. They are the best. In fact you should look for  a girl from rural U.P. [my colleague S hails from rural U.P.]

M :- Yes sir. The farther is the girl’s home , the better she can concentrate in her in-laws place.

S :- Yes, I do not want to marry any working girl.  It is all useless. Whole family, home and kids are ruined.

I asked my HoD something else then and changed the topic.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Imagine all this talk when I, a well qualified working girl, is sitting there. I didn’t open my mouth to protest then because it is no use convincing them. I have had many debates with them (my colleagues not HoD) over the years without any results. They are one of the most typical samples of orthodox, conventional and narrow minded men. And I believe a man convinced against his will, is unconvinced still.

I just have a few questions in my mind :-

# 1 What is the definition of a simple girl that many people use in their conversation, on their bio datas and in matrimonial ads? You know in the sentence – “wanted a simple homely girl etc etc”

# 2 Are higher qualifications inversely proportional to simplicity in a girl?

# 3 Do higher qualifications or being tech savvy or being street smart and not being a babe in the woods make girls crooked or something like that?

# 4 Are highly qualified working [i.e. those getting an income] girls less eligible for marriage and even less eligible for being homemakers?

# 5 Does a “simple” girl make a better mother and wife than any other types of girls/women?

# 6 Do kids having a earning mother fare badly in studies and in life?

# 7 Are girls supposed to just forget the place and the people with whom they spend at least 20 years of their life after getting married?

# 8 Why must girls stop being concerned about their parents and become more concerned about their in laws?

# 9 Why are daughter-in-laws expected to become equivalent to daughters for their in laws but son-in-laws can’t (and also are not expected to) become sons for their in laws?

What are your answers?

P.S. Yes I work with very sad people. Sigh!!

I hate how Mam Grace changes my patient’s assignment every 4th day. Why does she keeps on doing that? I’ve been noticing that for the past month, if she’s the charge nurse on Saturday nights, I end up changing my district the following day. UGH. She must really dislike me, as I kinda still dislike her. Anyway, yesterday, I was with Bunsoi, Dodong and Raymund. I exchanged district with Dodong cause he got my assignment for the last 3 days. Good thing he said YES. We didn’t change the patient’s assignment record though cause Mam Grace might see it and make a big fuss about it. And DISLIKE me even more.

Continuing from my previous post of Another Day in Penang – A Day in the Office (http://clayphotog.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/another-day-in-penang-a-day-in-the-offic/) I managed to find another reason for my camera (since I’ve already lugged it all the way to Penang on a flight) and that it to help my colleague Ryan take a family potrait.

I would say that he is very and I mean VERY excited about the whole idea as his wife just gave birth to a lovely baby girl and like any first time father,….he is EXTREMELY excited to take pictures of himself with his child and of course not forgetting with his wife too (yes, most husbands do get carried away and occasionally forget about their wife!! ME included!! Hehehe *feeling guilty*) Hahaha

So before our photoshoot, we were to meet and have dinner together however, as Ryan and his entourage were late,….we (Simon and myself) decided to just walk around Queensbay mall and do some shopping (I must admit that being a parent is a full time job and there are times when you just can’t seem to find the time to do some shopping) as by the time they arrived we were so hungry (our tummies were rumbling like crazy by then) we just settled for whatever we could find in Queensbay mall and we ended up in a fancy restaurant (called Canton-I) as you can see in the following pictures. Hope you’ll enjoy this set ya till my next post.

Ryan with his sister Kar Yen. Don’t they just look alike?

As I couldn’t think of what to eat and since my tummy is rumbling like crazy, a simple Chinese fried rice would suffice.

Here is Simon as he is about to dig in,….

The happy daddy of little Eunice. You can see Ryan is all smiles!!

Why SHI? Well his daughter’s name is Eunice Lee Shee Yen so I guess Shi sounds similar,…..

A picture of the parents of little Eunice.

Mummy Rachael carrying baby Eunice.

Ryan having a loving moment with baby Eunice.

Aunt Kar Yen posing with her little niece Eunice.

Hmm,….I think Ryan is saying don’t you dare touch my daughter,…..hehehe

Oh ok,….since you’re taking photo that is alright then,….

The more eagle eyed among you will notice the “subscribe by email” thing in the right hand margin – WordPress switched it on today, so I’m trying it out. If you sign up, you’ll get my various utterances through email (as if you haven’t heard enough from me already)…

I’m heading out in a bit for something to eat with my colleagues – we’re all a bit bored of hotel food now, and think a visit to nearby Solihull will be tremendously exciting (can you detect the sarcasm?). The team staying over tonight has been halved; we are starting to think of ourselves as the stalwarts; or rather – the ones actually busting their ass to get the project done.

I talked to the girls at home a few moments ago, and heard a madcap condensed version of their day. Inbetween the splashes, screaming and shouting (they were in the bath), I figured out that little miss 5 was off school, but only poorly enough to stay quiet until lunchtime… following that she experienced a sudden infusion of energy and has been told she’s going back to school tomorrow.

Ho hum. Better go and have a wash I suppose.

Its the moment that we, as a worker been waiting for….. Yiipppiiee…..

After 4 hours of work, we need to recharge our energy ; not only physically but also our mind. During lunch time, we gain our energy. Regardless the menu or the venue, most important thing is that we let go all the things that connect to our work. Paper work, notebook radiation, phone calls, notes… etc..etc…

Just spending an hour time, having lunch, have a chit chat with colleagues, sufficient enough to make us more refresh….

From the article i read, it is said that better to have lunch outside your working area in order to get a  different air, difference nuance,  so our refreshment will work out. It is best to get out your workplace & go to green area such as park. But in Jakarta, its hard to find such place…  Many of workers come out their office & go to Malls;  for lunch or just  window shopping.

For you who can not go anywhere, just be satisfy  in your office canteen, but please.. not to make a work-thing conversation . It will disturb your relax time…

So… its your choice… having your lunch at the office, park or Mall?

As long as it will recharge your energy & your mind….

Have a nice lunch…..!!!!

One of the distinguishing differences of my charter school is that we provide students opportunities to learn at their challenge level.  This has been difficult to define and also to implement.  We’ve attempted to level the students as best as we can although it is very tricky.

One of the greatest problems with this leveling system is that accountability seems to be lost.  As a colleague put it, I feel partially responsible for 60+ students and not fully accountable for any of them.

I only have a handful of my students all day.  The rest are taught also by the other two fifth grade teachers in an attempt to challenge the students at their level.  However, I’ve encountered the accountability conundrum these last couple weeks.  I have a student from my home class that is performing poorly in spelling.  I am not her spelling teacher yet I feel responsible since I am the one who will report her grades.  I drafted an email to her parents last week when I recognized that she had two weeks of bad test scores, but I never sent it.  I couldn’t offer any specific suggestions for their daughter, because I didn’t have any anecdotal notes.  I spoke with the student briefly in the hall to attempt to find out information.  I was still at a loss.  Do I not say anything and trust that her spelling teacher is intervening?

I teach a split class for math of 15 students working out of an above grade level text book and 9 students working out of a grade level text.  This means that 7 of my homeroom students are being taught by the other two fifth grade teachers.  I just received emailed test scores from the most recent math test.  Three of my homeroom students who are  being instructed by another teacher scored D’s or F’s.  One student only got half of the questions right.  HALF.  Am I supposed to intervene with these students?  Or do I trust that this other teacher is re-mediating appropriately?

I’m worried about the academic success of the students.  And I’m also worried about my professional success.  The 7 math students and 20 Language Arts students of mine that are being instructed by the other two teachers will take end-of-level tests under my name.  I may never teach them these subjects this entire year, yet their scores will reflect on my competency as a teacher as viewed by the state office of education and the federal government.  How much do I trust these other two teachers?

Well like I’ve mentioned before my computer was down so quite a lot of pending photos to be edited. Guess I was lost without my computer for almost a week!! I felt so helpless after trying all I could to try and fix the problem but alas had to format the hard drive and the following 3 days would be a tedious one as I would need to re-install all my software so that I’m able to start editing my photos again and yes another 3 days of downtime AGAIN!!

Well I guess I better stop my self pitying and get down to the point of sharing some of the pics I’ve taken while in Penang,….AGAIN!! Hahaha this round I did not manage to get some nice pics of the beautiful scenery around Penang as was quite tied up at work. Then why in the world would I lug my camera to Penang then?? Well it is the end of the month and we will be having our achievement dinner and while we’re at it why not take some pics?? This is probably due to the pictures I’ve taken for the KL side of the achievement dinner so,….as not to lose out they (the Penang colleagues) would also like to have one of their own. Hehehe that simple. But before I get to the part of showing the pics taken during the dinner let me show you some of the pics we took in the office (actually,….I’ve still yet to finish the pics taken during the achievement dinner,….hehehe). So sit back and enjoy ya,….will try to post the dinner pics and also some pics of a family potrait I shot while in Penang too,…:)

Yup that’s me at KLIA waiting for my flight to Penang. This is how the airport looks like at 6.50am,….EMPTY!! So you can understand my boredom huh!!??

At the office after working hours,….some of my colleagues decided to shoot some pics of each other. Below is Jimmy expressing an ignorant look!! Duh,….

Low wants to be part of the fun too however, his expression is,….hmm,….plain,….hahaha

Below is ME shoot by Low using an UWA (Ultra Wide Angle) lens. Kinda cool huh!!?? Well after all that shooting, I’ve managed to ‘poison’ our good friend Low!! Hehehe so I guess he can’t resist the temptation to get his hands on a DSLR now,….Hehehe

After all that shooting it really made me hungry, and I’ve decided to meet up with an old friend and colleague for dinner. We drove around quite a bit as he was unsure of what to eat and so was I. We finally stopped at a stall (it was set up within the compound of a badminton hall, can’t recall the name of the place) and we ordered noodles (chinese egg noodles similar to ramen in look and texture) stir fried in black sauce together with chunks of luncheon meat. Yum yum,….

Below is a potrait of my friend Cheah (who brought me to eat the delicious noodles above) as I demonstrate to him the effects we can generate using a flash gun with a wireless trigger. By the way, he works in Canon Malaysia, Camera division,….hint hint,….hahaha

When you hear the word “Vampire”, what flashes across your mind?

Probably an eternal being that wakes up at midnight, leaves the grave; one who has long pointed canine teeth which it likes to sink in to the neck to drink blood for it’s living…

“Yeah, I know very well how they might look and what they do for a living!” you might say.

But how many of you are aware of the other “Real” vampires that live among you draining your energy—mental, physical and emotional?

Unfortunately, most of us don’t know how dangerous these “real” vampires are, and how much of blood of your energy they could suck in no time leaving you paralyzed!!

Most of the people could relate themselves with at least one of the following situations:

– Jennifer started off the day well and all of a sudden finds herself being criticized by her boss, then colleagues makes fun of her followed by a stranger on the restaurant who vented his anger on her for no obvious reason she could figure out, leaving her an angry, depressed, agitated and utterly, emotionally disturbed person. The bitter truth is, there are energy-suckers or people who are waiting to “sink their teeth in to your neck ruthlessly”.

– Charles is driving on his way back home or office when he keenly notices a celebrity (Or any person with some prominent attributes to his/her credit such as beauty, affluence, tall, etc) on the road followed crazily by zealous fans. He says to himself one of these things,

“I wish I were wealthy/beautiful/lucky/beautiful/well-built/handsome/tall like him/her.”

His day passes with mixed feelings of longing, feeling of inadequacy, feeling bad about himself, worrying, loss of  self-confidence, depreciated self-image, lack of enthusiasm to name a few literally!

– Lawrence goes out finding fault with everyone he encounters, perfectly capturing their flaws. Whoever he happens to come across he says “You shouldn’t do that or you shouldn’t have done that…” or “You have to be like this or that…” passing judgment and being critical about others.

In the process he compares and contrasts himself with others, piling up a lot of resentment and other unsupportive emotions in him that annihilates his OWN attitude, charm and energy as well the others he come in to contact with.

– Angelina was sitting at her office desk working with great élan when she was suddenly struck by the old memories of her altercation with her neighbor 4 months back. She fights once again, but this time in her mind! Her enthusiasm vanished in to thin air like a deflated balloon. It has become another one of her “Bad days”.

These are only some of the instances of “Vampires” from a great lot that steal your “Poise” or “Peaceful mind”, suck your mental energies, physical energies, and your emotional energies from the time you open your eyelids to the time your head hits the pillow, and even thereafter!

Now, if you had the chance to study closely all the successful men and women since the dawn of time, you would soon realize that one quality cut through all of them and it is “Keeping their mind protected from the outside clutters” that steal their energies.

An aspiring person of success should closely guard him/her from all these clutters and flushes them out on his/her first sight of them for they have great power to drain his/her energies rendering him/her powerless!!

As a matter of fact, the more energy you could save or avoid being expended in the wrong channels, the more you would be “Available” for any situation, that too with great enthusiasm and power under your belt!

It’s a common knowledge that the mind should be free of all the discouraging thoughts and evil-behaviors, but it is not a common act executing and applying this knowledge, unfortunately.

When you are mentally energetic, chances are, you would be physically as well, mostly. In fact it is these mental leakages or vampires that cause the fatigue both in the mind and in the body.

If “Save your mental energy and don’t allow any vampires to disturb your inner poise” is your primary motto, you are already well on your way to be one of those rare individuals who has control over his/her day!

And one who wouldn’t be shaken by these energy-sapping vampires in the form of people or damaging thoughts that arises with them.

If people around you aren’t going anywhere, if their dreams are no bigger than hanging out on the corner, or if they’re dragging you down, get rid of them. Negative people can sap your energy so fast, and they can take your dreams from you, too.

–Earvin Johnson

PART-2

Wish you all the riches to come with God’s blessings

Peter Anand

Celebration.

“The thing about performance, even if it’s only an illusion, is that it is a celebration of the fact that we do contain within ourselves infinite possibilities.”– Daniel Day Lewis after Sydney Smith

Last evening I received some really gratifying news so I am in something of a celebratory mood. While the quote above mentions performance rather than photography I feel that the sentiment expressed is particularly apt for me.

I have been told that I shall receive the 2010 Award of Merit of the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame for my work in Gymnastics Photography over the last 30 years. I’ve always considered myself a jobbing photographer so to be included on the list of prestigious people who have previously won the award is humbling and a great honour. The news has caused me to reflect on the last 30 years of my life and to remember with gratitude all those people who have helped, supported and encouraged me and without whom I should not have achieved anything at all. It’s gratifying for me to acknowledge some of them and ask them to share in my delight while recognising that they too are part of it. Some of them are already mentioned on my ‘Heroes’ page but I make no apologies for including them here as well.

Without my incomparable husband Gerry I should never have become a photographer in the first place. He bought me my first camera, taught me the basics of exposure and film processing and has always been there to support and encourage me, so this award is as much for him as it is for me.

When I found it difficult to get started in the profession, there were people who believed in me and trusted me to work for them and I had some of my biggest early breaks thanks to the late Ken Wheeler (School Sport and Sports Teacher magazines), Derek Harrison of the Midland Bank who gave me several big assignments when I was little known, Roel Van Veen in the Netherlands who commissioned me for the first calendar I produced which in turn led to working for Ron Mulder and as official photographer at the Ennia Challenge and Ennia Gold Cups, Etienne Thon (Belgium) who employed me to work at the prestigious Belgian Masters events, the late Istvan Gyulai from Hungary who accepted my work for World Gymnastics magazine ensuring I gained an international presence which led to me becoming the official photographer of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).

Within Gymnastics there are so many people who believed in me and supported me – Dwight Normile from International Gymnast magazine, Paul Ziert (now the publisher of that magazine and owner of my Gymnastics archive), the late Jim and Pauline Prestidge, Jim Barry from Australia (former executive committee member and Vice president of the FIG), Peggy Browne (now Smythe) from Canada and former Executive Director of Australian Gymnastics, Gary Alexander (USA), Vera Atkinson (formerly of Bulgaria and now head of media operations for British Gymnastics), Brian Stocks, Cheryl Vance (formerly Weatherstone), Sandra Stadelmann Hushi, Hedi Ibrahimkhail (formerly Fejer) – and Mike Tette of Kodak (without whom my first book ‘Gymnastics – The Art of Sport’ would not have made it into print and who oversaw the huge film processing operations at the Olympic Games I covered). I have mentioned Ted Grant more than once in my postings and I thank him again as well as my friend and his latest disciple Claire Village who has done so much to remind me of the pure enjoyment and fun of photography. Thanks also to MariadelMar Ribera and Francesc Simo who I worked with at the Barcelona Olympic Games, who then became lifelong friends and who gave me the blessing of my god daughter Alix.

Katie Sime is a complete mixture of ex pupil, friend, adopted sister and daughter and she was my first gymnast; had it not been for the talent she showed at eleven years of age I should never have developed a love for the sport and so many experiences would have passed me by.

I do also acknowledge the great work and support from my medical surgeons and specialists who have done so much for me in recent years and without whom I should not be back working in sports photography again and who have helped me on the way to covering my 12^th Olympic Games – Professor T.C. Li, Paul Skinner, Mark Flowers and Joe Garcia, as well as my hard working physiotherapists Tamsin Brooks, David Meech and Norman Hibbert.

My apologies that this is an image free posting and that I have gone on at some length about this award. It’s a momentous time for me, made all the more so by having these people share in it and celebrate with me. There are many more people I should like to acknowledge but space is limited; to all of you my grateful thanks for everything you have been to me. I began my working life as a teacher of Physical Education and never expected to be anything else; since 1980 I have been on many journeys and experienced so much; this award is unexpected and very gratefully received.

Back to photographic postings next time!

Kizz put up a post today in which she ruminates on the idea of positing a purpose.  This resonated with me because, in my line of work, the concept of purpose  and the concise and eloquent expression of it are often at the heart of much of what  I do.

When I talk to my students about purpose, I give a pretty clear and (I think) easy definition of the concept; the purpose of a piece is the reason it exists; what was the author trying to make happen through the creation of this piece?  I teach my kids to make very sharp distinctions about the different aspects of the things we investigate, be they films or poems or novels, speeches, advertisements, or letters;

• plot (or topic) is what happens (or what the piece is about)

• theme is the big idea (or ideas; there are most often more than one)

•purpose is what the author wanted to accomplish with the piece.

Theme and topic questions are best answered with nouns – “this story is about friendship” or “that essay is about avian migration patterns and their effect on consumer spending.”  Purpose questions are answered with verbs – the purpose of this piece is to entertain or to inform or to analyze.

Kids find, in pretty short order, that purpose is not only pretty important – it’s what holds much of their writing together, after all – but that it also shows up in a lot of different places.  While some kids revere authorial intention above all else (I’m trying to break them of that, in fact), I will admit that working on discerning an author’s possible motives for writing a piece helps the kids to put that piece into a larger context and perspective; it helps them to get it.  Being able to come up with a possible reason that someone bothered to go through all the trouble of writing – much less of publishing – a piece of work really is an analytical exercise, and while I don’t hold much with the authorial intention angle, I often do ask the students to consider the author’s possible motivations for putting these words down in the way that he or she did.  I find, more than anything else, that getting the students to consider purposes helps them to clarify their own approaches to the material, and helps them to solidify how they think and feel about the piece in the end.

Where the idea of purpose comes up most notably, though, is in every writing exercise that students undertake.  They need to keep purpose in mind when they’re composing a letter, when they’re answering a question (I teach them to look for the verbs used in the questions they’re responding to – the way they “describe” is going to be very different from they way they “define”  or the way they “analyze;” or, at least, it should be), or when they’re composing a story or a poem.  Purpose is the glue that holds the whole thing together; it’s the unifying force of their writing, and when it’s absent, it’s obvious.

It is true that nearly every class I’ve ever taught has identified “organization” as a fundamental weakness in their writing.  They know what they want to say, they complain, but they don’t know how to get there.  That’s because they lack a purpose – they could have all the information at their fingertips, have all the time and resources in the world, but if they don’t have a reason to sit to write, they’ll likely never be satisfied with what they produce.  Try it sometime; before you begin a writing project – a letter to that fabulous restaurant you went to last week, a memo to your office, an email to your best friend about what you saw in the grocery store the other day – really think about what you’re trying to accomplish by sitting down to write; what do you want to happen as a result of your effort?  Once you’ve got a clear purpose in mind, you’ll likely find that the writing is much easier that it would have been without it.  I have multiple purposes for this piece, I think: I want to share my thinking with you (so that I can get your feedback), I want to record my own thinking so I can refer back to it later, and I want to explain the way I think about purpose and its importance in my teaching practice.  All of those things have informed the way that I’ve constructed this piece; how I’ve organized my information, what I’ve chosen to stress (and what I’ve left out altogether), and what voice and tone I’ve taken.  Were my purpose different (say, if I’d had a crappy day and just wanted to vent my shit), I would have put this whole thing together very differently.

Discerning purpose is, at least in the context of a creative exercise, a distinctly meta-cognitive thing; one has to be willing – and able – to investigate one’s motivations in order to be able to articulate a clear (and honest) purpose.  I think that this is one of the reasons that so many people have such a hard time positing purpose; we’re not really practiced in looking closely at how we think, or at what really motivates us. Think about how motivated some of us (ehem.. me!) are to write letters of complaint.  We don’t necessarily want to admit it, but when we write letters to businesses that have given us lousy service, it’s important, I think, to remember that intimidation – whether through righteous indignation or not – really is our purpose.

Not for nothing, but I also think that purpose, more than anything else, is the reason I could never sit to write a novel; I can’t find a purpose to the exercise that works for me and, accordingly, I can’t find enough motivation to string that many words together.  Purpose is a great motivator!

Remainder of pictures that I managed to get from Pauline and Alice! Nothing much to say, since I’ve already finished blogging about the trip. I have to warn you that there’s like 90% photos of me, but then again this is my blog, and the blog header already has pictures of me… so it kinda forewarns you about the type of person I am (ie: self absorbed)… so, er, just proceed with caution.

Pauline, Alice, Raymond and I… waiting for the sky track train. We were headed to Patpong.
Matching shirts worn by Alice and Raymond were bought in Chatuchak that day itself

This is actually the first photo in Pauline’s camera. It’s like, the first thing she found worthwhile to take in Bangkok was a photo of me. Wah, how flattering is that WTF. This was taken during dinner @ Suan Lum night market.

Pauline and I… of course must have more pics of the person who gave me the pics.

Happy photo of me receiving coupon donations from Raymond and Tay. “I’m rich!!” I exclaimed as I ran off to buy my birds nest.

Buying the birds nest… *happy Leech*

Oh, the anticipation!

Pauline asked me to take the bowl of birds nest slowly from the vendor so that she could get a picture of the both of us. But as you can see, the guy couldn’t give a fuck and just turned back to his work after leaving me stranded with two arms outstretched, holding the bowl. Hahaha!

Me and the “Squid man” barbecuing squid! The others are jealous because when I wait around for my barbecued squid, “Squid man” gave me cucumbers to munch on, but never even offered them. Hahahaha! Like that also they jealous, tsk tsk tsk! When Raymond saw this photo, he said “Not bad ah, Squidman also knows how to pose… see how he tilts his chin down and the eyes looking up.. expert camwhorer!”

Close up of our favorite midnight snack.

Raymond and I in Chatuchak the next day.

Pauline and I in Chatuchak. Too many colors in this photo! (Including ON me… hahaha. I was in Ah Lian mode that day… so sue me!)

Caught by paparazzi Tay

Paparazzi Tay trying to take picture of the florescent orange poodle, but boy am I glad I was wearing shorts and not a skirt in this picture. So ham sap angle wan!

Pauline, Tay and I over lunch.

Tay and Raymond forced to listen to my bitchings / lectures over lunch.

Modelling for Alice’s camera.. hahaha. She wanted to know what rubbish I bought, so I showed her. If I go to any cold place, I’ll 101% bring this cap ok. It’s so cute and comfy. *childish*

Pretending to be a polar bear

Happy polar bear claps hands! Like a seal!
Much to the approval of the t-shirt store owner (who was observing our random photoshoot). Literally applauding me and my endeavors at public humiliation.

Showing you my coconut ice cream and Thai sausage.

Tay is force feeding me pig cracklings or whatever you call it. It’s just pure oil!
(Actually, I was posing with the fattening thing in my mouth and Tay randomly cucuk-ed in his chopsticks… looks really like he’s feeding me huh!)

Pauline with strawberry ear warmers… hahaha. If she wears this and I wear my polar bear cap, we might get whacked by people for trying to “pan ching chun”…

Raymond waiting patiently til I finish photo taking, cos he can’t eat til I am done…

Posing for Pauline because I was wearing my new RM2 pearl hairband. Alice was going, “Soooooo sweeetttt!!” so I obliged….

… but I ended up laughing like a hyena because I found my previous pose so contrived and fake. Don’t you think so? It’s so not me lah!

Still laughing. See? This is more genuine Leech.

Failed pose because as I was posing sweetly, stupid Tay suddenly said “Squidman!” and we were all in hysterics.

Showing my OTHER headband… all very pan cute lah. Too feminine ady.

This is Pauline’s facial-care / body wash / whatever haul … looks like she’s even more “powerful” at spending at Boots than I am! Hahaha.. I feel better about my spending ady. I don’t even know how she managed to pack in all this stuff… looks damn heavy! 5kg right there!

Started with a new job a couple of days ago. I work in a digital media services company as a media buyer. Pay is better than what I was getting at the other digital agency I worked for and workload is somewhat lighter. The catch? I have to work at odd hours since I need to coordinate with my US counterpart. The hours don’t bother me as much as the people (there are around 5 of us) in the office do.
My first day was horrible. I mean, I expected them to be more welcoming. Normally, when there’s a new girl/boy in the office, you’d show them around or invite them to have lunch with you so you get to know them a bit better. But no, I ended up having lunch all by my lonesome. I don’t think I was that unwelcoming with the new people in my previous company.
I don’t mean to sound like such a snob but I don’t think I can get along with my current colleagues. This is a bit weird and surprising for me because I always thought that I could get along with all sorts of people.
Should I stay or should I go?

Emma joins the SBS Team on an apprenticeship and has been tasked with providing 1^st line support services for our supported customer base. Emma’s apprenticeship means that Strident are providing her with an all-encompassing ‘world of work’ experience, so don’t be surprised to speak to Emma on non-support related topics!