"Good morning Mr. Shaw!"

Several of you have asked for more clarification about what it is I'm actually teaching out here. Well, here ya go.

Technically, I'm an International Fellow in the School of Business and Accountancy at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. This simply means that I'm a full-time lecturer (the term "professor" isn't used over here), but at the very bottom of the totem pole. Mind you, as I described earlier in my blog, Singaporean polytechnics are similar to that of American junior colleges.

I'm teaching five microeconomics "tutorials." They each meet once a week for two hours. They are supplemental to the lectures and are broken down into groups of 20 students. This is similar to the American university system, except that even the senior lecturers also teach these tutorials. As many of you know, American universities usually pluck graduate and even undergraduate students for teaching these tutorials (I once was one of these indentured servants; yes, I'm looking at you UCSD) .

I also teach two "Business Communications" workshops that meet twice per week for two hours each. What does a Business Communications workshop mean? Well, these classes are simply designed to improve written, oral, and listening communication skills within a business context. It's essentially a remedial applied communications course. This is especially important for these students as most are bilingual (in English and Mandarin), but are not completely confident in their English communication skills when approached with the tasks of speaking in front of an audience, writing a formal report, etc. Our department has witnessed many of its students excel in the quantitative and analytical arena, but struggle when faced with the challenge of internship/job interviews and well, just communication in general. This course hopes to help remedy this dilemma.

Originally, I didn't know what to think about teaching a "Business Communications" course (they actually surprised me with it, "surprise!"). However, it has proven to be a refreshing contrast to teaching microeconomics. I enjoy and embrace this contrast as I'm able to implement distinctive teaching styles and strategies in each.

So, if you want to do the math, I'm teaching five micro classes (two hours each per week) and two groups of BComm students (who meet twice for two hours per week). "Now class, what's (5X2) + (4X2)? 18!? Correct! Very good!" No, that's not what I sound like in the classroom. But yes, I'm in the classroom 18 hours per week while the other 55% of my workweek is spent making lesson plans, grading, dealing with admin bulls@!t, and going to department meetings.

All in all, it's a great job and I've really enjoyed my time so far here at Ngee Ann, especially when I'm in the classroom. An no offence to you Fed folks (I know you're out there), but the classroom excites me more than FAME ever could. And for you non-Fedites, I'm not referring to "fame" as in great renown, but rather, umm... let's just leave it at that.