Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Prostitute Wannabes



See beyond the defiant and wild facade, most teens are just confused and scared.

The show started with them hauling abuses at their mother but look at the 180 degree change when they saw their mothers' "death". No matter how big size they have grown, no matter how defiant / angry they look, teens are still children in adults' bodies. They would still think of running into their parents' arms when they were scared.

What do you think will happen to those who have no parent to run to?

Sincerely,
Michelle

Wild Teens Desperate to Be Pregnant

Sometimes, teens just need to learn the hard way.

What I like about Maury's programme is that it provides a platform for the teens to do something they were very adament about and then give them a chance to change.

In real life, not many teens have this kind of opportunity.

Some of them made mistakes that stick with them for the rest of their lives. Anxious adults who tried to stop them only made them more defiant and do it.

May the force be with you,
Michelle

Believing is Seeing

One of my all time favourite videos... Turn up your speaker and watch with full attention!



I once attended a course that preaches "believing is seeing", that we must first believe we can make that happen in order to see the results. That's the theoretical part of the course.

The practical part of the course is to get us to cut a 2B pencil across its mid-section using a small piece of paper. We started off practising with one chopstick. The frustrating is the piece of paper kept tearing whenever I hit it at the chopstick. The trainer kept saying, "It's not the paper. It's not the paper."

After 1h or so, my fingers started to hurt because they sometimes knocked accidentally on the chopsticks. With the pain, my movements became fearful and, of course, I was feeling low morale. The word "impossible" began creeping into my mind.

Later, the coach wanted to upgrade us to cutting a 2B pencil with a rose petal. Before we started with that activity, we were given a chance to share our earlier experience with the group. I commented that, "Well, I haven't really master the chopstick so I think it'll be sometime before I can cut pencil with rose petal."

Upon hearing that, the coach immediately got me up to do the demonstration of cutting pencil with rose petal for everyone. He was shouting at me, pushing me, encouraging me just like what happened in the video.

Guess what? I succeeded in just 3 tries.

On my third attempt, just before my fingers came down onto the pencil, somehow I know it would break. In the next instant, my fingers just went through the pencil and there was no pain or resistance felt. The pencil was into two pieces with a clean cut. After one success, changing the medium (i.e. rose petal, tissue paper etc) does not matter anymore and cutting chopstick becomes a breeze...

This experience of smashing a deepset "I cannot" belief was truly life-changing. It set me wondering what MORE can I achieve!!

Thinking back of my schooling days, the teachers I remember are those who pushed me to achieve things I initially believed impossible. They are not necessary approachable nor encouraging but there's one common trait - they ALWAYS demand the BEST from their students.

Be Your Best,
Michelle

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Who's following your footsteps?

Watch what you do... you never know who is watching.

I resonate strongly with this video.

Once, a teacher said she had a student who came to school one day with a small, black tattoo on her arm. So the teacher called the girl's dad to come to school to highlight this concern to him.
On the day of the meeting, the girl came with his father - a burly man wearing his vibrantly coloured tattoos all over his arms and legs. If you are the teacher, what would you say / do?

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Breaking Limits

How to make $2500 in 10 days?


In a desperate move to save her house from foreclosure, a 55-year-old woman in Teaneck, N.J, did it. She baked apple pies and planned to sell 100 at $40 each. With the help of her family, friends, relatives, her story was spreaded throughout the community and even got her on the news and tv. In the end, she sold 500 pies and that's a whopping $20000!!

I like this kind of story. It shows us that everyone has a hidden potential. It's only under certain circumstances that we're forced to tap into this source and achieve things beyond our imagnination.

What do you think will happen in your life if you can ALWAYS tap your full potential?

Enjoy the full story here.


Monday, July 27, 2009

First Post!

The birth of this blog is inspired by my students. With all their catchy background music, fanciful pictures and antsy words, they have struck out a place in the bloggers' world despite their faltering interest in English and writing.

This is not my first blog.

My first blog existed for 4 years and was deleted 5 years ago as a desperate attempt to guard my privacy after I started teaching and having students plopping into my life.

On a personal note:
I finally caught Ice Age 3 at the cinema last night! YES!!! It didn't disappoint me. However, the recurring images in my mind after I stepped out of the cinema actually came from the trailer of PIXAR upcoming movie - UP.

Look at the trailer below and, hopefully, you'll know why...



Throughout the trailer, I kept exclaiming to my hubby "awww sooo cute!"
Ha.. I'm definitely going to watch this!