here’s a quick look at some of the classes we were fortunate enough to host during trade school singapore’s season 01 :) a big thank you to all teachers who made them happen!

we kickstarted the season with economics & financial literacy - it’s a parent+child thing.

the boisterous class consisting of parents and their 6-12 year olds were guided through the basics of financial literacy by the very patient james and lynn.

kudos to the wonderful pair for being able to juggle both kids and finance at the same time!

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next up was the very hands-on beginner street magic class by raymond, terry and darren.

we picked up a few neat party tricks ourselves and will be looking forward to seeing what else these three have up their sleeves next season ;) mad props to you guys!

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for the more crafty among us, micro-publishing & book-binding served up some great hand-made publishing techniques and ideas. this may come in useful for creating trade school singapore collaterals in the future!

a big thank you to winnie and amanda for being so generous with your time and creativity.

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what’s a school without some coursework? students in melvin’s art of collage class were told to bring a whole plethora of material from whence unique art pieces were created.

and “exercise the lyrical potentials of objects” they certainly did, thanks to the guidance of one very effable melvin :)

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now we encourage the sharing of snacks during class - particularly for those who come straight from the office on an empty stomach - but the food table at silvia’s how not to be a tourist in spain class was exceptional.

students brought homemade spanish frittata, sangria, and singaporean delicacies for the teacher (who’s born and bred in madrid) and the rest of the class to feast on!

nuestro amigos - our (newly made) friends!

thank you for bringing your unique spanish flavour to trade school singapore, silvia!

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at our first off-site class venue, trade school singapore was hosted at a craft initiative’s very lovely studio for their workshop on how to make your own re-useable baggu (baggu is japanese for bag).

functional bags were fashioned out of old shirts and blouses - pure genius, and green, too. here’s ms chan from a craft initiative demonstrating her mad sewing-and-crafting skills. thank you for having us!

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to complement all the crazy hands-on creative work we’d been exposed to in previous classes, hans tan’s class on imagination aerobics was an exercise in creativity that only involved one’s most basic yet powerful tools - the mind and a chosen language (in this case, english).

we explored the theory and practice behind “creativity”; and by the end of the class, walked away with a heightened sense of the abilities of our imagination.

based on this (gratuitous) shot of the food table, we trust that students also walked away with satisfied tummies!

thank you for the mind-workout, hans. a truly inspiring class :)

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that concludes part i of our season 01 recap, but stay tuned for the next. there’s more that transpired and we can’t wait to share.

hello tradeschoolers!

we’ve had a long hiatus since season 01 ended, but we’re now recharged and excited to be back in action.

over the next few months, our team will be engaging in a social project that will (hopefully!) contribute to the collaborative change movement in singapore. it’s an initiative that’s close to our hearts and very much in line with the values of trade school, so we’ll be sharing more about that here and on facebook over the coming weeks. :)

until we iron out the details, we thought we’d share a couple of awesome, like-minded collaborative change projects from people across the globe. these folks inspire us, and we hope they inspire you too!

1. caine’s arcade went viral almost instantaneously, and it’s not hard to see why. it’s a good example of how a community can collaborate to make a very tangible impact on someone else’s day (or life!)

2. the sharing engine is a social commerce start-up that provides all the features you need to build a dynamic, effective site for the sharing economy and collaborative consumption. it’s a good place to start if you’re looking to build your own collaborative change platform.

in our next entry, we’ll be sharing some of the highlights from season 01. look out for that entry ‘cause it’s gonna be a good one ;)

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five things that you see every day

I do a lot of research work so these are the stuff I spend the most time looking at outside of actually working.

– Graphics work  /  Clothes  /  Materials & Finishes  /  Physical Spaces  /  Art

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five classes that you would like to take at trade school

1. A cooking / baking class

2. How to make a tie

3. How to relax

4. A skydiving class

5. How to speak better English

john

wei’an

wei’an and john are active kids who keep their bodies nimble and their minds sharp. they’re also incredibly hard workers (they were a huge help to us at our launch party), modest, disciplined, passionate, and great company to hang out with. if you’ve heard them talk about the reasons why they practice martial arts, you’ll know that these boys are also incredibly kind - they’re never out to harm anyone! read on to find out more about these teachers:

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please introduce yourself to our tradeschoolers

john is a recent psychology graduate from nus. he has dabbled in boxing, muay thai, and capoeira, but started doing judo and brazilian jujitsu in nus, which he has stuck with because they accommodate his inflexible limbs and ever-decreasing level of athleticism. besides having quite a good memory that lets him remember random useless facts, like that a crab’s blood is blue, he is pretty normal.

wei’an is just your regular singaporean male - was very, very chubby when young, but ever since he took up judo and brazilian jujitsu, his life took a turn for the better with the new sense of discipline instilled. he plays cricket and soccer as well, but would rather be a spectator. outside of his regular 8-6 job, he enjoys reading thrillers, listening to (most forms of) music and mimicking people (especially his mother).

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five things that you see every day

john:

my dog

my bed

my laptop

my glucosamine

my nus merch

wei’an

my room

the view in front of my van

my laptop

my desk at work

shi yi’s bag

suria is driven, highly qualified, and the sweetest lady you might ever meet. when we met her in person we were tickled silly by her wicked sense of humour, but also humbled by her sense of knowledge - this lady knows her stuff! lest you think she’s just a strict don’t-eat-this nutritionist type, she revealed that her sinful indulgence is ben & jerry’s… and she just had some before teaching!

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please introduce yourself to our tradeschoolers

suria is an ex school teacher who quit a cushy stable job to pursue entrepreneurship as the road less traveled. she is a qualified nutritionist with a bachelor of science from edith cowan university, australia & illinois state university usa & post graduate qualification from the nanyang technological university. she is currently pursing her doctorate in natural integrative medicine. 

her journey has led her to now be a public speaker on motivation marketing, nutrition & parenting. also, she is asia’s 1st reality tv nutritionist for celebrities. having persisted by investing in herself and soaking up business & marketing know-hows, she re-launched her 2nd business in education with over 2000 clients in 2 years. her business has now grown to malaysia, brunei, chile - latin america & kuwait.

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five things that you see every day

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we’ve had many requests for a photography class, so when rodney stepped forward with his class proposal, we knew the community would be more than enthused. rodney may be  a serious photographer, but you’d never guess that his day job doesn’t revolve around photography! rodney tells us more about himself:

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I work in the air cargo and aviation industry, and had overseas stints in the US and in the Philippines. Been dabbling seriously into photography ever since I got my first DSLR in 2004. Area of photography that interests me the most is travel photography. Other hobbies include writing, reading, soccer and squash.