Sensei Michael

I reproduce here a response I made to a parent who pointed an accusing finger at teachers, during a discussion at KiasuParents.com . I am surprised I am still so passionate about the teaching profession! CluelessMa wrote: What do NIE teach the teachers? Not on handling the children? What NIE taught was very ideal. It assumed 1) small class sizes, 2) very supportive school leaders and 3) teachers with no life of their own beyond their students. Everything falls apart once any of these assumptions are not met. Indeed, what did we learn once we hit the schools? That we are all finite beings with emotions and who can feel exhaustion, pain and fears. Those students whom we can help, we give our all to help, but we simply cannot help all. There are too many starfishes. We can at least console ourselves that the particular starfish we threw back to the sea was helped. Quote: In fact, I must say that my friend is very tolerant with the school. She informed the school when child first join the ...

This story first appeared as a letter to my staff when I was working in China (hence it was written in English and Chinese). It would later spin off into a series of its own, read only by a small group of close friends. The Rabbit Family series tell of a harried Mother Rabbit and how she managed a warren of several rabbits. It is a story I suspect many SAHM (Stay-at-Home-Mums) can relate to very strongly! This is a story about rabbits. There once was a family of rabbits that lived next door to another rabbit family. One day, Brother Rabbit opened the door and saw Brother Rabbit Too. Brother Rabbit Too glared at him and growled, “You have too much rubbish, go throw it elsewhere.” Brother Rabbit was taken aback. How rude and totally barbaric! He thought to himself. Brother Rabbit bounced back into his comfortable rabbit hole and saw Sister Rabbit, who glared at him and growled, “Make sure you don’t dirty my new rabbit-hole sheets.” Brother Rabbit smiled. He had grown up with his sister f...

Another story from the Sheep Pen series. It was the Great Sheep-Shearing Season, and pens all over the city were happily shearing away wool for their customers. The Shepherd, who also happened to supervise the shearing workers, was particularly happy. He had just discovered a method of shearing that would increase productivity, and had taught all his workers the new method. It was going to be a windfall in wool shearing for his boss. Disturbing news came a week later – productivity was so low, that all other pens were laughing at him. He could not understand it, until he checked – and discovered that all his workers had been given pocket knives instead of electric shears to shear off the wool. He was livid, and spoke to the Purchasing Manager, who told him proudly, “Electric shears cost 160 pennies each, pocket knives cost 5 pennies each. I’ve just saved the pen hundreds of pennies. They work fine – you can use them to shear, no problem…just take a bit more effort, that’s all.” The Sh...

Yet another story in the Shang Wars  series. The Aide-de-Camp had taken leave from the fierce fighting to return to his hometown. He was hesitant and reluctant to be away from the fighting, but news from his hometown had not been good, and he had to return to settle some matters. The General was very understanding, and allowed his return during this lull in the fighting (it was the season when the enemy troops were away for an important tribal holy day). The Marquis of the town had offered his castle for lodging, as the Aide-de-Camp had no place to call his own home, in his own hometown. The Marquis was well-known as a very generous man when it came to offering the use of his things. He offered the use of his personal horse (well-stocked with provender and saddled with the best quality saddle available), a guest room in the castle, and even the attendance of his servants. The Aide-de-Camp was very grateful. The Aide-de-Camp, however, knew another side of the Marquis, and sure enough it...

Another story from the  Mistress’s Child  series. “It has been great to have you around, Alfred. I am so glad you were always around for my girl. Thank you so much, Alfred…” Mistress started coughing again as she struggled for breath, and Alfred quickly rushed to get her some smelling herbs to ease her lungs. “My pleasure, Mistress. There is no need to thank me. I am just doing my job, that’s all,” Alfred quickly glanced around, to make sure there were plenty of smelling herbs. Mistress had been getting progressively weaker over the years, and it really appeared that her life had not much more to go. He quietly sighed to himself, as he noted again how doctors were really expensive, especially when they had to treat Mistress, whom he knew was born a weak baby. “I really do not have many years left, Alfred. How I wish Old Master is around…” Another bout of cough came about. Alfred sighed, as he noted within himself how Old Master would not do so. Old Mistress had made it very clear in th...

A common bugbear among students is how the various tenses of English interact with each other. Unlike many Asian languages where tenses are absent, English does require tenses to be "in concord" (to agree) or else be considered poor writing at best (and a possible situation of misunderstanding in the making). The perfect tense itself is used differently when paired with a simple present "have" (making it the present perfect tense) and when paired with a past tense "had" (making it the past perfect tense). Both tenses are commonly used with the past tense in a complex sentence, and most errors come about also because of this same interaction with the past tense. I have given some sample sentences and some notes to guide my students how these should be used. Present Perfect Tense 1. Describing an experience, accomplishment or multiple actions in an unspecified time. I have been to China. I was in China last year. (specified time, so use the past tense) China...

The Sheep Pen series was the first serial story I have ever written, and the first one I completed. It was a story that really tugged at my heart, and I once teared when I wrote it (just like one of the Mistress's Child story). It was a story of a loyal dog, one that did all it could for its pasture, amidst a master that could not care less. There once was a dog, a tough mean sheepdog in its prime. It had suffered when its previous master passed away, leaving it to fend for itself. It came under the notice of the steward of this rich man, who’s looking for good sheepdogs for her master’s growing flock of sheep. She loved this sheepdog, and promised that, as long as it watched the sheep well, it would be loved and taken care of. She told the dog that, even though it was not a pedigree, it would be loved and taken care of as long as it was loyal. The sheepdog proudly strolled into the pasture, and its keen senses picked up many worrying signs. The pasture was full of potholes where t...

Another story from the Shang Wars series. It had been a difficult campaign of two years, a campaign that first began when the Generalissimo had first arrived to his camp and surveyed his troops. They had rallied behind him, and fought many battles. The fighting were so fierce and intense that even his Aide-de-Camp and him fought on the very battlefield itself, to encourage the troops. It was a difficult war to wage. His troops were often without weapons, and sometimes even without bread. Many times, calls for more weapons and bread went unheeded by the Emperor. During these times, he had to dig into his own silver to give bread to his troops, and to convince the local weaponsmith to get him a few spears. During a lull in the campaign, his wife wrote from the capital. His children had shown great interest in carpentry, and she would like to move back to their home in the south, where renown carpenters were available for them to apprentice with. The Generalissimo was happy to hear all t...

Another story from the  Mistress’s Child  series. The Mistress’ Child ran to the door as she heard the familiar sounds of the carriage stop just outside the old rented house she stayed in. She flung it open and ran into the arms of the old man who just stepped out of the carriage, nearly knocking him down in the process. “Whoa, Little Mistress! I’m an old man! You cannot afford the medical expenses if I break my arm!” Alfred laughed as he hugged the girl whom he had held in his arms as a baby, when the Old Master assigned him to the rented cottage. He was only half-joking though – they seriously could not afford his medical expenses were he to get injured, at his age. “Oh Alfred! You are really so funny!” Little Mistress laughed and quickly grab Alfred’s arm, before speaking in a whisper, “Well, did you manage to get the contract?” “Hmm…so the welcome was because of the contract and not for me?” Alfred raised an eyebrow as he winked at her. “Come on, Alfred!” Little Mistress gave him a...

The Shang Wars is probably the longest-running story written for my friends' reading pleasure. It is still ongoing at this point of time. Based on palace intrigues and wars within a crumbling empire in a Chinese setting, it is the story most readers believe I love the best. Of course, I have to say what every parent,  despite evidence to the contrary,  says, "I love all my children equally." I present the first instalment for my wider readers. A story in the Shang Wars series. Skirmishes had been going on for three years between the two armies. The Generalissimo watched with concern, flanked by his Aide-de-Camp. For these three years, the Shang battalion had gotten the enemy by its grip, only to be told each time by the Emperor to let them go. It was very frustrating, to see the wanton destruction wrought by an enemy that simply laughed at them each time they crossed the border. The troops were very tired of always having to deal with such an enemy, and the Generalissimo...

Another story from the  Mistress’s Child  Series. It was another of those days when Alfred had to go to the Mansion for some business. As usual, he had to wait for the coach that Old Master had hired to make the rounds about his many businesses. Lots of time would be wasted in the coach, but hiring a coach to take him directly to the Mansion was out of the question, as that was extra silver out of his Old Master’s pocket. Laughter was heard as he stepped down from his coach and greeted his dwindling number of old friends in the Mansion. Many his age had been replaced by younger, cheaper and more eager stewards. He could not help but wonder when he would be considered too old and be asked to retire. Alfred also noticed something else – the Mansion staff had new uniforms. A bit of enquiries revealed that Young Master thought the old uniforms were not nice, and had spent quite a bit of treasury silver to replace all the uniforms with the new ones bearing the family heraldry. And indeed th...

Along the learning curve, some students in Singapore have learnt how to do the various operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, but have no idea what they really mean. Hence, when they come across word problems, they get stuck. Not only that, but it is amazing how many times I have tried to explain concepts to the students, to find out that their understanding of Mathematics concept is seriously weak. I showed the students 2 apples and 2 oranges. I told them that an apple and an orange had been "taken away", and asked them what  I must do. Those students weak in concept actually suggested a division, telling me that they should "divide" the 2 apples and 2 oranges by 2. While the end result was the same, the fact that the concept was wrong spells trouble, and I had to throw in the curveball by asking them the result were I to have THREE apples and 2 oranges instead? The stumped look told me a lot. I had to rephrase, by asking the students wha...

The term "Abilene Paradox" was made famous by Dr Jerry B Harvey, a Professor of Management Science at the Washington University, who lectures on organisational behaviour. It describes the story (supposedly true) of a personal experience with the town of Abilene, during one of his lectures in 1974. Below is an extract from the  Workplace Bullying Institute : Abilene is the Texas city in the Abilene paradox. It refers to the retelling by Harvey of a lousy decision by his family. On a hot summer day, the family piled into a car without airconditioning and drove too many to Abilene to try a new diner. The heat was oppressive; the food was lousy. But no one dared to speak in those terms until later that night back home. Finally, the matriarch of the family broke the silence by complaining about the food. Then everyone chimed in with their complaint–the car was hot, it was stupid to try an unknown restaurant. It turns out that no one wanted to go in the first place, but no one said...

This post was written in another blog when I was in Shanghai, and I thought it fit to bring it out for a repost. Over in developed countries like the States, Australia or Singapore, racism is a problem we are always keen to tackle. Laws were erected in the melting-pot States, for example, that prohibits discrimination based on creed, colour, age, gender…and now even sexual preferences. In white-majority Australia, the “reign” of Pauline Hanson and her voice against the Asians destroying the way of life of Australians created plenty of tension. In Chinese-majority Singapore, jokes about Malays and Indians abound (terrible, but I’m not going to sweep it under the carpet). So far the racism I’ve encountered has been against members of a minority race, but here in Shanghai I encountered a very interesting form of racism that really made me reflect and think. This post is actually inspired by something that happened this afternoon. The Hengshan Church music team had our practice session thi...

Another story from the  Mistress’s Child series. The Young Master seldom sends letters addressed directly to Alfred, and he found himself a bit troubled as he broke the seal and opened the envelope. He heaved a sigh of relief. He simply wanted to know how the water supply in the cotton mill was being tapped. They have been faithfully following the procedures handed down by Old Master in the past, and Alfred wrote back, detailing exactly the procedures they have followed all these while. He noted with pleasure how Young Master would be glad that the cotton mill was being managed well, and placed an entry on this against his work log. Little Mistress reads the work log every night without fail. The Mistress’s Child was a bit worried when she read the log that night. Why would her brother be concerned about a cotton mill that did not contribute much to the family business? He was running a big business empire and would one day take over her father’s business. She tossed and she turned, u...