Congrats, Marieann!

Marieann received her EAGLES (LEADERSHIP) award this morning at Moulmein-Cairnhill Edusave Awards Presentation Ceremony. I am really proud of her! 

She initially wanted to skip the ceremony because she was shy. But I insisted that she attends the ceremony as it is an acknowledgement of her achievement and skills as a leader. It is a celebration. After the ceremony, I could see that Marieann was happy to have attended it. 

Tokyo Conference Trip 2018: Day 5

It's the day of my presentation at ICEL 2018, Waseda University. It's the first concurrent session after the keynote address. I happened to be the session chair as well besides being a presenter. 
We started promptly on time as there were 6 presenters in the 1.5 hours session. Each of us could only have 15 minutes. I did my best to facilitate and to keep time. I did well because all the presenters thanked me after the session! :)

Done with my presentation and session!

Lunch bento provided

Waseda University Library and conference venue

After the conference, I dropped by Sensoji Temple (which was along the train line) to give thanks for a good session and presentation before heading back to Shinjuku MyLord shopping mall to celebrate at Coto-Coto 茶寮.

Matcha Parfait and Matcha latte at Coto-Coto

Did a bit of souvenir shopping again before heading back to rest.     

Souvenirs from Waseda University shop

Goodies in my ICEL conference bag

My certificates - attendance, presentation, session chair

More crackers

My chicken yakitori dinner

Final!

I finally managed to finalise my conference presentation slides. I am usually still trying to finalise up to a day before my presentation. This is considered an achievement because it has been finalised a week before my presentation!  

Unprepared

Attending a conference next Thursday and I feel so unprepared. Presentation is still work-in-progress. I have too many slides and trying to cut. 

Preparation

This is going to be one of the high stakes presentation for me. My team and I have been preparing the presentation for a month now. It is now the final cut. 

Redesigning Pedagogy International Conference 2017

It is Day 1 of Redesigning Pedagogy International Conference 2017 (RPIC 2017). This is the moment, after 11 months of preparation and hard work - RPIC 2017 has finally arrived! :)
As the Deputy Chair of RPIC 2017, my work is not done as I have to keep an eye out for the duration of the conference in case there are situations. 
On the morning itself, I have to receive the Director NIE and the Director-General of Education, MOE together with the Chair and Convenors of RPIC 2017 and escort them both into the Nanyang Auditorium, NTU for the Opening Ceremony. 
In the afternoon, I was present at my RAs/ friends' presentation sessions to give them support as they presented our joint papers. With it being their first time presenting, moral and physical support is most important! :) I thought both Liyana and Filzah did really well for their presentations and they could answer the questions from the audience. I only stepped in to provide additional info when needed. 

Standing room only for Liyana's presentation just before it started

Liyana making her presentation

Filzah making her presentation in a separate session

A group photo after their presentations!

NRP Symposium 2017

I was invited to be an independent assessor for a researach project at the Nanyang Research Programme (NRP) Symposium 2017. The NRP is an NTU outreach programme for Year 5 students from IP schools and 1st year JC students. The students will undertake nine months of research activities under the charge of an NTU faculty member. All the student participants at the NRP Symposium 2017 have to present their research findings to two independent assessors,one of which is me. 

I am really heartened to see so many young people interested in research! The project, NIE02 which I assessed was helmed by two intelligent gentlemen from two JCs. They gave a very good oral presentation of their project and were able to answer questions from the assessors. What really impressed me the most were their honesty about their mistake and how they failed forward. :) Truly inspiring. It was a really good learning experience for me too. After I have keyed in my assessment, I went back to chitchat with the two gentlemen and to learn about more about them and their project under less stressful situation for them lol. 

Thank you for the wonderful presentation! All the best for your A levels at the end of this year, Vu Hieu and Jun You.

Presentation Prep

Preparing for an important presentation on Monday. It is high stakes for me.

Seoul Trip 2015 Day 8

I woke up at 7:30am to a cold and extremely cloudy morning. The mountains in the background couldn't be seen. It didn't look good, rain might be inevitable. :( By 9:30am, it started raining heavily with thunder. :( :( It's our day in Seoul, why did it have to rain?! 

We spent the whole morning watching Korean period drama, which is unusual for me while on holiday! It was still raining away with thunder. It seemed to be a whole week's worth of rain that didn't happen throughout the week all accumulated to today. Oh well, every cloud has a silver lining (pun intended lol!), the rain gave me some time to refine on my whole school workshop presentation next week when I return. :)

We were hungry so had to venture out in the heavy rain to our backyard, Insadong for lunch. We had dumplings at this small restaurant, packed full of Koreans. The dumplings were delicious! Went well with Jeju Hoji tea latte from Starbucks! :) 

The dumpling chef who sportingly smiled for my photo

After lunch, we headed back to the apartment as the rain was still heavy. I have sank to a new low while on holiday! I found myself surfing through the 559 channels. I was watching a continuation of this morning's Korean period drama only to have Juliane telling me that it's a different drama! Have to get out of the apartment, rain or shine! 
At 3pm, we ventured out even though it was still raining. The temperature was only in the low 20s, nice and cool. We went to Shilla Duty Free Shop to help an family aunt buy her skin care products. We were lucky to catch the free Shilla Hotel/ DFS shuttle bus at Exit 5, Dongguk University Station. We bought the stuff, left Shilla DFS and arrived at Myeong-dong all within an hour. :) 

The Shilla Hotel and N Seoul Tower in the background

The free shuttle bus provided for people going to The Shilla and/ or Shilla DFS

I bought some additional souvenirs on stand-by in case I miss out some colleagues and friends. The rain has let up by then. We browsed around for a dinner place. Settled on School Food at M Plaza. I tried the Special Mari 2 (7,800won, fusion mari combination with cuttlefish ink, cuttlefish, flying fish roe, and spam! Juliane tried Grilled Pork with rice (10,300won, rice on sliced onions, grilled pork and potatoes). The food at School Food was delicious and the pricing was very reasonable. :) Wish we had discover this place earlier lol. :P 

After our early dinner, we went back to the Cat Cafe! It was pretty crowded due to the rain. We managed to find a table at 6:30pm. Not long after we sat at our table, guess who came along?! Cookie, the Siamese cat came and curled up right on my laps again! There is a cat who loves me! Lol. :) She didn't sleep on any other patrons' laps. Guess we have a connection. :)  

A cat loves me!

Photo-bombed by Juliane lol

Not the best place to sleep/ nap 

Byee, Cat Cafe

We didn't stay too long, leaving the cat cafe at 8pm as we have to pack our luggage.
We took a walk down Insadong before returning to our apartment as it was our last night in Seoul. 

Tile art at the Anguk station

Back at the apartment just before 9pm, and it was packing time. 

Rain has stopped. What a clear night. 

Can see the crescent moon and star

I think we managed to keep our luggage weight under 40kg. Darn, should have bought more haha.