[Lesson] by Mr Wong on 6 May

Mr Samuel Wong will be conducting an extra lesson on Paper 1 on
Tuesday 6 May at 4.05 pm LT 1
Check my blog regularly for updates!

[PW] Mass Lecture T2 Wk 7 to 10

Take note of the PW mass lecture arrangements

Class: 07S1	Gp members attending Dr Ng’s Workshop on Creativity	Gp members meeting up with STs
PW Group 1	Jasmine See Hui Fen	Nur Aisah Nordin
	Hainoon Jahria Bte Hassan	Benny Low Zhi Hao
		V Jeevitha
PW Group 2	Chen Guanwen Marcus	Pavandirjit Kaur
	Nur Aisyah Bite Mohd Ghazali	Kalvindar
		Ooi Xian Hua
PW Group 3	Daryl Ng Wei Bin	Loke Gabriel
	Ding Kun	Huang Pengrong
		Ng Yao Yang
PW Group 4	Tan Yan Ping	Tan Wei Min Kenny
	Ling Shu Hui	Sandy Neo
		Teo Jin Tong
PW Group 5	Adnan Ramdani Agung	Daliah Binte Mohd Ishak
	Nicholas Tan Keng Chuen	Md Farhaan Ho
		Neo Joeveen
PW Group 6	Md NurRudin	Nor Atiqah Bte Hassan
	Rafeah Insyirah	Amelia Jean Palmer
		Abdul Rahim Hassan

Names in Red/Blue/Green: Students who had already attended Creativity Workshop in Term 1 & Term 2

[Make-up test] Compre 3

Those who have not done the timed assignment Compre 3, please complete it.
Instructions are pasted beside my pigeon hole, No. 12.
Some of you have not done any compre this term, please do at least one before the mid-year exams.
If none is done, ZERO will be recorded.
Choice 1: Friday 1.30 - 3 pm
Choice 2: Monday 7 - 8.30 am

[Order] RJC GP Bulletin

If you would like to purchase RJC GP Bulletin which is the RJC version of MIsays. Please place your order with your class's GP rep. The price is not fixed yet but last year, it costs about $3 - 4 a copy.

[GP file] Final reminder

GP file check during lesson time.
07A2 & 07S1: Thurs
07B4: Tues
Those who left the files on top of my pigeon hole.
Please collect. I will check again during lesson.
You must include the timed assignments in the file
Do not include last year's work.
I need to submit the files to my boss next Friday!

[Congrats] Kar Yee

Congrats to Lam Kar Yee who clinched a Best Speaker title in the 2008 MOE Invitational Debating Championship preliminary rounds!

MI students can emerge as victors if they set their hearts on achieving their targets.
よくできました

[AR] Upload to Wetpaint

2 more weeks of AR presentation.
Thanks to the students who have prepared and presented so far.
Bernadette, Champa, Melinda, Melvinand Kar Yee.
Apologies to Isabella and Sara about the technical glitches.

Please remember to upload your research onto Wetpaint.
If possible, upload earlier so that your classmates are better prepared for discussion.

Those who have not presented and always absent on Monday, please turn up. Your absence is deeply missed and unfortunately, recorded.

[Review] Feet Unbound

Watched 'Feet Unbound' today. The cinema was sparsely filled, less than 30 people. The lacklustre turnout was expected, similar to the lukewarm response from the students. It is not a blockbuster movie, no action or horror so people will not be motivated to watch it. I wondered if I should encourage students to watch movies which are not well-packaged. Money is hard to earn and to spend $7.50 on a movie which is equivalent to 3 plates of chicken rice needs some careful consideration. One of my concerns as a GP tutor is students do not have a broad perspective hence they tend to be slightly narrow-minded. When they write their essays, they come across as myopic and self-centred. I will do my best to organise learning journeys and feature some movies that will widen your perspective yet entertain. However, it will require your participation. For instance, one of the Earth Week's program is showcasing 3 movies about the environment so I would recommend that you can catch at least one. Remember next week, you are supposed to do a timed assignment on Environment.

Looking through the eyes of a young Beijing reporter, the torturous Long March was recounted by the few surviving members. The young reporter even tried to light a fire in the freezing snowstorm. She was trembling while she spoke her lines. The most memorable ones was about the Western Route (WR) soldiers had nothing to eat on the frozen grassland. When there was nothing to eat, the yak's sh*t has some crop seeds which were digested while they were eating grass, the WR's soldiers ate the sh*t. When there was no yak sh*t, they cooked the belts which were made from yak's leather.

War is only a power struggle between politicians, the casualties are the people. Those who lost their lives are praised for being martyrs, those who survived are left with indelible memories. At the end of the WR, the final destination was in the middle of the Gobi Desert; no food, no water, no amenities. One of the old ladies said that the favourite slogan was "Go back to Dalian to eat rice!" so they persevered, hoping to achieve the goal of eating rice one day. Their wish is so simple yet unattainable in those hard times. Peace is priceless.

The young journalist reflected and realised for the past twentyodd years, she was a playgirl.
We always complained about how our lives have been hard, terrible or even unbearable. All the sh*t that I am going through now is nothing compared to the iron ladies. If war was to strike, how many of us will stay to fight for our homeland? I really admire their guts and recommend you to watch the movie. It is ending its run this Wednesday so catch it soon!

[LJ] Watch Feet Unbound

Keen to watch a movie about the journey of China's female soldiers of The Long March?

Shot by a Singaporean director, Ng Khee Jin, this movie is about a young woman retraces the footsteps of China's female soldiers of The Long March and encounters untold stories of courage and hope in the face of extreme deprivation and brutality.

This is the never-been-told story of the Chinese Red Army's teenage female soldiers of The Long March - a massive military retreat of over 200,000 troops on foot over 12,500 kilometres that lasted from 1934 to 1937.

You can find out more about the film at the official website

Suitable for people who are interested in gender discrimination, history, or those who are still clueless about PW.

Date: 21 April (Monday) 6 pm

Venue: The Cathay (near Dhoby Ghaut MRT) not Plaza Singapura . Transport is not provided so please make your own way there.

Price: $7.50 (I absorbed the booking fee)

- Pls give me the exact amount by Monday

- No cash, no booking, no ticket.

Don't have to wear school uniform! =)

[Outlook] Term 2 Wk 6 to 9

Hey Millennians,

It's Week 5! Halfway through the term, 5 more weeks of torture to go.
Counting down to my honeymoon~

A brief recap of what we have done for the past 5 weeks.

Paper 1: ideal VS practical, short run VS long run, how to create logical arguments (kindly & brilliantly taught by our jolly Mr Wong)

Paper 2: short structured question (SSQ) strategies, summary 'Crack the sentence' , AQ 'evaluate stupid ideas'

What to expect for the next 5 weeks?
Timed assignments! *groans*

Wk 6: Paper 2
Wk 7: Paper 1 - on environmental qns so research and practise writing arguments
Wk 8: Review Paper 2 qns
Wk 9: Review Paper 1 qns

Please do your IRP responses at the same time.

07A2: Upload your AR pages! My boss will check >_<"

[MI Essay] Last Call

Finally, some people submitted their essays.
Thanks Bernadette and Geran.
The rest?

Eh... your essay is featured in MI Essays. Your name, your first byline.
At least 3000 copies are printed.
Your first big break, your mother can show off to your uncle, auntie, neighbour, stranger on the bus so if you still want to submit your essay, please drop the photocopy into my pigeon hole, No. 12
by Friday morning, 11 April 11 am. Thanks!

[PW] Trail Blazers on CNA

Hopefully, you are writing your Preliminary Idea reports now.

For Task 1: Journeys, you may like to watch this TV program for some ideas or for 'evaluation of materials (non-print)'.
'Trail Blazers' is aired on every Monday 8.30 pm, starting on 7 April.
Repeats on Mon (12.30am), Tue (1.30pm), and Wed (5.30pm).

Trail Blazers - an English documentary series on pioneers in Singapore

MOE and Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) have jointly commissioned an English documentary series titled Trail Blazers. This 8-part half-hour series will feature Singapore pioneers who have contributed significantly to our nation in various fields. The featured pioneers are Mr Kuo Pao Kun (Art & Culture), Prof S.S.Ratnam (Science & Technology), Dr Ee Peng Liang (Social & Community work), Prof Chao Tzee Cheng (Medicine), Dr Ruth Wong (Education), Mrs Wong-Lee Siok Tin (Media), Haji Wandly Yazid (Music) and Mr Wong Peng Soon (Sports).

Each episode would also feature a different inquirer who would embark on a journey of discovery to uncover aspects of the pioneer’s life, achievements and contributions. Some of the inquirers include Hady Mirza, Eunice Olsen, Phin Wong, Annabelle Francis and so on.

Trail Blazers is scheduled for broadcast on Channelnews Asia on 7 April at 8.30 pm. One new episode will be aired a week, and there will be three additional runs for the same episode in the week at the following times: Mon (12.30am), Tue (1.30pm), and Wed (5.30pm).

[Reflection] Hate tags

What crimes can one do under the cloak of Internet anonymity?
phishing, credit card frauds, illegal downloading, industrial espionage, child pornography, kidnapping children via chat rooms, harassment, scams, cyberterrorism, creation and/or distribution of viruses, spam , the dirty list just grows longer and longer.

Although I embrace the power of Internet, I bear the brunt of it too.
Last year, one of my posts got me into trouble and I was advised to close this blog.
However, the objective of this blog is to inform students about activities and track my progress as a teacher so I decided to keep it going. However, the posts are generally restricted to administrative matters.

This term, I started teaching Mr Wong's classes.
The co-teaching arrangement evolved from my desire for my students to write better essays and Mr Wong's wish that I can impart Paper 2 skills to his students.

For the past two weeks, my students benefited tremendously from his lessons; learning about the major environmental issues and the components of logical arguments. They raved about Mr Wong's vast knowledge and sharp insight. I also learnt how to frame issues using analogies as well as the theoretical explanation of logical arguments. [My husband uses Hegelian arguments.] Thanks, Sam! :)

Although only 2 periods are exchanged, I missed my classes.
I missed 07A2's witty retorts.
I missed 07B4's attentiveness.
I missed 07S1's studious attitude.

I guessed the rapport I have with you is stronger than I thought.

Even irritating buggers like JT, BS, PL have better manners than some of his students.

Since last Wednesday's lesson, some student(s) have been posting hate tags.

How can I be so sure it is NOT my students who are the culprits?

If it is my students, they will post such tags last year -which one of them did and I happened to know who.

I may appear to be brainless; using simplistic teaching techniques and discussing frivolous topics.

Please keep in mind that appearances are deceiving.

You can continue to bombard me with your hate tags but this is the last time I am responding.
"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind." - Mahatma Ghandi

Thank you for taking time to visit and tag my blog.

Since you commented that my teaching is like the blind leading the blind, I would like to end this post with a quote from a real blind woman who is the first deaf and blind person who earned a college degree and became a great educator.

"What a blind person needs is not a teacher but another self. " - Helen Keller