The Start of Something New

Another term starts. New stuff happens so I'm glad I won't be totally sapped by accumulating piles of work (---> ie: essays ahhhhhh!!!!)

Firstly, I had planned for V for Vendetta to be screened to my Secondary 3 classes to discuss the ideas of violence, government and free will. They couldn't believe it when they realised it was an M18 movie. I was equally excited about it. So, I made posters and worksheets all by myself! Sadly, the movie was rejected at the last minute and I can't screen it to them. :( :( :( I was frowning after I got to know that. I mean, forget about the graphic parts, V for Vendetta is excellent to discuss concepts so closely related to life, to Social Studies! Moreover, it's decontextualised and the kids aren't always bogged down by content labelled as "MUG FOR MID-YEAR'S".

I heard about the great enthusiasm of some students to whom I screened the first quarter of the film too. Chris (Christine) made 3 kids stand up and raise their hands in a V shape in the air in class because they kept doing this action after watching V fight. LOL. I shouldn't have decided to screen it I THINK, the kids may not be not mature enough to watch it and by screening it in the identity of a teacher, it can be implied that the school endorses violence and the like. On the hand, I think that the dynamic film should be screened because they would be engaged to think. What a pity.

But looking on the bright side, I'm elated I tried something new. I took my own initiative to get away from the classroom teaching that we used to detest so much. I made my own movie posters for publicity and worksheets on something decontextualised. I got the students to be aware that Social Studies is alive and that it can be fun.

And then we have two new untrained teachers, Wee Kong and Chun Kiat. Chun Kiat was from NTU Mass Comm. and we were like whoa! He has a ruddy complexion with a golden tan. If I only I had his skin. I think mine is a little too fair. I miss the cranky times we had when Ruth was here, but Chun Kiat is very amiable and friendly, though he's almost a decade older than us.

I too, learnt a new tactic to handle tricky students. When they say I'm 'cute' (how discouraging! I'm adorable...but ugly :( :( ) or ask why I'm so short, I tell them off sternly, 'You don't talk like this to a teacher, ok!'. And when there are plain playful kids who aren't afraid of detention, punishment and outright reprimanding, I grab them by their shoulders to get their butts to their seats. I must admit it was quite funny, cos I did it to this Sec 1 kid who is notorious for his indifference and mischief. He was taken aback when I did so and guarded him beside his seat.

Oh! and I finally bought new running shoes. After that crazy night-cycling trip, my only pair of surviving pair of running shoes gave way at the front. And which brand is that? CHEATER BUG NIKE. I needed to replace the shoes once a year whenever I bought Nike, which has been the case since 6 years ago! Must be the cheap glue they gave to the sweatshops. Given the fast rate of depreciation of all my shoes (I finished using a pair of heels in 2 months LOL), my Nike shoes might spoil faster. Anyway, I can't wait to try my new shoes out at the school's Sports Carnival tomorrow. I'm playing Street Bendy and running the 4x100m C Div' relay for Drakon, the house with blue parts on the house shirt.

I'm tired, I need sleep. I going for a postponed night-cycling trip again tomorrow! : ) I'm going with churchmates, most of whom will be people from my batch (Mr Danny Boy and Ryan for example). I hope I won't get a lousy bike again and get left behind or cycle like crazy just to reach a satisfactory speed. But before that, I'm going to CCAB for our school's Sports Carnival. Yay. Yawn. I'm a tired and contented girl. Goodnight.

Sabbaths

Do you remember what the Fourth Commandment is?

'Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.' Exodus 20:8

'Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God:
in it thou shalt not do any work...

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,
and rested the seventh day:
wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.' Exodus 20:9-11

If not for procrastination, I wouldn't have to leave my lesson plans until now. Arrr...I thought I could get away from homework. My dinner is waiting for me and the fried chicken wings that Dad fried is beckoning me. Never mind the cough.

Hmmph...WORK.

Night Cycling

Woe upon me! I have gained about 2 kg from not exercising enough for weeks. I only exercise fortnightly on Monday mornings for 1h when I go to school early for this programme called 'Learn & Enrich'. Ahhh....

To make up for this, at least my conscience, I am going on a night-cycling trip tomorrow! I have been looking forward to one and tomorrow will be my first time. I'm going with Si Hua to this event organised by her youth group. 8pm to 6pm - 10hours of non-stop cycling! Ha, I wish. My legs would disintegrate when I land my feet on the ground. I'm very excited!

And, what's more, I'm going on a second night cycling trip next Friday! How cool is that!

Today is the last day I helped out as a Student Leader for the SOTA (School of the Arts Singapore) auditions. The groups did group activities today and had loads of time to explore and use percussion instruments to compose and improvise. This was also incorporated with the technique of visual stimulation. The instructor for my group was Dr Joyce Koh, the Head of Music for SOTA. She is very charismatic and respectable lady and I'm glad I sat in for her activities with my group! Tomorrow, the second batch of kids will be going for their individual auditions. I wish them well, especially this cute small little boy called Reuben. He has rosy cheeks, a fair complexion, braces, thin gold-rimmed spectacles and a constant wide-eyed expression that masks his playful nature. He was wearing a white shirt neatly tucked into his navy blue track pants today. Very very very adorable boy. If he were my neighbour, I would treat him to sweets, chips, cake or ice cream at least thrice a week.

All the best lil' Reuben!

Stuck

'You got to get yourself together
You got stuck in the middle
And you can't get out of it.'

I'm stuck indeed. Not in the middle of whatsoever, but at home.

Usually, I would be la-la-la-ing away at the Bach Room in the music centre at this time. But since I can't even speak properly, I'm not going for choir today. So I cheered, 'Great! God has already planned for me to go to NUS and NTU open houses with my buddies!'.

Much to my dismay, my condition has worsened. It took me the whole morning to sit upright because I was shivering and feeling faint and nauseous. I guess it's because I spend so much time sleeping the body needed time to adjust my blood pressure. I don't think I can stand right now without feeling nauseous, let alone walk in the blazing hot sun outside to meet some class people at Boon Lay station at noon. :(

My mum has been feeding me some bio-enzyme drink which you mix with water. The powder is made up of 'natural complex enzymes' extracted from 'corn, wheat, pineapple, white bean, papaya, banana, seaweed, rice germ, tomato, pumpkin, burdock fruit and formosanus vegetable'. Talk about kiasu-ism, haha. Anyhow, I'm glad that what I only have to digest is the extracted powder, not the food itself. How would I eat rice germs anyway? I've already got enough bacteria in my body. And I've never heard of the burdock fruit or some sciencey vegtable called formosanus. The powder tastes wheaty and it doesn't dissolve in water. My mum says some people gag when they drink it. I'm glad my blocked nose saved me from this misery.

Talking about enzymes, I remember being fascinated during one Biology laboratory lesson where we boiled a piece of pig's liver. (Yes, I took PURE BIO in secondary school, but I prefer the ARTS!) The raw piece of meat was so fibrous that jabbing it with pincers reminded me of extremely gummy candy. But as we boiled the liver meat, it gradually hardened and flipped to become curved, like how squid meat looks like when it is cooked. The texture turned rough and looked like the taste buds of a pig's tongue. The liver was then useless. Its proteins denatured due to high heat, meaning that the protein structure was being unravelled, annulling its functions.

Then I remembered what my Biology teacher told us, that this is what happens when one has too high a fever. The body, in its defense mechanism, deals with bacterial infection by commanding the liver to pool up blood in the head and brain area. Since there is more blood up there, the lower body parts get relatively lesser blood, resulting in coldness. By accumulating heat in the blood, the body fights the bacteria and tries to denature them. And because the brain is the control centre, the war occurs there to protect it. However, if the temperature gets too high, the brain itself may be damaged in the end.

So, the controversy derived is, should we wrap ourselves in blankets because of the shivering cold or just bear with it and sleep in an air-conditioned room? One belief is that you prevent further heat loss in your limbs by using blankets. Also, the body will perspire in response, causing the fever to subside. That is what I just did. But my mum says I should just sleep without my blankie so the temperature would go down. Which one actually works? I have no idea.

Well, the silver lining in the cloud is, my body has been fighting well. (Good job, body!) The cilia (I think) has been brushing my phlegm upwards and it comes out through the nose. After puking green vomit with specks of phelgm in it, I can breathe properly! To tell the truth, I had been waiting for the puking to happen today. I stuffed myself with food so I had something for the phlegm to come out with. I didn't know I lacked water and it happened to be some chlorophyll drink. When I drank it, voila! All the muck came out.

What's more, I can readjust my taste buds to eat blander food and not pig out because I have no appetite to. I get to sleep for 9 hours or so, which for me, happens only once in a blue moon. I am forced to rest at home before my busy March holidays begin. A blessing in disguise!

While I'm stuck at home, I think I'll have to appreciate the beauty of boredom, in being idle and doing nothing.

The First Term

Woohoo! The last day of school for this term. What better way to end it with God's gift of making Clementi Town the champion for West Zone Netball B Div Competition! We went to Toa Payoh to watch Clementi Town fight it out with Tanglin. If not for my failing throat, I would screamed and cheered like mad : D

For B Div:

1st place: Clementi Town
2nd place: Tanglin
3rd place: MGS
4th place: Nan Hua

Ever since a very taxing lesson on Thursday with a class gone wrong, my throat has been red and swollen with so much phlegm that I couldn't breathe at all when I was sleeping and walking. Nevertheless, I was glad that I still taught with my croaky voice that kept squeaking out of pitch and a flushed face. One of my Geography classes made a 'get well soon' card for me with almost everyone signing on it. How extremely sweet! Also, my Geography classes were more attentive when I talked. I guess being sick is not so bad after all. I can use emotional blackmail to make them pay attention haha.

I guess that's about it. I need to sleep and get better. God bless : )

My Results

The 'A' level results. What a touchy and sensitive issue, especially during that week of anticipation prior to collecting it. I must thank God absolutely because I wasn't bugged by self-imposed benchmarks and evident thought of fruits of longsuffering labour over the last week. The worst of what anticipation I felt was icy cold palms on Friday morning. (Wait but isn't it weird then that my hands have remained icy cold till now?)

My philosophy regarding results and achievements of any kind is: 'The higher you hope, the greater you'll fall'. I can imagine my students calling me a pessimist again. Of course, when you don't expect anything, you won't feel embarrassed or ashamed in front of others when you 'underperform'. But for me, I think that when I don't expect anything, I am worries-free, and I can give thanks to God humbly for the outcome. I entrust the outcome to God.

I got A for English Literature, Geography, and Economics, A1 for GP and B3 for AO Mathematics. (Arr! Ugly B3, but I deserved it for complacency.) And A2 for AO Chinese, which was taken when I was in J1.

You might smirk, 'Ha, easy for you to say - you did well. I doubt you would say this if you did badly.'

I was not a good academic performer in junior college. Check my geography results especially. I was getting straight O's before the D for last June's common test, not out of laziness but a lack of wisdom to study and answer smart. Thanks to God, I could still stand by the faith I have in Him. Whereas for Lit, I remember hating it so badly that I would purposely allocate Lit lessons as my sleeping time, especially during E4 lessons on boring Red Badge of Courage. Oh! and Lit assignments were handed in 2 months after deadlines. LOL. I remember Shu Juan Dao Shi (my ex-Sunday school teacher and life mentor) comforting me that I needed to make myself confront the subject and overcome it, since it's God's Will for me to do so. As for Economics, Mrs Yap has made me live in fear as her student, struggling to survive in the tough competition and stress she gives. Through fine-tuning my essays, thanks to Olie, Si, JT and Sher, I saw a rising trend in the grades Mrs Yap gave through each essay.

As for GP, I guess I put in hard work out of empathy for Miss Low. I decided to be her goody two-shoes to release her stress of teaching a crazy class that celebrates her birthday every now and then. LOL! Not putting my beloved class in a bad light here however. With my varying experiences from sheer nerdy, eye circle-inducing and unkempt hair-frizzing diligence to initial nonchalance and repulse, my philosophy worked - have great faith in our Father! Will He give us a stone instead of bread? Confront that which is unwished for in life with the faith that He will carry you through. Seek for improvement in humility to glorify God's name in your areas of talent. :)

As a teacher now, I can finally understand how Miss Low and Mr Ng feel at times. That frustration you get when you are not in sync with your lesson plans, the stress to remain comparable to your colleagues (BECAUSE STUDENTS COMPARE THEIR TEACHERS >:( ), the woes from doubting your own teaching abilities...

And, I must clear Mr Ng's name here. Don't laugh but I think he is like a raw diamond - he merely needs time to learn how to teach and convey what he has to share to us. Underneath all the awkward concentration exercises and reprimanding, he is after all, only a human like you and me. And he helped me loads and loads for discursive essays and provoking deeper thoughts for my E1 texts. So don't be prejudiced. He helped me in getting my A for Lit okay!

I think I have ranted/shared enough. To end off the ACJC chapter in my life, I'll share a very precious Bible verse.

'In every thing give thanks: for this is the Will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.'

I Thessalonians 5:18