Lukie’s Take on Life

I’ve moved to

Had problems uploading my post last night so here are my belated thoughts on the different aspects of my life in 2008 and my wishes for 2009…

Family – getting messier, to the point that sometimes coming back home makes me v. tired also. I regretted my outburst sometime back but even I have my breaking point.
For 2009: Wishing for peace at home and for some people to be more mature and sensible in their behaviour.

Finance – v. bad year, esp. with the global financial crisis that has also seriously affected my savings (at least on paper). Plus I made stupid mistakes on credit cards, cheques, did not maximizing my LDS funds, and spent a lot on health care so all in all a v. poor year for me and there’s much to learn from my mistakes.
For 2009: Wishing for the economy to recover sooner rather than later, that our pay and bonuses won’t be cut (significantly), that I’ll be smarter in my investments.

Health – v. bad year, first time I took MC from school (and also my first MC in 9 years since army) and first time I went to see a speech therapist. On and off bugged by throat problems and occasional pains here and there.
For 2009: Wishing for a clean bill of health!

Working environment – it’s been great fun with my chem. unit people and I can hardly ask for a better bunch of people to work with. Always full of funny jokes and with good team spirit and a genuine sense of friendship, it has been a joy in the office.
For 2009: Wishing for the team to stay together and to continue our bonding through various activities (overseas trips, mahjong sessions, board games sessions, other outings etc.)

Workload – pretty manageable in Term 1 though as usual it got pretty hectic in Terms 2-3, though compared to 2007 it was much better. For once sometimes I wish I had a more relaxing Term 4 where I can really relax but there were still things to do (e.g. Olympiad training, preparing for year-end lecture, preparing for 2009).
For 2009: Wishing for strength to see me through what I foresee to be my most challenging year in MJC.

Overall, doesn’t sound like it has been a good year for me ya? But on the optimistic side, at least I still have a roof over my head and living comfortably within my means, I’m still alive and fully functional, and there are still plenty of things to look forward and hope for in the future so with that positive note, I pray for a great year ahead for myself and all those who know me. Happy New Year! =)

Had an enjoyable mahjong session just now with my MJC friends! Laughed a lot and there were lots of funny actions (mainly by me as usual haha). =p

 

NYNY Outing at Jurong Point ytd with my ex-AISS students was fun! Great to see the group again after like 9 months, and this time Soh Chen joined us and it was at least 2 years since the last time I saw her so it was good to catch up with her again (though we have been on Facebook also haha)! Anyway, actually I realised the food at NYNY is not great I must say, though the portions are really huge. WS, SF, and SL shared this Giant Yankee Burger, which I heard that if you can finish it by yourself you don’t have to pay for it (they will actually get a staff to watch you!) But it’s really insanely huge… SC and Merlyn shared a Meat Platter for 2 (which is equally sick in terms of size), or should I say they shared 40% of the meat platter cos they were passing some of the pork ribs and spring chicken to WS and SF and the way they passed around was really comical and Hazel and I kept laughing at them.

 

WY was late and it was really funny cos firstly she overslept then on the way to JP she took the wrong train at Jurong East then when she called SF she was already at Queenstown, which was already quite a few stops before she realized her mistake. But what made it stranger was that apparently she had stopped at Clementi then went back to Jurong East and then somehow ended up at Queenstown later. V. weird!

 

We went off to the arcade after dinner and had intended to play Daytona since there were 8 of us but somehow when we started there were some screw-ups at the machines and SF and SL were left out of the race so only 6 of us were left. =( The fun part of the race – there were 20 laps at beginners’ level so there was plenty of time for us to race. The bad part of the race (for me) – my brakes couldn’t work! LOL super jia lat, cmi even when I stomp like crazy on the brakes so everytime when it came to the final bend I’d hope for a car to be around so that I can use it as my cushion and I’d just charge at 300+km/h at whoever is turning in front of me to send them flying back haha. Anyway I ended up 4^th after leading with about 5 sec left again haha cos I was trying to stop Merlyn from overtaking me unsuccessfully. Finally we took some photos outside the arcade after that thanks to Merlyn’s “close guy friend” haha. =P

 

On the way back on the train Hazel and I were analyzing Soh Chen’s Xmas date and talking about relationship stuff. As usual they’ve been nagging at me to find a girlfriend soon lol. Anyway, we were talking about how tiring it is to be in relationships sometimes so yup that’s one of the major reasons why I’m in no rush to find a partner. In fact, you don’t even need to be in a relationship to be emotionally drained. Sometimes just liking someone that you can’t tell the person about is already v. tiring. Anyway there are many reasons actually why I’m not keen on a relationship for now but I don’t want to go into it…

 

Anyway, all in all a v. enjoyable outing and the only thing that was really bad was that I had some sudden abdominal pain from about 7pm onwards that lasted till I was sleeping cos it was still hurting when I woke up halfway through but thankfully it was more or less ok since I woke up.

 

Before I end my post, I remembered something funny in school that I forgot to mention… While on my way to tutorial for 08S416 I saw 2 of the guys at the staircase (can’t really remember who) and we all started to walk faster trying to outdo each other (I’m known to my students for walking v. fast to class) then suddenly we all started to run to the classroom, much to the amusement of the others who saw us, lol. OK, updates tomorrow to end off 2008 and my reflections on the year! =)

Went out ytd for a day of activities with a group of ex-MJC students mainly from 06S307 including some of the usual DOTA guys like Liju, De Sheng, Leon, and Zhitang. Started with lunch at Changing Appetites at Marina Square where almost all of us had the set lunch special of mushroom cheese with chicken at a pretty cheap price of $8.90++. We were even joking that from the name of the dish it might be just 1 mushroom, 1 slice of cheese and a small piece of chicken but actually it was a very filling dish. Recommended esp. if you’re on a tight budget!

 

 

We planned to go bowling after that but it was too crowded so we went to the arcade but not before buying our tickets to Bedtime Stories, which I had initially feared to be a very poor show cos I saw the movie review but actually I found it v funny and entertaining enough for me.

 

Anyway our arcade trip was a short one and 8 of us went head-on in Daytona (a classic since my time in secondary school – that’s like eons ago) and despite leading (I think) most of the race up till 5 seconds left I came in 3^rd after a disgusting final turn on the last lap but it was fun blocking people and shielding them from trying to overtake me. Watching Pangyu and Liju play Guitar Heroes was also v entertaining esp. when Pangyu kept taunting Liju. =P

 

After arcade and movie we headed to Timbre at Stamford Road but it was fully booked so we walked to Clarke Quay and eventually ended up at “The Pump Room”. Most of them had alcoholic drinks such as Black Russian (which we joked that it tasted kind of like kopi-o), White Russian (kopi-c), Boston Tea Party, etc. and later DS, LJ, and PY had 2 tequila shots each, though I really wonder why people pay such money ($11 per shot which is about 50ml) when it seems so torturous to drink. DS was teaching them to suck the lemon really hard first before downing the drink in 1 shot cos otherwise it’ll be really bitter I think…

 

Anyway I pretty much stayed away from the alcohol stuff except for a sip of the Black Russian and had a Virgin Pina Colada (haha I didn’t make up the virgin thing, it’s really called that!) which I liked cos it was v. sweet and milky and it costs about half of an alcoholic drink! Then as usual they’d try to get me to treat by doing funny things like singing me a birthday song when it’s far from my birthday (the funny thing was some of the ang mohs also joined in the song). So full of nonsense sia haha. But no lah, I didn’t treat in the end and I’ve made it a point that nowadays I wouldn’t treat people unless there’s a good reason to because there’s no free lunch in the world and they should learn that but I did round down their expenses to the nearest $5/$10 as I normally do when I go out with them cos after all I am earning the most amongst them (for now) so don’t need to be so calculative lah. Then again that’s already like a $40 write-off so you can imagine the bill we chalked up.

 

We had to leave at 10pm due to this age limit thing (21 for girls, 24 for guys if I remember correctly but don’t ask me why there’s a diff cos it seems weird to me also). DS and LJ wanted to go to this place called Double-O for some clubbing but the rest of us were tired or not interested in going there so we headed to City Hall where we bizarrely ended up going home straight away cos at first we talked about sitting down at Starbucks there so that was the end of the night! An entertaining outing overall, with Liju also sharing his story of his stalker at Orchard lol.

 

Anyway, back to part 2 of my reflections. By and large tutorials have been enjoyable (for me at least) and though I’ve tried, where I can, to make things more interesting, time has always been a major factor in limiting what can be done as well as the nature of the topic and I can accept that not 100% of my tutorials have been exciting but as long as I’ve given my best to explain I won’t kill myself over it. I’ve learnt that while one should strive for perfection, one must also learn to accept that life can never be perfect so try to relax when things don’t go your way – something that’s hard to do admittedly cos sometimes I can also get v angry with things though I don’t often show it to others.

 

 

I’ve mentioned some of the funny moments in class in much earlier posts so I’ll just fill in some of the stuff I missed out earlier, strangely enough all with 08S416 – (1) Halfway through a tutorial, I was suddenly offered a giant choc stick (something like Pocky but a really huge version) to which I joked, “Wah, how come suddenly got chocolate stick? Don’t expect me to add marks to your mid-year exam hor. (Sudden change of tone and lower volume) Maybe the promos, but not the mid-year exam.” (2) While explaining to them some concepts, Aldrick asked me something and I had a sudden change in my intonation and asked back “What do you think?” which they all laughed at cos my tone changed suddenly. (3) Somebody was a little distracted and I asked if there’s any problem and he mentioned about a friend’s moment of indiscretion, which I’ve no idea if it’s true or not, much to everyone’s amusement and I said, “We didn’t need to know that. You could’ve just told me it’s personal and I’d leave it at that.”

 

Other funny moments I guess were the times when I used my catchword of 2008 – disgusting! LOL. I dunno why I suddenly liked using that word so much and when did I start using it so frequently but my students also know and sometimes they’ll say it before I do haha.

 

Well, just one final comment about teaching for this year I’d like to make after some interesting talk we had during our chemistry gathering in Oct. Somebody (henceforth referred to as X) mentioned a student (henceforth S) who apologized to X because S thought S was being picked upon by X (which is not true) but later on S realized that actually X never meant it that way and it was all for S’s good that X scolded S.

 

I think the moral of the story is that people sometimes misunderstand the (good) intentions of what others say and do. It’s sad but true. You see students who are cynical about the standard of tests/exams or who are unhappy about being scolded that they go on a rant about the people behind their miseries i.e. the teachers. Yet they never realize that they always see things from their tinted glasses and from a view similar to that of a frog in well – unable to see the big picture. Granted that sometimes there is a case for their complains we should also learn to take stock of our lives as we grow and mature, think about how things are like on the other side of the pasture, and perhaps work things out for a better ending. It’s something that I myself have learnt this year from an incident that hardly anybody knows.

 

Adding onto what I just said, having seen the path of my life and my brother’s I’m thankful that my dad scolded me big-time in primary school when I was playing too much and woke me up. Perhaps it’s also my competitive nature and pride that got me to study harder but I do believe that if I hadn’t been scolded I might not have studied as much as I should. That’s why despite the fact that I don’t like to scold people (because I myself ABSOLUTELY HATE being scolded) I still do it when I feel it has to be done (for their sake) though I think v few have really had it from me and though I know there will be people who are sore with me about that.

 

So on this more somber note, it’s goodnight from me. More on Mon night after my meet-up with my ex-AISS students. =)

Strange title for a post I guess but as I reflect on the teaching profession, that’s what I feel like sometimes – tutorials are like your training sessions where you teach them your problem-solving strategies, ways to approach questions and other skill sets and ultimately when they take their tests and exams it’s like match time where you hope they can apply the skills you’ve taught (like tactics and formation in football) and be able to adapt to the circumstances when they’re changed.

 

Sometimes I also wondered about my teaching style, whether I’m still not as hard on them as I may need to be though I’ve been (a bit) tougher with them based on experience because in a way I know I need to be to get them to work and produce results. Again you think about some of the really good managers who are the no-nonsense type such as Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho who’ll probably just scream at their players if they’re giving crap though I still can’t really see myself screaming at people unless I’m really, really angry.

 

Also I think about the skills needed to handle students to motivate them and bring the best out of them, just like how managers try to coax the best out of their players (think about the difference between Juande Ramos and Harry Redknapp) and I guess that’s why teaching is still a fascinating profession because you’re dealing with people and everyone is different so you need to think about how to approach them after you get to know them and their personality.

 

Anyway I’m still enjoying teaching, perhaps even more so this year because with more experience and also knowledge of many of the past exam questions I already know what I want to emphasise and I do sense a big difference between the last cycle and this one – it’s almost like I feel there’s an aura around me when I teach, LOL. And now after all this preparation during the holidays for JC2 as the coordinator I feel that by my third cycle I will be really good but no matter what there will always be fresh challenges ahead as I will always be looking to value-add in terms of producing more stuff that can help the students.

 

This year I feel has been a good one in terms of the tutorial summaries, concept test, chemistry songs, and other things I’ve created though sometimes I feel that the students don’t appreciate it or are not utilizing it as much or as well as they should be. I’ll probably try to do a survey and hopefully I can get some idea on how else to improve on my teaching. Think it’s kinda fun, like playing RPG where you are leveling up haha. =p

 

Lectures for me this year have been fun though of course most importantly is the accurate teaching of the content but if you ever end up in teaching or think about how things are like on our side, you’ll appreciate that it’s not easy to hold the attention of hundreds of students, trying to keep them engaged and entertained at various intervals and still getting your points across to them.

 

Anyway here are some of the funny moments I enjoyed (the students also I assume since I hear them laughing) during my lectures, in no order of merit, but before that some background info - this year has been a Spongebob Squarepants year for me. Ever since I started watching it I’ve loved the witty humour and since most students have watched it before I try to integrate that into my teaching (one of the funniest moments was my mimicking of Patrick’s laughter during Compass lesson) to make them laugh.

 

(1) A student was using the Windows Journal function on my laptop and seemed to have problems writing on it, so I joked, “Is your middle name Patrick?” cos it’s so easy to use.

 

(2) When asking this student to explain his answer, I said, “The inner machinations of your mind are an enigma, so let us know what you’re thinking” – based on a line said by Patrick which I felt was super funny in the cartoon because he said “The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma” which was true because Patrick is soooo dumb you never really know what nonsense he’s thinking of in his mind.

 

(3) While giving a short motivational talk (with some suaning) after the H1 students got back their MYE papers I showed them a short video from Youtube which showed a professional soccer player missing an open goal then I said something like, “You’d think it should be easy to score than to miss from there right? But that’s just like how we feel when we mark!” Anyway, can’t always do this with everyone but they are a bunch who can take it and my friend said they seem to enjoy me suaning them like that. =p

 

(4) While lecturing the H1 students about hybridized orbitals, I said something like, “It’s quite easy to remember. From the name sp³ orbital, it’s made up by mixing 1 s orbital and 3 p orbitals. Since you used 4 atomic orbitals in the mixing process, you will also end up with 4 sp³ hybridised orbitals. Just think in terms of what you give is what you’ll get back. (Change of tone of voice here) But then again, that’s not always true ya? We give you all so much but we never get much back in return.” Lol, I loved that subtle dig at them.

 

(5) While lecturing H2 during (I think) ionic equilibrium, I noticed some stoned faces so I said, “I see that some of you seem to be stoning. You shouldn’t be STONING during chemistry lecture, you know why? (Pause) Because chemistry ROCKS.” LOL, lame to the max sia.

 

(6) I thought I’d try to make things interesting with some filler stuff while the students were coming into lecture so on two occasions I had these Powerpoint slides on the projector while they were coming in for them to think before showing them the answer.

(a) Do you know that Ironman is actually a woman?

Answer: Ironman is a female – For those non-chemistry people, the chemical symbol for the element iron is “Fe” so “iron + man” = “Fe + male” = female.

 

(b) Life without chemistry is like a broken pencil.

Answer: Pointless

 

Thanks to Jonathan for these lame stuff! =p

 

(7) During H2 Ionic Equilibrium lecture, I was labeling the acid and the conjugate base and to save time I wrote conjugate base as c.b. instead and immediately there were a lot of laughters and sniggering going on, which I quickly realized what was going on so I said, “Ok, I don’t know what you’re thinking of so early in the morning (it was during 1^st period) but I don’t want to know.” =p

 

(8) During H2 Chemical Equilibrium lecture, I tried to make a sound effect for my Powerpoint slide to show the effect of increasing (surrounding) temperature as the system would absorb heat. So as the animation showed the heat (depicted by flame symbols) being sucked into the system I also imitated some sucking sound for entertainment purposes.

 

(9) While going through the Promo Answers before giving back their Promo Exam scripts I was trying to close some of the windows on my desktop as I had a lot of things to brief them and I had trouble moving the mouse properly so it looked like my cursor was moving left and right rapidly. Everyone was laughing then some student said, “Mr Lau, are you shaking?” To which I rebutted, “It’s not me, it’s the mouse. I’m not the one who’s going to get back my promo papers soon. If there’s anybody who should be shaking, it should be you all, not me.” =P

 

(10) A lot of times we had this “roving mike” segment started by me when I passed the portable mike to my friends and asked them to help me pick out students to answer questions which I felt was quite fun. Once I was helping my friend instead and I was super crappy cos before each of those that I asked I would make some funny comment such as “Alright, we have a VERY enthusiastic student over here who’s just DYING to answer the question” (of course that’s not the real situation), “Ok, you look a little stressed. Maybe you just need to talk things out. How about telling us what you’re thinking?”, “You’ve been eyeing me ever since I moved across to this side of the LT so I KNOW you just want to get a chance to answer the question.”

 

Ok, that’s it for now cos I’m going out soon. Will continue tomorrow! =)

 

 

Again a long hiatus from blogging. In part I must say that the new format of Friendster’s blog has been rather unfriendly and slow, which is why I’ve been kinda sian to update cos it takes quite long to load and in part I’ve also been a bit slack admittedly to type. Anyway, before I begin, Merry Xmas to anyone who can be bothered to read about my life! =p

 

Work – Have been doing work on and off for the past month in preparation for next year and admittedly sometimes I feel quite tired cos I just want to rest during the hols, at least for the earlier part, but I know I have great responsibilities next year so I just push myself to get things done. The good thing though is that I feel v good about the work I’m producing haha, maybe cos I believe that I’m doing a great job so far and I’ve improved on a lot of the things so far especially for the lecture notes and concept maps and also for the tutorials. There are still so many things I plan to do though so I need to up my gear after Xmas! It’s going to be a long and tiring fight next year so I need to psyche myself up!!!

 

Shopping – Went out recently to do my bit for our flagging economy by spending on clothes. Wanna upgrade my wardrobe for next year! Bought shirts from Matsu (at Square 2) and Natural Project (at AMK Hub) and this sales assistant from Natural Project was a v smooth talker so I ended up buying a few shirts, some of which were not my usual style but she said I can change my style a bit and not always stick to the same thing. The thing I liked though about her sales pitch was that she would give advice on what to match the shirts with and show me combinations that would look good so that convinced me to buy haha. I’ll probably go back to that shop next time if I need fashion advice. =)

 

LAN Outing (12^th Dec) – Went out with my army buddy and some of his friends who are also PSC scholars to play at E2 Max. CS was decent, 2^nd out of 4 though the top guy was seriously god-like sia, killing us like flies, so to be fairer we switched to 3 v 1 towards the later part of the game. DOTA was a breeze and I love using PA cos she’s seriously a hero killer and I love hearing “Holy S***! Owning!” LOL. Definitely my fav hero for now! After that we played this game which was new to 3 of us called “Left 4 Dead”. I really liked the game cos it’s a cooperative FPS game so instead of blasting each other’s brains out the 4 of us had to battle through the undead (the game is set in a zombie apocalypse setting) and save each other when we are set upon by some of the special type of undead creatures. V fascinating game with excellent game play – highly recommended if you ever go out in a group of 4 for LAN! Pool in the evening was absolutely disgusting and forgettable so I shall not talk about it. =p

 

LAN Outing (8^th Dec) – The more-or-less usual group of ex-IGC/MJC people went out for Astons’ lunch (though sadly not as good as our last one cos they screwed up our orders twice) and DOTA, which is more interesting now that I’m not using Razor like I always used to last time. Played 2 v 3 and won 4 out of 5 and the one we lost was utterly dumb cos I already farmed enough with PA to own but while Leon and I were finishing them off in the middle lane, we didn’t realize the creeps on bottom lane were already destroying the tree until it was too late. Noobish mistake sia… Anyway, it was fun esp. the game where my PA got 20+ kills – my first ever against humans! Let’s play again before school starts cos I won’t have time then!

 

Mahjong Sessions – Had a couple with friends from MJC and one with my NIE friend. V entertaining with the MJC ppl cos we’re all v crappy maybe esp. me haha.

 

Chem Gathering (25^th Oct) – Missed this out in my last post! Had a great gathering at our colleague’s place where we played Fifa 08 on PS3 and Acquire. Fifa 08 was super fun esp. during our 2v2 games where the Chemistry Brothers took on the Sai Kang Brothers and we were laughing and screaming all the way and giving high fives when anybody scored. We won the first game 2-0 and lost the second one 2-1 despite us having like 20+ shots to their 4 (and only 1 on target!) LOL. Well that’s soccer for you, if you can’t score you don’t win, just like Singapore – Vietnam ya? =)

 

Acquire was strange, and maybe a bit disgusting cos I ended up 3^rd out of 4 despite having a good start and middle game. But my bro played well and won by the biggest margin I’ve ever seen – about $15K. =)

 

Okay, that’s all for now. Reflections on teaching this year on Boxing Day (26^th Dec) – will definitely post, no procrastinating anymore! Merry Xmas! =)

Haha ok, have been lazy to update this blog admittedly cos been busy with invigilation, Olympiad training and preparation for next year and when I’m done being busy I feel like slacking so here’s a quick update on recent events:

 

A Level Invigilation (Oct-Nov) – Went smoothly and like in 2006, I was bored so during my first day of invigilation I memorized the names of the students in the class I was invigilating just so that I could surprise them at the end when I call somebody’s name to stop writing haha. Boh liao yes, but staring at them for hours is kinda boring after a while. Anyway, the kids seem to find me a funny person, dunno why. Maybe cos I stick strictly to the timing so even though all were present I’d tell them to relax first and I’ll announce when there’s 1 minute left to starting time. Saw some of them a couple of times after that to invigilate and they remembered me also haha.

Hmmm, I think maybe next year if possible I’ll memorize all the names and faces of the current cohorts’ students then I can call them during lectures if they’re not paying attention or if they are late for lectures to shame them and keep them on their toes. That should scare them hahaha. =P

 

Being a Brother (15^th Nov) – Few weeks back, a good friend asked me to be one of his brothers, which was quite an honour so I accepted. It was a very interesting experience I must say since it was my first time being a brother. A week before the wedding we had a “briefing” with the couple, the brothers and sisters where handouts (we joked that it was like lecture notes cos my friend is also a chemistry teacher haha) were given out then we discussed about our duties. Seriously, there are so many things to plan for when it comes to weddings and we had roles like wedding coordinator (and 2IC), emcee, photo-taking IC, timekeeper, receptionist, usher, solemniser liaison person, AV personnel, and transport coordinator. Really learnt a lot from the experience and I’m glad we did our jobs well to ensure the wedding went on smoothly.

 

The “tekan” session when we went to pick up the bride wasn’t too bad actually I must say. We feared the worst but in the end it was relatively mild thankfully. I like the sisters’ concept though where they actually designed a wooden report card with my friend’s name on it and there were 5 areas of test – physical education, health education, science, maths, and music and some can probably guess what we were expected to do for some of these. I shall not elaborate so as not to give the girls ideas on what to do haha. =P

 

Staff Dinner (14^th Nov) – Retro theme and we found it difficult to think of what to wear. In the end we decided to focus on getting some sunglasses to make the look retro even though the clothes may not be exactly retro so some of us went shopping around Chinatown just before we went to the dinner. Got ourselves a pair at $10 each after some bargaining with the shop keeper and I thought we looked pretty good hahaha. Pictures on Facebook soon hopefully! Need to get them from my bro… =)

 

Quite a few of us went to Clarke Quay after that to chill out and have supper. Pretty crowded as one would expect on Fri night and we ended up at this place called Fashion Bar then we went to this dessert eatery that I can’t remember the name and the food and drinks were good. I’ll probably visit that place again if the opportunity arises.

 

JC1 Bash (13^th Nov) – Dropped by after taking my IPPT (which I finally passed ever since I ORDed – yippee!) to be a guest judge and also to take a look at how to dress in a retro way for the staff dinner. Some of the activities were quite interesting though there were areas of improvement as per normal for such events. I enjoyed the limbo rock segment cos the eventual winner was really good so it was kinda exciting haha. Even the security guard came to party and cheer lah!

 

Anyway, I wonder how I would go about organizing these kind of events next time if I end up in Students’ Council in the future (yes, I’m still in IGC again for the time being =P). Should be interesting but probably also very tiring and maybe stressful also. Most difficult part for me is always trying to get people to come for the events cos it’s dependent on others.

 

 

 

 

LAN Outing (1^st Nov) – Met up with some of the ex-MJC students including my ever-crappy ex-IGC people at Aston’s for lunch and it was great! My first time there and I had a wagyu steak which was shiok but at a price (almost $40). Finally saw Roy after a very long time and he was still as crappy and he went to count each square on my steak and said that each square was worth about $2 cos there were like 20 squares. Then after I cut out 2 squares and ate them he said something like, “OMG, that’s like 2 hours of DOTA already Mr Lau!” LOL. =P

 

LAN was fun, though Roy and I lost 2-1 to Leon, LJ and DS. Have been honing my skills on BNet recently though so it’ll be interesting to cross swords again and see whether I can apply my new tactics. Looking forward to the next fight!

 

Deepavali Karaoke (27^th Oct) – After a busy year where I’ve been bugged down by throat problems I finally went for karaoke for the first time this year. We went to Crystalbelle at around Outram Park and it was cheap! 3-7pm for only $10 with drinks and snacks included and the sound system was pretty good. Dunno why but apparently the theme was retro (again!) and we chose some really super retro songs and laughed our heads off with all the cheesy MVs, dressing and hairstyle of the 80s. Felt good about the singing and though there were 2-3 times when my voice went off it was not bad considering the long hiatus. Also heard some of my colleagues sing for the first time and they’re very good so maybe we should form a group or something to perform hahaha. =P

 

After that we went to eat at a hawker centre around Chinatown and they had really good food. I particularly liked this yu sheng from a stall (can’t remember the name though I know where it is) – very yummy! Then we went for desert at Temple Street and the yam paste with pumpkin and gingko nuts was shiok. They have very good dessert I must say and I’d love to go back there again to eat. =)

 

Malacca Trip (18^th – 19^th Oct) – 10 of us went in this trip, which is quite big and rare I think especially when it’s a group from your workplace and of course it was an enjoyable one with the company we had – super crappy people as usual. =P

 

Food was cheap, shopping was cheap (bought a few T-shirts) and I slept a lot on the trip, which was kinda unusual cos compared to the Bintan trip I seemed kinda lethargic… Pictures up on Facebook already!

 

MJC Open House (3^rd Oct) – Spent a fair bit of money but all for a good cause – charity! I think I spent almost $50 on food and various stuff such as this mirror from 08S416 which was designed by Yun Qi and it was very well-done! Haha, I liked the anime drawing and wording and the mirror is perfect when I need to check myself just before lessons LOL. =P Also bought some other stuff such as this cute badge with my horoscope, mug with chemistry design, some deco stuff, and photo frame from my CG haha. Most important part was the personalization that came with it cos I told the people who approached me that I would buy if they can design something related to me and with my name on it haha which they did so I think Open House is a good time for shopping cos I can buy special stuff. =)

 

Ok, that’s it for now. Hope to update soon again about this year!

IT’S ABOUT TIME I updated my blog! Been procrastinating mainly cos I’ve been very busy, especially last term when I was lecturing practically the entire term so there were a lot of things to prepare but actually partly also cos I’ve been a bit lazy to type haha. Then again, I don’t suppose many might have time to read, unless maybe you happen to be in NS in a unit where you can stay out, LOL. =P If any of my current students are reading this today (Sunday), STOP AND GO STUDY FOR PROMOS! And good luck for promos! Anyway, shall try to update the major events over the last few months before updating the more interesting daily happenings in another post later on…

NE Seminar

– Just attended this full-day seminar ytd and it was actually quite interesting, given that I was kinda dreading attending it, although certain speakers truly epitomized what it means to speak monotonously, which was sleep-inducing. Anyway, I used to think that NE was just about the history (like what led to our independence, NS, racial harmony, etc.) but I learnt a lot about other aspects of Singapore actually, such as our economic situations, security policies, foreign policies, as well as our future challenges and what our government has forecast and are preparing for. Quite a lot of big shots were presenting, mainly directors of various agencies, and I must say that the people are quite far-sighted, which was good to know that they have a lot of things thought out. Good also that I managed to see many of my ex-NIE classmates some of whom I’ve not seen for years! It was quite a tiring day cos it lasted from 9 to 5pm and most of the time we were sitting down listening to the talks and I can understand why our students get tired in school when lessons last from 7.30 to 5pm. Anyway, quite a few teachers disappeared by lunch, perhaps cos they “pon” but I thought it was pretty disgusting considering we’re supposed to be role models! I can’t imagine if their students were to do that for their lessons, how could they look them in the eye and scold them when they themselves are guilty of that…

Bintan Trip

– Went for a 3D2N trip during the Sep holidays with some of my colleagues and it was awesome! Was thoroughly entertained during the entire trip thanks to some funny scenarios and brilliant crapping by some of them. Also did a lot of things that I’ve never done before in my life, such as playing water polo, snorkeling and archery, so it was cool!

Haha, the water polo was really fun cos we played with a lot of the other guests and cos I scored a lot and saved a lot and my teams won, yay! Good to get some exercise after being so slack for the past few months and it felt good to swim (it’s been about 2-3 years since I swam!). Paid about $35 for 1½ hours of snorkeling and it was interesting, though I had a lot of problems with coordinating my breathing cos I simply wasn’t used to breathing through my mouth but anyway it was a novel experience and it was quite cool being able to swim in the sea and see the fishes and coral up-close. Archery was cool also and I got to shoot 10 arrows. Tried to aim for the furthest target but it was kinda tough and I was never close enough for a bull’s eye. More training needed I guess! But anyway archery needs quite a bit of arm strength cos the string is very tight and you need hold the bow upright and in a steady manner, which gets tiring after a while. Also got to play table tennis, pool, and also some board games that I brought there so it was a very relaxing and enjoyable getaway there.
Some of the funny moments: (1) When we got to the resort, there were some local dancers performing for us as we were served some lemongrass drink and it was quite nice so one of us said that we should hang around and wait for the next wave of tourists to arrive then we’ll just pretend to blend in with the crowd and get another drink. Doesn’t really sound funny here I think cos it’s the accompanying action that was funny haha. (2) As we were going to our rooms, one of us decided to see what floor we were on by pressing for the lift. Little did the person know that just a bit ahead we already saw the floor number so we were quite amused by it. (3) We were watching TV when there was this advertisement showing this new Channel 5 Series and it showed Fiona Xie with a fictitious name of her character in the show but somebody didn’t realize it and said, “That looks like Fiona Xie.” We all started laughing and said, “That IS Fiona Xie!” (4) After we settled into our rooms I was channel surfing then I came across the opening song for “Spongebob Squarepants” so I excitedly ran to the other room and told the rest about it. After I returned to my room, I realized that the cartoon was in MALAY. LOL. I was laughing hysterically. =P (5) While learning how to shoot the arrow during archery, the instructor was teaching us to place our arrow on the rest (on the left-hand side of the bow) and showed us how to do so. Then somebody said, “Mine don’t have!” The instructor pointed out to our friend that she was looking at the wrong side of the bow, lol. (6) Somebody shot the arrow into the ground quite near in front of us and also behind the target in the drain and somebody said that the person can’t be in top management because the person doesn’t know how to shoot arrows lol, and proceeded to take pictures of the misplaced arrows. =P There were also some moments that can’t be mentioned here haha and probably some also that I can’t remember offhand but all in all it was an excellent trip! =)

Teacher’s Day

– Another tough year which is ¾ through, another chemistry song that I’ve composed, and another performance on stage. Anyway, the concert was quite simple but I liked it cos at least the people in charge tried to make it fun and it helped that one of the emcees was really good at hosting the event. A pity that I missed out on this puppet/comic strip thingie while getting ready for the performance cos I read from some blogs that it was quite enjoyable.

Anyway, I finished composing the song about 2 days before the performance though most of it was in my brain already over the last few months as I tried to conceptualize what I wanted to teach. I really enjoyed the process of composing and preparing the Powerpoint slides, especially since I kept laughing at the lyrics, and at the same time marveling at my brilliance hahaha (sorry if I sound very BHB) =P. Used the song “Collide” by Howie Day to teach Free Radical Substitution Mechanism and in a way, this is arguably my best song (though I thought “Sodium Hydroxide” was very good also cos of its wide coverage of concepts), cos I actually used some of the actual words in the song and twisted its interpretation to fit the context and that got the students laughing like crazy. Anyway the song set a new first for me cos it’s the first time I actually used an English song to convert to a chemistry song. Video is up on Youtube so interested parties can click on the link below: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjkvpZnTPJg
Oh haha, anyway, as can be seen, I performed with a fellow chemistry teacher cos I felt he was perfect to play the guitar as accompaniment just like in the original song and during one of the breakfasts together I suggested we call ourselves the “Chemistry Brothers” for comedic effect since we’re teaching chemistry and in a way it kinda spoofs the real-life band “The Chemical Brothers”, which got the rest laughing. Also suggested wearing lab coats and safety goggles to up the fun factor. =P

Btw, that was the second name I came up for us. Embarrassingly enough, the first name I came up with was “CheMJC” cos I was thinking chemistry teachers from MJC but all I got from the others at the table were bemused faces (as if to say, “What kind of a name is CheMJC???”) and deathly silence hahaha. =P

Oh, and the extremely cute Patrick balloon was from my CG 08S114! Hahaha, it was sooo funny cos the teachers were entering the hall at the start and as we walked in to take our seats they suddenly handed me the huge balloon, much to my amusement as well as the other teachers. Anyway I decided to bring it onstage with me for various reasons – (1) to value their gift (2) to pep up the crowd cos during the H1/H2 lectures I made quite a few references to the Spongebob Squarepants cartoon so they know I watch and can respond to my cues. As we went on stage I started to rouse the audience by using the starting lines of the cartoon to get them to respond (Me: Are you ready kids? Them: Aye, aye captain! Me: I can’t hear you! Them: Aye, aye captain!) Haha, it was super duper fun cos the kids were very enthu and responsive and I was just short of singing the song in the cartoon. =P (3) Cos sometimes I don’t know where to put my hands when I perform hahaha.

All in all, the whole affair was extremely fun and from the responses and what I read seems like at least most of the students and teachers enjoyed the performance, which was nice to know since at least our efforts were reciprocated. Personally that was my favourite performance out of the 5 I’ve been on stage in MJC. =)

After the concert we went for the class parties and I had an enjoyable time with my CG taking pictures in various funny poses. Haha, shall try to get from them after the promos then upload it to Facebook, which I have been using more often and I just realized it’s very convenient to upload photos there! The party was quite short though, in part cos the concert ended late and also cos the teachers had to go off for our lunch but I still enjoyed my time with them and thanks so much for everything – the cards and gifts!

To wrap up this part of my post, let me just say my most sincere thanks to all those who wished me a Happy Teacher’s Day and/or gave me a Teacher’s Day gift: class of 08S114 (for your Patrick balloon, your photo frames, your giant placard, and the class party), Jane and Javin of 08S201 (for your survival kit and note), Yeon Ju, Aiyan, Dora, and Florence (for your card), Aiyan, Dora, Kiat Huei and Wenjie (for your pen/marker holder), Christian of 08S201 (for your starfruits, which coincidentally is probably the most bizarre gift I’ve received =P), class of 08S416 (for your card), Yihui of 08S416 (for your card and berry essence), Jim and Wong Yi of 08S416 (for your very humorous post-its), Shin Kay, Hazel, Chiu Mui of 06S207 (for your SMS), Chengying of 06S213 (for your email), Samantha of 06S307 (for your SMS), Dorcas of 06S401 (for your SMS), Elvia of 06S411 (for your SMS). Hope I didn’t forget anyone and thank you all very much again! =)

National Day

– For National Day’s Eve, the JC1s went on our learning journeys so I accompanied my CG 08S114 to Arab Street where we found ourselves a quiet place and tucked ourselves there for breakfast and some games (Halli Galli and Jungle Speed) that I brought there to keep them entertained while we passed time and for some class BONDING. =P Joanne, Han Lu, Tuck Heng and Natalie were saying that they loved Halli Galli and wanted to play it after the movie, which btw was Mummy 3 and I actually found it quite enjoyable though I had heard from some people that it wasn’t that good.

While we were waiting for the movie to start, some of them were taking pictures and Han Lu snapped an unglam shot of me taking a nap in my seat. Then the whole class went in front of the movie theatre to pose and take pictures in front of the entire cohort of students haha. That was fun! =)

After the movie, we walked to Marina Square eventually where we plonked ourselves down at BK to have lunch as well as a bit of gaming to relax (which was hilarious) before we dispersed. All-in-all a fun and relaxing day!

Staff Well-being Day (4th Aug)

– this time the staff went to enjoy the nature at the Southern Ridges where we walked through some of the parks and went onto the Henderson Waves, which was a bridge with a very interesting shape (like a sine/cosine curve) and we had a guided tour thanks to some of our teacher guides so it was a breath of fresh air literally as we took a stroll in the park! Buffet lunch at HortPark was great and there was one hilarious moment when I was just singing a line from the Spongebob Squarepants cartoon (Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?) in a pop song kind of way then a colleague said, “You siao ah?” and then proceeded to sing the same line in many different ways such as opera style, R&B, hiphop, etc. Hilarious! =P

College Day (2nd Aug)

– Went to school early on this Sat morning to have some BONDING session with some of the guys in our department cos we thought it’d be a good time to meet up and play some board games since we’ve been so busy that we need to relax a bit. It was also great that I managed to meet up with some of the ex-students during and after the ceremony. It was definitely a lot more interesting when you know the people who are accepting their awards and good that I managed to catch up with some of the ex-students. Went out to TM with Jon, DS, Samuel, and Pangyu, where we watched “Money No Enough 2” and it was pretty funny. Probably wouldn’t have been something that I would normally watch if it wasn’t impromptu cos it turns out the reviews in the papers were quite bad but actually personally I felt it was ok though the show got quite draggy towards the end.

Talk at AJC Career Fair (23rd Jul)

– One fine day I received a call from MOE asking me if I could give a talk at my alma mater on teaching so as to encourage the students to take up teaching and I accepted it readily since I’ve not been back to AJC for such a long time and also since it was for a worthy cause. Spent quite a bit of time thinking about what to say and what experiences to share to make the session lively and in the end I went into my theme of “Why TEACH?” where I spoke about why I thought of joining teaching, my experiences so far, about how they could improve themselves in many qualities (e.g. Tough, Empathy, Adaptability, Creativity, Humorous), and how they could have a taste of a variety of other occupations (e.g. Tour guide, Events organizer, Admin clerk, Counselor, Humanitarian) and entertained them with my injection of humour throughout the presentation. I liked how I ended off my presentation cos in conclusion I said that “Ultimately, teaching is a selfless job and I feel it resonates well with our school motto (“Non Mihi Solum”)”, which btw means “not for myself alone” to a chorus of “Awww”s.

After the talk a couple of kids came up to ask some questions and this boy very funnily came up to me and said, “Sir, can I shake your hand? Cos I feel like we’re so similar!” In a very uncanny way, it turns out that he’s also in St. Andrew’s for 10 years before going to AJC and that he was also head of the Intellectual Games Club (or something like that) hahaha. =P

Oh and surprisingly enough, I met Karl and another ex-student of MJC (from 06S208 I think) cos they are now trainee pilots so they were giving out pamphlets to encourage the students to join the airforce! Haha, such as small world indeed…

Visit to Colleague’s Place (12th Jul)

– Went to visit my colleague who had given birth and brought down some of the current/ex IGC/Games Convention people such as Jon, DS, Liju, Ain, Kelvin, Roy and Shi Rong. Met up at J8 before that to buy gifts for the baby and have dinner together and we went to Swensen’s where Jon was asking if anybody wanted to watch this Turandot opera to which I just shot him a dirty look and said, “Now why the heck would I want to watch an opera?” Anyway, he was raving about the beauty of operas and stuff to make his point but nobody seemed to want to know about it haha. Then Jon was talking about eating the Vermonster and he was very drama when he said it was like “a dream on the horizon”. LOL, he’s so full of crap.

On the bus towards the place, Ain brought up some very funny thing regarding deodorants which I shall not mention anything more here cos it’s censored but suffice to say we were laughing our heads off and it was something that we made fun of later during our visit there. When we reached there, there was a point of time when the baby was crying then Jon was teasing Liju, “Maybe he’s afraid of short people”. LOL!

Then as we were looking through the baby’s photos, Roy recognized the pictures wrongly cos he thought that one of the pictures, which was actually part of the design on the book itself, was a picture of the baby, much to our amusement. Then we talked about the stuff we kept for remembrance and Liju said, “I kept my teeth and some of my nail clippings”, and I said, “I only kept my teeth”, and Jonathan, as usual the crappiest person in the world, said, “I’ve got an umbilical cord.” ROFL. What an award-winning punch line! Super funny sia! Btw, he really did keep his umbilical cord… =P

Anyway, the kids were making fun of me about when I’m going to have a baby and getting me to practice how to carry babies by using a stuffed toy. =P

DOTA/Settler’s Outings

– Met up with some of the ex-Games Convention committee people recently for 3v3 DOTA at Selegie Plaza (our usual haunt) and then Happy Hour at Settler’s Café. I was very upset with myself for losing one of the games cos we had such a huge lead. Jon, DS and I were Sentinel and DS and I were owning our lanes (middle and bottom respectively against LJ and SH) while Jon was being owned by CJ understandably especially since they were in the top lane, which is better for Scourge (as any experienced DOTA players would know), and CJ is really good.

Had a fantastic opening where I drew first blood and dominated SH to the point where my L6 Razor forced his L2 Mortred to the jungle to avoid feeding me any more. In mid-game, DS and I had taken down our first towers and got our Eaglehorns and our combined levels were much higher than theirs but then came the turning point when I took down my second tower and I got complacent and assumed that it was just a matter of time before we defeated them. CJ went back to base to defend against my side and I told him I won’t go in there cos I’m scared of him so I’ll go for easier prey since LJ and SH were in middle lane near our towers and they were partially injured so it should be easy to finish them off. As any good bridge player would know, you never reveal your plans to the opponents so that you can surprise them but it didn’t occur to me that CJ would actually get to where LJ and SH were at the same time as me so I got killed no thanks to his Chaos Bolt + MOM, which was a killer.
Now that shouldn’t have been a problem still though it was a setback but later on our team wasn’t coordinated after taking down the third tower in middle lane. As CJ rushed back to defend with his phantasm, we should’ve just took him on since we were theoretically 3v1 but we made the mistake of backing off and later on CJ just became too powerful with BF, Radiance, and finally Rapier.

It really sucked to lose from a clear winning position but I learnt a lot from the game and I’m sure I’ll remember the mistakes well (1) Complacency (2) Poor strategizing/teamwork (a) I should’ve charged up earlier solo while CJ was distracted elsewhere to take down the middle barracks so as to force him back to defend and allow the others some breathing space (b) Should’ve pushed faster on my lane instead of holding back so as to force CJ back earlier and allow Jon to push freely since the other 2 don’t know how to defend) (3) Poor item/skills build. Must learn from mistakes and I’m looking forward to the next big fight! Redemption awaits!

Settler’s Outing was funny – CJ left and we met up with Emily and Kang Li. Jon and I walked at lightning speed to Central from Selegie Plaza within 15 minutes while the other 3 took a cab cos SH was on crutches. My students always say I walk very fast but they should see Jon walk lol. He’s certainly a tough competitor with me for the 2012 Olympics Walking competition. =P The funniest games were simple games like “Taboo” and “You Must Be An Idiot” – There was a censored moment in Taboo haha and a lot of funny actions that were supposedly illegal such as my attempt at belly dancing and Emily’s portrayal of a vampire (which DS guessed to mean buck-toothed, LOLOL). After that we went to Central, which was extremely crowded cos of the Mid-Autumn Festival, to find a place to sit down and have supper. Eventually ended up at Billy Bombers where we were laughing at some of the names of the drinks such as “Pink Pussy Cat”, but it was not as funny as the “Lover Fantasy” moment a couple of months back lol. A very fun outing as usual and hope to have another get-together soon!

Ok, that’s all for now. Shall update about other school stuff either tmr or Tues cos Chem Promo Paper is on Wed so once the papers come in it’ll be full steam ahead for me in my marking, which means no blogging. Quite excited to mark and I pray that everyone that has worked hard will get to see their rewards in this exam. Jia you! You can do it! =)

It’s quite sad but the holidays are almost over! And it barely began… Anyway, feeling a bit xian and not really in the mood to do work though I’ve been trying to do a bit here and there. It’s difficult to drive myself for the entire term and beyond cos I’m used to the style of charging through the term and slacking through the holidays, at least during my NUS and NIE days and times like this I wish I was studying haha.

Anyway, spent quite a bit of time compiling the students’ results and typing out the letters meant for their parents before I call them and it took much longer than I expected it to. Really not sure how useful it’ll be but I hope that in the end it’ll be worth my time and effort, especially when I actually dread calling parents myself, probably more so than my students. But there needs to be some pressure on many of them to study or else they will waste their holidays and they will suffer eventually. Shall try and settle the calling tomorrow so that I get it over and done with and I can carry on doing my other work.

Anyway, have been reading with interest the papers where they had recent articles about schools who hold holiday classes and have assessments during this period of time, especially for graduating classes and also about schools who set papers that are too difficult.

You know, I don’t remember ever hearing of those things during my time as a student and I wonder if it’s simply because I’ve been blissfully ignorant of these happenings or has the education system changed over the years and we’ve become so competitive.

Personally, I think it’s very draining for everyone involved, especially if you are using 2 weeks of the holidays for the extra lessons so I’m thankful that we don’t have to do that (I think the report was mainly talking about secondary schools), though there is other work to be done. As for difficult papers, I also do think it’s pointless if the entire paper is too challenging because if all the concepts are not taught before, the students will not benefit from it and most likely they’ll just try to memorise the answers, which is probably not the best way to go about learning things in theory. Sure, some thinking questions here and there are ok since there’s a need to differentiate the good students from the rest and also since the major exams do pose such challenging questions, but ultimately I feel that you need to be fair to the students. At least if they don’t do well, you can tell whether it’s through a lack of effort or lack of aptitude. I think we’re going in the right direction so hopefully we can keep up with this. =)

Anyway, let me try to recall some other events from the past term…

Voice therapy – finished my 4^th session in late April and it was ok. I think ultimately I learnt to better manage my vocal habits and improve on my voice projection. I was listening to my own recording before I started the “treatment” in the first session and in my last session and the difference was striking. I don’t think my voice is back to tip-top condition yet (perhaps because I’ve not been as disciplined since the last session) but hopefully after a good rest this holiday I will be fine next term. =)

Oh, I was told by my voice therapist that my normal singing voice is not that high because I asked her about it so actually I’m straining my throat muscles when I’m singing in the higher range and her advice was to avoid straining them and sing at a comfortable pitch. Pretty disappointing to hear that I would say but I guess I gotta accept that and try to be more careful with my voice. I also seem to have problems doing falsettos nowadays so I think it’s gonna be more difficult to go karaoke in future, sad to say.

IPPT – received an SMS about 1 month plus ago telling me to go for an IPPT session on 3^rd May, which was a Saturday and I was to report at Bedok Camp (pretty ulu place) by 730am so I woke up very early to get to there on time. Anyway, I was quite impressed with its facilities and all the results were recorded electronically. For example, when you do pull-ups the machine actually senses when your chin is over the bar and counts for you but I swear there was something wrong with the sit-up machine cos they didn’t count some of mine even though I did it properly. Luckily there was an instructor who noticed and added some for me but even then I felt that I did more than the 38 that was recorded. Again, I failed my 2.4km run, but this was my closest ever since I ORD-ed in 2004, failed by 9 seconds. Upset sia! Anyway, got less than 2 weeks left before my window closes so I really need to get to shape – been slacking the last 2 weeks – and hopefully pass my run. And I think running outdoors is better than running on the treadmill which I’ve done for the last 2 IPPTs that I failed.

School happenings – (1) Remembered an occasion when I saw some students in my CG along the walkway back to the staff room. My hands were full so I couldn’t wave and Lionel joked that I was “dao” that’s why I never wave and I “replied” by “waving” my head instead haha.

(2) During one of the tutorials, I was going through a data-based question and tried to make it more entertaining when teaching them the strategies of analyzing which was to read the questions first and find out the key terms and points to look out for in the passage while reading. So as I was going through the passage with them, I would react dramatically when I come across the key terms and highlight the relevant parts. My CG and 08S201 were entertained when I did that and somebody in 08S201 joked that I was behaving like someone in the class and I joked back by saying, “Don’t insult me.” =P

(3) Watched the rehearsal for the Drama club’s performance for their SYF competition and I found it quite intellectual cos it was about mahjong and politics and there were quite a few links drawn between them which I thought was clever. Anyway, they won the Gold medal so congrats to them and in particular to Lionel! Time to study chemistry though and catch up on your work as we discussed!

(4) CG Birthdays – celebrated the birthday for some of the students in May and on the last day of the term we also celebrated for the June babies, which include myself! Haha, took some photos and I shall upload them when I have the time, after I finish all my work, which will probably be next weekend. Btw, just in case anybody is thinking of buying stuff for me, please DON’T get me this grow-your-own-name plant because I’ve already had 4 in the last 2 years hahaha. Be original. I appreciate handmade stuff and words from the heart. I guess that’s why I always liked to write stuff and nowadays I try to make stuff cos there’s a personal touch to it. =)

(5) Soccer finals – the soccer boys played VJC on 21^st May and we beat them 2-1! I quite enjoyed the match and it was pretty exciting. Sat beside my CG cos I preferred to be near where the action is and cheer with the students and was discussing with Lionel about the happenings in the soccer match. Fun to watch I must say and the goals were not bad also. Oh, and our security guard was featured in The Straits Times because he was an ardent fan of the team and he even wore a lion’s head mask to support them. Very entertaining =p

Pre-U Sem – glad that it was finally over last week! Had 2 duties and on the second one I was on the night shift so we had to chase many students to bed as I suspected because it was the last night that the kids were staying in the hostel. Overall I’m very thankful that I didn’t have to do too much for the Pre-U Sem. I don’t think any teacher enjoys being involved in this kind of thing and seriously MOE should fork out the money and get external vendors to handle this kind of major thing since it’s done on a yearly basis. It just doesn’t make sense to stress teachers doing this kind of admin work and it’s this kind of admin stuff (and others) that drives some teachers to want to leave the service. Again, I’m quite thankful we are trying to reduce this kind of things in school and hopefully the situation will get even better in due time. Really, my top priority is excellence in teaching (chemistry) and entertainment where possible. Admin work is just not my cup of tea…

Chem gathering – had our chem. unit gathering last weekend and it was great time of BONDING haha. Played FIFA08 on the PS3 and there were 6 controllers, which were more than the number of people who wanted to play haha. Anyway, I didn’t find it as fun as the Winning Eleven series or even FIFA07 cos it just seemed very difficult to dribble and control. Or maybe I’m just too used to the keyboard haha. Food was simple stuff (KFC and Pizza Hut) but the birthday cake was nice, even though I’m not really a fan of chocolate cake. But most important is the company anyway, nice to hang out with the people =)

Ok, time to sleep before waking up to call parents. Urgh, I dread it! Lol, note to self: Maybe I shouldn’t be too hard on myself in future… =)

Lol, it’s been like more than 5 weeks since my last post! Quite a few people have asked me about it in school cos I haven’t blogged in a while and even Jonathan was saying to me the other day that my blog is like a fish out of the water for days – dead. LOL, he sure has a very funny analogy. =P

Anyway, I’ve been really busy the last few weeks with things, especially with preparation for lectures and tutorials and preparing and overseeing the SPA exams and I’m glad that’s over for the term but it’s time to prepare for the one in Term 3, which I hope to get it out of the way ASAP so that I don’t have to think about it for the rest of the holidays. Also have been sick the last few days, hence the delayed post… Forgot quite a lot of stuff that happened and also recalled some that I missed out earlier so here they are… SUPER LONG POST!!!

Earlier in the term I wanted to try out something that I thought of last year, which was to ask the students chemistry questions impromptu, like during morning assembly to reinforce what has been gone through during lectures and tutorials so that hopefully when they think more about the concepts they would remember better. Started off ok in the first few weeks but I think again once things got busy, it also got a bit more difficult to do this. Nevertheless, I’m still very keen on it because I believe it can serve its purpose of improving the students’ results and I shall think about how to make it more structured to improve its usefulness and to document their progress and also to reach out to more students cos each morning I can at most ask a few students if time permits.

Anyway, it was pretty easy to implement this to some extent with my CG since I see them everyday and also 08S201 since they are just beside my CG but difficult with 08S416 so there was once when I was joking with them that they don’t need to be jealous because I will not neglect them. Yihui jokingly told me not to worry because they won’t be jealous and I joked back something like, “I know girls like to say one thing but they always mean the other.” LOL.

Also tried out something new this year for the MCQ questions in the tutorials and I got the inspiration from “我猜我猜我猜猜猜” where the host would ask a question and the guests would have to raise a sign to show their answers. That would be important to me because I want to know everyone’s answers instead of just asking a student for an answer and checking with the other students and also so that it would be easy to see if there are major misconceptions if many students chose a particular distractor as their answer. Also, I thought there would be a fun element since it’s like the gameshow haha. =)

Anyway, I looked around Artfriend in Bras Basah Complex but didn’t see anything suitable to make something similar so I had to think of how to use something else. After some time, it struck me that a few years back I bought some small cards for my English lessons and I had plenty left over so I took them and wrote the options A, B, C, D on different cards of different colours, and generated 24 sets of these cards (cos my largest class size is 24), each set kept in a ziplock bag for easy storage and also so that it could be given out and collected back from the students quickly and easily haha.

When I first introduced it to my classes, they were probably surprised and maybe amused and I was joking with them also when I introduced it cos I said something like, “I know that when I ask questions in class and some of you are chosen, the rest of you are thinking, “Shucks, why didn’t Mr Lau choose me? I could have shown my intelligence!” So now I’m giving you all a chance to do so.” =P Anyway, have used it a couple of times so far (though the last time seemed so long ago) and I feel that it’s useful and also made the lesson more lively since everyone gets a chance to have their say. Of course there will be a few jokers here and there who try to be funny but by and large I thought it was not bad. =)

There was one time during the double-period tutorial with my CG where I noticed that there was something wrong with the clock cos the minute hand was moving 1 minute per second so I looked at the clock and joked, “Hmmm, time flies…” The class looked at the clock and when they realized the problem they all started laughing like crazy and it started a series of time-related jokes. (1) When the clock reached “4.15 pm”, the class claimed that the lesson was over (2) At “5 pm”, somebody said it was time for CCA. (3) At “11 pm”, somebody said it was time to sleep, to which I joked back, “It’s ok, let’s burn the midnight oil together.” (4) When the clock finally went back to the correct timing, somebody said, “Mr Lau, it’s been 1 whole day and we’re still at the first question!” Super funny but good to have a bit of banter over the 2 periods especially at the end of the day otherwise it can be very tiring. =P

There was once with 08S201 when I was so busy and hungry that I bought and brought food into class but I didn’t eat anyway while they were copying the answers though they told me it’s ok. Then dunno why I happened to joke with them that “it’s ok, I may be hungry but you are more important to me”, much to their laughter. =P

Also spent some time recently talking to my kids about their results so far and hopefully knocking some sense into them but maybe this term has been to frenetic for most of them and they have problem coping with work so hopefully they will catch up during the holidays. Plan to call their parents and email them their results this term so that hopefully for those who haven’t been doing well so far they will know how much work there is to be done or else for many of them they won’t do well for the mid-year exams. I guess after one cohort you know much better what the students need to be doing in order to get good grades at the A Levels so I need to push them to get it. Never liked to call parents (maybe cos I never liked the idea of having mine called up haha) but I guess it’s better to take preemptive measures or else it’ll be too late.

Had a rather embarrassing incident when I helped to relieve a colleague’s lesson a few weeks back when I called my student from my first intake by the wrong name inexplicably. Couldn’t understand why cos I could’ve sworn her name was in my head prior to calling her but in the end I called her as Evonne (which happens to be the name of one of my current students) instead of Eunice and I was so shocked when I realized I called her name wrongly. =s

CCA-wise I tried to train some of the students in contract bridge for the CJC tournament and we only managed to squeeze in 3 sessions worth of training, but I don’t think I could’ve done much more. It’s been tiring training people who have never played contract bridge before to do so because their mentality is hard to change and there’s just no strategy in their play so it’s been challenging though I could see improvements during that short time.

Jonathan’s batch was the most enthusiastic and I enjoyed teaching them a lot, maybe also cos it was my first time but to start from zero again the second time round is quite painful cos you need to teach the students all the basics again and there are just too many playing and thinking skills to teach in a short span of time for me. Furthermore, I don’t know whether it’s the lack of passion for playing bridge or whether students nowadays are too used to being spoon-fed or are simply too busy that they don’t take the initiative for themselves to learn more but I know that unless they put in the effort to play more and think critically about their play like I used to, they will never improve on their skills significantly because deep analysis is required to playing good bridge. Anyway, maybe this will be the last time I train students in contract bridge for competition cos I’m considering switching CCA next year – something where I can learn new skills and/or allow me to maximize my talents. After all, CCA for teachers should ideally be something that they can develop life skills also ya? Haha. Time to do some research as to which CCA/CCD to join…  I have something in mind but I also have some reservations so I shall do some surveying first.

Oh yes, recently I was back in action in the LT lecturing “Chemical Equilibrium” and it was fun! Had been looking forward to it for some time and also racked my brains on how to make my lecture more interesting so that the kids will be more engaged and of course clear in my delivery to bring across the concepts in a simple way.

I came up with an idea on improving the escalator analogy I used 2 years ago to make it much more entertaining and clearer and that was to feature myself in the video with a voiceover to explain the analogy hahaha. Shared my idea with Jonathan and we found one Sunday morning to go to Shaw Plaza to try and film although it was a bit difficult cos apparently some people do go there at that time lol. Over lunch we realized that there was something wrong with the filming so after lunch we went to Balestier Plaza instead to try, which was VERY ulu hahaha, perfect for filming. Towards the end of the shoot the security guard went and question Jonathan what he was doing cos he saw him filming the escalator (probably didn’t see me) which you have to agree seems VERY weird by all means. =P

Anyway, the funny part of the video was (1) The fact that I was walking against the direction of the escalator (2) I asked the students if they had ever walked against the direction of escalator and quite a few raised their hands so I joked that they had a good childhood cos that’s the kind of thing you only do as a child or else people would give you weird looks (3) I wore the EXACT SAME CLOTHES during the filming as I would wear during the lecture.

Now why would the third thing be funny? Cos just before showing the video, I showed the kids the lecture slide that there would be a “LIVE” telecast to showcase the escalator analogy and then I walked out of the LT and got my colleague whom I had briefed beforehand to help me play the video once I left. Then I started running up the stairs to the BACK of the LT and waited for the video to end before I sneaked in and got the cordless mike from another colleague and announced my arrival “back from somewhere else”, much to their surprise and amusement LOL. Actually I wanted it to be like in the movie “Jumper”, where apparently the hero could travel from place to place by jumping (though I never watched the movie), and also include scenes of me “jumping” to go Balestier Plaza and then back to MJC in the video but there wasn’t time to film that haha.

Anyway, though a lot of meticulous planning and coordinating went into this little segment, I hope ultimately the students remembered the main concept about the rates of the forward and backward reactions from the start of the reaction to the time dynamic equilibrium is reached and not just remember it for the entertainment value! Also, many thanks to all those who helped out and especially to Jonathan who helped to produce the video! =)

Oh yeah, I was breathing heavily after that little sprint up the stairs so for the next minute after I made my grand entrance back in the LT, I had to catch my breath as I explained, much to the students’ amusement haha. Anyway, I moved on to talk about Kc and I tried to get students whose name had some link to Spongebob Squarepants (SS) to answer questions so I asked if there were any students named Patrick (his trusty sidekick), Thomas, James, and Kenny (cos I found on Wikipedia that the voice of SS is actually this guy called Thomas James Kenny). Anyway, nobody admitted to it, even though I knew there was a Kenny in the group but I thought he happened to be absent so some people saboed this guy called Kenneth who was trying to deny but I just insisted to save time and jokingly said something like, “I don’t care. From now on, you are known as Spongebob. Come down and show how to do this question.” As he started to come down to the front of the LT, I pretended to sound like the narrator in SS and said in a dramatic tone, “And in today’s episode of “Chemical Equilibrium”, our hero Spongebob Squarepants is going to show us how the rates of the forward and backward reactions change for a reversible reaction.” =P

Later on, I asked “Spongebob” who is his good friend, “Patrick”, who turned out to be Peter, a student in my CCA to solve another question and as he was writing the answer I jokingly said that he was “oozing with intelligence”. Then he ticked his own answer and I joked, “Are you SURE that’s correct?” He thought about it for a short while then said yes and I said, “Ok, nothing’s wrong. You know I’m from the IGC so I’m just trying to play MIND games with you.” =P

Finally I called for somebody with the initials KC to answer another question related to Kc cos some of the kids were teasing somebody in the crowd so that was quite entertaining also. All in all I felt good after the lecture cos at least most of the kids seemed to understand the stuff based on their responses to the questions and judging from the comments they gave me later, they were also very entertained so I was heartened to know that. =)

For my second lecture, again I wanted to try something new, this time to clear up a potential misconception that quite a few students tend to have regarding shifts in equilibrium position about temperature so I created PowerPoint slides with animation. Again I thought of doing something really funny, and again I turned to Jonathan for his technical expertise and feedback on my idea. He provided valuable feedback on improving the animation (thanks!) and I had no problem finishing that part but sadly the implementation part didn’t take off cos during my own rehearsal I didn’t foresee one problem so personally I was quite disappointed with the lecture (especially coming off the high of the first one) cos the effort didn’t come off perfectly and also time was very tight so I didn’t have the freedom to do some other funny activities I had in mind to entertain and excite the students. Hopefully I’ll have the chance and time to do those stuff after the mid-year exam!

Attended a colleague’s wedding recently and it was quite interesting as they hired singers and we were allowed to make dedications though some of the dedications I heard were really strange for a wedding and also it was the first time that there was a lucky draw with red packets for 3 lucky guests who had something pasted underneath their seats!

Recently I went out with some of my ex-IGC kids supposedly to Settler’s Café but cos some of them were late, Jonathan, DS and I went to Subway at Central for lunch first before Si Hong arrived and we decided to go play DOTA instead since we missed the earlier happy hour. Haven’t played since last year so it was kinda fun to just enjoy a bit of social gaming. Jonathan had an excellent day by his standards lol and he even took a screenshot at the end of the day to commemorate his achievements haha. =P

After that DS and Si Hong had to go off and we met Liju and Samantha to go to Settler’s Café. We ended up playing this game called “The Pillars of The Earth”, which I felt was a very interesting game with interesting game-play but we all felt that the presenter was very poor and haphazard in his explanation, which is why I always tell my IGC kids that it’s one thing to know how to play a game, but totally different to explain to others cos you can have the most interesting board game but if you are long-winded and unclear in your explanation, most people will tend to lose interest and they can’t experience the fun part of the game.

Went off to Waraku at Central for dinner after that and we had a sumptuous dinner with a nice view of Clarke Quay! Took a stroll around the area with the guidance of DS who rejoined us later on and we watched the expressions of the people taking the G-Max captured on TV before we headed off to City Hall to meet Feng Ling for a drink at Café Cartel. Had a great day overall and looking forward to the next session where hopefully we can get some of them for a game of soccer! =)

Oh yes, one last thing – the group photo with my ex-AISS students was chosen as the winning entry by New York New York at Citylink Mall! Hahaha, I was super amused when Wei Shun messaged me to tell me about it so for those who are curious, check out the website below!

http://www.newyorknewyork.com.sg/

Still have so much to say but I shall save it for my next update at the end of the week!