Tution Class Drama

For more than a year, I have been conducting Math competition training every Saturday for primary school students. Yesterday, what transpired prior to my primary 3 class was something I had never experienced before.

The day started peacefully as I chatted with Student A and Mother A, who were the first pair to reach. When Student B and Mother B arrived next, Mother B immediately approached me with an unfriendly attitude.

Apparently, Student B, who just joined the course 1 week ago, reported to his mother that the class was noisy and some students disturbed him. Mother B raised the issue to me and demanded that the class be orderly and mannered so that her son could concentrate in learning. Mother A, having overheard the conversation, quickly confessed to Mother B that her son might be effervescent at times and apologized if he had affected Student B. This was when the drama began to unfold.

Mother B reiterated that she had paid the course fees and did not wish her son to be involved in any monkey business during class. Mother A took offense that Mother B implied Student A was a prankster and commented that parents should not intervene too much into how children make friends. A fiery exchange of words immediately ensued.

This was an interpersonal conflict between an over-concerned parent and a more liberal parent. Emotions fired up because Parent A could not tolerate the insult when someone indirectly labeled her son as an unruly and disruptive student. Furthermore, Mother B was adamant that her expectation was perfectly reasonable. I was caught up in an odd situation because the parents were my seniors.

How could I assure the parents that class discipline was under good control? What could I do to appease both parties and start my lesson?

(P.S: Before the incident, Mother A explained to me that her son had prepared but forgotten to bring a special Teacher’s Day present for me. Now, I wonder whether I will still get my Teacher’s Day present. =P)

Importance of Effective Communication Skills to Me

If you think that effective communication skills are not important to a research engineer - a highly technical job – please think again. I came to realization only after doing a vocational internship at Data Storage Institute, a national research and development organization.

Although my work scope involved computer programming, trust me that I did not seclude myself from human interaction during the internship. (I am not a geek!) In fact, most of the idea generation and learning occurred during the various communication processes with my teammates and supervisors.

Firstly, the daily meetings provided a platform for my team to resolve any issues and technical problems with our chief supervisor. It was especially useful at the start when the research topic was completely obscure to us. Secondly, we had to do PowerPoint presentations fortnightly to update our supervisors on our progress and achievement. The presentation sessions served as an opportunity for us to obtain valuable feedback and suggestions from our supervisors. Thirdly, we frequently approached one another in the team for opinion and help when faced with any obstacle in work.

I may not become a research engineer in future, but still, the internship experience has highlighted to me the importance of effective communication skills at the workplace. It aids interaction with colleagues, and promotes the exchange of ideas, feelings and attitudes. As a result, mutual understanding can be forged in the team and productivity increased at work. This concept can also be extended to project works in school.

Therefore, the impetus for me now is to cultivate efficient communication skills so that I will be better equipped to face the challenges of work after graduation.

Welcome

This blog serves as my entry pass to the community of ES2007S bloggers, an exclusive club that I successfully bid for on an online auction called CORS.

If you still don't know, ES2007S is the module code for "Professional Communication: Principles & Practice". So what attracts me to ES2007S? Firstly, overloading as an electrical engineering undergraduate is no joke, hence I need my 6th module to be light in workload. Secondly, I earnestly hope to improve my communication skills and connect to people - a good departure after 2 years of dealing with programming languages and maths formula.

I am pleased to have Blackstone sinsei as my tutor. Don't be misled by his name. The lesson is actually much brightened up by his humour and cheerfulness. His teaching style is also flexible and creative; not rigid like a stone. With Blackstone's guidance, I am confident that I can achieve my 2 objectives for ES2007S.

What better way to summarize my expectation of the module than the phrase 'kill two birds with Blackstone' ?

Stay tuned to my blog to find out why effective communication skills are important to me.

Have a nice day!