A fact-checking Challenge

Mon, 7 Jan 2013
1 min read
Add Comment

Spot the error in this month’s issue of Challenge:

People We Love: Across the Generations (Challenge, Jan - Feb 2013)

In case you can’t see the picture:

Laremy Lee, 29
Role: Playwright, teacher
Achievement: Teacher at St Andrew’s JC, Laremy is versatile in writing for (sic) many genres, but focuses on the stage. His plays, Full Tank! and Radio Silence, were staged at the OCBC Singapore Theatre Festival 2008.

ORD LOH

Sat, 3 Nov 2012
3 min read
4 Comments

Rock on!

(Definition of ORD LOH, in case you need it.)

Yesterday was the last day of my four-week long Project Work relief teaching stint back at St Andrew’s Junior College.

(I forgot to announce this, among other things I was remiss in announcing; I vaguely remember there was a flurry of activity at some point in late Sep/early Oct – and then I had to go back to school.

So there were many people who were quite surprised at my sudden reappearance – sorry about that.

Also, my stint was initially supposed to be from Tue, 9 Oct to Fri, 19 Oct in order to replace a couple of male teachers who had to return to their respective camps to serve the nation.

However, the Head of Department asked me toward the end of my initial stint if I were able to extend my stint up to Fri, 2 Nov in order to augment the teaching/provision of feedback.

So there were, again, many other people who were quite surprised to see me around for so long – sorry about that once more, but you won’t see me again come Monday!

Anyway.)

Leaving and returning for a while has helped me realise a couple of things:

  1. I’m a good teacher.

    Sorry if this sounds crass, but I need to do this. Let me explain.

    I never thought I was a good teacher for most of my (relatively short) career.

    I felt I was way out of my league much of the time because I felt I didn’t have adequate content knowledge or pedagogical skills.

    And because I beat myself up a lot – though I’m learning not to do that now – I had a very poor sense of self-worth over the last few years, which reinforced my own impression of myself as a bad teacher.

    But returning to the classroom this time felt different: I really felt good when I was in the classroom because I knew the relevant advice to give and how to provide it well.

    And because I could see marked improvements in the students almost immediately most of the time, it felt like I was genuinely making a difference to their lives.

    So this time, I’m proud to announce, with no shame whatsoever (and that’s not because I have no sense of shame): I’m awesome, and I’m happy to be awesome.

  2. I love teaching.

    There is nothing more exciting than being part of an ‘aha moment’, especially when it’s an aha moment that will be one of the defining features of a human being’s life.

  3. But I don’t think I can teach in the Singapore education system in a sustained manner at this stage of my life.

    It may or may not be the system – I don’t know and that’s not the point.

    The point is: education, to use a cliched phrase – which is in itself a cliched phrase (haha) – is a noble profession; you must always give more of your time, your energy and your self than you are willing and able to.

    But for someone who is too young to be so noble, and too noble to be giving so much of himself away at the expense of losing himself entirely, it’s best that I take a break now – while I still can.

So here’s to flexible schedules, creating, being creative and being my own boss again for the next six months.

Let’s go.

But let’s play some DotA first.

Theatre Talkback: I hope it works.

Sat, 27 Oct 2012
3 min read
2 Comments

Theatre Talkback!

I just heard about this project called Theatre Talkback, so I thought I’d do my bit and help spread the word.

However, I thought I’d also do my bit and say something about it as well (as usual… LOL).

***

As someone who supports artistic development in Singapore, I’m quite supportive of efforts like these.

But as someone trained in both education and writing, I’m also worried this effort may not be as efficacious as it could be because of the following:

  1. A seeming lack of sustainability: Time is required for incubation and revision during the process of art creation.

    Hence, will the process be sustained after this session? If no, why have it in the first place? And why not spend the money/time/effort on something more sustainable?

  2. The lack of a filtering mechanism: Feedback will be provided by “the general public and…an acclaimed line up of panelist (sic) (consisting of a playwright, a director and an educator…)” to a target audience of “budding artists”.

    How will budding artists filter out information that is crucial and relevant to them from noise/irrelevant feedback?

  3. The probability of ineffective feedback: I have, on many occasions, asked myself – via an interior monologue – this question upon receiving feedback from a countless number of individuals, both useful and useless: “How is what you’re saying going to help my life or help me become a better teacher/writer?”

    Reason: a lot of the feedback tended to focus on one thing – what I was doing wrong.

    But any hmstrfckr can tell you what you’re doing wrong. It’s a great teacher, however, who can tell you what to do instead and how to do it, in order to be more effective.

***

To practice what I preach, I’m now going to work some of my LareMagic and suggest that:

  • The organisers should please, please adopt this feedback mechanism for the project:
    1. Tell the playwright what s/he is doing wrong;
    2. Tell the playwright what to do instead;
    3. Show the playwright what to do through an example.

      For example:

      • You’re narrating what’s going on to the audience. This reduces dramatic tension.
      • Show, don’t tell.
      • Instead of getting your character to say “I’m so angry with what you’ve just said!”, is it possible to ‘show’ it via the use of this stage direction e.g. CHARACTER slams his cup down on the table. Silence.
  • The organisers should please, please make it mandatory for every hmstrfckr who wants to provide feedback to adopt this feedback mechanism, otherwise her/his feedback will be ignored.

These two measures will solve problems (2) and (3) which I outlined above.

I can’t solve (1) but I hope some sort of workshopping will eventually take place over a prolonged period, much like TheatreWorks’s Writers’ Lab.

***

I expect some criticism about what I’ve just raised. That’s fair.

But let me work my LareMindReading LareMagic and pre-empt the criticism:

  1. This is too pedantic/structured.
    No – this is friggin’ education. You have to be pedantic and provide an order and a structure before creativity can flourish.

    But I say again – it must be a good order and structure that is derived soundly from theory and not something stated on a whim.

  2. But this is art! Art is supposed to be felt! How can you –
    Bye.