Teaching School Kids How To Blog

Over the weekend, I was flown to KL by SEGi College to give a presentation on blogging to some secondary school kids as part of the college’s Junior Journalist Programme.

I haven’t spoken in front of a large crowd for quite a while, so naturally I was quite nervous when my turn came.
Luckily, my friend David was there to give me a hand.

Why do I look like I’m wearing a helmet here?

Now, this David guy is what I would call a magician or an illusionist. But in his lingo, he prefers to call himself a “mentalist”.
No, that does not mean that he is mental. That just means that his specialty is “reading people’s mind”.
That, and bending forks.

Video taken by IcyQueenGoddess

Earlier, David suggested that I perform some simple tricks before my presentation as an ice-breaker. I thought good. My talk was the last one of the day and I probably needed something to wake up the audience (other than splashing them with hot coffee which was what was originally intended.)
Problem is, I don’t know any magic. “No problems,” David assured, as he guided me with detailed instructions on what I have to do.

Our routine involved David placing a clear sealed envelope on stage in full view of the audience the whole time.
Inside the envelope was a series of three predictions.

Yes I know I look fat here. Shaddup. Bad angle.

With the help of this special crunched-up paper ball (which was really just some rubbish paper I found on the floor) that I threw it into the crowd, I randomly picked three members of the audience and got them to name me a phone number, a male blogger and a female blogger of their choice.
Then I went back on stage, took out the contents of the envelope, and whaddya know?
All three of those random audience’s choices appeared exactly on that piece of paper inside!

WHOA! An audience member wowed by my awesomeness.

Yes, Kenny Sia can perform magic. Bow down to me now, biatches.
Ok lah, honestly speaking I also dunno how that happened. Maciam magic liddat those predictions just “boom” appeared on the piece of paper liddat.

Click to download my Powerpoint slides

My actual presentation was a bit less entertaining compared to my opening act.
I went through a series of topics with the school kids about blogging, pointing out the tools available, ways to get traffic for their blogs, how to handle negative comments, and most importantly how to keep themselves away from trouble with the law.

The truth is, talking about blogging is one thing. Making the talk entertaining is another thing.
As much as I tried to simplify, the topics I covered were very serious and extremely dry. After what seems like an eternity of rambling on stage, I didn’t expect these school kids to take in much of what I said.
Heck, my speech was so boring some of the kids on front row even fell asleep. So when question time came I wasn’t anticipating anyone to raise any questions at all.
To my surprise, one tiny kiut little ger sitting at the back of the auditorium raised her hand with much enthusiasm and gutso.

This wasn’t her, just using this photo for illustration.

I turned my focus towards the girl and perked my ears to listen attentively.
At the back of my mind, I was wondering what deep questions along the lines of “online-legal-concerns-and-defamation-lawsuits-against-bloggers” this young journalist-to-be might implore me to answer.

That was when she stood up, looked at me dead in the eyes, and asked…

“Kenny, can I take a photo with you?”
%@&$^*&! Did anyone actually pay attention to what I just talked about or not!?


BMW has a contest website up, asking “What is your idea of ‘Joy’?”
Some guy wrote that his idea of ‘joy’ was to install fake BMW Angel Eyes headlights on his car because he can’t afford real ones.
Can’t get any more honest than that.

139 Replies to “Teaching School Kids How To Blog”

  1. LOL Cool u were in Segi.. i saw the ad on Sun Newspaper telling that ur were gonna give a speech there.. well normal laaaaa school children only will care bout talking to each toerh and not pay attention to anything!

  2. HAHAHAA…. i guess she must have been waiting to take picture with u all the time…
    awww.. kenny… u were in KL over the weekend, y didnt u let me know…? When is the next time that u’ll be in kl ha?? Let me know the next time u r in KL or Penang k…

  3. Heck, you are so popular you don’t even need to give a talk to them!
    Make those students buy a copy of the autographed presentation, AND they can take a photo with you!
    🙂

  4. Thats great you have an opportunity to give back to your community man. I really enjoy news like this, even if they only want a pic with you stud 😉

  5. Wow~~
    Ur freaking popular huh?
    Pictures and autograph??
    Hahaha…
    Actually, my first time commenting…
    Jz wanted to say…..
    “Lurve ur blog~~!!”
    * wink wink *

  6. Hey Kenny, speaking of blogging, I’ve been wondering this for a while: do you know what happened to Huai Bin of sixthseal.com? I know he opened a new site (firelement.com), but it seems to have disappeared too.

  7. your friend david, was one of the many magicians who performed during my wedding. Do check with him, i am the 1st to have my wedding at MTR. He shd know me 🙂

  8. Heys,now I remember you after seeing your link in friendster.=)…hope you’re doing well and I was honoured to have been performing at your wedding.=)

  9. honoured to hv been performing at ur wedding???
    *looks at david lai’s comment again*
    haha.right. kenny y u marry oso didnt tell us wan!!!

  10. SS Quah, do you remember me? I’m Cheah Eu Gene’s nephew .=)…used to be very active in the local chess circuit and am still great friends with Nicholas Chan,Marcus , Gerald and many more.=),din ‘t know you have a blog.

  11. Kenny, can I take a picture with u as well?
    XD
    Uh, the three things they were asked to guess…
    were they 999, Kenny Sia and Xia Xue?

  12. I’ve been reading your blog all these while but this is the first time I’m leaving my comments here.
    I got to say that last part was damn funny! You got me laughing in my computer lab while I was reading this entry!

  13. Kenny in school? teaching! Run kids run for your life! LOL
    Kidding. That’s great what you’re doing. 🙂

  14. Wow…impressive. 😀 Wish i was there.. even though u said it was boring, i know it’s far better than sitting in my school hall listening to boring speeches on World Methodist Day.

  15. rofl!damn cute.i dont suppose you can fly down to sg and give a speech bout blogging in my skool, do you? HAHA!

  16. I really think that we are lack of teenage bloggers…
    I think bloggers aging 20-30 rose quite quickly in recent times but not teenage bloggers..

  17. *raises hand* I heard what you said! I did! XD
    Che, I was one of those students @ the program. Apart from Kenny’s talk, the rest of the program was pretty dry. xD So kudos to you, Kenny, for making it fun!
    @LogicYuan – You’ll be surprised. So many students in schools own blogs…but sadly, most are about “bitching” – so maybe if you’re looking at serious bloggers who don’t just talk about life, you may be right. -_-

  18. wa piang…nowsaday got BLog course somemore…got credit points or not…
    kenny, thx for sharing ur slides ya….

  19. Goodness. You should come to my school and give a talk about blogging. Know wad? I was inspired to blog by you! Honestly, yours was the first blog that i had ever read and I check back almost every single day until now!Great job Kenny. Gracious, the kids are so lucky!

  20. freaking cute..hahahhaa…anyway kenny continue to turn the blogging world upside down with your own brand of twisted and cranky humor..
    you da’ man

  21. If your slides are exactly what you’ve posted here…..no wonder the kids are bored. Your slides ain’t working. It’s great that you are sharing your expertise with young people, but you gotta do it in a more fun, interesting way. VISUAL man!
    *thanks for creating a more intellectual society*

  22. Kenny, at least the little ger ger very honest wif u mah 🙂 no point to be in the same room with her ‘hero’ blogger (marathon MAN) and still got no photo to show her friends rite??!!

  23. hi Kenny, David and SS Quah,
    I have of course also been a silent reader of kennysia.com all along. Kenny used to have a blog link labelled Skyler the Moderator because she used to “moderate” Kenny’s tagboard and comments… now we have David the Moderator =)
    By the way there was once Kenny blogged about McShit in the Star… I had an old copy of the Malay Mail which actually printed that Ong Ewe Hock “beat the shit out of” his badminton opponent.

  24. EECK it would be really nice to meet you in person 😀
    my friend went for the talk. we were like “OMG U SAW KENNY SIA A?” and the next Q was “DID U TAKE A PIC WITH HIM?”
    😀

  25. I wasn’t one of the students there, was just touring the college and reached the auditorium just in time for your talk! hehe nice to meet u in person 🙂 u know i was actually wondering why were u holding those crumpled papers b4 your talk (thought u were too nervous) until u started with the ice breakers haha 🙂 it’s ok to be nervous…be back for more talks so u can improve then hahaha

  26. heyy!! i was one of the students there.. i was the one who said..
    Kenny: whoes your favourite female blogger?
    Me : Dawn Yang..
    Kenny : why?
    Me : coz she damn hot!!
    XD

  27. David had always perform the fork bending thingy everywhere, how come no one charging you for the forks you bent??? hahahaha
    P/S: he is damn good with cards tricks, but then not so sure when he’s playing cards, if you get what i mean 😉

  28. hm, interesting illusionist/magician indeed. gotta catch him live performing sometime aye.
    lol..
    your subtle wittiness is interesting as well.
    nice blog~
    ^ ^
    wow..RM 80 000 per day of earning as your friend David quoted in his blog..amazing~~ er..all from ads?wonder how it works..

  29. fren, did you give them tips on what appeals to the reader ah??
    Take a course in NLP..definitely help you bring an extra notch…

  30. You are a joker. People cant take it when you are serious. They will fall asleep and so would I. Dont worry. It’s the same thing with Jim Carrey when he’s trying to be serious.

  31. your friend david, was one of the many magicians who performed during my wedding. Do check with him, i am the 1st to have my wedding at MTR. He shd know me 🙂
    (sorry for the confusion, forgotten i am using another comp,my name is stitch – no, is not kenny who got married:P )

  32. Haha … i saw your slide and i also saw HannahTClub.com LoL!! I wonder the kids will go back home and try out the link ^^,. Perhaps some might already know about it xD.

  33. Lol… I was that cute little girl.. LOL
    But well hey… i did listen to ur talk. It was cool! 100% concentration + i did jot down the important things u said leh XDD (im 1 who pays full attention to ppl yo 🙂 )
    Thanks for giving me ur autograph btw.. 😛
    N im glad that u DID blog abt us. YAY! :DD
    (1 lesson learnt: Not to ask stupid questions >_.-)

  34. Okay so I have pretty much gone to all the blogging workshops in the world and that ONEEE I’m betting totally amazing one that you just so happen to be a err..jurutalker, just so happens to be the one i never heard of T_T
    oh come back to kl fast plz ;_; 😛

  35. haha..I guess if I were at the talk I would be more interested in getting a pic with u too…blogging is about having fun yet being same – put simply. right? =P

  36. Like that also can r?! Nowaday kl gal like to take photo with bloggers, top bloggers, and that is you, one of the top blogger. COngratz

  37. and oh yeah, your slides… full of useful info, just where’s your personality in the slides? maybe they would be more interested if the slides were more creative and showed some of “you” in it.. oh well, I wouldn’t be interested in those slides if I were a sec student 🙂 just my honest 2 cents.. you could do it differently next time you do a similar presentation.. 🙂 all the best!

  38. wohooooooo~~~ super cool to giv a talk like this ya!
    hmm, if i’m that girl, i will ask the same question too, hehe, kenny, can i take a pic with you?
    hmm, because u r damn adorable!

  39. Lol. That girl is “really cute”.
    Anyway, I thought of joining the JJP earlier when I saw it on The Sun, too bad 1) I didn’t have anyone with same interest to accompany me, and 2) I’m quite far from SeGi – Kuala Terengganu @_@
    Nvm.. I’ll watch the slideshow instead 😉 thx Kenny

  40. omg the comment i made above made me sound.. shallow. oh right, i do not take notice of whatever you’ve just blogged. i’m just about as shallow as the girl -.-

  41. hey kenny! guess what, i happened to see you in kl sentral last few days. you were walking very quickly towards somewhere, haha!

  42. neat….real neat…actually my sister went for that thingy….except she didn’t tell me anything about it. I miss writing stories….lately whatever I write is rubbish! HAHAH!

  43. now its time for u to teach the others how to be a succesful blogger like you, plz dun be a typical malaysian who only keeps one knowledge to themselves and only one to control the blogger community!dun be another malaysian artise.\, i know u r not.

  44. hey kenny,u did a great job on your presentation as well as on your slides!!’round applause 4 u!!”well,u hav to imagine it la”luv your style and rock on…or shud i say blog on!!hahahahahahaAAA BTW,v r nt sum school kids,ok!hahaha!!:)no offense!!

  45. your talk was great….me and my frens enjoyed it…u really change my point of view on blogings…at 1st i dont even know who were u but after my fren told me bout u than onli i know u…

  46. yo david ~~
    saw ur pic and ur muscle glow up wo ~~
    long time no see ~~seen u letf inti
    i dunno ur r kenny’s friend..haha

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