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penniless WE|300305|1750|754 So malu! At lunch when I was going to pay for my noodles, I realised my wallet was empty! (I think I spent all my money last night buying Hershey's chocolates for 4T1.) There were a few of my students standing around who offered to pay for me but I rejected their kindness. Apologised profusely to the auntie, dug out all my coins but I still owed 10 cents. Promised her I'll pay tomorrow. Haha, so paiseh. Took my EC members to the library to watch the video which I recorded on Iris Li, the young environmentalist. Got them to write a reflection on the show, and all of them responded very positively, saying things like she was very inspiring and they would want to be like her. I sure hope one of them would grow up to be like Iris Li - someone who believes in her interests and ignores the pessimism around her. Cos I was in the library, I was waylaid by my students who were doing their work there. They asked me about their schoolwork, so I ended up leaving late after my EC. Helped May with Combinations and Permutations, helped Dickson with his Music assignment to write a D minor melody, helped Kenny with Quadratic Functions... It feels good to be of help (although none of these are what I teach - I teach Science!) and I would really love to linger around the library for anyone who needs help, but I am just too busy to do this regularly. |
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wordplay WE|300305|0745|753 Interesting words in the recent issues of Wordsmith: antanaclasis (ant-an-uh-KLAS-is) noun A play on words in which a key word is repeated in a different, often contrary, sense. [From Greek antanaklasis (echo or reflection), from anti- (against) + ana- + klasis (breaking or bending).] Some examples of antanaclasis: Your argument is sound, nothing but sound.paralipsis (par-uh-LIP-sis) noun, plural paralipses (-seez) Drawing attention to something while claiming to be passing over it. [From Late Latin paralipsis, from Greek paraleipsis (an omission), from paraleipein (to leave on one side), from para- (side) + leipein (to leave).] Paralipsis is especially handy in politics to point out an opponent's faults. It typically involves these phrases: "not to mention" |
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too close for comfort TU|290305|2240|752 Deadline for submission of midyear exam papers is next Monday! While my peers have only around two papers to set, I have FIVE. Completed three, so I still have two left. But I'm staying back after school almost every day for extra-curricula activities (Monday Project Work, Tuesday Contact Time, Wednesday CCA, Thursday Lab), by the time I reach home I really have no more energy to set quality papers. Shall have to wait till Friday... which is so close to the deadline that it makes me feel very insecure. Quite surprised and slightly touched to find this on one of my students' blog: Hope Mr Tan W S is doing fine... He's always so busy... Hope he's doing fine... |
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colours by the bay MO|280305|2347|751 Just came back from a farewell dinner for Guowei at Thai Express in Colours by the Bay. Chris, Willy, Summer, Lijun, Baxiang and me gave Guowei a webcam before he leaves for Chengdu to work as a project manager one week later. He will be working there for at least one and a half year, so the webcam was meant for him and Lijun to "hold their candlelight dinners online". And Willy and Summer are going to ROM in May after knowing for 17 months! That didn't come as a big surprise cos they've been extremely lovey dovey all along, and I've always thought that they're one of the sweetest couple I've ever seen. (Summer is Willy's first girlfriend - how romantic, huh?) Junming has gone into hiding and didn't turn up as usual - because he's the only one among us who has neither finished his thesis nor found a job after all these years - yet he's the most proud and brightest of us all. None of us would actually tease him for his predicament, but I guess he's shunning everyone just to avoid having to explain himself... Hope he wakes up from his self-deprecating slumber soon. Sigh. |
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kikyou's theme MO|280305|1745|750 You will love the song even more if you know the tragic story of Kikyou... She's a holy priestess who fell in love with the half-demon Inuyasha. Due to an evil plot of Naraku (out of jealousy), Kikyou was murdered and she died thinking that Inuyasha betrayed her in order to steal her "shikon no tama", which was a gem that could tranform a half-demon into a full-demon. After she died, she was resurrected by an evil witch. But because she was soul-less, she had to feed on the souls of dead people in order to survive (note the irony - she used to be a holy priestess, yet now she had to resort to such dirty means to survive). Throughout the series, she wandered around, helping people when she could, but she was always ALONE... The theme is full of resignated loneliness, isn't it? |
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unresolved endings SU|270305|1849|749 Finished watching The Godfather trilogy and the 167-episode Inuyasha anime series. Quite disappointed that it's an open ending: Naraku is still not defeated, the last shikon shards still remain in Kouga and Kohaku, Kohaku regains his memory fully, Kagura's betrayal has been exposed, and there're more complications towards the end: besides the mind-reading Hakudoushi, a new human-like demon Mouryoumaru has been created to protect Naraku's heart in Akago together with Kanna, and Kikyou is revived with two new cute little girls Asuka and Kouchou to accompany her... Hmm. I'm getting a bit too fanatic over the series, huh? |
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14 herbivores FR|250305|2339|748 Spent the day setting Papers 1 and 3 of the Sec 4 Normal Tech Science midyear exam. Had a break in the afternoon when I attended Xiangbin's wedding lunch at Outram's آجامام vegetarian restaurant. The food there was good and the place was very quiet - there weren't many patrons around even though today's Good Friday. The only complaint about the place was that the aircon wasn't powerful enough. Luckily I had a fan right beside me.
Table #1: Xiangbin, Xiaohui (his wife), Yunfeng, Youxia, Zhiqiang, Suqing, Zewang,Yingjie. |
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hype! TH|240305|2149|747 Finally watched Hype! for the second time after ten years. Watched it the first time at a film festival and instantly loved it cos it's a documentary film about grunge music and I was crazy about grunge at that time. Tried searching for its VHS (VCD and DVD were either not common or non-existent at that time) but could only find its soundtrack - that became one of my most prized possession (it still is). When I found out that the film has been released on DVD recently, I got the DVD immediately. Watching the film for the second time was like reliving an old dream - watching people who enjoyed making their own music and didn't care whether the world liked them... Nirvana, Mudhoney, The Mono Men, Screaming Trees, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Supersuckers... I guess not many people remember these names now.
54/40 |
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roamer to the rescue WE|230305|1846|746 This week passed so quickly - too quickly to be of comfort - tomorrow is the last day of the work week, and the deadlines are approaching closer with each passing week. Hmm. There was high drama yesterday during the departmental meeting. I was the Hero of the Day - not that I'm proud of it, I merely spoke my mind and after the incident I thought it was quite silly of me to speak so bluntly at a higher authority - but what's done is done, and I don't regret it. What happened was, Ms T kept harping on the fact that the class 3E1 (which she is teaching now) did not know what a conical flask is. 3E1 students already told me in January about how cross she was and the big fuss that she kicked up in class when they couldn't draw a conical flask. Then I heard from Daniel and Mariamah (the lower secondary teachers) that Ms T complained to them that they haven't been teaching the lower secondary students well, or else the students couldn't have not known such basic things... I can't imagine how someone can actually use such a trivial matter (simply, the ignorance about conical flasks) to extrapolate and generalise that the lower secodanry teachers are not doing their job. When Ms T brought this up again in the meeting, I was so put off that I spoke up for those teachers - told her in an as-calm-as-I-could tone that she shouldn't blame the earlier teachers all the time, and that she should focus her energy on enlightening the students TODAY and not indulge in meaningless finger-pointing about YESTERDAY. Moreover, students were only taught about conical flasks briefly in Sec 1. Having totally no more exposure about conical flasks in Sec 2, it's quite inevitable for them to forget. I felt it should be the duty of the Sec 3 teacher (in this case, Ms T herself) who should help the students recall. She should not use this feeble example to establish that lower secondary teachers are incompetent. After the incident, all the teachers came to pat my back and give me the thumbs up. Daniel and Mariamah, especially, thanked me for saying those things which they always wanted to say but never dared to say all these years. I didn't think what I did was commendable - it's actually very silly cos I know Ms T WILL remember this and she can easily seek her sweet revenge in subtle ways. But I just did what I felt like doing at that time. Couldn't be bothered with the consequences. Ha. P.S. Although I keep complaining about Ms T, I have to say that she IS a good teacher. Just that as a HOD, she tends to focus on the negative things and forgets to praise more often. Even when a teacher does a good job, she doesn't mention a single bit about it and instead say that he/she has not contributed more on other aspects. She also seldom spends time to build relationships with the teachers in her department. There was one teacher (whom I shall not name) who singlehandedly brought up the grades dramatically for last year's O levels, yet Ms T didn't say a word of praise, but told the teacher that he/she did not contribute at all to the department as he/she didn't take charge of any innovative projects last year. The teacher was greatly hurt by her comments. To conclude, Ms T should seriously rethink about her leadership style. |
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carry on, carrion MO|210305|2038|745 Church On White Stephen Malkmus Bleed the pot When you're hot you're hot And when enough's enough Do the fakers drop out? Promise me You will always be Too awake to be famous Too wired to be safe But all you really wanted Was everything Plus everything and the truth I only poured you half a lie Carry on It's a marathon Take me off the list I don't want to be missed Carrion It's what we all become From small minds and tall trees Away from the action But all you ever wanted Was everything And everything plus the truth I only poured you half a lie |
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the keybearer MO|210305|2001|744 First day of Term 2. The staff room wasn't opened until 7 am. Kevin was the one holding the keys as he loaned out the keys and locked the room last week after his NCC camp, but he forgot about it. Fortunately Kevin has always been a nice guy all along, so nobody really blamed him. But it was quite an unusual sight in the morning, with teachers standing outside the staff room (Mr Lokman was the earliest at 6.30 am) and a bunch of Band members hanging around cos they needed some keys inside the staff room to access the music room in order to get their instruments to play the national anthem for flag-raising. Actually the teachers didn't mind if the door couldn't be opened the whole day... Oh well. |
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the believe FR|180305|1117|743 The workweek ended with a rather successful full-day SAIL cluster training today. No major hiccups. All of us presented our parts well and everyone was happy. Happy. But probably tired as well. We conducted lab sessions for the graduating classes on Monday and Tuesday, I then went to TN to attend a course on Physics Fun Paraphernalia on Monday afternoon, then we had a full-day workshop yesterday on Innovation Protocol. To conclude, holidays aren't meant for teachers. Glad that a still-passionate teacher who has quit spoke up on the ST Forum yesterday: The truth is, teachers are no saints. They have only 24 hours a day just like any one of us, yet their responsibilities and duties are so demanding that their family life and their physical and emotional health are sometimes compromised. And I believe that, at the end of the day, teachers who left did so not because they stopped believing in what they did but rather they believed in it so strongly that they did not think they could accomplish all that without making any compromise in the other areas of their lives. Such is a sentiment that not many non-teachers can identify with... We simply do too many 'invisible' things to help our students on top of our normal workload of dealing with students, superiors and parents, and organising school events, CCA and enrichment. Yet these things are usually 'invisible' to the public, or even our students and superiors. After doing all these work, we may not even yield results or gain the littlest sign of recognition or acknowledgement. But most of us still push on, because - as corny as it may sound - we believe. |
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heartening hellos TH|170305|1756|742 Mr Tan! I passed my first Chemistry test! Cher! I fail my A Maths test leh, how?Whenever I hear my ex-2e1 students telling me these when I pass by their classrooms, I always feel brightened up. Happy that they still report their progress to me (this shows that they still remember me) and that they value their studies (or else they won't bother about their marks). Just received some positive comments from June saying that Yanhao, an ex-2e1 boy, has "woken up" this year - he was one of those who escaped from dropping to Normal Academic because he only failed by a few decimal points. Glad that he has matured and found his direction. Hope he continues this way. :)Mr Tan! My Maths improve le! |
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your god hates me WE|160305|0928|741 1926 Thalia Zedek I saw you're older You looked like Death had been at your face Another cigarette almost done When the morning first breaks Too many people Too many people know your first name I'm just one And after a while I can't bring myself to say it Be sure you notice always what you're eating Be sure you notice always what you're eating New York night, 1926 Did I look different? You starve your telephone Now your servants can't bring you messages The open fields Where people call up to no reply You can't help it If you get out of bed you might meet a spy We used to be lovers a long time ago We used to be lovers a long time ago Your god hates me He can't feel my flesh He leaves me panting like a dog At the edge of your bed Your god hates me Your god hates me Your god hates me Your god hates me Your god hates me |
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russian melancholy TU|150305|2153|740 Saw a little boy in taekwondo outfit trying to grab his mother's wrist and wrestle with her when she was holding his hand. The mom didn't know whether to keep on holding him or to let go, eventually she stopped and playfully grabbed the boy by his wrist where he couldn't grab her back... Couldn't help smiling when I saw this rather warm and amusing scene. Attended the aural training conducted by Helena. Actually fell in love with a melancholic Russian piece when she only played a very short section on the piano. She said it's by someone called Ribekov (or Rybakov?) and she didn't have the name of that piece, but she guessed that the piece could be linked with death as Russia had a sorrowful history. Shall keep a lookout to see if I can find the full piece. Sis has been diagnosed with SLE and hospitalised at TTSH. We received a guidebook for SLE from the Lupus Association. It's apparently a disease of unknown cause. Here is an extract: Lupus is a disease with many different faces, so much so that the first few attacks are sometimes diagnosed as other diseases. It may occur as an acute and severe illness or grumble on undiagnosed for many years. My sister had ALL the above symptoms for many months! How come all the doctors that we've seen did not even SUSPECT that it could be SLE, until we sent her to TTSH? No wonder she has been having come-and-go spotty rashes, no wonder she feels spasms at her fingertips, no wonder she always feels lethargic and at times can't even lift a spoon, no wonder she has been complaining of seeing "things" in her room (when brain tissues are affected, the patient can get hallucinations)! As if my mom's illness is not enough, now my sis has to suffer too! I wonder what we've done to deserve these. |
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smooth-sailing rehearsal SU|130305|1952|739 Yesterday we had a rehearsal for the SAIL cluster training that we're going to conduct for 11 East zone schools on Friday. I am the overall in-charge, so the pressure is quite high. Luckily my team (the Science teachers) has been very cooperative, no one complained about how I allocated their work and they did their own preparations prior to the rehearsal - without them I couldn't possibly manage on my own. Am keeping my fingers crossed for this Friday - hopefully nothing goes wrong. Besides the cluster training, I will also be presenting the gist of SAIL to principals of the East zone two weeks later, together with Azman and Eileen. Hope I won't fumble. After the rehearsal, Basheer, Sakinah, Eileen, Gek Hong and I went to Sakura for lunch and talked about Ms T, teaching, and our future plans. Shall not divulge too much here, but let's just say most of us are not very happy with Ms T. Went back to school after lunch for the parent-teacher dialogue, where I spoke to parents of my form class 4E2. Most of the parents who attended the session were those of more disciplined students, while those whom we teachers really wanted to see (parents of students who are too relaxed about studies) were absent. Hmm. Wonder how effective such dialogue sessions can be. This morning has been very fruitful. Finished the powerpoint slides for Innowits (an interview with a motivated student) and the SAIL presentation for principals. Also started watching Romance of Three Kingdoms - borrowed the set of VCDs from the Chinese department. A really impressive Chinese production. |
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of urethra, vagina and anus TH|100305|1531|738 Today my trainee teacher showed 2E1 the models of the male and female reproductive systems. When she was teaching one group of students using the models, I went over and asked a question to see if the students could answer, "Where does urine come out from a female's body?" A girl answered, "The vagina." I didn't blame her as this was a common misconception (even among adults), but what was more alarming was the answer that the trainee teacher gave when she corrected the student, "Of course not! Urine comes out from the anus!" I was quite shocked because she was a Biology major and I couldn't believe that for twenty years of her life she has always thought that urine came out from her anus! What if I hadn't asked the question? Then she may be miseducating her students for the rest of her life and she'll never find out she's wrong until her husband corrects her (or, worse still, if her husband doesn't know as well... erm)! After I've corrected her, she looked quite puzzled and slightly embarassed, and then she asked me quietly, "So... there are three holes actually ah?" By the way, for a female, urine comes out from the urethra, which is the first "outlet" in front. Following that is the vagina, where all the reproductive activities take place. Then the anus, where faeces are excreted. For a male, urine has the same "outlet" as sperms (through the urethra of the penis). Followed by the anus at the back. That's why I feel this chapter is so important... It's the most relevant out of all science topics - you can be ignorant about reflection and refraction but you can't be ignorant about sex! Last year when I taught this chapter, I transformed into a "sex guru" and spent extra time and tried my best to answer EVERY SINGLE QUESTION (unless the question was pornographic) as I wanted to clear the doubts of curious boys and girls when they're just starting to experience puberty and major physical changes. It's as if I was teaching them life skills that they'll definitely apply next time (even though most of these 'skills' are out of syllabus). And I felt that if the students missed this chance of clarifying their doubts, their questions would be left unanswered as they'd most probably not find out by themselves later on (given our conservative society), and any misconceptions would remain hidden until problem arises. Too bad I have to let that trainee teacher teach the chapter. Argh. Missed my second try at becoming the sex guru. ;) |
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life's greatest miracle WE|090305|1909|737 Downloaded all 8 chapters of Life's Greatest Miracle - a NOVA documentary detailing the whole process of how a baby is created. The beautifully-shot documentary tells the story in a very engaging manner, starting from the production of sperms and ova to the actual birthing process (yes, the ACTUAL birthing process, no censors). I was so touched by the scene when the baby's head pop out of the mother that I cried. The moment was so wondrous and magical!... The videos are legally free to download! You can watch it by clicking HERE. Also downloaded the infamous The Silent Scream which I watched during my secondary school days and had nightmares after that over the graphic abortion scenes. It's also legally free to download. You may click HERE to watch too. |
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generation next WE|090305|1854|736 Tharman Shanmugaratnam just announced that the minimum requirement of 6 hours of CIP hours is no longer mandatory in JC. This should have been done earlier, just as a girl who was interviewed has said it aptly, "If you're truly interested in something, you'll do it whether there're CCA or CIP points or not." This reminds of a program I watched weeks ago on Central - "Generation Next: Iris Li". There was this JC girl who was so passionate about the environment that she became a tour guide for nature walks and volunteered herself for cleaning of beaches and mangrove boardwalks. She didn't mind getting her hands dirty just to do her own minor part in conserving the environment, and she made time to do so despite her hectic study schedules. How many of us can actually be so passionate in something that we set aside our "normal lives" and indulge in it? I was very inspired by the program (glad that I taped it) and I'm intending to let my EC members watch it. :) |
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curve rule overruled MO|070305|1916|735 Invigilated a Math common test and saw the students busily bending their curve rules to fit the points they have plotted in order to obtain a smooth curve. Are all students encouraged to use curve rules nowadays? I remember during my time nobody liked to use curve rules because they're so troublesome - after spending so much time trying to bend and fit, the curves drawn still have kinks that need to be modified. We used to draw freehand - I am quite proud of the fact that I'm still able to draw beautifully smooth curves now without the help of a french curve or curve rule. And I think in order to get the feel of curves we need to draw freehand (drawing best-fit curves requires such feel)! TEACHERS! STOP ADVOCATING THOSE USELESS TOOLS! |
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lupus SU|060305|1416|734 Sis just got discharged from TTSH. Suspected case of SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) - a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem disorder of the immune system, where the body develops antibodies that react against her own normal tissue... |
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matador FR|040305|1926|733 A few notable things for the past week: My Amazon.com shipment arrived! Besides the book Mad About Modern Physics, Ryan Adam's CD Love Is Hell, Mazzy Star's So Tonight That I Might See, there were Matador At Fifteen (a 3-CD-DVD compilation of the brilliant bands at Matador Records, including a thick booklet containing hilarious hate mails that Matador received over the past years) and Great Recordings of the Century: Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello & Piano performed by David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich and Sviatoslav Richter. The last two were rarities that were sold so cheaply at Amazon.com that I just couldn't resist snatching them before they went out of stock. Found a way to make the notorious 4T1 quiet and attentive! They love doing mindmaps! Did mindmaps for two chapters on the board one day, and they copied down the mindmaps quietly and decorated their mindmaps with colours and beautiful pictures. Am keeping my fingers crossed that this will continue to work for them, and that they will be able to study better with the mindmaps. Had my lesson observation on Tuesday. Let the 2E1 students play a game on Digestion. Felt the class went over-excited and became too rowdy but Ms T found the lesson to be quite all right and praised me for several areas. Hmm. Pleasantly surprised by her positivity. Ms T's episode (on getting the Science department teachers to sign the "we are not part of the project" document) apparently went widely spread among the HODs. The Chinese HOD asked Daniel about it, and the English HOD asked me to verify whether the incident really happened too. I didn't know whether this was going to start another chain of backstabbing among the HODs or they were merely plain curious, I just answered her questions accordingly without bias. |
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broken links WE|020305|1931|732 Brought my EC members and a few 2E1 students to Tuas South Incinerator. The trip was okay, except for our tour guide who seemed quite inexperienced and inexpressive. When we got back to school, Stephanie and I went to MacDonald's to meet up with Wenjie, Hizam, etc. Saw Derek and Kailiang hanging out with some undesirable company there. Quite disappointed, cos I had been able to keep them "away from evil" last year, but now that they're no longer in my form class, I see a great change, especially in Kailiang, in terms of his behaviour. Last year, the "brothers" (Wenjie, Kailiang, Victor, Say Chiak, Derek, Ho Ming) positively influenced each other and suppressed some of their "darker inclinations". Now that they're all in different classes, I see them drifting apart and becoming... different. Some changed for the better, became more matured. Some changed in undesirable ways. Guess that's inevitable (part of growing up?), and as I've told them last year, "Treasure your friendship while it lasts," theirs really didn't last very long when they started Sec 3 this year and chose different paths. Only hope those who have "touched evil" will not be led astray. |
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that freaking bus-tard WE|020305|0828|731 It finally rained after a month of scorching heat. Supposed to be happy, but I was drenched by a bus at the traffic lights in the morning as it sped past me and brought up a big puddle on the road. Hmm. Not a very great way to start the day, huh? Was quite cross and wanted to hurl some vulgarities but the bus went past me so quickly that I didn't even have time to take down its license plate. Got soaked from my waist down but I was too lazy to go home and change. Ended up letting the aircon on the freezing bus do the drying work for me. |
