Sunday, April 30, 2006

A really long April...

It's been a long while since my last entry...it has been a busy April month for me. Doesn't help that it started with me getting promoted and celebrating my birthday. But hei, suddenly I realised that my zest is coming back up again, slowly and surely...in fact getting more momentum now.

Finished two books during the course of these month, both by John C. Maxwell...'The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership' and 'Developing the Leader Within You'...and now reading 'The 360 degrees Leader'. Wow I amaze myself on how I can find the time to read, when I have been trying to ask my staff to do likewise! I guess it is all a matter of wanting and being hungry for 'wanting to know'. I kind of like his books, his writings, the style and the way he presents his ideas on 'Leadership', totally no bull and right on the spot. Introduced his books to my wifey...hmm she seems to like it, but the same problem with her is 'time' too! But she's planning to quit her current job and a great hurrah to that...maybe she can dedicate a little time to reading too!

My students have been a godsend so far, almost, and I mean almost everyone of them knows what I want out of them, as in my targets for them, and hopefully they'll work hard towards it. It has been a real pleasure teaching and facilitating their design thinking and processes, and I amazed myself too at how much spare energy I can squeeze out of myself when I talk about their work and 'design' to them. Truly, I've been in this job, for what, almost 3 years now, and never have I lost the zest to carry on, unlike my previous jobs! Hmmm, I just hope that God will give me the strength to carry on further, especially in light of my promotion and my 'new' but official assignment in June/July later! ;)

Ideas have been flowing rather freely, just like the work has been coming in too. Went to Daiso @ IMM a couple of days back and guess what, I blew 36 bucks on buying items that I think has a 'designer-ly' feel to it, or have a certain teaching value in them. Wow I didn't realise that such things come cheaply too. Couldn't wait for the week to be over to show to all my staff these jewels that I just got. Hmmm...now I am planning to equip all of them with these 'jewels', hopefully it will make their teaching experiences more dynamic, creative and more 'TLLM-ly' :)

The Progress Package is already in as I am writing this, but guess what, I've already kinda spend half it in advance, but not shopping in the typical sense of the word, but more so to beef up my personal/professional collection of books on 'Design' and 'Leadership'. To me it is money well-spent, in fact I consider this as an investment. I don't think I am expecting any form of monetary rewards to come out of this 'investment', it is just so that I'll be able to enrich my teaching experiences and abilities, and eventually enhance my students learning experiences on what design and 'design & technology' is all about!