Month: February 2020

We advocate education for everyone. Special invitation to Sitti Hikmawatty, commissioner for health. If you are ever in Singapore, we will offer free bio classes for you. Our bio class is taught by our co-founder Wallace and will be fun and enriching. Give us a ping if you are ever in town! ? #bioclass #swimming

Posted on by Wallace

We advocate education for everyone. Special invitation to Sitti Hikmawatty, commissioner for health. If you are ever in Singapore, we will offer free bio classes for you. Our bio class is taught by our co-founder Wallace and will be fun and enriching. Give us a ping if you are ever in town! ? #bioclass #swimming[…]

If you are new to argumentative essays, you must take note that the introduction is very important. After all, it is the first impression your reader has of your story. A couple of things you have to take note: 1) You must have a stand in the first paragraph. Do not forget this. Do you support or oppose the question. 2) Your stand should usually be in the last line of the first paragraph. Why? This is not a comprehension passage where you answer: Yes, I agree. You need to hook the reader to read the rest of the story via various techniques. In school, for beginners, some teachers tell their kids to summarise the points they are going to mention in the first paragraph. Once you are more confident in your writing, you can start with a quote, an anecdote amongst other methods, which we will cover in other weeks. For now, if you are just a novice at this, remember YOUR STAND MUST BE IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH. #friwritingtips

Posted on by Wallace

If you are new to argumentative essays, you must take note that the introduction is very important. After all, it is the first impression your reader has of your story. A couple of things you have to take note: 1) You must have a stand in the first paragraph. Do not forget this. Do you[…]

If you have been on social media today, you would have seen the video of Quaden from Australia. This nine-year old was crying incessantly, telling his mother he wanted to die, because of all the bullying in school. To my students: remember never to bully your classmates because they are different. Your peer may be taller, shorter, more effeminate or simply have some pimples but that doesn’t justify any cruel treatment. When we bully someone who is different, it says more about ourselves than about the person we are bullying. It simply shows how insecure we are and what a wimp we are. I can think of no other reasons. *** Dear Quaden, I am sorry this has to happen to you. I see that CEO of Singapore-based ONE Championship and Evolve MMA gym, Chatri Sityodtong has offered you a ticket to Singapore. If you are in Singapore, please ping us too. We will gather a group of our most fun-loving students to attend classes with you if you like. If not, my students and I will love to hang out with you for a day, maybe at Univeral Studios Singapore or just eat the most delicious durians. Whatever you want, for a day. Have lots of fun in peace, knowing we will never call you names or treat you badly. Welcoming you to Singapore in advance. Till then, stay strong. The whole world is rooting for you. Love, Wallace, Wei and all the teachers, students and parents from Study Room #teamquaden #quadenbayles #dwarfismawareness

Posted on by Wallace

If you have been on social media today, you would have seen the video of Quaden from Australia. This nine-year old was crying incessantly, telling his mother he wanted to die, because of all the bullying in school. To my students: remember never to bully your classmates because they are different. Your peer may be[…]

Recently, I got my P6 students to work on a seemingly easy composition topic: an unpleasant surprise. A few criteria: – must be unpleasant – protagonist must not have expected it Two common mistakes: 1. Unpleasant surprise Finding my house in a mess is unpleasant. Buying A but getting B is unpleasant. However, finding your friend murdered is not an unpleasant surprise. Sure it is unpleasant. But it’s so serious it is a tragedy. Note the severity of the “surprise” or risk going out of point. 2. If you are writing about yourself as a protagonist, and your friend gets an unpleasant surprise, how did you know he was surprised if you were not with him in the story? In such a case, best not to write in first person so it removes the question about how you would have known how the other character had felt. Share this if you find this useful. #fridaywritingtip

Posted on by Wallace

Recently, I got my P6 students to work on a seemingly easy composition topic: an unpleasant surprise. A few criteria: – must be unpleasant – protagonist must not have expected it Two common mistakes: 1. Unpleasant surprise Finding my house in a mess is unpleasant. Buying A but getting B is unpleasant. However, finding your[…]

My 15 year-old daughter is always on instagram and now tiktok. I have tried putting curfews on phones and even confiscated them. It doesn’t work and it has soured our relations. What should I do? Answer: Before we tackle this issue, let’s answer these questions first. 1. Are you always on the phone on whatsapp with your parent-support group or facebook or candy crush? 2. Were you studying 24/7 when you were younger as a student? If your answer is “yes” to any of the two questions, then you don’t have the right to tell your child what to do. The argument that you are an adult isn’t valid. For me, even when I am on my laptop doing work, I go onto FB every now and then, hindering my progress. In worst-case scenarios, I have to remove the wifi to focus. Social media is addictive. When I was a child, I had such addictions too. I was glued to radio then (yes, I am a dinosaur); my mum once removed my radio’s cord. (once again showing my age. Radio with a cord!) I am not saying children shouldn’t learn to focus. However, the often-my-way-is-the-best-way rhetoric doesn’t gel with teenagers because we are hypocritical if caught behaving in similar ways. Age doesn’t give us the right to do things they are not allowed to. If you stop them from smoking because it is unhealthy, you shouldn’t be smoking too. If you tell them drinking is bad, you shouldn’t drink too. If you ask them to sleep early, you should be sleeping early too. No one likes being told what to do and teens are more resourceful than you think. A parent once confiscated her son’s phone but I saw him IG stories by using his mum’s old phone. Instead of a blanket censorship, be reasonable and set rules that both you and your child adhere to. For instance, she has to put away the phone when she is doing her homework. Similarly, when you are working from home, you have to put away your phone if your job doesn’t require it. Or perhaps, there should be no phones for anyone in the family during dinner or after 10pm. Whatever consequence she faces for breaching the rules will apply to you too. It shouldn’t be just targeted at the child. Make her feel an equal in the family. Try it! #thurswithwei

Posted on by Wallace

My 15 year-old daughter is always on instagram and now tiktok. I have tried putting curfews on phones and even confiscated them. It doesn’t work and it has soured our relations. What should I do? Answer: Before we tackle this issue, let’s answer these questions first. 1. Are you always on the phone on whatsapp[…]

We posed this question for our #tgifquiz yesterday. About 46% of the respondents think this standing broom viral trick is real and I don’t blame them. After all, this was forwarded by friends, you tried it on the day itself and it worked. The answer? This is a fake- the phenomenon can happen on any day; we can do it on Christmas and call it a Christmas miracle. What’s the tell-tale sign? Why would an important agency like NASA issue something so frivolous? And if it were true, why didn’t you read it on the news but instead got it via some dubious copy-pasted WhatsApp message? A simple google search will show reputable news sites such as BBC and Forbes debunking this #fakenews. During this #covid19 outbreak, avoid forwarding any WhatsApp messages. You can subscribe to @gov.sg WhatsApp messages if you really want to get your news via this medium. Otherwise, trust official press releases and news reports from credible sources. Stop forwarding messages that are copied and pasted by someone with the call-to-action message “forward this to someone else now”! They are almost always fake news. In this period where everyone is feeling a little jittery, be socially responsible. Do not spread rumors, and indirectly spread fear and panic. If anyone forwards you messages, educate them immediately. #nomoreforwardedmessagepls #nomorefakenews #sgunited

Posted on by Wallace

We posed this question for our #tgifquiz yesterday. About 46% of the respondents think this standing broom viral trick is real and I don’t blame them. After all, this was forwarded by friends, you tried it on the day itself and it worked. The answer? This is a fake- the phenomenon can happen on any[…]

Just to lighten your mood if it had been a stressful week, especially with the #covid19 virus. We expanded recently and got a new unit at Toa Payoh to meet demand for our students. We told the contractor to remove the signage of the previous tenant for obvious reasons. After my lesson at 8pm, I went to take a look at the progress. Top: before Bottom: after ?

Posted on by Wallace

Just to lighten your mood if it had been a stressful week, especially with the #covid19 virus. We expanded recently and got a new unit at Toa Payoh to meet demand for our students. We told the contractor to remove the signage of the previous tenant for obvious reasons. After my lesson at 8pm, I[…]