Friday, February 29, 2008

the weeeekend! hohoho *gringrin* oh goodness tralala, lets worry about results next week, mine and theirs. maybe the key to fulfilment is finding something to look forward to every day. well. i suppose i could do that.. i mean, i had something to look forward to on monday.. what i looked forward to the most was giving away that echidna chocolate.. i must tell you about the echidna chocolate okay, cos its so super cute and so super farnee. cos like the two p5 students both did this paper which had this comprehension on echidnas.. i mean like, echidnas? hello? what on earth is that? why do we all wanna know? but anyways. apparently the same family as spiny anteaters and duck-billed platypus who are mammals but lay eggs. anywaysies, i had to get it for them when i saw it in candy empire the other day. the superduper cute thingo was, i got a call from her parent today asking me where i got it from.. apparently the father ate the chocolate! and the mother didnt want her to know! omg, that is so cute..

tuesday. i got to give away the other echidna chocolate to the other p5 student.. it was quite a nice lesson.. i so love revision.. and last minute cheonging. and stuff.

wednesday. putting in a full day of work. yeah can you imagine that, that gave me a high. *stares in stunned belief* although i didnt quite manage it:( some communication error. oh yes. and more revision. tomorrow math paper, see me today.

thursday. well. what better thing to look forward to than to feel wood vibrate *gringrin* one of the highest points of the week. and to top it all too, tomorrow science paper, see me today. now does that sound familiar? anyways. the best lesson of the week:) p4 science revision, completed everything, can see her starting to brim with revised knowledge stuffies, beginning to go hey i know this! and totally helped by the way she grinned when i asked her how was math today although she super refused to say that it was good. or if it was bad. i take it to be good though? (hope no careless mistakes)

today. woody vibrations, again. more grins all round. lesson-wise it was quite shitty larhs. the two of them super didnt practise can. and she went back to like, square negative one or something. ALL PIECES. *grumps* what on earth? i ended up rumping her up and down a little (a major first) but for all its making me feel terrible, it didnt work. *more grumping* no difference. i mean like seriously, you wanna take grade 2, dont like that can.. alrighty, shall not let you ruin my mood.

saturday, dinner. sunday, no lessons! hohoho.

anyways, yes. i was asking my mother to name 10 things that make her excited about work every day (she couldnt) cos she was niehing me about being so fickle and saying that ill probably like change jobs maybe every decade or so cos i think id get bored.. so, ill try this one. in five minutes:

10 Reasons Why I Look Forward To Work Every Day.
1) I get to see cute kids. who are well. still kids. ie. urms innocent-er?
2) the look on their faces when they start to feel that anything is possible and that theyre smart and they can do well and they are like i dunno, achievers?
3) the lame jokes they tell. although serious eye muscle control is needed here.
4) the chance to see what goes on in the minds of little ones
5) the chance to be impressed when somebody like miraculously completes an impossible amount of homework. or gets something superduper quickly. or says something thats worthy of you learning from.
6) i get alot of alone-time on buses and trains.
7)everybody is different

okay, didnt quite complete that. your turn.
of course, theres the whining.. and the yawning, esp during the academic stuff.. (my greatest fear) i start talking rubbish, like anything, hoping to like interest them but its like, too much too fast.. and in that sleepened state they like find it even harder to follow :/ and the homework bargaining.. "school teachers gave me alot of homework you know.." alright, now then. do i look like i care? so. 2-3 papers a week. i would have hated that man. eeekks. but then again. my primary purpose is to see you do well, okay. not make you like me or feel extra relaxed during lessons or anything. i wanna stretch your brains. yesh, i try to inculcate some kind of love for learning and the subject.. but no. as daisy ho says, psle is practice-based. the more you do the better. (okay fine, applies to everything, really) goodness. im giving them no life and im going down the path of learning because of exams. i really would have hated this way of things whenn i was younger. should i be scared because im not longer scared that this is happening?

speaking of of daisy ho.
Tuition Agents/Agencies -- The Lowdown

-Trusttution. this is really good for tuition agent wannabees. and those who want some kinda residual income. the base of tutors is there.. they give advice for client-getting and stuff. its all online, with a system for looking for/sorting tutors, and its really simple only need to match tutor to tutee, the rest is done for you. plus, perks like cheaper assessment books for parents and free exam papers doable online sound quite appealing to parents (i guess) butbut, not good for the tutors because.. the parents still pay lets say $20 an hour so theyre thinking oh wow i get these assessment book packages and free test papers for the same rate i would pay for a tutor for other agencies. somemore the tutor-parent relationship is monitered by the agency, theres some assurance of a long-term thing.. (the fees are paid to the agency every month) but then, it is the tutors who are at a loss. the money for the agents minimal recurring income comes as well as the maintainence fee for the website and stuff comes from the tutors. instead of earning a full $20/hr, youd earn sth like $17.50. sucks? you bet.

-Life Lessons Consultancy. this is basically a one-man show, with this ex-tutor with experience with other agencies before setting up his own. havent exactly gotten anything from him, but could be because he has this must have a levels thingy. but anyways, if everything he says is true, then this would be good for the long-term committed tutor because apparently he can charge higher rates because he's one of the rare agencies that even meet their tutors face-t0-face. and apparently also establishes long-term relationships by calling up so check progress and stuff like that..

-Startutors. seems like quite a big organised one, pretty much online-ish, where parents can actually browse through stats and rankings and stuff before choosing the tutor. its a large-ish and im pretty sure legitimate one cos they give actual invoices to the parents and ive received smses from over ten individuals.. must be pretty big, huh. only thing is.. its not good for the newbie cos since the parents get to choose, they wont go for the undergrads and non-degree-holders and part-timers. i only got my assignment from them because i think the location was quite far west so not many tutors wanted? theyre constantly improving themselves.. theyve recently added more stuff, like tweaking their ranking system, adding timetables so you can see available time (although they still msg me for times when im obviously not heh) and even going onto facebook harharhar.

-Atutors. this one is completely online. parents can see details and previous successful assignments online.. like the above, favours experienced tutors. and promotes fee-slashing.

-manytutors. another large one, quite a number of agents, with an office in the east and all that.. theyre quite diversified in that they do do quite a number music students and stuff. runs like a clockwork. i had one the agents quitting/leaving before i paid the fee and the follow-up person collected it. i wonder if he got the money though. poor guy. he was nice. and he referred me to a few students. and always said welcome before you said thank you.

-various smaller online and phone/home-based agents/agencies. all i can say is, they dont really want to help you try for a better rate because they prefer to keep the parents happy. i suppose you could say what you pay for is what you get. not always. but oh wells.

-mrs ho's SD tuition. seriously, id think this is the one which offers the most.. be it in terms of looking out for your interests or support. okay, so her trainings might not be all that fantastic. but at least you know without having to bumble your way around for a little before knowing the key things and stuff. and the training is continuous (supposedly) and things are exam-based. because seriously, why have tuition? simply to do better. and the worksheets and exam papers. yes, they do help in lessons, the worksheets, that i can say.. if you know how to use them i suppose.. and what is also awesome is, since the parents need to continue getting the worksheets and papers from her, she also has a vested interest that you do well as a tutor. sure you pay $50 more per student.. but im not griping.. i think this is the best for both tutors who are starting out and those with more experience as well.. unless of course you have your own method already and so using the worksheets wouldnt be such a great idea. oh yes. and the pay. it does start out at a rather comfortable $20/hr.

ps. above list of agents and agencies is by no means exhaustive

pps. i just found out that my blood type is B positive. and since my fathers an O, that makes me heterozygous! i have a recessive allele! *gringringrin* hohoho.

Bonjour. Si vous voulons me chercher, vous êtes venu au faux endroit.

Friday, February 29, 2008

11:30 pm

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