Another Pivot We Did

It's question and answer site.
Another Quora, Stackoverflow?
No!


It's an online learning site.
Another Khan Academy, Moodle, Udacity, Udemy?
No!

Differences for Teachers

1. A teacher can protect her/his own clients from other teachers.
2. The teacher gets paid 80% for her/his effort. S/he can check her account balance any time.
3. The teacher can re-use her/his solutions with a few clicks. Eventually we will fully automate it with AI/Machine Learning.

Secure, Mobile-friendly!

My Parting Gift to the English Department

(1) When Chomsky and Halliday show up, ask them to build a working model or a prototype. If they refuse or if they can't, laugh in their faces or roll your eyes.

(2) When Sylvia Plath and co show up, ask them to write without a formula, If they refuse or if they can't, laugh in their faces.

(3) When fake ESP(English for specific purposes), EAP(English for academic purposes), EPP(English for professional purposes) experts show up, ask them how many hotel staffs, business people, geologists, chemical engineers, doctors, nurses, sailors, insurance people, software engineers have found their stuffs useful. If they don't have a specific number/figure, laugh in their faces.

As this lovely book illustrates, keep this in mind: Sophisticated elaborate ruses can be easily countered with very simple moves. Be simple, be even stupid.

Wit and Force

I have used "A D U L T . . . I N T E L L I G E N C E" only twice on my children.

 (1) I asked one of them to push a bike for an hour, then mount and push with one foot for an hour, then put both feet on pedals and push and glide a far as he can for an hour. After only 5 sessions, he could bike well and declared that he had learned biking all by himself! With no teacher!

 (2) I read them some story in English about 15 mins about 5 days a week when they were in K1, and 2 days a week in K2.

About 10 mins of discussions on what they had read almost every day in P1, P2, P3. Then I stopped.

No grammar analysis. No rhetoric discussion.

We ban speaking in English at home. They also had to learn Chinese. They now speak Myanmar, Chinese and English.

After P6, they all could take and pass Junior College/A-Level/(General Paper). They believe they had learned English all by themselves.

They thought I didn't teach or help them at all, but just had fun with them!

Force or wit? I will use only what is good for others. That is my moral authority.

Three Very Short English Lessons

ME: What are you reading? (Son in P2 or 3)
SON: "The Red Badge of Courage"
ME: Aha (please and surprised)
ME: Are you reading the original?...
SON: No, this (showing a comics of about 20 pages.)
ME: What is this about?
SON: A young man joined the American civil war, became brave and a hero.
ME: Which side did he fight on?
SON: Union side.
ME: What is his read badge of courage? It is a medal or prize?
SON: No it's a scar.
ME: The enemy hit him or something?
SON: No, one soldier from his own side hit him when they were running away.
ME: Yah, it is a nice story. The original is very famous and good.


ME: What are you reading? (Son in P4 or 5)
SON: "The Red Badge of Courage," comic, longer version.
ME: Funny, you find another comic for same story. Good. Can you tell me how he found his courage?
SON: I don't know.
ME: Maybe the book abridged too much. It is in the original. Even psychologists and military trainers praise the author's points.


ME: (Son in P5 or 6) This is "The Red Badge of Courage," original.
After running away, he cam back to his regiment. During the next fight, he fought bravely and found his courage. Try to show me the exact sentences about his discovery of courage.
(A few hours or days later)
ME: Have you found the place?
SON: I think .... these paragraphs.
ME: Right.



No grammar analysis. No rhetoric discussion. No dictionary to check long words. We just talked about what we wanted to talk about.

Very Unfair Exchange with my Students --- Episode 1

May 27, 2014

So I decided to invest about 1 hour to prepare for the 8-hour course. In 1 hour, I covered 90% of preparation for the course. Then as usual, I went further. In the end I spent about nearly 10 hours to prepare. In Jurong East Library(Level 3) alone, I re...ad nearly 150 books of marine engineering books and about a dozen Singapore, Malaysian insurance books. From Internet, I read dozens of vessel insurance reports.

He is older than me and has many degrees and certs. So we didn't need to do basics of grammar or writing. Only a few tricky stuffs and cases.

Well, some cases were so tricky that I even recalled David Crystal's remarks: In some cases, English usage becomes so tricky and so full of irregularities that it becomes hard to know which are rules and which are exceptions.

I was right almost all the time. My grammar is not strong any more as I have neglected it for nearly 20 years. Then I realized I was unconsciously using strategies of Poker players, day Traders and investors. That is, every time I am unsure, I check with grammar books or dictionaries. Every time I am sure, I can afford to bet 200% or more. Like George Soros, who borrowed to "gamble" when he was sure.

Soros's lesson is How often you lose or you win doesn't matter. But how much matters.

I told him: My grammar is shaky, but I stay with "clear-cut cases" and expand on them. So, you can be right 100% of time that way if you want to be right 100%.

I gave David Crystal grammar and I got George Soros's Courage because the Universe never allows an unfair exchange. Don't you see how much LOVE I put into my work and my STUDENTS and my CUSTOMERS?

I even told the student directly: The probability of me teaching a student like him again for the rest of my life is nearly 0, so I won't invest much in him. Tough teacher!

How to Arouse Curiosity

Curiosity can do wonders in learning. But a few kids were not born curious. Then, how can we arouse curiosity in such students? A wonderful book called  'The Genius of Instinct: Reclaim Mother Nature's Tools for Enhancing Your Health, Happiness, Family, and Work' has some answers.

1. Fun : Everyone becomes curious about what they regard as fun.
2. Novelty : They may also become interested in new stuffs.
3. Collative attributes : This is about collation i.e. collecting, sorting, ordering, arranging things.

According to the author, "collative" techniques are particularly good for invoking  curiosity. In practical terms, it means

1. we show students that there are gaps  in their understanding and world view.
2. we show students that there are discords, contradictions, dissonance  in their understanding and world view.
3.  we dare them to imagine, visualize, mental-simulate some more possible worlds, rather than the one they are used to.

Carlos Castaneda for English3Day

One of Carlos Castaneda 's books, The Wheel of Time is full of nice ideas. Here I relate some of them that apply to our students. If some of them sound a bit too mystic, well, just ignore them.

 A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, ...

page - 13
 

Absolute assurance? How?

A warrior-hunter, on the other hand, knows he will lure game into his traps over and over again, so he doesn't worry.

page - 82
 

Or is it more like this?

A warrior acts as if he knows what he is doing, when in effect he knows noting.

page - 97
 

Enjoy more of such experiences at English3Day.

Kumon Method -- Examples and "Cheating"

Many weeks ago, I was reading books on Kumon Method. One thing that struck me particularly was the founder's willingness to allow the students to 'cheat.'

In one book, it is said the founder (Mr. Toru Kumon) made a sensation among the students for allowing them to use "cheat books," books with answer keys and worked out solutions.

In another written by one of his sons, Hiroshi Kumon, the author said that his father let him use his older brother's books to see how some problems were solved.

Well, well, well ... "Example isn't another way to teach, it is the only way to teach." - Albert Einstein

See that philosophy in action at our web site English3day.

Kumon Method -- How Many Worksheets?

A few weeks ago, I was reading books on Kumon Method. At the back of a book, they showed a sample curriculum for Math and English for North American continent.

In particular, I checked to see how many worksheets they used per year and per subject. And I noticed that moving in English from very simple sentences to rather elaborate sentences took about 400 sheets times 5 years plus 200 sheets times 1 year. It totalled to 2200 worksheets.

I couldn't help recalling how I had journeyed across that distance with nothing more than 6 or 7 A-4-size grammar notes of my own, based on a few grammar books I read in those days.

Do we need 2200 or do we need 20 worksheets?

Facebook Rants --- Teaching and Honesty

When a teacher says her/his subject is tough, maybe it is tough for them. So be helpful to them

Teaching and Honesty

1. Prof Noam Chomsky on BBC: If we don't know enough, we call it linguistics, metaphysics etc. When we know enough, we call it physics.
2. Richard Feynman: If we can't explain it to intelligent high school students, we don't really understand that subject.
3. Another Nobel winner in Physics: we call this course 'advanced', because we don't know about it really.
   

So, please, teachers, be honest.

Is your subject difficult?

So, kids, if your teacher says 'this is tough,' feel sorry for him/her and be helpful!

Teach Like a Champion

Teach Like a Champion ,by Doug Lenov, 2010 is a nice book. Well, I have to be positive. But the notes truly reflect what I got and what you are likely to get from reading the book.

T 13

Name the steps.

T 14

Make what you write on board look like what you want your students to write down in their books.
Model good note-taking behavior.

T 16 : Break It Down

1. Provide an example.
2. Provide a context.
3. Provide a rule.
4. Provide a missing step or a first step.
5. Roll back.
6. Eliminate wrong choices.

T 23 and 24

Groupwise recall, review, chorus, reinforcement.

Reading

Using your skills with vocabulary and grammar, you decode and deposit some facts and ideas into your short-term memory.

Skills levels :
words, phrases, sentences --> paragraphs --> essay/chapter/article, book, topic/theme
--> field/subject/discipline

Pre-reading:
1. Provide some context or background knowledge.
2. Alert them to focal points, like a tour guide.
3. Front-load, that is, introduce key scenes in advance as in movie ads/trailers.

While reading:
1. Ask.
2. Solve bit by bit. Don't let problem or difficulty pile up.

How to Criticize Education

I used to be a university teacher. At that level( and maybe in our country), the main pressure came from the management and the government. I think that that is true in most countries. How lucky to be a uni teacher?

Except in US and UK. In US, a few Nobel laureates, esp, the economists, would keep complaining that uni degrees and diplomas are tickets to jobs that don't exist anymore, so-called "degrees of deception", or that education has become just a transaction where customers (previously known as students) are kept satisfied while being prepared for job markets.

In UK, the government is unleashing market forces into the nooks and crannies of the academia, (ah, these UK politicians are Tom Peters fans after all.)

Common people don't go to unis, don't know what uni teachers do, and thus usually leave uni teachers to their own devices.

The situation becomes tougher for teachers as you go down, the toughest being in the Primary school levels. There every parent becomes an expert. Almost all of them have primary education and so they presume (or assume, not to show my bias ;-> ) that they know to how to teach, test, do syllabus. do curriculum and more.

The more educated the parents, the more likely to complain to, interfere with, and supervise the actual teachers, unless ...

They have a longer format for their mental video.

What Happens When the Mental Video Plays for Only A Few Hours

The most daring, the most can-do of such parents will offer to demo, to do a prototype, to run a pilot, to run a trial etc for their kid's classes.

For the demo class, they will read up in depth, compile important insights, exploit excellent methodologies, perform tirelessly etc.

The school, the admin, the teachers themselves should encourage such enthusiasm. Let these parents do their demos.

How long is a demo class? 2 hours?

Ask them to repeat it one more time for the day.
Ask them to repeat the day for a few more times for the week.

Ask them to repeat the week for a few more times for the month.
Ask them to repeat the month for a few more times for the year.
(Do I need to go on?)

How long will they last?
When will their smiles become forced and weary?
When will they start losing their temper?
When will their explanations and answers become curt and vague?

When will they start to feel like Tom Cruise acting out Top Gun on stage? He has to fall in love, defend his family honor, mourn his buddy's death every night for a dozen of days in a row? Will he, will you stay fresh?

The next time you want to criticize (or advise, to hide my bias) a teacher/school, play the classroom scene with you as the principal teacher for at least 200 times.

If your method is still fine in the 201st show/run, please let us hear your method. Or else, please keep it to your self as a souvenir.

Stay Cool with Calculus - Part 3

Some time in August 2012, or earlier.

We were doing Calculus just to test how cool my Primary 5 son can be in the face of some supposedly "scary" problems.

And we were looking for a kid-friendly introductory book

 We did check out books at our Popular stores. In Singapore, Calculus is taught in A Maths in Secondary 4. The textbooks, the workbooks, the supplementary books there did not foresee customers like us.

We did find Business Calculus Demystified, a wonderful book, a great one. But it didn't meet our requirement of " just 1 or 2 hours."

We kept looking till we found "Calculus Made Easy."

Strangely, a book published in 1910 is the most suitable for the 21st century:

It also captures the spirit of the calculus reform movement:

The photos were taken form "Calculus Made Easy" the 1998 Edition's introduction by Martin Gardner.

By this time, we, both father and son, were very cool.

1. We know more relevant branches of Maths, other than Calculus.
2.  Tough big books are not our problems, but the problem for the authors and the publishers.
3. We can bypass them with cooler nicer books.

We read

1. a few chapters of Calculus Made Easy
2. a few sections of a workbook from Popular store
3. a few chapters of Business Calculus Demystified

He tested his understanding of the concepts by working out some exercises in Business Calculus Demystified.

I believe that this experience will help him with other areas of studies too.

Stay Cool with Calculus - Part 2

Some time in August 2012, or earlier.

We were doing Calculus just to test how cool my Primary 5 son can be in the face of some supposedly "scary" problems.

And we were looking for a kid-friendly introductory book.

We ran into lots of tough, heavy books and I lost my cool.

A subject that is beautiful, still useful in many disciplines(described better here in "Calculus Made Easy" the 1998 Edition's introduction by Martin Gardner)















A subject that has been taught for decades ...

But a subject which has been sort of superseded by other branches of maths, in particular by discrete maths ...

Still here we find calculus books getting thicker, heavier and more inaccessible to outsiders. Again the explanation comes in Martin Gardner's introduction:

Are we going to find the kind of book that suit our needs:  just 2 or 3 inspiring real-life problems, 2 or 3 simple formulas or procedures, just 1 or 2 hours?

Nothing Special, Therefore Be Very Kind

1. Scoring in football ...
2. Scoring in a maths olympiad ...
3. Scoring in a violin contest ...

Nothing Special.

A few decades down the road, your kid, like James Watson and Kerry Mullis, will say, "Getting that prize in Oslo in December, is Nothing Special". When that really happens, good for you, good for us, and good for all mankind.

Proof with a Thought Experiment

Your child did something for the first time. She failed. And she stopped doing it again.

If you can rule out the following reasons :

1. She's not interested in it anymore.
2. She's distracted by other things that are more interesting to her.
3. She was severely affected by the test physically. e.g. bodily pain
4. She was severely affected in terms of physical resources. e.g. She now has fewer toys than minimum necessary.
5. She was severely affected in terms of social resources. e.g. She now has fewer playmates than minimum necessary.

Then, we are left to assume that she may have suffered emotionally.

Then again, if you can rule out the following reasons :

1. No one scold/discourage/shamed her.
2. No one praise/encourage/recognized her.

What other reasons can you imagine?

Say, if other kids of similar strengths recovered sooner, we can only speculate that your child may have been hit with something harder/meaner/bigger, something special.

To you, the tasks are similar or even identical e.g. That Number 4 question on Page 123 of that Primary 6 Maths book, and in the same class, and on the same day.

To your child, the task is tougher on her than on other kids.

Who gives that task that extra strength against her?

A ball is a ball, a goal post is a goal post and yet England strikers find it hard to score esp. in important, international matches. Sports psychologists do help them, but not much.

Who makes that task special? Who adds that extra significance/strength to it? Make sure it is not you, either as a parent or a teacher.

If it's herself who generates stress and pressure, please gently show her that it is Nothing Special.

Let's not pass on our shame, insecurities, anxieties, sorrows to our kids, our students, and all the younger generation in general. This is the least we could do.

Two Free Tuition Classes for Raffles Institution Students

Most of Raffles Institution Students cannot be cool. Goh Zuo Min said in Oct 23, 2012, today paper:

"Students usually keep their notes to themselves, and even tell schoolmates the wrong things to study..."

Thus, my Free tuition classes for all JC students:

1. Kindness for Non_rivals
2. Kindness for Rivals

The first class is easier and higher than the second. If you pass the first, the second is not necessary for you. (This course design betrays my 3000-plus years of age.)

Kindness for Non_rivals

We need to define rivals very specifically. That is, very narrowly. How narrow? How about Sein Baydar, a pre-war famous Myanmar musician?

"Today's Sein Baydar is competiting with yesterday's Sein Baydar..."

All 3000-plus-years old people know that Kaizen/continuous improvement was  not invented either in Myanmar or Japan.

So, who are your rivals, Raffles Institution Students?

Kindness for Rivals

If you still have rivals other than yourself, you need to take this second class. Here I teach self-cannibalization.Again, all 3000-plus-years old people know that it was not invented by Tom Peters, or any other American management gurus.

When I was in high school or Uni, I passed around notes to anyone interested. Those notes were my current best. But they were getting obsolete in a few days' time because I kept working on them.

Can't you let others score good marks while you can score excellent marks?

Even with the same notes, cannot you rely on your intuition, your native wit to give you brainwaves during the exam? When will you train your intuition if not when in schools?

Even with the same notes, cannot you rely on your luck?  All 3000-plus-years old people know that all good people are lucky.

Uncle is sad. Uncle can share a lot with you about good competition. Good luck!