My Journal: September 2006

Saturday, September 23, 2006

5 Diamond

Time really flies. In a twinkling of an eye, you have to sit for your oral exams. Good luck to everyone and do your best!

5 Diamond showed me the power of unity and the spirit they have, putting in their best foot forward to achieve the goals they have set. Their determination and "never-say-die" (I guess, it should have been "cannot-lose") attitude stunned me and definitely touched me. It came to me that this is the most united class I have ever taught in my 7 years of teaching. Like the way you like to say, "5 Diamond rocks!"

The usually quiet ones, "cannot-sit-next-to-girls" ones, "rowdy" ones, "bo-chap" ones, "against-everything-for-no-reason" ones, "out-to make-you-angry" ones, and quarrelsome ones, all worked together to go for a win for the reading caterpillar competition. Everyone contributed and took up roles on their own initiative to construct the longest caterpillar (highest in average) in the bid to clinch the championship.

Whether you win or not for the competition, everyone of you is already a winner. You have won. You have won in terms of unity and you have won as a class. I am proud of you, 5 Diamond.

Whatever the results may be, we must congratulate the winner and continue to strive for the excellence.

Pupils From China

It has been fun and exciting to have the pupils from China attached to our class. I hope that they have found the activities planned for the lessons were interesting and enriching.

I think they had the most fun when we were EGGS. Do you still remember what "EGGS" stand for?? The construction and launch of the vehicle were the highlights for the day. We had such wonderful time at the hopscotch area, watching the "vehicle" drop from the 2nd level and of course, we got more excited when the egg broke!!!!

Then came the day they had to leave......

From the performances they put up during the Farewell Concert, I was totally stunned by their talents!! They played the calabash and piano so well and I like Xing Jian's chinese calligraphy the most! I think he also played the piano. He is so talented!

At Jiali's house, I took down their addresses and I am thinking of getting the class to write letters to them. I wonder if we should write them in English or Chinese. Nevertheless, in the times of email, it can be quite fun writing letters instead.

I wish them well and I miss them!

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Welcoming Pupils From China, Yunnan

It has been a busy week for all of us, especially teachers and pupils involved in welcoming the pupils from China. I talked to a few of them and I found out that their school is quite regimental as compared to ours. They cannot even stretch out their legs during lessons!!! Singapore's pupils, be glad that at least you have that freedom and we, teachers, only hope that you pay attention in class. It is not demanding, right? Ha....

The next few days, they will be visiting the places of interest like Sentosa, Zoo, Night Safari, and Orchard Road. I hope that they will find Singapore a wonderful and safe place to live and decide to stay in Singapore for good. We welcome foreign talents!!!

I understand that they are not too used to the weather in Singapore. One of them commented to me that the weather here is considered as a hot summer (summer is already hot, so "hot" summer means very hot??). I told her that it is what we experience in Singapore whole year round and we are used to it already. We have machines called--air-con.

I was just teaching my class "electricity" the other day and I challenged them not to live with electricity for a few hours and see how "terrible" life can be. Just as I said that, I got worried about the lack of use of visualiser, projector, and computer..........Arrghhh.......I can't live without them (I was teaching then. I can't live with tv, telephone, lights, fans, and yes, air-con.....) My pupils challenged me and of course they would be glad if I have turned off the visualiser, projector and computer........Then they would not have lessons!!! Well, the message is clear--We can't live without electricity. We are dependent on electricity and this translates to the dependence on non-renewable fuel. We must really give thought to it as the fuel is depleting fast! We must conserve the fuel and look for renewable fuel to replace them. Sounds like NJRC 2006 theme this year.......

Enough said (wrote, actually).

To Yusuf, I will make time to load the photos on webshots.
To Shawn, save up and get a cheaper camera. You don't need such an expensive one. You are still young. Get something within your means.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

NJRC Results

The teams did their best but did not garner a spot in the top 10. The spirit we must have now is to make a successful comeback next year!

Achievements:
Finals: 15th and 21st position
Sprint Race Robot from Bibi's team went on to the 3rd round
Sumobot: Zhi Wei's team was in the top 15
Booth Design Award: 3rd in position (Fabulous 5)
Finals for Mechanical Award: Fantastic 5


And to lift my spirits higher, I bought a new camera......at Mustafa.....as it was close to 10 pm when I decided to do something to make myself happier. And only Mustafa, with an electronics department, is open at this unearthly hour. I drove down to Serangoon and purchased Fujifilm F30 with no hesitation. Yes, I got myself another toy, after my IPOD Nano.

Then, Mr and Mrs Tan walked round the departmental store and made more purchases! The products are so well-priced that we could not resist but lay our fingers on them. All in all, we bought over $100 worth of groceries.

What a shopping experience! And yes, PM Lee is right, Mustafa is a successful department store!

Friday, September 08, 2006

NJRC Finals

Received a call from Science Centre on Wednesday. 2 teams are in the FINALS!!!! Yeah!!!

Tomorrow is the DAY. I hope that the teams can work together for the missions and score and of course, TOP the scorelist.

3 teams are involved in Sumobot and all the teams are participating in the Sprint Race. May the robots be strong and robust and fast in the respective competitions.

After NJRC will be the arrival of the pupils from China. A lot has yet to be done. I have some plans in mind already though. Have to spend some time working on the plans!!

A warm welcome to our distinguished guests!!!

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

NJRC 2006 Preliminary Round

Thanks for all your encouragement. I really appreciate it.

The pupils did their best and I hope they have enjoyed the process of constructing and programming their robots. I also hope that those involved in researching on the topic "Oil Rig" had learnt from the research the importance of preserving our non-renewable fuel--crude oil and most importantly, look for new sources of renewable energy. I am also aware that some pupils were involved in compiling the journals, maintaining their group's blog, and working on the booth decoration. I applaud you for the hard work put in. You have done a fantastic job! I am proud of you!

For the missions, 1 of the teams garnered 110 points, and the other team garnered 80 points. Both teams performed very well. The rest of the teams cannot rest just yet. They have another competition--sprint race, and 3 teams are joining the sumobot competition. Best of luck to them!

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Stressed Out

I am extremely stressed now. NJRC 2006 is just hours away and a number of the robots have not completed mission 1. Most of them have not worked on mission 2 even.

I know that I was a little harsh on the boys in Science Centre just now. I feel terrible that I have command you with such tone. Towards the end of practice, many realised that you are not ready for the competition. Panic set in.

Whatever the outcome will be on Monday, I know that all of you have done your very best (I hope you had.). I wish all of you best of luck and be alert on Monday and may your group emerge top.

Good luck to all Lianhua PS's teams!

Friday, September 01, 2006

6 Ruby 2005

I would also like to thank my 6 Ruby pupils for coming back to LPS to chit chat with me. You gals and guys are really funny. Thanks for all your gifts and special thanks to Valarie for your dedication.

Continue to work hard and believe in yourself. You can do it!