Yesterday late afternoon was the first time I ever joined as a participant in a School Fair. I love the idea of all purple at the gym where we were supposed to set up for the event, and on the picture is my partner of crime, and let's call her "Ms. Bri" as I am not sure if she were okay I am sharing her picture or not ;) plus that is my terms of endearment to her as she is very, very close to my heart…I am going to share my gratitudes to myself as I gave myself this opportunity, to Ms. Bri, to the parents who attended the event, to the NewportMommy website crews ( I adore the Moderator as she is just a wonderful individual), and to the other school attendees who were so kind to smile, to come and shake hands, to make my first experience welcoming ( to Rachelle Grossman, the Director of Kaplan Cooperative School, Joanne Johnson ( Center Director of Kiddie Academy Hamilton Park), Adrian ( MyGym representative), Isabelle Bonneau who smiled a lot (Tessa International School)… and to you who is kind enough to read my blog...

Now, this is why I felt compelled to "blog" this event, this first experience…which is probably "questionable" for some :)...

Even though my undergraduate was in Finance and Accounting ( thanks to my Dad…he agreed to pay half of my tuition fees, if and only if I were majoring in those two…well, either those two or Computer Science or Industrial Engineering…and the last two just won't do to me), my passion was and has always been in learning and teaching and education. I always wanted to be a teacher, and I knew so since I was four years old. The only way I could score A+ all the way to college was the fact that I studied, pretending I was a teacher explaining details to my students…weird, but true…My Mom always knew I was not going to be "normal" :) and nowadays, I am glad that many people understand that the term "normal" in and itself is weird, granted we would want to admit that all of us are different, unique, and wonderfully pain in the 'tush' in our lives…When I finally got to my M.S., Ed.M and Ph.D, I majored in my passions: early childhood education, family studies, and philosophy of education. I got what I wanted and my Dad was more "willing" to see through me then…we all got older and wiser, and my Dad was becoming just that when I pursued my Master's degree. The only requirement he had was that I had to enter The Ivy Leagues, and he got his wish with me graduating from the Ivy Leagues plus he did not have to support me financially throughout…so, lucky of him, huh? :)

In pursuing my passion in learning ( I love the word learning a lot more than the word education), I have gotten to know myself a lot more  and have learned that the discipline of my intention in teaching, in relationship with my students and parents, and foremost, in relationship with myself, is crucial for me to understand the "uniqueness" that every single child parent, and colleague who I am blessed to encounter with. No experience is good or bad; it just was and it just is. After 17 years of teaching, I started to have a home care for ages 3 months to 5 years and did so for 7 years. Then, the URL Tutoring was built and it's been 3 years ever since I started with this new venture. The real name of the business is Unconventional and Resourceful Learning, and I shortened it to URL  because I figured technology is one of the based foundations of living and interacting nowadays ( despite my resentments over the idea as I love person to person relationship and the idea of writing a letter to someone…I am a romantic, somewhat :). With the URL, I've grown to be myself in a broader sense…I've known lots of individuals that I would have not encountered otherwise, and I've known that even though many books are teaching me about business, they are not as important as the fundamentals, especially in the world of education, which is "the willingness to learn" and "the clarity of my intention." The table last night was quite homemade in many ways… it was a complete "me" in the forms of  objects. My intention was not to inform of parents of what we do, my intention was to share of what we do…couple of my colleagues told me, "Chandra, you gotta learn to be simple and fast in explaining what you do", and I thought of it, and tell myself "No, I don't want to be simple and fast in explaining of what I do. I just want to be myself in explaining of what I do." Whatever flow of the conversation with one parent is the key on sharing with the parents of what I do…and it is actually simple…I believe in logic and the thinking process in introducing children ( students) to the academic skills of reading, writing, and mathematics, and I believe in nurturing the whole child ( both cognitive and emotional development of a child)…and in the process, the parents, the child, Ms. Bri, and I will build a relationship…that's it…age is not something I am concerned of, the readiness of your child to learn is…so, to put all of those and rehearse them was not going to work, at least to me, and to put them on the brochures will be very abstract as those were just going to be words...

So, thank you for being a part of my first experience…I am one person who wouldn't want to live with regrets…hence, when my instinct tells me to do something, I would spontaneously do it…this writing is spontaneous, as I knew I would have regretted it had I not done it…too many blessings I would overlook if I did not do it…no editing was done also…so my apologies for any grammatical errors...

Until my next blog...