A teacher in America was asked, as dinner party conversation, what he made. That’s American for “how much money do you earn?” This is his reply, in verse. Warning: Strong language ahead. Taylor Mali on what teachers make
Author Archive > lynn
A visit to the Singapore Science Centre
Last Saturday I went to the Singapore Science Centre to see the PIXAR exhibition. The price of the ticket also includes admission to the Science Centre itself, and it’s been 10 years since I went there. There’s a lot of cool stuff inside that will probably interest all types of learners, because not only are [...]
The universe is like a trampoline…
… what you put in will be returned to you. Last weekend, just on a whim, I decided that I really should schedule some time to practise playing guitar every day, otherwise I am never ever going to get better. So I put it on my Google Calendar. For one hour every day after I [...]
Exclusive Interview with SES 2010 Keynote Speakers!
The keynote speakers for the Singapore Education Summit were interviewed on radio! Here is the link to download the file. Alternatively, use the link below to open the file directly. Enjoy! Keynote Speakers Interview You can catch Andrew Matthews and Jerry Mills live at the Singapore Education Summit 2010 on the 5th and 6th of [...]
Your gravestone
I was travelling home when this occurred to me right out of the blue. What do you want written on your gravestone? Besides your name and relevant dates, that is. There’s only so much space and you can only write a few words. How do you want to be remembered to the world? What pearls [...]
“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
Recently I came across the entire transcript of Steve Jobs’ commencement address given at Stanford in 2005. The link is here. He makes 3 points: Connect the dots, love and loss, and death. On connecting the dots: Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have [...]
My morning routine
I think I am going to start a new morning routine. Today when I got out of bed, I raised my arms and shouted, “MX5!” The Mazda MX5 is my dream car, and every day I will use this visual-auditory-kinesthetic action to remind myself what I am getting out of bed for. It’s partially Power [...]
Open your mouth to ask!
I remember once as a child, I got scolded by my mother because I stood there mutely waiting for her to pass me something, instead of just opening my mouth to ask for it. Maybe I was sending her telepathic messages. But anyway, recently I have learned the value of opening one’s mouth to ask. [...]
Why raising your voice never helps.
Pretty much everyone in Novena Gardens is familiar with the little red square guy that is Talking Carl, and we’ve had our fair share of laughs from poking his eyes. In the following video, Talking Carl illustrates why a “discussion” that revolves around raising your voice louder than your opponent’s is non-productive and just plain [...]
I was a teenage toilet cleaner
I am going to tell you something shocking. When I was in secondary school, I washed the school toilets. It was not part of detention class (how dare you, I am a good girl okay). It was part of our regular, daily classroom cleaning routine. You see, at the end of each classroom block was [...]
Believing in what you do
Those among you who follow my personal Facebook feed as well as the company’s Twitter feed will probably have noticed that I am nuts about the TV show Glee, and their theme song in particular. The song title is “Don’t Stop Believing”, and I have begun to see that Belief is going to be a [...]
A lesson in non-verbal communication
On Sunday evening, I saw my boyfriend off at the airport. I took the train back, from Changi Airport station all the way to Clementi MRT. I was lucky enough to get a seat, and was quite determined to hang on to it for at least half the ride. At Tiong Bahru MRT, the train [...]
Death by PowerPoint
We use PowerPoint a lot, but how many of us know how to use it properly? A comedian tears down the worst PowerPoint mistakes ever made. Remember, where presentations are concerned, go the Steve Jobs way. Video:
Being an expert is overrated.
As a sort-of sequel to this post, I present the case for just jumping into the water and learning how to swim (metaphorically). Most of the time, we hesitate to take an action because we don’t think we know everything there is to know about it. Maybe we think we need to be an expert [...]
Your dreams versus the world
(Note: I should include a video file to make things clearer, but I can’t find a video featuring the part I want.) Recently I got into watching “Glee”, a TV show about high school kids in a performing group. The club is initially very unpopular and its members are the misfits who get bullied by [...]
You will never be ready, so just do it!
How many of us sit on an idea, a desire, a dream, because we “don’t feel ready”? How many of us need to be totally sure that we can do it, before we do it? But what if there’s never that guarantee? What if the only way to find out is by doing it? What [...]
Power Up Your Presentations!
I guess all of you have heard at least a bit about the iPad, right? Yes, all snickering about the name aside – remember, they laughed at the Wii too – the Apple guys have got product launches down to a fine art. You wanna talk about pre-launches, building hype and generating buzz – these [...]
Helping you stick to those resolutions!
I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, and since I created my dreamboards, I actually don’t need them. My dreamboards give me the impetus I need to keep going. But that’s just me, and for the rest of you, I found some tips to help you keep those resolutions and not have to start 2011 by [...]
Mystery solved!
Last year we went to Bangkok, Thailand for our retreat and I took the following picture. It’s an image of a Space Invader from the videogame of the same name. At the time I thought it was really strange that there would be such a geeky thing, in a small alley in Bangkok. Today I [...]
Momentary lapse = long-term pain
Yesterday I had a birthday party. Today I came to work with a bandage on my palm. This is the story of how it happened. I ordered an ice-cream cake from Ben and Jerry’s, because I’ve never had ice-cream cake for my birthday. To prevent it from melting during the party, I put it in [...]
