Teaching Perspectives
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Here's a "personality" test for my teacher-to-be friends:
http://www.teachingperspectives.com
My dominant teaching style is "nuturing". And according to Junie, most teachers in MOE fall into this category.
Effective teaching assumes that long-term, hard, persistent effort to achieve comes from the heart, not the head.
People become motivated and productive learners when they are working on issues or problems without fear of failure. Learners are nurtured in knowing that (a) they can succeed at learning if they give it a good try; (b) their achievement is a product of their own effort and ability, rather than the benevolence of a teacher; and (c) their learning efforts will be supported by both teacher and peers. Good teachers care about their students and understand that some have histories of failure resulting in lowered self-confidence. However they make no excuses for learners. Rather, they encourage their efforts while challenging students to do their very best by promoting a climate of caring and trust, helping people set challenging but achievable goals, and supporting effort as well as achievement. Good teachers provide encouragement and support, along with clear expectations and reasonable goals for all learners but do not sacrifice self-efficacy or self-esteem for achievement. Their assessments of learning consider individual growth as well as absolute achievement.
posted byWilliam at 6:43 PM 0 comments
USC Production
Monday, March 26, 2007
USC Production gala night was great and I really enjoyed Chun's dance choreography. As usual: a picture to share with you.
I updated my previous entry on the Sino-Singapore farewell dinner. Some pictures have been replaced with album-like pages. Yup, I plan to come up with an album for the Sino-Singapore Exchange (Singapore), with a focus on Group 6. Each page will be printed super-8R size (12"x8") and I will search for a leather bound album to slot in the prints.
posted byWilliam at 12:34 AM 0 comments
Glowing Q Dots
Saturday, March 24, 2007
If you are puzzled about how quantum dots look like... I think they are cool liquids that glow under black light, nothing really matters.
posted byWilliam at 10:25 PM 1 comments
Farewell Dinner : (
Friday, March 23, 2007
Yesternite marked the last official event of the Singapore leg of the Sino-Singapore Student Exchange Program. I thought the dinner was quite melancholic. Many of us write autographs for one another and, of course, took many portrait momento pixs. As a semi-official photographer and also as a student participant, I was especially emotionally involved in documenting the event.
The photos were collated and burned onto CDs overnight and distributed to the returning-home students this morning. I had very little sleep and was constantly worrying about the MSN transfer from Charmaine.
The mood at the airport was kind of somber. I had to put on a smile even though I was sad to see my Chinese friends leave for home. I still remember Ye Feng took a picture of us and he said:"你们好象没什么状况", which means something like our faces were very neutral. Perhaps it's because our sadness deep inside us and our smile on our faces have neutralized each other...
As I am typing this, my mouth is ever so slightly sour...
posted byWilliam at 12:35 PM 0 comments
Life as a Part-Time Tourist
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Whoa ho; what a week! I have been exploring Singapore like never before...
Cheryl, Nikki, Kalyn and I brought the Chinese students to Ministry of Sound on Wednesday. And yup, this is the first time I partied so hard. The last time I was in Zouk as an organizing committee member for KEVII Hall bash. The teachers decided to tag along and we thought our mood would be somehow affected but nope, they left after a short while (the music might have been too loud for them). The retro night music was fantastic and we had fun on the dance floor. Well, not that we were super-good dancers though. Music was so loud that all of us were deaf after leaving the place. And darn, I was waiting for Bananarama's Love in the First Degree and the DJ played it when we were at the exit :(
Fri... Chery, Nikki and I bought about 20 of them to the City Hall area. The group was split into two: Cheryl and Nikki bought some to shop at Raffles City while I bought the rest to Bugis Village and Bugis Junction. The gals, as usual, were incredible shoppers. The group met up and went to Glutton Square for supper... The exciting finale was when I bought the group to take bus 51. The taxi queue was super long at DXO and most of them were on call. It was super frustrating to see so many taxis and yet we couldn't take any. I was not that familiar with 51's bus route and took a wrong turn near City Hall. In the end, I had to call my sis to ask for bus directions. The time was 1215 and the last bus had left Hougang terminal at 2330. My sis reassured me that we could catch the last bus and true enough, as I jogged towards the bus-stop and turned my head to glimpse at my back, a bus 51 accelerated from a stop at the traffic light and headed towards me. I just ran for the bus... Super heng, got the last bus...
Sat... Sentosa. I carried the almost 3kg photographic equipment with me for the whole day. Many of them thought I was crazy to lug all the stuff around Sentosa. Well, lugging equipment is part of the fun too :P And if you can see the above picture, that's how I looked on Sat in Sentosa. Touristy enough? The Sentosa excursion is quite a photographic tutorial for me. My aim was to learn how to take souvenir-holiday portrait and how to balance the snap-shot nature of souvenir portrait and certain classic portrait requirements. Lunch was super crappy and I was embarrassed as a Singaporean host. The mini-steam boat dinner was way, way, way-better.
If you have read the Sunday Times, you would have known that the musical fountain is going to be torn down to make way for the IR. I think this was the highlight of the day. I had a super nebulous memory of watching the musical fountain show and this was something new for me.
Just a quick tip: on the flash when you're outdoor. I flashed almost 100% of my outdoor pictures. The key is to balance the ambient light and the artificial flash (tuning down the flash power is impossible with most compact cameras though). The above picture would have been impossible without the flash. The face would have been dark and the background nicely exposed without the flash. Well, I don't want to be too technical here... If you need more information, please google for "fill-flash" or we could have a fire-side chat.
posted byWilliam at 10:46 PM 1 comments
Some Updates
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
I have been involved in hosting some Chinese students participating in the Sino-Singapore Exchange Programme. Been showing them around Singapore and NUS. Quite tired from the walking around... but fun. It would have been much better if it's the holiday period now. Been to the Night Safari, River Taxi ride; then Sat going Sentosa. Quite happening lah. More on the events that happened later...
Tagged along a pro photographer as a "second" for two events. I have learnt alot but I find that event photography is really boring. I don't think this is what I am pursuing in photography hobby. Money is ok but I don't like to do stuff for money. Event photography is contrary to my style. You anticipate, you jostle around, and you squeeze the trigger to try to get a shot. Perhaps I am too engrossed in pursuing all the "moments" like in wedding photography... Creativity plays a big role in modern photojournalistic style of photography... and even for photojournalism in the papers.
Ok, newspaper photo editors can choose really artistic shots for publishing work. Do I have a choice in selecting what to shoot when I'm employed? I really don't in event photography. There always have to be the standard speaker on the podium, the hand-shakes... The shots are standard, posed, lack space for creativity due to demand of the client... You get the idea.
Do people pay for some pixs which people's head/hand/leg are chopped off, even though the pix is excellently executed? I don't think so.
Do people pay for some fancy digital enhancement for event, like in the modern wedding album to add mood? I don't think so.
Are people looking out for details in your pictures, like a picture of a bouquet, a candle...? I don't think so. People don't pay you to shoot still-life.
I surfed around the web viewing event photographers' portfolio, and I am pretty disappointed. I am also disappointed with myself. Perhaps the portfolios I viewed are lousy and I am lousy. Pros, please show me some event photographs to revive my interest.
FYP is going quite well though I am still conducting experiments. At least now, my computational results are matching the experimental results. Now, it's on to the application...
posted byWilliam at 11:06 PM 0 comments
Itchy Legs Got into Trouble
Sunday, March 04, 2007
See lah, all the months of training went to nought for the NUS triathlon...
I ran the regular route at Fort Canning Hill Park yesterday. Talk about Murphy's law: I have never sustained a really ankle sprain until then. Stepped onto some hole in the ground and kena a sprain. Not serious enough to make me unable to walk but enough to cause enough discomfort to put me out of action for the race today. Sorry Zixian, gotta disappoint you with my absence. And darn, my $20+ registration fees also gone. I will be back next year.
Pretty eventful week: participated in Singtel Information Group Annual Dinner on Fri as the photographer. Hmmm... will post some pixs later after I do my FNA1002X tutorial.
Bought a new toy: a Benro carbon fibre tripod. The aluminum Manfrotto 190PROB is just too heavy at 1.9kg and the wobbly joints amplify vibration. Benro 1127 is 1.4 kg and has alot stiffer legs and joints. Well, I lost the versatility of the Manfrotto's removable column though; the 1127 is a classic tripod.
Dad just got me a lobang as a backup photographer at some coporate dinner. He met his professional photographer friend who happens to want some help. Hope this will kick start some rolling money for my photography hobby.
Canon is kicking Nikon's ass in PMA 2007. The release of EOS-1D Mark III makes it the fastest DSLR in the world (10 frames per second!). I hope Nikon is holding back the latest DSLR(s) for last-minute revelation.
posted byWilliam at 2:30 PM 0 comments