astarlearning-blog

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It's midyears again ..

This year flew past rather quickly and the preparation for the end of year examinations during the June Holidays are coming to an end. As we wrap up some classes today, I'm proud at some of my students who really put their heads in their studies and focus to clear their doubts so that they will be able to move ahead in Term 2 in school. While some are astonished at how time flew, "it's our last week of the holidays, that's so fast!" Some are really looking forward to head back to school. The sense of satisfaction washed over me as I look at how much these students have grew the last 6 months. And soon, I'll be graduating another batch of students when they head off to adult hood. It's going to be my 9th year in this teaching line and I'm still loving every single day of my career. It never fail to amaze me at how students turn out at the end of the day - who they choose to become & who they become eventually. Teacher's plays an important influence in their growing phase of life and I greatly believe in that. I hope to influence more kids as my path coincides with them!

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Only a teacher who loves their students will be able to memorise each personalise handshakes because each moves represent a student's uniqueness 😁

This is awesome!

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Only a teacher who loves their students will be able to memorise each personalise handshakes because each moves represent a student's uniqueness 😁

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When tuition ended today at one of my student's place, he sat down on his piano and excitedly played "river flow" for me. I felt so honoured. I felt so happy seeing my kids grow to wonderful individuals that pursue on their passion and not giving up before achieving their best! I appreciate when he wanted to play personally to make sure I listen to every note even though he has not perfect the song. It's so important to encourage kids on what their passion is and everyone will be amazed at what they can actually achieve :)

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Follow closely, and you will that it's more productive during the 24 hours!

6 HABITS FOR MAXIMUM PRODUCTIVITY

These are the 6 habits that I try to practice in order to be my most productive self.

✔️1. Healthy Habit Tracker

The best way to be healthy, both mentally and physically, is to track your habits. This will help you to monitor when you complete the daily tasks you have set out to do. For example how much water you have drunk, if you got enough sleep and whether you have done exercise. This can also be extended to things like reading or doing certain daily school tasks which are pretty routine.

✔️2. Write It ALL Down

It helps to have everything written down that you need to do, and how much you need to get done in a day. Being able to see all of your to-do’s in one place each day will help you keep tabs on what you still have to do and the time frame in which you should be doing it.

✔️3. Plan Ahead 
Make sure you aren’t leaving things for the last minute. In my opinion, if you want to be the most efficient version of yourself, you need to plan in advance. Set aside time each day to plan the next few days or week ahead. Try as much as you can to diarise certain tasks and then plan how you are going to stick to them. By having deadlines you will motivate yourself to stick to them, and can get so much more done in a day than if you play it by ear. Trust me. [tip: reward yourself for particularly difficult tasks — like getting some new washi tapes]

✔️4. Keep Your Journal on You 
Always remember to keep your journal in the same place. I always leave mine on my desk next to my bag, so if I’m in a hurry I can never forget it. This may sound silly but making a habit of always having your journal on you is important as you never know when you will need to add something to your list, or to reference your journal. theres no point having an organised planner but you never have it on you to reference, which means you may forget half of whats in it.

✔️5. One Hour of Admin

No one likes to do admin. But its a necessity and putting it off will only make it worse. Set aside one hour of your day, without any distractions, to get all your admin done. Be it making calls and getting small things at home sorted that have been nagging you, or filing notes, and even getting things in your room in order. This would be the time to get your life in order, without doing anything that really ticks off big items.

✔️6. Treat Yo Self.

Im a solid believer in treating yourself. Long afternoon naps and strong cups of coffee, my two favourites. While treating yourself may not increase your productivity directly, and if taken too far could counter it, but by taking some tim to look after yourself you will feel less stressed and will be able to function at a higher level. I know that when I get too stressed I become forgetful and worry more about not getting things done than actually spending time on getting those things done, which is just plain counterproductive. So I invest a couple minutes a day to treat myself. It can even be a nice facial and doing my eyebrows, to having coffee with a friend at my favourite cafe. By looking after your own mental health you will be doing so much more for yourself than just having a few minutes a day of treating yourself, you will foster a healthier and happier mindset that can help you excel.

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An achievement to 2016 New Year Resolution

Never had I imagined that I would choose a private tutor path as a career. 8 years into the industry and I'm glad that I made this decision to start teaching. I made a new year resolution last year to step out of my comfort zone and do something different. While I wanted to step out of my comfort zone, stretch my teaching abilities, I also wanted to explore into new realm of teaching. When opportunity presented itself, I made the decision to collaborate with Assouq (An Arabic learning centre) to launch a pilot program to prepare 5-6 year old kids who are entering primary one in 2018. It has been an amazing journey. While the students set out into a journey of new knowledge, making new friends, creating new interest in each subjects, I was also embarking on a brand new journey of lessons preparation, managing young kids interest and feelings. After every lesson, the sense of wanting to give to the kids more increases. Every time I prepare a lesson plan, I'll be thinking about each individual's interest and questioning if they would enjoy the activities prepared. It pushes boundaries where I want to do my best so that the kids can benefit as much as they can. Seeing the kids smile and enjoying their lessons assured me that the decision made to become a full time educator was right. As we move into a new year (2017), every decision made last year for this collaboration felt so right. We are already into our term 2 of our initial pilot batch as we prepare the kids for their examinations in April. We will continue to strive our best, improving on current lesson plan, stretching the kids potential to provide them as much as we can so they will enjoy each subjects. We are already in discussion and preparing for 2nd batch intake and I look forward to an exciting 2017 with Assouq Arabic Centre! If you are keen to know more about our program -> http://astarlearningtut.wixsite.com/astarlearning/preschool

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Getting the website up & running .. 

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It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.

Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist (via thoughtkick)