Actually, I have not attended many PASS(peer assisted study scheme) sessions before in the past, and my first ever session as a PASS leader is actually my 2nd PASS session.
But, this session was my first ever session as a PASS leader. Being a PASS leader is very different to being a tutor because they are in essence something totally different!
The difference between a PASS leader and a tutor:
1) a tutor tutors whereas a PASS leader leads the discussion
2) a tutor provides answers whereas a PASS leader does not provide any answer at all!
3) a tutor is seen as the expert whereas the PASS leader is seen as the adviser
4) in tutorials the tutor talks the most whereas in PASS sessions the students talk the most
That is just some of the differences. But PASS learning is associated to be more effective than tutorial learning. The creator of PASS is a professor of learning at University of Missouri, US.
This was the plan of my PASS session:
I walked into the class, greeted students as they settled down.
Got them to write down their names in the attendance sheet and also write their name on labels which they then can stick it on themselves.
I then asked them to introduce themselves to each other in pairs and then introduce their partner to the rest of the group. (By this time I was trying very hard to remember their names! Tashya, Cheryl, Han, Paula and one more I forgot by now)
I then asked the group what they thought PASS was, and also got members to ask questions and members answering questions. Basically I didn't answer any question, just sort of led the discussion. At the end of the discussion I felt that they knew clearly what PASS is about without me even giving a single answer.
Then I broke them up into pairs and had them discuss about their topic. They then had to write what they found on the whiteboard. By the time they were done, the whole whiteboard was full. I then had them explain to the group what they had wrote on the board in 2 mins or less. After each explanation, I would randomly shoot questions to the group and they had to find the answer to it. I really tried very hard not to give any answers!
After that exercise, I got each group member to think of one exam question to ask the group. Then in turn they had to tell of what they felt they understood better after attending PASS. I then thanked them for coming and said I hoped to see them the coming week.
I really enjoyed this session! But might be talking too much. Maybe its just me who don't talk very much. I look forward to the next.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
My first time in a factory
The other day, it was my first time going to a factory. I took the subject business practicum, and I had to visit the client all the way in Mordialloc, on Frankston line.
Little did I expect that I was going to be touring a factory, which was awesome! We were shown all the machinery, about 7 in total. They were plastic injection moulders (pretty hard word to swallow at first), that actually moulds plastic into designated shapes. Pretty amazing!
The factory was actually quite cool. You could see boxes stacked up high all the way to the ceiling. We were in some sort of warehouse. There was also a tractor. I would regard this factory as a small sized factory.
We were also shown the finished products of what the machines continutally spat out every single minute. It was definitely an eye opener to see so many things coming out of the machine. Touching a new plastic was certainly hot, and obviously alot of heat was applied in the machine to mould the plastic.
I felt I understood plastics better now.
Little did I expect that I was going to be touring a factory, which was awesome! We were shown all the machinery, about 7 in total. They were plastic injection moulders (pretty hard word to swallow at first), that actually moulds plastic into designated shapes. Pretty amazing!
The factory was actually quite cool. You could see boxes stacked up high all the way to the ceiling. We were in some sort of warehouse. There was also a tractor. I would regard this factory as a small sized factory.
We were also shown the finished products of what the machines continutally spat out every single minute. It was definitely an eye opener to see so many things coming out of the machine. Touching a new plastic was certainly hot, and obviously alot of heat was applied in the machine to mould the plastic.
I felt I understood plastics better now.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Conducting my first ever tutorial
Joshua enters the class...
Starts writing on the board...
Tutor: Joshua Ng
Email: j.ng**@ugrad.unimelb.edu.au
Consultation: Room 53*, EC&Comm, 3.15 Weds
(There were about 13 people in the class already. They looked surprise that I am their tutor. Perhaps I look like a student)
"Good morning class. My name is Joshua Ng. I am doing 3rd year Bachelor of Commerce. I will be your tutor for this sem"
"To start off, I want you all to, in groups, introduce yourself to your group mates and tell 3 things, namely, your name, one thing you always wanted to do but didn't have the chance to and why did you pick this subject"
(Class starts talking, I start feeling more relaxed)
I then started explaining to the class this game called 2 facts and 1 lie. They were supposed to think of 2 facts and 1 lie, then compete in groups to win the highest points. They have to guess the lie. So each person from each group gets a chance in turn to stand up and tell the 2 facts and 1 lie. Each correct guess (as a group) gets 2 points, wrong guess gets -1 point and no guess gets 0 points.
It was a very fun game, and surely warmed up the class alot. Took about 25 minutes just to play the game. Everyone had good laughs trying to guess the lie of each person. Some were very funny, saying a scar on his hand was due to a shark bite. It was a lie, but seemed so true and everyone got a good laugh.
I congratulated the winning group and gave them kit kats each for their efforts! (or luck i'm not sure)
The next game was the mingling game. They were supposed to compete individually to try to fill in the blanks the fastest. The questions were...
Find someone who...
Comes from Indonesia
Ate chicken yesterday
Worked in a shop
Has been to New York
Favourite colour is green
Has never studied economics before
Now when playing this game everyone had to move around the room. This really warmed up the whole situation and everyone was pretty much alive. I gave the winner a kit kat for his/her efforts as well.
Then we moved on to the pink sheet. It contained lots of countries and for each country they had to fill in the blanks for population, capital city, GDP growth and Finance Minister/treasurer. It was basically a mix and match game.
And then at the end of the tute, I gave out coffee vouchers compliments of the department of Economics and also the blue sheet for next week. Overall a very fun tute I would say and definitely am excited for next week's tute!
Starts writing on the board...
Tutor: Joshua Ng
Email: j.ng**@ugrad.unimelb.edu.au
Consultation: Room 53*, EC&Comm, 3.15 Weds
(There were about 13 people in the class already. They looked surprise that I am their tutor. Perhaps I look like a student)
"Good morning class. My name is Joshua Ng. I am doing 3rd year Bachelor of Commerce. I will be your tutor for this sem"
"To start off, I want you all to, in groups, introduce yourself to your group mates and tell 3 things, namely, your name, one thing you always wanted to do but didn't have the chance to and why did you pick this subject"
(Class starts talking, I start feeling more relaxed)
I then started explaining to the class this game called 2 facts and 1 lie. They were supposed to think of 2 facts and 1 lie, then compete in groups to win the highest points. They have to guess the lie. So each person from each group gets a chance in turn to stand up and tell the 2 facts and 1 lie. Each correct guess (as a group) gets 2 points, wrong guess gets -1 point and no guess gets 0 points.
It was a very fun game, and surely warmed up the class alot. Took about 25 minutes just to play the game. Everyone had good laughs trying to guess the lie of each person. Some were very funny, saying a scar on his hand was due to a shark bite. It was a lie, but seemed so true and everyone got a good laugh.
I congratulated the winning group and gave them kit kats each for their efforts! (or luck i'm not sure)
The next game was the mingling game. They were supposed to compete individually to try to fill in the blanks the fastest. The questions were...
Find someone who...
Comes from Indonesia
Ate chicken yesterday
Worked in a shop
Has been to New York
Favourite colour is green
Has never studied economics before
Now when playing this game everyone had to move around the room. This really warmed up the whole situation and everyone was pretty much alive. I gave the winner a kit kat for his/her efforts as well.
Then we moved on to the pink sheet. It contained lots of countries and for each country they had to fill in the blanks for population, capital city, GDP growth and Finance Minister/treasurer. It was basically a mix and match game.
And then at the end of the tute, I gave out coffee vouchers compliments of the department of Economics and also the blue sheet for next week. Overall a very fun tute I would say and definitely am excited for next week's tute!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Me!bourne
I have been back in Melbourne for a few days now. Dad has been around. We have been going out alot, everyday. Seeing so many places, like today we went to Edithvale beach, which is near Frankston beach. Very beautiful place, we had ice-cream there under the shade. The sun was so hot. On the beach you could see alot of hot chicks sunbathing. But not many Asians at all. I am not attracted to non-asians, or so I would say. It's just me, if a chick and me don't click culturally, I am not attracted to them.
Also managed to visit my uni twice! The first time, I just came down from my flight at 11.50am. And the meeting was scheduled at 1pm. So I was rushing my family to faster check-out from the airport, get our luggage and rush to get a car and rush to my university. By the time we got a car it was already 12.50pm. Fat hopes of arriving on time. In the end I arrived at 1.30pm, 30 minutes late, only to find that people who were on the same flight as me arrived there earlier than me! So amusing and disappointing at the same time. If you are wondering what meeting that was, it was a tutor meeting. All the tutors were there listening to Jeff Borland, our old introductory microeconomics lecturer, talk about what he expects of us this sem. Then after his talk, we were all talking and making lots of noise as all the tutors started swapping tutorials with each other to suit their timetables.
I wonder which students I would get! How scary it would be for me to stand in front of 20 odd students and all of them looking at me as if I am the know-it-all person. I am the person with authority and suppose to tell them to do everything, and they are suppose to listen to my every word, if not... Yea, if not what? Nothing really. They can not listen if they want to. But they have to obey the code of tutorials, and usually if they are there then they are interested to learn, and don't want to fail that subject. The next day at university we went for our tutor training which lasted 3 hours. They had a teaching & learning specialist Anna Jones come in to teach us basically how to tutor. I remembered what she said about a lousy tutor who can come in and just write all the answers on the board and students just copy them down. And then she said the reason the university employs us is because we are expected higher than that lousiest standard. We have to make students engage in participation and make tutorials highly interesting. We learnt to deal with various situations, like what if a student doesn't participate, or he is too noisy, or too laid back, or what if awkward situations occur, like what to do, etc.
It was pretty interesting overall, but I loved every moment of it! Kinds of makes me impatient for my first ever tutorial. For the first tutorial, it is supposed to be a fun one. Not really anything much at all that is examinable, just fun and games. I am going to surprise them with a special game. Hopefully they enjoy it. I mean in the end, its fun tutorials that students look forward to. No student loves boring tutorials, and I understand that very well, being a student myself. I always look forward to the fun tutorials, and hopefully the tutor knows his stuff. I hope to be a good tutor myself! I need to stop thinking that I students won't like me, and that I keep on being concerned if they don't like me. Or that I have to be perfect at everything I do in the tutorial, if not they would pick on my mistakes. I think that is not true. Even the first years themselves, they would be even more terrified as they had not ever been to uni before. They really have no real expectations. I am excited!
Also managed to visit my uni twice! The first time, I just came down from my flight at 11.50am. And the meeting was scheduled at 1pm. So I was rushing my family to faster check-out from the airport, get our luggage and rush to get a car and rush to my university. By the time we got a car it was already 12.50pm. Fat hopes of arriving on time. In the end I arrived at 1.30pm, 30 minutes late, only to find that people who were on the same flight as me arrived there earlier than me! So amusing and disappointing at the same time. If you are wondering what meeting that was, it was a tutor meeting. All the tutors were there listening to Jeff Borland, our old introductory microeconomics lecturer, talk about what he expects of us this sem. Then after his talk, we were all talking and making lots of noise as all the tutors started swapping tutorials with each other to suit their timetables.
I wonder which students I would get! How scary it would be for me to stand in front of 20 odd students and all of them looking at me as if I am the know-it-all person. I am the person with authority and suppose to tell them to do everything, and they are suppose to listen to my every word, if not... Yea, if not what? Nothing really. They can not listen if they want to. But they have to obey the code of tutorials, and usually if they are there then they are interested to learn, and don't want to fail that subject. The next day at university we went for our tutor training which lasted 3 hours. They had a teaching & learning specialist Anna Jones come in to teach us basically how to tutor. I remembered what she said about a lousy tutor who can come in and just write all the answers on the board and students just copy them down. And then she said the reason the university employs us is because we are expected higher than that lousiest standard. We have to make students engage in participation and make tutorials highly interesting. We learnt to deal with various situations, like what if a student doesn't participate, or he is too noisy, or too laid back, or what if awkward situations occur, like what to do, etc.
It was pretty interesting overall, but I loved every moment of it! Kinds of makes me impatient for my first ever tutorial. For the first tutorial, it is supposed to be a fun one. Not really anything much at all that is examinable, just fun and games. I am going to surprise them with a special game. Hopefully they enjoy it. I mean in the end, its fun tutorials that students look forward to. No student loves boring tutorials, and I understand that very well, being a student myself. I always look forward to the fun tutorials, and hopefully the tutor knows his stuff. I hope to be a good tutor myself! I need to stop thinking that I students won't like me, and that I keep on being concerned if they don't like me. Or that I have to be perfect at everything I do in the tutorial, if not they would pick on my mistakes. I think that is not true. Even the first years themselves, they would be even more terrified as they had not ever been to uni before. They really have no real expectations. I am excited!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
CIMB Part III
It has been a memorable experience so far. Raymond my fellow mentor, Wei Wern my buddy at CIMB and Lionel my fellow intern all have made an impact on me so far. Everyday coming to work would be to learn something new and mingle and get closer to the people I just mentioned. It was truly a rewarding experience and I feel lucky just to be there at that time. It lets me live a full life with a challenge every day and the motivation to get out of bed. But nevertheless coming with the motivation is an expectation that this internship would one day end. And it did. Although I had wished that life were that simple and that it would continue indefinitely. But so being would mean I would lose my motivation, perhaps. Such the irony of it.
The last 3 weeks in CIMB has been nothing short of fun. Altogether I had been in CIMB for 9 weeks. I continued to learn much more on shipping. Terence, the head of department, gave me an exercise to compile net profit with salaries of directors over many years, and to do that for many companies. It was interesting. It is the work and the method that taught me something new, and useful for my future analytical skills, which I hope to learn as time passes. My last piece of work, however, was the most interesting one. I had to do a forecast model for a shipping company, Orient Overseas International Limited (OOIL). There I learnt how the balance sheet, profit and loss, and cash flow statement all interacted together. So awesome.
I will also miss the new buddy friend I made there, Lionel. He is from UNSW and doing commerce as well. I could relate to him easily as we were both kind of in the same position. I hope to be able to see him again because it is likely our paths would not cross again until the not-so-distant future. Till the next time we meet I suppose.
Most of all I will miss Raymond, whom has taught me alot of things in CIMB. He always needs a helping hand and I am happy to lend my hand. Although he is teaching me so that I can help him, he is nevertheless giving me so much benefit by asking me to do work. I learn alot that way. Researching techniques more like it. On the 2nd last day of my CIMB internship, Lionel and myself treated Simeon, Winson, Raymond and Wei Wern to lunch at Yogitree in Mid Valley. On the last day of my internship, Lionel and myself went for lunch with Ireena, and Lionel bought me a delicious slice of cake from Alexis. I will never forget the moment when I said bye to everyone as I was about to leave, and on top of that, will never forget my experience there, working in the top equity research department in Malaysia. Till our paths cross again, CIMB and my fellow beloved friends in CIMB Research.
The last 3 weeks in CIMB has been nothing short of fun. Altogether I had been in CIMB for 9 weeks. I continued to learn much more on shipping. Terence, the head of department, gave me an exercise to compile net profit with salaries of directors over many years, and to do that for many companies. It was interesting. It is the work and the method that taught me something new, and useful for my future analytical skills, which I hope to learn as time passes. My last piece of work, however, was the most interesting one. I had to do a forecast model for a shipping company, Orient Overseas International Limited (OOIL). There I learnt how the balance sheet, profit and loss, and cash flow statement all interacted together. So awesome.
I will also miss the new buddy friend I made there, Lionel. He is from UNSW and doing commerce as well. I could relate to him easily as we were both kind of in the same position. I hope to be able to see him again because it is likely our paths would not cross again until the not-so-distant future. Till the next time we meet I suppose.
Most of all I will miss Raymond, whom has taught me alot of things in CIMB. He always needs a helping hand and I am happy to lend my hand. Although he is teaching me so that I can help him, he is nevertheless giving me so much benefit by asking me to do work. I learn alot that way. Researching techniques more like it. On the 2nd last day of my CIMB internship, Lionel and myself treated Simeon, Winson, Raymond and Wei Wern to lunch at Yogitree in Mid Valley. On the last day of my internship, Lionel and myself went for lunch with Ireena, and Lionel bought me a delicious slice of cake from Alexis. I will never forget the moment when I said bye to everyone as I was about to leave, and on top of that, will never forget my experience there, working in the top equity research department in Malaysia. Till our paths cross again, CIMB and my fellow beloved friends in CIMB Research.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
What it means to be an analyst
From working as an analyst, life gets pretty interesting and its a whole new world out there. From my 2 months experience working in CIMB, the top research analyst house in Malaysia, I would like to share my views on what it means to be an analyst.
People may call you an anal-yst.
If you don't like a company, and write a bad report on it, you may get barred as an analyst from ever visiting the company.
By 38 years old, you already have alot of white hair from stress while working. So pay very good attention in taking care of your hair.
Never write in your report, "there are no major surprises." You should say "Although there are no major surprises,..." because there is surely something you are surprised about, even if you are surprised the company had a briefing at all, or surprised that they served food at the briefing, essentially surprised at something. Even though the results were not surprising at all.
Results season is the time when you don't get any sleep. So there are a few things you can do, you can pre-write and pre-sleep for your report.
Analysts always wish that they had more fun in uni, should party harder and everything we learn in uni is rubbish.
Working as an analyst, you start work at 7am, have breakfast at 9am to 9.30am, have lunch from 12-2pm, and finally go home about 7pm.
Researching always has 3 stages, the first stage is gathering data (which doesn't give you white hair), analysing data (which gives you abit of white hair) and thinking (which gives you alot of white hair).
In company briefings, management always tries to talk up their prospects. So whatever numbers they give you, just discount it by 30%. In the case of some companies, *ahem* Green Packet, discount it by 50%.
In company briefings, you always get freebies including a bouncey ball, a mug, a car screen shader, a usb port and a pillow so that you may like management and recommend their stock a buy.
When you are forecasting, it takes alot of consideration, but if you are optimistic about the stock you can put the numbers to make it look high, but if you are pessismistic about the stock, you can put the numbers to make it look low.
So thats all that comes to my head now of being an analyst, but keep you posted on more!
People may call you an anal-yst.
If you don't like a company, and write a bad report on it, you may get barred as an analyst from ever visiting the company.
By 38 years old, you already have alot of white hair from stress while working. So pay very good attention in taking care of your hair.
Never write in your report, "there are no major surprises." You should say "Although there are no major surprises,..." because there is surely something you are surprised about, even if you are surprised the company had a briefing at all, or surprised that they served food at the briefing, essentially surprised at something. Even though the results were not surprising at all.
Results season is the time when you don't get any sleep. So there are a few things you can do, you can pre-write and pre-sleep for your report.
Analysts always wish that they had more fun in uni, should party harder and everything we learn in uni is rubbish.
Working as an analyst, you start work at 7am, have breakfast at 9am to 9.30am, have lunch from 12-2pm, and finally go home about 7pm.
Researching always has 3 stages, the first stage is gathering data (which doesn't give you white hair), analysing data (which gives you abit of white hair) and thinking (which gives you alot of white hair).
In company briefings, management always tries to talk up their prospects. So whatever numbers they give you, just discount it by 30%. In the case of some companies, *ahem* Green Packet, discount it by 50%.
In company briefings, you always get freebies including a bouncey ball, a mug, a car screen shader, a usb port and a pillow so that you may like management and recommend their stock a buy.
When you are forecasting, it takes alot of consideration, but if you are optimistic about the stock you can put the numbers to make it look high, but if you are pessismistic about the stock, you can put the numbers to make it look low.
So thats all that comes to my head now of being an analyst, but keep you posted on more!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The four heroes
Most left: Peter, also known as mr. funny guy who can crack up the funniest jokes out of the most not funny things. Also likes to saves money alot at dinners.
2nd from left: Chan, who other than being my best buddy is known for his 'pro' driving skills which includes able to turn a corner at 120km/h.
2nd from right: Joshua, also known as myself , the guy who usually plans all the outings and gives other people the chance to bond because of it. Also when he wants something, he has the face of a small kid who wants to go to a candy store.
Most right: Nick, he comes across as knowledgable about almost everything in general but likes to say the word "fucker" alot, although he really is a nice person.
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