cryotosensei

Stacker Saloon

saloon

![IMG_1880.jpeg](https://m.stacker.news/28399)

My son received a trilingual (English, Mandarin & Japanese) game set from my friend. He’s thrilled. I’m grateful that people think of me when they wish to declutter their toys haha.

How many languages can you speak btw?

bitcoin

The whole Phoenix drama in just one single image

DarthCoin

The British are gonna have a field day with this 😂

Photography

Look what the mailman just dropped

Brenda

The power of Street Art is that it goes to people’s daily life to be seen…

Nadia

![IMG_2036.jpeg](https://m.stacker.news/28374)

Time for a break in Japan

meta

I realise Stackers are a different breed. Other people will wanna get out of the rat race, but it seems that you guys don’t have that pronounced aversion towards work. Case in point: my rambling-style [post about my perfect work day](https://stacker.news/items/514290) about 7500 sats.

Now that I have distilled the elements of a successful work day, I can explain to you more rigorously why today turned out to be perfect for me. Let me count the ways.

- **high-impact**: So I opened up my classroom. And three colleagues, including my Vice-principal came to observe my lesson. I’m actually not the kind who dreads being observed. I welcome it because this makes my lesson preparation more worthwhile. Like upping the V4V, you know 

- **fun + unorthdox**: So, in order to expand my students’ emotional vocabulary for sadness, I showed them the word cline so that they could learn more difficult words associated with this emotion. Then I got them to choose one sad word; one student chose the word *melancholic*! Then, they were tasked to write about an incident that made them feel that particular sad word. The second part of my lesson involved getting them to practise empathy. So I asked all of them to stand up, move to the side of the classroom, and then go to a different seat so that they could read one of their classmate’s problems. It was the first time I tried rotational learning stations, so I think it worked out reasonably well. 

-**illuminating**: I designed this lesson because I noticed that my students confuse the past tense for the present tense. Actually, some aspects took up more time than I expected - I naively thought that they would magically write everything in the past tense because my prompt was to write about an incident in the past tense. But some students still wrote in the present tense, so I got to correct their grammar. In fact, if I were to do this differently, I would have skipped the word cline and zeroed in on the past tense. But I can’t say that it was an unproductive lesson because I took away something valuable from it.

-**learning a cool fact**: My ex-colleague messaged to inform me that we can use AI within WhatsApp itself. Since I was the AI champion of my student, I duly informed the entire school staff of my newfound knowledge. It’s cool to spend each day accumulating more knowledge than the last

![IMG_1866.png](https://m.stacker.news/28277)

-**decluttering**: I had time to consolidate my waste papers and take them to the paper recycling machine. Granted that I only earned 5 cents for my Herculean effort, I’m glad to have the energy to carve out some time to work on my pursuit. Every $10 I earn would go towards funding my son’s college education haha.

So, through these two days, I have come up with a formula to describe my perfect work day:

*personal learning + professional growth + white space + earning side money = beautiful workday*

Another perfect work day! 

What does your perfect work day look like? 

Old-school shop in Japan

Such shops were common in the 1980s, I imagine - during my childhood years. But society has moved on, n so such shops are a rare find these days, especially in the cities 

Sounds like you have spent some quality time in Japan! Do you visit it semi-regularly? 

The deepest and largest natural well on the planet is called Xiaozhai Tiankeng.

UnknownFacts

Thanks for bringing this to our attention 

These baths were begun by Emperor Septimius Severus in 212AD and completed four years later by his successor Caracalla.

![IMG_5572.jpeg](https://m.stacker.news/28218)

![IMG_5590.jpeg](https://m.stacker.news/28219)

![IMG_5588.jpeg](https://m.stacker.news/28220)

![IMG_5569.jpeg](https://m.stacker.news/28221)

The Baths of Caracalla

Did you study Latin in high school? Your level of depth of knowledge is astounding 

Received a reply from the Psychological Services Branch, Special Educational Needs Divison, which detailed all my plans and got me to focus on creating a challenge + strength checklist for dyslexics. But it was work that I found meaningful n gratifying, so I’m happy! 😊 

BooksAndArticles

My class wrote pretty decent responses to [my inaugural journal](https://stacker.news/items/509815). I even managed to pick up four good words that they had used: lethargic, motivated, mentality, and athlete. 

Here’s me continuing the good practice this week:

Dear 1S7,

Did you know that I used to teach General Paper at a junior college? That’s atas (high-level) English I taught 17-and-18-year-old teenagers.

However, although I teach functional English at NorthLight, I never miss my General Paper days. That’s because I have learnt about how beautiful and diverse human brains are. 

I don’t know how you remember stuff, but when I hear a word I want to learn, I will get someone to write it down. My form class, 1S6, taught me the Malay phrase for ‘fat leg’: ‘kaki gemok’. Once I figured out the spelling and wrote it down, I remembered it. Now, I use it all the time. ‘Kaki gemok’ has become an inside joke.

NorthLight students are different from me. Some of you are very talented at drawing, so I got students to make intriguing posters to help them learn spelling. Others are great at listening. They just need to hear a word once or twice and then, they will remember it. Because I teach students with dyslexia, I gained the opportunity to learn how words are formed. I never realised that English has so many interesting patterns. My teachers used to just get us to memorise stuff. Knowing that English is so structured makes me love teaching more. I feel like a detective trying to uncover the great mysteries of English. I never fail to be excited.

![386adabd-5dd2-46b1-9adb-1fe01aba2d7a.jpeg](https://m.stacker.news/28095)

So, I love English more and more. How about you? What is your passion? What do you love to do? Do you hope to turn your passion into your job in the future? Let me know!

Love,
Sensei

![8d488ff6-7ab1-42a0-a6fe-18baa4d04dbb.jpeg](https://m.stacker.news/28096)

Sending some happy sats to @Undisciplined because he made a comment about how brains are weird. 🧠 

FTDG #23: I love English even more 

Ideal Posting Mentality on Stacker News

I was just musing last night about how I love teaching English more because my students’ brains are wired differently from mine. Love diversity n all the idiosyncrasies n nuances n quirks it brings!

Will tag you when I write that post ☝️

That’s what posting every day on SN does to you haha

Don’t be silly. I understand you just fine!

Fond Memories in Kumamoto, Japan

One Piece sure captures the imagination, huh? 

What has been your favourite family trip so far?