Teaching Methods

I'm out of school for the OC course.... I wonder why, since I've not thought about being the head honcho in NPCC. In fact, I'd try every means to wiggle out of that. Mdm Kua is doing a fine job; I think we should maintain the status quo....

The first day is really boring (don't I sound like a typical student whining about yawn-inducing lectures?)... powerpoint after powerpoint of endless words and even more tedious self-introductions. For all that use of technology, the most interesting lesson came from a low-, in fact no-tech method of chalk and talk, in the most humourous way! Peppered with anecdotes about his personal experiences about love, courting, napping rapists (including a case with a top 10 TCS actor) and wry remarks and playful recollections of disturbing suspects, ASP Lim (did I get the rank correct? can never register such things) regaled us with his stories and dissipated any ounce of lethargy induced by the lunch. (delicious food at the canteen, cheap too! especially the western food. Can we just go to Home Team Academy to have lunch? can adjourn to Qian Hu fish farm after that)

Sadly, his name is not on the agenda for the next three days. How can I maximise the time? I can't mark - that's too conspicuous. I can't read, since I tell my own pupils not to read during my lessons....

I'm missing school (can't believe I said that!)

Behind the scene

Saturday 25/2/06

Went to SZG for training to be facilitator to conduct trails for schools, camps, etc. Actually, the docent training is much more intensive and comprehensive than this, but nevermind, it's still an enriching experience. Went to the kitchen where I discovered I should go to if I'm hungry. The animals eat as well, if not better, than us humans! The orang utans get Milo served to them daily while Ah Meng actually gets a healthy dose of Anlene Gold everyday for prevention against osteoporosis. Among other indulgences are life-enhancing cod liver oil and other vitamins. Wow, maybe I should be try to be the resident panda there, since I look the part anyway...

There was also a tour to Fragile Forest, where we learn how to catch a butterfly with our hands, pass hissing cockroaches (is it any wonder that we kept dropping them down on the ground?), watch naked mole rats scurrying forward and backward in a blind frenzy, feeding the baboons and chuckling at their antics in honouring their hierarchical structure. For those who like violence albeit the bloodless type, this is the place to be....

Of course, all enjoyment comes with a price (or prize ?) . Got to study for my presentation next week. I'm definitely not going to do the reptiles commentary. Chicken feed! I shall aim for the Ethiopia section and commentate on the biological wonders within a country commonly regarded by city dwellers like me as untenable.

Drink & be merry....

22 Feb 2006, Wednesday

Went to Mediacorp Publishing to collect my prize of Jacob's Creek wine hamper ...finally after dilly-dallying for 2 months! Part of the reason is because I am not exactly crazy over red wines.I got Shiraz and the grand-daddy of the reds - the idiosyncratic Cabernet Sauvignon, two full-bodied wines too rich for my palate...White suits me better with the natural effervescence, perfectly in sync with an optimistic personality. My favourites are the Chadonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, both sweetly intoxicating, which belies their ability to knock you out....(My next target is of course Champagne..... the wine and maybe hopefully to visit the place some day!)

But of course I'd never drink to the extent of puking or getting swoshed. It's just plain idiocy to relinquish control of your brain, your body and your soul to the poison of excessiveness. Who knows what will happen to you in the interval between lucidity and a state of drunken stupor?

It's better to savour every drop slowly...

Anyway, I am stuck with the two handsome-looking bottles adorning my dining table...What can I do with it? Even my brother doesn't want it..... have pledged one for drinking session with MH, T and C though... Hopefully soon... wouldn't want to have three sitting idly and occupying precious space in my home (there's one bought for A at DFS but haven't met up with him yet).

Looking forward to the day to bottoms up to enjoy our high. Cheers!

students....

Must learn to remember the good, especially where students are concerned (so that I don't play truant )....

13/2/06
Lini - for giving me a pack of 'Want Want' - crisp vegetable sticks

14/2/06
Min Fang - for giving me two mint plus...a popular girl... one-quarter of the table submerged in a sea of rose, sweets and choc

16/2/06
Nurul - help to carry my bag, which is getting heavier and heavier by the day... how come other teachers can carry so little thing with them? Do they have some secret chamber to transport things? I think subconsciously I'm getting tired of the burden - almost left my bag in the canteen!

XueQi - hooked fingers with her to promise she will read an article every week to practise (eeeee.... originally type 'c' just like students. Is my English getting worse from reading too many students' essays?) reading for oral exam.

Amin, Min Fang, XueQi, Vivien, Janice... for volunteering to read....

AiLi & Wee Kiat - for coming back to see me...

Who is left out??? Hmmm, any omission is entirely unintentional....

My world this week...

14 Feb 2006

Notice the date just above? A belated entry.... Is there anyway to change the date for a particular entry? Sometimes, it's because I'm too busy, at times, I prefer to let my feelings calm down before I reveal too much on impulse...like this Valentine's Day (which is spent pigging out at Sakura again, thanks to C, MH & T for accompanying me to indulge ;) - fantastic food! menu has changed slightly) entry. Can anyone help me to cheat?

Don't really want to talk about VDay.... nor remember what Izaan asked me in class - "Why don't you celebrate with your ex?' I hate realising that not everything is within my control, no matter how much effort I put in to salvage things.

Just like to share the following I read in 'Eleven Minutes', a novel by Paulo Coelho, the diary entries written by the protagonist, Maria, a prostitute:

'Other people think exactly the opposite; they surrender themselves without a second thought, hoping to find in passion the solutions to all their problems. They make the other person responsible for their happiness and blame them for their possible unhappiness. They are either euphoric because something marvellous has happened or depressed because something unexpected has just ruined everything.'

'Keeping passion at bay or surrendering blindly to it – which if these 2 attitudes is the least destructive?'


'The strongest love is the love that can demonstrate its fragility. Anyway, if my love is real (not not just a way of distracting myself , deceiving myself and passing time), freedom will conquer jealousy and any pain it causes me, since pain is also part of the natural process. Anyone who practises sport knows this: if you want to achieve your objectives, you have to be prepared for a daily dose of pain or discomfort. At first, it’s unpleasant and demotivating, but in time you’ll come to realise that it’s part of the process of feeling good, and the moment arrives when, if you don’t feel pain, you have a sense that the exercises aren’t having the desired effect.'

'Everyone knows how to love, because everyone is born with that gift. Some people have a natural talent for it, but the majority of us have to re-learn, to remember how to love, and everyone, without exception, needs to burn the bonfire of past emotions, to relive certain joys and griefs, certain ups and downs, until they can see the connecting thread that exists behind each new encounter; because there is a connecting thread.'

So true...I hope to find that connecting thread again...

All that's yet to be

This is one week where I actually look forward to school... because I didn't achieve anything at all during the weekend...I always do something for the future each day, or least plan for it, but this Sat & Sun was a total anti-climax. I didn't go Lambak and instead, went on a regressive trip down memory lane with a bus ride (only we know bus rides can be full of fun!), retracing alone our footsteps in the puddles of rain along Victoria Street sharing an umbrella grey as the skies, remembering the triumph of warm against the cold, reminiscing about that first embrace outside the blue Malabar Mosque, my hollow declaration of victory in response to, in retrospect, a hollow profession of love...but yet....

"In all languages in the world, there is the same proverb:'What the eyes don't see, the heart doesn't grieve over.' Well, I say there isn't an ounce of truth in it. The further off they are , the closer to the heart are all those feelings that we try to repress and forget. If we're in exile, we want to store away every tiny memory of our roots. If we are far from the person we love, everyone we pass in the street reminds us of them."

(from Eleven Minutes, a novel by Paulo Coelho)

I miss you, like the deserts miss the rain ....

Stress, stress, stress

A lot of trepidation...just got results that percentage pass for EL is 71.4.... out of every 10 pupils, there will be 3 broken-hearted ... Maybe it's just as well I'll be out for the X-country... one skill I can't seem to master is the art of consoling people; I can only cry with them. The heavens are opening up now; I hope it's not an omen of....

The air of suspense is really killing people

Results, results, results

Friday is the X-country day...till 6pm? But my mind will still be in school, not that I love the school that much. Rather, it's D-Day for 4-10. It's the only time when I wish I have a religious affiliation... Who can I pray to in times of this? Will it be 100% pass? Happy or at least relieved faces all around?

That's the frustration and challenge most teachers face (or relish??) - achieving results through others, getting As when students get distinctions and Fs when they fail. Why are we always held accountable for results? Do students not have a greater say in the kind of scoresheet they get?

I've done my best and saying 'All the best' is the only thing I can do now....

Luckily, I'm getting away to Malaysia this Sat for a respite...can lose myself in the forest if the results are bad... touch wood...

May the hours tick away quickly to 10 February 2006... MacRitchie, Lambak and Mandai ... Am going places...

Forward to the top

Filled with excitement today... am finally on the verge of embarking on a new adventure. It's early days yet, but mark my words....some day, I will look back fondly at this entry, the one that sparked it all...

Received confirmation that the Gunung Lambak trek this Sat is on. 'Gunung' means mountain and I'm going to climb this ......... hill ?? It just occurred to me that the Great Geography Teacher Ms Kua (she who warned us against our Phuket trip, subsequently ravaged by the tsunami) has taught me a mountain is >600m. Lambak stands at only 510m, a midget compared to Kinabalu's 4100m, the highest peak in SE Asia. But, who cares? What difficulty can a mere 90 more metres pose to this newly-minted adventurer? I'm 100% sure I will conquer the first mountain in my life in 2006, my watershed year in this adventure.

Gunong Stong will be a good 'victim', but I'm still undecided as to whether I should eschew work (moulding the future of the nation, haha or I should use 'lol's) from 24-26 Feb - 3 days of down time is a precious lot to any teacher! It means a sacrifice of 120 scripts, 24 hours of lesson planning and truckloads of 1001 things that needs to be completed...

But of course nothing in this world can tie me down!!! If not Feb than some other time...and some other mountains, like Kinabalu. Hope I can go on the sabah thrip with the Sec 3s. The stairway to any great adventure just lies with you. Just do it!!!

Till then, I am dreaming of the great outdoors, the invigorating green, the energising blue and ultimately.... the ice-capped peaks of Kilimanjaro....

D-day

The staffroom was abuzz with the latest press release from MOE... The day every teacher's waiting for and every student is asking..... Guess everyone will be excited, nervous and probably wonder whether we'll all get our wishes. Some may even suffer from heart palpitations or sleepless nights... I hope none of the above applies to me, a newbie where it's concerned. Certainly don't relish the same thing next year....I have 2 classes!!! Aaargh!!!!!!

Food...Glorious Food....

Received my pay from tuition on Sunday. Comes in really handy to make up for the shortfall this CNY season. Isn't CNY a blessing for singles like me? Not really, since the new year also heralds adventures of the gastronomical kind - goodies-sampling, bak kwa-bingeing, buffet-hopping and everything else to satiate the greed for delectable food, and at astonishing speed/frequency too. If there's a contest for muruku-eating, I'll probably win hands-down, having downed the packet from Thila last Friday at breakneck speed...

Though memories of the eat-till-you-puke buffet at Sakura Restaurant (at Omni-Theatre, great selection of Jap food, ice-cream & abalone!) still linger, my tastebuds were itching again, which bought mum & me to 'Ding Tai Feng". It is really the best place for la mian - the noodles remains springy even after swimming around in the soup for ages! But the ultimate is the broth . Both the pork- and beef-based broth I ordered are heavenly, albeit in different paradise. One has the heady rich taste of beef enhanced by chilli oil while the other has the sweet taste of meat freshly sacrificed for my palate. Not to mention the xiao long bao oozing its fragrant soup... It really is the best of its kind, leaving others like Malan la mian trailing in its wake...

Hopefully we will visit it again at Junction 8 after the Mac X-country this Friday... though I think Thila doesn't quite like Chinese food... Nevermind, sweet secrets is sweet to my tastebuds too! I'm a gourmet of international cuisine from Singaporean to Sri Lankan... It's time to unleash the glutton in me again...

Don't read

Don't read this entry - entirely for the purpose of letting off steam and air all my grouses.

Lousy day, got tummy upset and then upset by students...as usual, this particular class only wants fun and incapable of serious study of comprehension skills. I don't see why the answers seem so unimportant to them... it's precisely through analysing the mistakes that you will see the light and avoid such mistakes when you encounter them. Don't tell me English can't be learnt. The techniques to reading, understanding and learning are all there for us to digest, internalise and apply. You can only internalise through constant practice! Does your brain tell you to 'stretch out your left hand, pick up your spoon...' when you eat? No, right? Because this skill has been practised to death!!

I have better things to do than teaching to a bunch of uninterested, sleepy people who don't even notice you are there! Not even interested when I asked about their opinion on how to improve the lesson. Maybe I made the wrong decision last December. Should have quit to study full-time? No lah, I am just angry for now. 4-8 was sweet today(must remember to link their blogs today), doing their work though I could tell they did not enjoy doing it. But, in the first place, why should I care whether students are bored? Luckily, Lini saved my day by asking me questions about the compre. Hope she does better in her next assignment. Yes, concentrate on the good ones, and I shall prevail...

end of grouse... must do 30-week programme and mark books (math: 2 classes, sigh...) now....

stop sighing and enjoy your day, shirley!!! :) There's tonight to look forward to African Adventures!! and "Travel Asia and Beyond" tomorrow at 8... can roam the world again!!!

My adventures today

This is actually for those of you who check my blog regularly and find that my world moves very slowly... in fact, you might say it's stagnant. Rest assured it's not. It's just that I have too many adventures to spare time for blogging...

Teaching is one of these adventures and the reason why I am more alive nowadays compared to 3 years back. Tough and thankless, yet rewarding and stimulating. It's strange how students react to your lesson. Their temperament is as capricious as the weather nowadays (no thanks, Mr Global-Warming!) and often carry their emotional baggage with them. Or maybe it's their extra-curricular activities that are wearing them out? Like a certain student in my class... wonder why she's so tired lately, hands+head on desk becoming a familiar fixture... but I find there's so little time to complete I want to do, let alone check on how students are feeling...

But (don't start your sentences in essays with 'but', OK!) there's nothing more invigorating than seeing your kids enjoy their lessons and pick up something useful along the way. I enjoyed today's EL oral lessons. 4-6 was cooperative and more heartwarmingly, appreciative. 4-8 was sporting, thanks to those volunteered enthusiastically. Even Mr F gamely took the mike to present the weather forecast, something I didn't expect. I guess the most enjoyable lessons are those which students actively participate in. So (don't start with 'so' and don't use short forms like 'don't' and 'ok', ok?) for all students reading this, no matter you are from RI or RSS, please don't complain about your lessons being boring. Participate actively (in the relevant way!) and liven things up for yourself...

Gotta stop now or risk writing an essay again ... another of my adventures... but that's another story for another day...

Enjoy the weather today!! :)