disappointing newton
Wednesday, August 30, 2006, 10:47 p.m. #1183
The school didn't seem to think we teachers deserve a break on Teachers' Day at all. We had an extremely long (and pointless) staff meeting today, when the deadline for submission of exam papers is tomorrow - meaning many of us are going to burn midnight oil tonight to finish them - well, I've made some private arrangements with my vetter to extend the deadline. But still, I don't think many of my colleagues are going to sleep tonight.
And "those people" didn't even bother to shorten the meeting when our school's choir concert was tonight. Ed, EL, Ben, James (our new member) and I went to support them. Had to rush as the meeting ended very late, and we were late for the concert because of the peak-hour jam. We stayed for the first half, then decided that choir wasn't our cup of tea, and adjourned to Newton Circus for supper.
Haven't been there since its revamp. It seems I haven't been missing much. The food there is terrible now. (To be fair, the food there wasn't very impressive before the revamp anyway.) Many stalls, yes, but all selling the same stuff - and the quality is truly embarassing. If tourists mistakenly think that's standard Singaporean food, then that's quite a disgrace.
imagine
Wednesday, August 30, 2006, 07:05 a.m. #1182
An imagination is a powerful tool. It can tint memories of the past, shade perceptions of the present, or paint a future so vivid that it can entice... or terrify, all depending upon how we conduct ourselves today...
From an uncharacteristically depressing Garfield comics strip, highlighted by Kakee.
pluto, pizzas and nachos
Monday, August 28, 2006, 06:42 p.m. #1181
Yep, Pluto is no longer a planet. Within a couple of days, the mnemonic "My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" has been modified to become "My Very Energetic Mother Just Served Us Nachos", "My Very Educated Mother Just Screamed Utter Nonsense", and even "My Very Exotic Mistress Just Showed Up Nude". Everyone seems so ready to leave out something which not many people know much about. After all it isn't all that important whether Pluto is a 'planet' or just a 'dwarf planet', eh? These are after all just superficial titles, eh? I wonder how Pluto (not the Disney one) would feel if it had feelings...
《祝福了》- 何志健
长长的路 长长的走着
走了多久 已不记得
路过的人 是什么角色
想了很久 我已经累了
最初的 最近的 执着呢
不是说好了 说好的
怎么转了个身还是变了
说真的 快乐不快乐 又如何
这不是你的 是我的
到后来也不会是永远的
路还是要走的
不管天气是怎样的 风景如何
路总是要走的
哪管明天将会如何 祝福了
one hour photo
Sunday, August 27, 2006, 07:13 p.m. #1180
If pictures have anything to say, it's this : I was here, I existed, I was young and happy, and someone cared enough about me to take my picture...
Spent half the day finishing up one exam paper (finally), chatted with an equally stressed ZL over the phone, then watched One Hour Photo (2002) - a little-known film starring Robin Williams, about a "one-hour-photo guy" who had no real life of his own, and he was so desperately lonely that he decided to immerse himself in the happy life of one of his loyal customers (as depicted in her photos). And the story took a turn when he realised that the husband was having an affair... I especially loved the score - very haunting and quietly chilling - shall get hold of the CD soon. And I recommend this film, for anyone who feels like watching a melancholic thriller.
Family photos depict smiling faces, births, weddings, holidays, children's birthday parties... People take pictures of the happy moments in their lives. Someone looking through our photo album would conclude that we had led a joyous, leisurely existence free of tragedy. No one ever takes a photograph of something they want to forget...
amazing grace
Sunday, August 27, 2006, 01:10 a.m. #1179
Last Sunday I commented about how time flies. And now I have to say this again. Time flies, and it is still flying.
It's been an extremely busy week and it's going to get worse still. Deadlines for exam papers, holistic report cards (HRC), reflective portfolios (RP), etc will be drowning us teachers for the coming weeks although Teachers' Day is in the next week. (Oh yes, and we still have to find time to rehearse for our performance next week.) Just finished two-thirds of one exam paper. Am supposed to set three papers. Haven't started on HRC and RP. I really wonder how I am going to meet the deadline. *Looks to the sky wistfully*
Met up with Maverick, Gary and the rest at KFC today as they requested for extra lessons to make up for the lessons that they missed during their basketball tournament. Was so glad that they bothered to arrange a remedial that I put down my work and agreed to spend three hours with them. Thought it was fruitful time spent as they were very attentive...
Last Friday, our Public Engagement team went to a primary school with a large team of student ambassadors to promote our secondary school. Our school's effort stood out from the other schools' and our students really did us proud - the scouts' percussion band made a great impression at the canteen, and our circus arts attracted huge crowds. I presented some magic tricks and the ambassadors performed a memorable "peace... calm..." skit too. We were apparently so popular and charming that some of the primary kids asked a few of our ambassadors to be their boy/girl-friends. Hohoho.
But our enthusiasm invited a bit of jealousy from one school, where the teacher sourly told the primary school kids with a straight face that her school has everything that we have and even MORE. And she said that right in front of us. How ungracious, unprofessional and undiplomatic. Our ambassadors initially wanted to hit back but we teacher stopped them and told them that we need not be as petty as her. It's good in the way that the teacher did it, as she made our students even more passionate about selling our school after that when they were allowed to mingle with the primary school children.
That day ended with the cheers of our zealous ambassadors beaming with pride and joy. Then Ed, EL, ZL and I went to attend our keyboard lesson, had a self-rewarding dinner at Imperial Treasure and had our final shopping before the impending weeks (which are going to be worse).
the magic arrow
Friday, August 25, 2006, 01:19 p.m. #1178
Will be going to a primary school later to promote the school, and I was informed a few minutes ago that I'll be in charge of conducting the ice-breaking session with those primary school kids. Was given some powerpoint slides which I've not seen before - and they had to do with some magic tricks. Had to figure out the tricks myself and present them convincingly later. Grr. Simply hate such last-minute arrows. It's just unfair that I have to panic and rush because of some other people's lack of planning.
much ado about the fringe
Monday, August 21, 2006, 07:02 p.m. #1177
A student's mother called me in the office when I was in class, so the clerk left a note telling me that one parent had URGENT matters to discuss with me. Called back, and this is an excerpt of the conversation:
Me: Good afternoon, Mrs S, I'm S's form teacher...What more can I say when a parent is so madly defensive of her child?
Her: Oh, Mr Tan ah? I want to complain about something. You know one teacher actually went to cut S's hair?
Me: Oh? I am not aware of it.
Her: Ya, that teacher go and cut S's hair. I mean, I can always let S go to a salon and let her get a proper haircut right? How can a teacher go and cut her hair until so ugly?
Me: Did the teacher cut a lot of her hair? May I know who that teacher is?
Her: That teacher cut her fringe only, but that is still not right mah... I also don't know that teacher's name.
Me: I'm sure the teacher has reasons for cutting S's fringe. Our school does not allow a fringe that goes beyond the eyes. If she has such a long fringe, she can keep the fringe as long as she pins it up. If she refuses to pin it up, then she has to get a haircut. The teacher will usually allow some time for the student to get a haircut.
Her: Pin it up? How can? Then S will look like a siao zha bor leh! Ya, the teacher did warn her and give her some time to cut her hair la. But still, how can the teacher just cut a student's hair like that? I don't think there's anything wrong with keeping a fringe. Fringe mah, of course must be long, or else will look like an idiot right?
Me: Keeping a fringe short and neat has safety and hygiene reasons. And we are not asking for too much - as long as the fringe does not cover the student's eyes during lesson, no teacher will find fault with that. If the student refuses to heed a teacher's advice to either get a haircut or pin up the hair, then that leaves us with no choice but to cut the hair ourselves.
Her: Okay... The hair matter is still okay, because I got S to go to salon to trim already, but the teacher also said that S dyed her hair, which is not true! Her natural hair colour is like that! Last time when I was pregnant with S, my hair was always dyed with different colours mah, so she also has such brown hair now. (I seriously doubt the scientific accuracy of that statement but I just kept quiet - I think she forgot that I am a SCIENCE teacher.)
Me: Oh, okay, her hair is indeed a little brown - so that is her natural hair colour. I will take note of it.
time
Sunday, August 20, 2006, 09:11 p.m. #1176
The past week has been horrible, having conducted and marked 10 class tests. The following weeks will be worse, with exam-paper deadlines drawing near, and not much time to spare (BHCO is going to start having string practices on Sunday afternoons - argh).
Amazed by how a day flew by so quickly. Went for orchestral practice in the morning, set a few exam questions, got bored and watched The King and the Clown (which was all right but not as good as I'd anticipated), read the week's newspapers, practised a bit of violin, and the day is almost over. If only weekends can be longer...
The mrbrown episode is mentioned again in PM's Rally right now. Fine, he's done wrong. But can't they just let the matter rest and leave him alone? Sigh.
certified healthy
Saturday, August 19, 2006, 08:43 p.m. #1175
Finally received the results of my body checkup at Raffles by mail. The report contained only numbers and reference ranges, but didn't mention the significance of each number - apparently I still have to pay for consultation if I need a doctor to analyse the results for me. So I went online to check for myself the meanings of triglyceride, albumin, GGT, etc... And the conclusion is, I am healthier than a normal, healthy person. Just like past years, my fats level is insanely low, but it's not so low as to suggest malnutrition yet. Which means I can still continue to indulge in zhu you zha! Yay!
P.S. Received a late birthday present from Jwei by snail mail today. Like it a lot. Thanks!
hero
Thursday, August 17, 2006, 04:45 p.m. #1174
This must have been the most "exciting" day of my teaching life. Moments ago, I received a call from my student saying that she was doing a group project with many others at Mac when suddenly the boyfriend of A appeared, pulled A out of the group and went off with her. A few guys from the project group has gone to follow the couple from a distance. (All the above students, with the exception of that "violent guy", were from my form class. That "violent guy" was from another school.) Luckily I was still in school, and they were in the vicinity. Went over to where the students were, went around the housing estate to look for the couple, found them, and I went to talk to the "violent guy" in the presence of A. Sat down at the void deck and tried to sort out their problems in a civilised manner. Apparently that guy threatened A that if she didn't see him, he's going to send out his gang to beat up some other innocent guy - it's a complicated story which I shall not divulge too much here anyway. Eventually chased the guy to the busstop and got A back together with her classmates.
Wow. I'm a hero today. Haha.
grateful
Thursday, August 17, 2006, 03:10 p.m. #1173
Yesterday's birthday wasn't that lonely afterall. Had a great dinner at Ma Maison with Ed and gang before going for keyboard lesson. And this morning, my angel (we have this angel-mortal game going on as one of the pre-Teachers' Day activities) left a bah kwa sandwich on my table - very sweet and just nice as I didn't have time for breakfast.
Thanks to the following for your thoughtful birthday messages sent over phonecall, sms, email, MSN, Friendster or tagboard: Jwei, Chris, Szhen, Jjia, Yyun, Ryun, Kel, Hming, Jane, Yhao, Jwen, Tkiat, May, Damien, Wying, Winnie, Hchang, Naemah, Fel, Zpei, Kxin, Pming, Zwang, Jyi, Jqi, Bwood, Mer, Wkeat and Shua. Some of them are my very old friends, some are my ex-students, and one of them is the elder sister of my student (and I've never met her before - so surprised to receive her email). Once again, THANKS! :)
birthday
Wednesday, August 16, 2006, 02:13 p.m. #1172
My birthday today. Can't say I'm very happy as I'm getting O-L-D-E-R. Sigh. Won't have time to celebrate today as it's a long teaching day, followed by CCA, video-shoots (for school corporate video) and keyboard lesson. By the time I reach home, even my family members would be sleeping already. So this is going to be one lonely birthday for me. But I can't complain much. After all, those great friends of mine have celebrated with me over the last two weekends - thanks!
Some of my students actually remembered my birthday (and they spread the news so well that even students that I didn't teach knew about my birthday). My form class bought me a huge chocolate ice-cream cake with kiwis on it (they found out that I like kiwis - although they ended up eating the kiwis themselves, haha). Got a variety of gifts too. Clinton and Nabillah gave me a very nice handphone pouch with lanyard. Tse Ching, Jiamin, Liqi, Charmaine and Jared gave me 5 red pens (each of a different brand) and an ice-cream stick with my name inscribed. Hanna, Liyana, Azri, Dhabitah, Maisara and Ashurah gave me a handmade card with personal messages and a lovely poem (see below). Benjamin and Yiming gave me a packet of chrysanthemum tea (haha). 2E5, 3E3 and the EC also sang me a birthday song in class.
Here's the sweet little poem written by Hanna:
Thank you for always being there
And showing us that you have always cared
You've made us happy when we were down
And never once made us frown
Without you, we would have never done good
In a subject we barely understood
Thank you for lighting up our days
In more than a million ways
forbidden
Tuesday, August 15, 2006, 07:12 a.m. #1171
Tried accessing LJ from office just now and I got this error message: Forbidden. Access denied by BlueCoat WebFilter content category. The requested URL belongs to the following category: Adult/Mature Content. Argh. So now blogs belong to the adult category. And MOE doesn't believe that we are adults. -_-
portraits
Monday, August 14, 2006, 07:53 p.m. #1170
Celebrated mine and Kel's birthday yesterday with JJ, JQ, ZQ, XQ and YX at Curry Favor (Stamford House) and TCC (SMU). Marvelled at the extravangance of SMU - airconditioned walkways, airconditioned and WIDE empty spaces, airconditioned mini-mall (includes several 7-Eleven's, Watsons, Kopitiam, and even optical and body wellness shops and TOUR AGENCIES)... Also had a cornily great time getting JQ to agree with my "indecent proposals", and she got so irritated that she splashed water on me. Oooh... never EVER incur the wrath of women eh? Haha...
Stayed back with a few students from my form class today to decorate the classroom as part of the "Spruce Up the Classroom Competition", and they thought of laying out roads all around the classroom with roadsigns that bore their names. They even drew a protrait of me (and a Mrs Tan) and pasted it at one corner of the classroom.
And here is one totally unrelated picture, taken at the lab, which looked like an advertisement: Use Eveready batteries! They last for 26 hours!
nice day nice week
Saturday, August 12, 2006, 01:41 a.m. #1169
After helping my class with the class decorations, Ed, ZL, Cat, EL, CC (our new member) and me went to 燕青私房菜 near Fifth Avenue to celebrate mine and Cat's birthday (we are born on the same day). The food was good, but very expensive. Was already bloated and extremely satisfied when we adjourned for Venezia Gelato ice-creams at Guthrie House, but I just couldn't resist the temptations of Belgium chocolate and lemon sorbet. Then went to play pool at Yishun Billiard Room until minutes ago, and realised I'm still hopeless in it after all these years. Haha.
This has been a very nice week, with only two working days, and the other three days were spent in a holiday mood - there was still work to be done yet everybody just took it easy and remained in the first gear. If only that's how a normal teaching week is like... But good times seldom last - next week is going to be hellish, wish me good luck.
a treat and a gift
Friday, August 11, 2006, 02:23 p.m. #1168
The girl dancers gave a pizza treat to the guy dancers and me today for lunch. So nice of them right? Hope the guys give a treat to the girls as well and the "treating trend" goes on. Haha.
Received the second early birthday gift today, and it's a very stylish FX-Creations bag! The person who gave me the bag told me that she couldn't stand seeing me carry "mediocre" bags that didn't suit a stylish person like me. Hahaha!... Argh, shouldn't have spent on the Adidas bag two weeks ago if I'd known I'd be getting this.
happy national day
Wednesday, August 9, 2006, 08:44 a.m. #1167
Yesterday's National Day celebration has been great. I could see that the kids really enjoyed themselves. After all, there're only a few chances in a year for the kids to totally let go and do the Kallang waves and scream and cheer and not get scolded by teachers for being rowdy. They sang the national songs loudly, responded enthusiastically to the national dress and dance competitions, and cheered for Singapore's 41st birthday. I was almost moved to tears by the rapturous and positive spirit in the hall, especially when the whole hall reverberated with the jubilant songs and cheers... And I will sing a song of home, a land of peace where dreams are born every day. My home, wherever I may be, I believe you will always be a part of me...
My class got 2nd for the National Day dance competition and I was really happy for them. I have never seen them put in so much effort in anything before - they mixed a few pieces of music by themselves, took the initiative to meet up on Saturday to practise the dance (and none of them complained), and seized every available free time in school to improve on their dance steps. Although two weeks were scarcely enough for any high-standard preparations, the kids did amazingly well during the competition. There was one part where they had to take off their national costumes and line up to show the words 'Happy National Day' on their inner T-shirts. One of the boys, Maverick, had a lot of difficulty getting the costume off his head and struggled frantically onstage when the other dancers have already lined up. That provided a lot of comic relief and the whole hall laughed - I think the hiccup could have added some marks to the final score. :)
Gave the kids a treat at Swensens after the win, and we had a very memorable lunch there. There was this auntie who was very impressed by our dress code as all of us were in red, and she kept talking to us and asking us whether we wanted to take photos. Before she left, she still offered to take one last photo for us. Exchanged a few stories and class gossips with the kids. And the kids chorused "Thank you, Mr Tan" three times throughout the course of the lunch in front of so many people. Very embarassing, but sweet. :)
Met up with Ed, Cat, ZL and EL after the lunch and spent the whole afternoon at Settler's Inn. Didn't expect to be addicted to one game throughout the whole gaming session, so I simply have to recommend this game - Cranium. In the game, you have to draw, sculpt, act and hum tunes for your team members to guess the answer. The team also has to work collaboratively to unscramble letters and answer factual questions. Learnt that blondes have more hair than other darker-haired people (black, brown, red, etc), and the letters of 'William Shakespeare' can be rearranged to become 'I am a weakish speller'... Below is a 'voodoo doll' which my friend was desperately trying to sculpt.
And the day ended with my violin lesson. Michelle was back, after months of complications with her newborn baby. Really happy to hear that everything is now fine. What a very perfect day.
gory stories
Saturday, August 5, 2006, 05:52 p.m. #1166
Heard a few horror stories about Raffles Medical Clinic before I went for my annual body check-up today. This was the first time I registered with Raffles - NKF did it for me for free for the past few years but this year MOE recommended Raffles instead. My colleague had her check-up a week ago. In order to get her blood samples, she was "poked" three times. First, her left arm was poked, but no blood came out; then her right arm was poked, still no blood came out; then her left arm was poked again at a new place and she was asked to squeeze hard, this time blood came out smoothly, so smoothly that blood oozed out from her first hole and the nurse asked whether she wanted to have other tests as well since she drew out more than sufficient blood. My colleague was horrified after the experience. Another colleague of mine had a blueblack mark after her blood was taken.
Luckily my experience wasn't that bad. The needle only felt like a prick and my blood was taken successfully without hiccups. Phew.
P.S. Got my first early birthday gift today. Thanks JY!
battlefield tour
Friday, August 4, 2006, 09:42 p.m. #1165
It's one tour after another. Went on a Battlefield Tour yesterday with my form class and went to several places around Singapore - The Changi Chapel, The War Museum, The Battle Box (Fort Canning) and Kranji Memorial. Most of the kids behaved well, but a few of them really disgraced themselves by running around and making so much noise at those solemn places. Many of them felt deeply at the Kranji Memorial, where they saw the tombs of our warriors who died at around their age...
herbs & spices tour
Wednesday, August 2, 2006, 08:12 p.m. #1164
Aren't the pictures beautiful? Brought my EC kids on a Herbs & Spices Tour today at the Botanic Gardens. After a long day of teaching, strolling in the garden and learning about various herbs and spices can be really exhilarating. And we saw black swans at the Eco-lake! One of the students commented that she felt like she was walking in Australia... Really, there are so many places in Singapore that are so beautiful. Sometimes we are too eager to get out of the country, but have we ever taken the time to appreciate these wonderful places in our own homeland? *Patriotic mood*
the dance
Wednesday, August 2, 2006, 10:01 a.m. #1163
We had the auditions for the National Day dance competition yesterday and my class passed it. The kids then volunteered to stay back in the music room to practise the dance, and I joined them in the dance too. Yep, I'm quite stiff, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Shux, who was one of the judges for the audition, commented that my class has changed a lot since last year, when they used to be very segregated and passive (she taught them last year). She said that it could have been because I'm their form teacher this year. Felt very flattered that someone thinks I have positively influenced my students.
Only stopped our practice when it was evening, and treated the group of seven to some drinks at the Mart. Was really glad to see all of them enjoying themselves and being so enthusiastic about the dance, especially the guys, who used to be extremely resistant about dancing. Hope their efforts will pay off! (Well, even if they do not win, I'm sure the experience and laughters will be an invaluable piece of memory for them. :) )