Delayed my post quite a bit cos I’ve been too tired – people might think I should have more time given that it’s the March holidays but in truth it really hasn’t been a relaxing time also.
Forgot to mention in my last post about a funny incident (at least for those who were around) during a meal in school when somebody commented that Citibank shares dropped below $1 and I said something like, “Does that mean that I don’t have to pay my credit card bills to Citibank?” Then someone said, “Ah, are you one of the growing number of people reported in the papers who are above 30 and don’t pay their credit card bills on time?” Then I said, “Oh, don’t worry, I’m not. I’m under 30.” =P
Week 8 Wed – Forgot to mention about my salsa dancing lesson in the morning. It was much, much better than the previous week! Kinda surprising cos I actually didn’t manage to find time to practice though I did run through the steps in my mind sometimes as I was commuting between home and school. But it did help cos I could remember the sequence so it was much smoother and my movements were also not as robotic as the previous session haha. Not too sure if I will continue to learn this in the future but at least I think I know enough to do some self-learning next time… =)
Thu – Helped to do relief for 08S112 and it was quite a chop-chop affair and quite a funny lesson. They were pretty enthusiastic especially after I laid out my plans for the lesson cos I told them if they can answer all my questions fast enough I could let them off earlier (their lesson was supposed to be from 3.25 to 5pm). I could empathize with them cos it’s very tiring to stay in school for lessons all the way till 5pm every week. Nevertheless, I didn’t rush through and they were quite prompt when I asked each one a question. For my final question I told them it was the grand finale and they started to cheer when we completed the task on hand.
Fri – Release of A Level results and it was my first time being at the forefront cos I’m in the Exam Committee and I was in charge of preparing the slides for my principal so I was in the room waiting for the data to come in so that I could collate the relevant information.
Anyway it was quite fun and exciting to get first-hand info and my duty was fairly relaxing lah I would say – took me about 2 to 3 hours to finish. Was also interesting to see all the data and see which subjects did well and who the top students were. Another interesting thing was how to package the presentation to accentuate the good points to make the results look even better. If I’m still doing this next year I think it’ll be pretty nervous for me as I wonder how my students would do and also worry about those who didn’t do well.
During the staff meeting, my principal asked me to make some changes for the slides and after that quite a few of my colleagues came to ka jiao me and ask me if the slides have been changed cos before that they didn’t realize I’m the one doing the slides.
Anyway, during the actual release of the results in the hall apparently it was quite funny for all the JC2s seated in the LTs watching the live telecast of the event cos some of my students commented that I looked very funny walking up and down in the hall while waiting for the event to start and that my expression looked very serious and glum as the top students (those with distinctions in 3H2 and 4H2 subjects) were being called up to get their results slip from the principal. Hmmm, maybe I was just too focused on the task of passing the results slip to the principal while clicking on the slides so that’s why. But I was clapping pretty enthusiastically for some of those whom I knew that were collecting their results!
After that, went for dinner at Lavender Food Court with some of my colleagues, and the wanton mee there recommended by one of them was pretty tasty though not filling. We talked for a few hours about stuff including sharing our thoughts on teaching chemistry at MJC. Quite a fun outing, especially for a foodie like me who loves to eat!
Sat – Wore my bright pink funky monkey t-shirt which drew laughter from some of the students and somebody said it was a gay colour while a few said that I looked cute hahahaha. Anyway, apparently the SRP tutors came across the chemistry brothers’ performance last Teacher’s Day but they said they couldn’t hear clearly from the Youtube video so they asked me to do a live rendition. It so happened that some councilors were preparing their mentees for the upcoming council rallies and one of them had a guitar so I sang as the student played the song.
After that we went to have lunch at the Manhattan Fish Market at White Sands as well as to discuss about next week’s worksheet and talk crap, such as their ambitions and we joked about them wanting to be the face of the police force on Crimewatch! =P
Was very tired when I got home so I took a nap before beginning to do some stuff for my students such as organic chem. summaries and on Sunday.
Week 9 Mon – organic chem. test and the results of the entire cohort is a cause for concern. Could see slight improvements in some of my STF students but at the same time there were other cases of students unable to keep up with the workload and struggled in the test. I don’t know if it’s cos there’s 1 less week during the term due to the new calendar so the students have problems internalizing the content but hopefully they would’ve studied properly by the March Block Test.
Wed – during tutorial with 08S114, I spoke to them about some who may wish to consider switching to H1 chemistry if they were certain they don’t need H2 chemistry in the university (e.g. if they plan to go into Arts and Social Sciences) because some seem to have serious problems coping with 4H2 subjects and on a practical note, I gave them an overview on how the points system into university works because seriously those weak in H2 chem. would most likely do much better in H1 chem. (because it’s much easier and also the quality of competition is weaker) and could spend more time on their other H2 subjects which would benefit them. I also told them about what they didn’t have to learn for H1 chemistry (which is very much less than H2) and I think some were giving serious thoughts. Somebody even joked, “Mr Lau, then what do they do during H1 lessons? COMPASS ah?”
As I was going through the corrections for their test, I commented that a concept in the test was similar to that found in their carboxylic acids tutorial question 10 that was recently covered during lecture and somebody (X) made a comment which started a dialogue that went something like:
X: “Mr Lau, do you like remember every single question in the tutorials?”
Me: “Ya, usually cos I think through thoroughly before teaching.”
X: “You should have been a lawyer lah! That’s where the money is!”
Me: “Haha, why? Because I have a very good memory? Then I can quote all the case studies and other stuff right? But law is like so boring!” (Class laughs)
Me: “Eh why are you all laughing? I love to teach chemistry what, that’s my passion!”
Hahaha, it was an interesting interlude during the tutorial. =)
CCA and we had our guests again. Played “Rattlesnake” again and I managed to squeeze the 10th magnet onto the board – a new record! Haha, I jumped and whooped for joy after that, much to the amusement of the other kids in the room. Good to relieve stress! =)
Sat – SRP and STF and I wore my other funky monkey T-shirt that I bought from the same shop in Malaysia. STF session was quite funny and some of the kids were envious when I said I was going to Plaza Singapura to meet some of my ex-students for lunch cos somebody said that the place is full of high-end food (which I disagreed) and they asked if I was going to Crystal Jade, which I said I might depending on the rest.
Anyway, I went out with Jonathan, who is back on home leave for 2 weeks, and Leon and Samuel and cos I left school late they had lunch already by the time I was there and I ended up eating at LJS first and laughing to myself as I thought about what my students said (though we did go to Crystal Jade for dinner and some catching up as Jonathan shared some unglam photos and stories from Brunei). Went to play Left 4 Dead since there was exactly 4 of us and it was fun! Haven’t found time to play games for so long!
March “Holidays” – the good thing was I didn’t have to wake up as early on most days; the bad thing was I found myself working everyday to some extent and back in school almost everyday to clear up work, meet students for consultations and preparing organic chem. summaries, quizzes, and other practice questions and answers. It’s been very tiring but hopefully the conscientious students who came to find me and others who tried the questions faithfully on their own will find themselves improving soon.
Thursday’s session was very funny. Only 2 students from 08S114 turned up, 0 from 08S201 and about 10 from 08S416 so those from 08S416 said that they are so hardworking that they turned up in comparison to the other classes haha. V. cute bunch of students lah I must admit and I don’t think I can fault them in their efforts though I hope they can really pick up the thinking skills from me and learn to understand and hence remember the content so that they can do reasonably well at the A levels.
Earlier in the morning I bought a chicken burger from the canteen which had the patty held by a hot dog bun type of bread so it looked quite ridiculous with the meat jutting out and my 08S114 students also laughed at it. Somehow I ended up talking to them about the Chinese exams also and they talked about how the invigilators are so irritating and making a lot of noise as they walk and I joked that they should’ve made their feelings known by making a “tsk” sound loudly haha.
During lunch with some of the 08S416 kids, we were laughing at some of the things like which CCA I was in during my secondary and JC days and how somebody reads my blog selectively and misinterpreted what I had said here.
Wed – Had lunch at Vivocity with some of the ex- and current MJC chem. teachers and we went to “The Chicken Rice Shop”, but we didn’t find the food all that great so that’s a thumbs-down for me. The conversation was super funny though as somebody joked about the things that the very senior teachers can get away with and some of us shared our strategies to deal with certain things.
Sat – met up with a bigger group of ex-students this time and had lunch at Ajisen at PS (again), where De Sheng treated us (thanks again!) cos he felt rich after coming back from his NS trip to Thailand and it was quite funny cos apparently he went there to “shoot airplanes on the video screens” and we were thinking the point of going for overseas training is so that they can do something more realistic lol. Anyway, apparently part of our taxpayers’ money is going towards funding some really nonsense stuff in the SAF based on what all of them were saying, which is quite interesting to hear…
After lunch it was time for some intensive LAN gaming at Selegie (again) and it was super funny when we played Left 4 Dead with 2 teams competing against each other cos there were a lot of screaming and cheering. Too bad it’s gonna be quite a few months again I think before we have time for such stuff cos term time is just too packed for me to find time for entertainment activities during my weekends, sad to say.
Ok, time to clear up my work before school resumes tomorrow. All the best to those taking the March Block Test! =)
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Term 1 Weeks 7-8
Just some stuff about Week 6 to update before Weeks 7-8:
(1) The chinese toilets used to be called, for the females, ting1 yu3 xuan1 (roughly translated to "a sheltered place where one can listen to the rain"), and for the males, guan1 pu4 ting2 (roughly translated to "a pavillion where one can see the waterfalls". LOL so classy and poetic right?
(2) On the way back to the staff room, I saw some of my 08S114 students from afar along the corridor who were talking to themselves and laughing then one of them said, "Mr Lau, your pants are unzipped!" I was kinda shocked and looked down and realised they played a joke on me. Didn't expect that cos they are the guai1 type of students - see how trusting I am? LOL. Then one of them went to tell the class about the incident and apparently it was made funnier cos I was still walking very fast (as usual) while checking so the student was demonstrating hahaha.
(3) There was a super lame joke when Lionel said he wanted to pass some papers to Denise and his action was to put the pile of papers on his knees. =P
(4) Helped relief 08S417 and it was quite funny cos I was teaching the start of Hydroxy Compounds tutorial then after explaining some questions at the end of the tutorial someone asked a shockingly basic question and I gave the student a "jaw drop look" and asked, "Are you sure you don't know?" She seemed to realise her mistake after that and the rest were laughing cos apparently my expression was very funny. Also heard this v. lame chem. joke which roughly goes, "Which animal will make you feel like coughing after it coughs?" (answer at the end of this post)
Week 7 (Mon) - Returned the students their test papers which was worrying and I was also very upset during tutorials because a lot of students couldn't remember the basics like reagents, conditions, and type of reactions despite having gone through them before but I told them I would be taking actions to rectify the situation and informed those who would meet me over the next 2 weeks to go through some basic memory work before the next test.
During the little bit of time left during lecture I was explaining about the concept of a stronger base having a weaker conjugate acid and I gave a funny analogy about me being single and available so if I find a partner I wouldn't want to let her go easily so for the case of ethylamine, because the lone pair on the N atom is more available due to the electron-donating ethyl group (I used a pun that the lone pair is sooo lonely and available), after accepting a proton the conjugate acid would be weaker (compared to the conjugate acid of a weaker base) because it would not want to donate the proton (at least not easily).
While having consultation at the canteen after school, one of my students tried to scare me by approaching me from the side but I already saw him from the corner of my eye so I wasn't shocked when he pounced on me and shouted "Cher!" I just calmly suanned him, "That wasn't scary. I think marking your test paper was more scary." =P
Tue - Announced to the LT about the test results and congratulated the top students in LT4. Then during the lecture I proceeded with my roving mike, doing it myself as I bounced around getting people to answer questions. I asked one of the top 10 students a question (what is a test specific to phenols) but surprisingly the student didn't know despite my hint that this is NOT a COMPLEX problem (the answer was using aqueous neutral FeCl3 solution which gives a violet complex) although quite a few others in the LT got my hint. Couldn't remember any particularly funny moment but the lecture was smooth and clear at least in my humble opinion.
Wed - Busy with preparation of my SRP worksheet that I only spent a little bit of time at my CCA and nowadays I've been leaving my EXCO to handle the students because I'm too absorbed in my other work and also to give them more responsibilities.
After CCA I had dinner with 2 of the SRP tutors (both girls) at the White Sands food court to discuss about the SRP worksheet for the coming weekend under the watchful and prying eyes of two groups of students who happened to sit at the tables right beside us haha. I know they will almost certainly gossip about us but there's nothing going on really. =)
Anyway, they were quite funny lah and they asked me to send an sms to this number which turns out to be from the STB. I was very doubtful at first and asked what it is for and they joked that it's to support them for some event then finally I gave in and just sent the SMS and apparently there were offers to get free tickets on weekend of Feb for certain places such as the Zoo and the Singapore Flyer and they suggested that all of us including the other tutor go take the Flyer and cancel the SRP session. So full of nonsense lol. =p
Thu - Stayed back late to discuss about the MBT and bumped into my good friend and ex-IGC mate who came back to school with her kids who I've not seen for months. Had a good chat and later on we were joined by "The Three Musketeers" (my own name that I give to this special trio haha) who were busy playing with the baby boy while I relaxed on the massage chair.
They were v funny and were gossiping about all kinds of stuff like who are their hottest/fav teachers, the fashion style of teachers (that someone looked quite lao2 tu3 with short-sleeved shirts, someone wore weird colours and someone wore creased clothes) and if you believe them, I'm supposed to be involved in some scandal lol. So funny listening to what they had to say.
Fri - Stayed back with my special task force, STF, (my nickname for those who are to stay back with me to do extra work) of about 20 students and I thought it was quite fruitful to get them to buckle down and to some solid studying cos I can explain to them individually when I mark their work on what to take note of and how to remember better certain things so hopefully that will help them lah.
Also helped out my ex-CG 08S114 to carry chairs cos they only had a few girls to help carry 25 chairs from E2-5 to the canteen (only 3 guys in the 1 class and 2 had CCA while one was doing work in my STF) and I carried 10.75 chairs (0.75 cos one of them brought 3 chairs 3/4 of the way hahaha), which was a good workout haha. =)
Sat - SRP + STF and it was again quite enjoyable to sit down with my STF from 08S416 to study with them and also chat about some stuff in life. That's one of the things I enjoy most about teaching, which is helping people to learn things and also interacting with the students. If only there was no admin work, that would be perfect!
Week 8 (Mon) - Tutorials were more enjoyable because at least when I ask questions more people can tell me the correct answers esp those in the STF who remember what they learnt and sometimes I would get quite animated and go "Yeah! That's the way!" with some funny action cos I was happy that they at least remember basic things and didn't waste our efforts and hopefully they can retain what they memorised for a long time.
Somebody in 08S114 asked if they were the supposed STF because I only gave them that nickname when I emailed the classes over the weekend and she was amused by it. Somebody also asked another student, "Why are you in the STF?" and the student replied, "Because I'm special!" Haha, they're all very cute!
Tue - Had STF session with some of the 08S114 kids and it was pretty funny and there was one moment when I dropped my pen and made some funny sounds, much to their amusement haha.
Wed - During 08S114 tutorial some of the STF students were again quite fast at giving the answers and I said something like, "See, the STF people are not bad now!" Then one of them said, "Yeah! Let's have more! When's the next session?" So funny sia...
Spent a little bit more time this week during CCA because I was finally able to spare more time and there were some honorary guests from "The Three Musketeers" this week who livened up the session cos I played Rattlesnake with them and it was super duper funny sia when we suanned each other and there was a fantastic moment when I managed to fit the 8th magnet onto the board! Some of the games were quite tense and very enjoyable. Also played Blokus with them and they were using geography terms to describe their strategy which was super amusing.
Ok, will update the rest of Week 8 later this week due to time constraints but before I leave here's the answer to the v. lame chem. joke - "Horse" Because "ma3 cough ni3 cough" (horse cough you cough) - a pun on the chemist "Markovnikov". =P
(1) The chinese toilets used to be called, for the females, ting1 yu3 xuan1 (roughly translated to "a sheltered place where one can listen to the rain"), and for the males, guan1 pu4 ting2 (roughly translated to "a pavillion where one can see the waterfalls". LOL so classy and poetic right?
(2) On the way back to the staff room, I saw some of my 08S114 students from afar along the corridor who were talking to themselves and laughing then one of them said, "Mr Lau, your pants are unzipped!" I was kinda shocked and looked down and realised they played a joke on me. Didn't expect that cos they are the guai1 type of students - see how trusting I am? LOL. Then one of them went to tell the class about the incident and apparently it was made funnier cos I was still walking very fast (as usual) while checking so the student was demonstrating hahaha.
(3) There was a super lame joke when Lionel said he wanted to pass some papers to Denise and his action was to put the pile of papers on his knees. =P
(4) Helped relief 08S417 and it was quite funny cos I was teaching the start of Hydroxy Compounds tutorial then after explaining some questions at the end of the tutorial someone asked a shockingly basic question and I gave the student a "jaw drop look" and asked, "Are you sure you don't know?" She seemed to realise her mistake after that and the rest were laughing cos apparently my expression was very funny. Also heard this v. lame chem. joke which roughly goes, "Which animal will make you feel like coughing after it coughs?" (answer at the end of this post)
Week 7 (Mon) - Returned the students their test papers which was worrying and I was also very upset during tutorials because a lot of students couldn't remember the basics like reagents, conditions, and type of reactions despite having gone through them before but I told them I would be taking actions to rectify the situation and informed those who would meet me over the next 2 weeks to go through some basic memory work before the next test.
During the little bit of time left during lecture I was explaining about the concept of a stronger base having a weaker conjugate acid and I gave a funny analogy about me being single and available so if I find a partner I wouldn't want to let her go easily so for the case of ethylamine, because the lone pair on the N atom is more available due to the electron-donating ethyl group (I used a pun that the lone pair is sooo lonely and available), after accepting a proton the conjugate acid would be weaker (compared to the conjugate acid of a weaker base) because it would not want to donate the proton (at least not easily).
While having consultation at the canteen after school, one of my students tried to scare me by approaching me from the side but I already saw him from the corner of my eye so I wasn't shocked when he pounced on me and shouted "Cher!" I just calmly suanned him, "That wasn't scary. I think marking your test paper was more scary." =P
Tue - Announced to the LT about the test results and congratulated the top students in LT4. Then during the lecture I proceeded with my roving mike, doing it myself as I bounced around getting people to answer questions. I asked one of the top 10 students a question (what is a test specific to phenols) but surprisingly the student didn't know despite my hint that this is NOT a COMPLEX problem (the answer was using aqueous neutral FeCl3 solution which gives a violet complex) although quite a few others in the LT got my hint. Couldn't remember any particularly funny moment but the lecture was smooth and clear at least in my humble opinion.
Wed - Busy with preparation of my SRP worksheet that I only spent a little bit of time at my CCA and nowadays I've been leaving my EXCO to handle the students because I'm too absorbed in my other work and also to give them more responsibilities.
After CCA I had dinner with 2 of the SRP tutors (both girls) at the White Sands food court to discuss about the SRP worksheet for the coming weekend under the watchful and prying eyes of two groups of students who happened to sit at the tables right beside us haha. I know they will almost certainly gossip about us but there's nothing going on really. =)
Anyway, they were quite funny lah and they asked me to send an sms to this number which turns out to be from the STB. I was very doubtful at first and asked what it is for and they joked that it's to support them for some event then finally I gave in and just sent the SMS and apparently there were offers to get free tickets on weekend of Feb for certain places such as the Zoo and the Singapore Flyer and they suggested that all of us including the other tutor go take the Flyer and cancel the SRP session. So full of nonsense lol. =p
Thu - Stayed back late to discuss about the MBT and bumped into my good friend and ex-IGC mate who came back to school with her kids who I've not seen for months. Had a good chat and later on we were joined by "The Three Musketeers" (my own name that I give to this special trio haha) who were busy playing with the baby boy while I relaxed on the massage chair.
They were v funny and were gossiping about all kinds of stuff like who are their hottest/fav teachers, the fashion style of teachers (that someone looked quite lao2 tu3 with short-sleeved shirts, someone wore weird colours and someone wore creased clothes) and if you believe them, I'm supposed to be involved in some scandal lol. So funny listening to what they had to say.
Fri - Stayed back with my special task force, STF, (my nickname for those who are to stay back with me to do extra work) of about 20 students and I thought it was quite fruitful to get them to buckle down and to some solid studying cos I can explain to them individually when I mark their work on what to take note of and how to remember better certain things so hopefully that will help them lah.
Also helped out my ex-CG 08S114 to carry chairs cos they only had a few girls to help carry 25 chairs from E2-5 to the canteen (only 3 guys in the 1 class and 2 had CCA while one was doing work in my STF) and I carried 10.75 chairs (0.75 cos one of them brought 3 chairs 3/4 of the way hahaha), which was a good workout haha. =)
Sat - SRP + STF and it was again quite enjoyable to sit down with my STF from 08S416 to study with them and also chat about some stuff in life. That's one of the things I enjoy most about teaching, which is helping people to learn things and also interacting with the students. If only there was no admin work, that would be perfect!
Week 8 (Mon) - Tutorials were more enjoyable because at least when I ask questions more people can tell me the correct answers esp those in the STF who remember what they learnt and sometimes I would get quite animated and go "Yeah! That's the way!" with some funny action cos I was happy that they at least remember basic things and didn't waste our efforts and hopefully they can retain what they memorised for a long time.
Somebody in 08S114 asked if they were the supposed STF because I only gave them that nickname when I emailed the classes over the weekend and she was amused by it. Somebody also asked another student, "Why are you in the STF?" and the student replied, "Because I'm special!" Haha, they're all very cute!
Tue - Had STF session with some of the 08S114 kids and it was pretty funny and there was one moment when I dropped my pen and made some funny sounds, much to their amusement haha.
Wed - During 08S114 tutorial some of the STF students were again quite fast at giving the answers and I said something like, "See, the STF people are not bad now!" Then one of them said, "Yeah! Let's have more! When's the next session?" So funny sia...
Spent a little bit more time this week during CCA because I was finally able to spare more time and there were some honorary guests from "The Three Musketeers" this week who livened up the session cos I played Rattlesnake with them and it was super duper funny sia when we suanned each other and there was a fantastic moment when I managed to fit the 8th magnet onto the board! Some of the games were quite tense and very enjoyable. Also played Blokus with them and they were using geography terms to describe their strategy which was super amusing.
Ok, will update the rest of Week 8 later this week due to time constraints but before I leave here's the answer to the v. lame chem. joke - "Horse" Because "ma3 cough ni3 cough" (horse cough you cough) - a pun on the chemist "Markovnikov". =P
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Thoughts on Relationships; Term 1 Week 6 – Hell Week
Have been swamped with work since going back to school after reservist, hence this very late post. Anyway, I didn’t think many people are reading my blog (since I hardly get tagged) so I also wasn’t very motivated to blog until some of my students told me ytd that apparently I have quite a few followers haha so I thought I’d take a break from my work to blog now.
Valentines’ Day (Sat) – Went back to school to oversee the SRP before going back home to do work, so that puts paid to any rumours that I was out dating haha. Kinda sad maybe to some people but I wasn’t feeling down cos right now I don’t feel the need to be involved in a relationship. I guess my life experiences and future plans have made it such that there’s a barrier to me entering a relationship (high Ea haha).
Firstly, a relationship can be very draining in many ways especially emotionally. Even just liking a person without being in a relationship can already be tiring cos you’re thinking of the person constantly and wondering about what’s happening to her. I also don’t like to be judged by my partner and the people around her and feel compelled to do things that I may not be comfortable with. Example – I’m happy with teaching and comfortable with myself and life as it is so I don’t want somebody to pressure me and compare me to others that that I’m not earning enough or I don’t look as good, etc .
Secondly, there are a lot of things that I want to focus on over the next few years – improving on teaching (more chem. songs and games!), learning new things to improve myself (e.g. dancing), creating an online album on Youtube, etc. So I don’t want to be too tied down or pressured to settling down and having kids
Feb 15th - Total Defence Day. Busy marking stuff and preparing for tutorials. Had a nice 6km jog-sprint-stroll in the evening for an hour's worth of workout to burn off some fats!
Feb 16th (Mon) - Chem lecture test so busy marking again with all the SPA stuff, and test. Got so upset marking the test that I couldn't really enjoy my "Just For Laughs Gags", which is one of the funniest shows I've ever seen cos they are just so creative in their gags (I really loved the one where one whole group of actors mimicked the actions of the victims sitting right in front of them and also another one where the group pretended that the victims really disappeared after a magician's "disappearing" trick) but sometimes I wonder - don't the people on streets recognise these people after some time???
Feb 17th (Tue) - straight back to lecture with my chem. bro helping out with my roving mike, this time on Nitrogen Compounds. A couple of funny moments:
(1) Got someone to answer a question and he said "We feel the answer is..." So I joked back something like, "Oh, so nowadays it's a collaborative effort huh?"
(2) Got someone to draw an example of hydrogen bonding and he asked for a doughnut after that (cos I bought him one after he answered a question during Arenes lecture) and I joked back, "Cannot have doughnuts everyday, it's quite fattening you know!"
(3) Was starting on "Preparation of Amines" then I suanned some people, "Ok, let's look at some reactions that produce amines. The good news is we’ve gone through some of these reactions before in lectures and tutorials. The bad news is some of you don’t realize we’ve gone through these reactions before." =p
(4) While going through ammonolysis of halogenoalkanes, I said, "We went through 2 types of reagents/conditions before when I lectured Halogen Derivatives but there's one that's more important." Then I asked a student to tell me what he remembered, and he said "concentrated aqueous NH3". And I replied, "Ok, that's one, but what's the other one? That's the important one!" And after a few others tried unsuccessfully (some also saying conc. aq NH3) finally someone said the correct answer (excess gaseous NH3, heat at high pressure), to which I said, "Yes, finally! That's the important one!" Then somebody in front of me asked, "So what's the other one?" LOL...
(5) Towards the end of the lecture, there was a bit of time left for a question so I asked a girl to answer and I said something like, "Come on, we went through this before. Hurry up man! Oops, girl!"
Feb 18th (Wed) - Went for my elective, which was salsa dancing! I went earlier to see if I could catch up a bit on what I missed out over the 2 weeks but they were teaching too many things so I found it kinda hard to follow. The way the dance tutors teach is like I've learnt the moves before sia, expecting me to move my hands, arms, and hips like them, so I just got them to do it slowly and not follow the rest since I'm not familiar with the routine they are teaching at all and not even learnt the basics yet.
I must say I was pretty stiff in my movements haha and it didn't help that I never learnt salsa in my life before this. I needed to slow down and think through all the steps and internalise but during the 1.5 hours I had quite a lot to learn. It was kinda fun but also frustrating cos there was too much content. Nevertheless I made it a point to write down the routine after that so that I could do my own learning. And as I walked about the office I also tried to practice the basic steps and I think some of the staff were bemused by my actions hahaha.
Someone told me that I was missed during my reservist period and that I'm a good teacher - so sweet right? Haha, it definitely made my day!
During 08S201 tutorial in the lab, my laptop suddenly hung (again, as it often does nowadays) then again the cheeky boys would make some funny comments and asked me to end my lesson earlier since it was nearing the end of the lesson. Then I joked, "What break? It's ok, I don't need the laptop to teach! Everything is up here! (As I said that, I gave them a look and pointed to my brain)" Then I carried on with my lesson haha. Good thing I was at the synthesis question so I just focused on teaching how to devise the synthetic route so there wasn't much that needed to be written.
During CCA, I was talking to the new JC1s about our plans and I had pictures of our 2006/07 Games Convention and at one of the photos somebody asked, "Mr Lau, is that you? You look like a student!" I said, "Ya, you mean I don't look like a student now meh?" Students: "Ya." Me: "Cos I have to teach you all lah, that's why! Anyway, some people still say I look like a student, but not as much as last time lah!" =p
Feb 19th (Thu) - Busy trying to finish up the draft of the Block Test invigilation duties (as part of my duties in the Exam Committee) in the morning then had lecture after that. Wasn't entertaining to me cos the concept (basicity) was more abstract and new so need students to focus more on that. I tend to joke more at the things that are being revised and/or not so conceptually taxing so that students don't get bored. Gotta learn to balance between being serious and funny also for student's benefit!
Feb 20th (Fri) - During SPA with 08S114, I was chionging around the lab to mark their SPA work at a super fast pace, much to their amusement and amazement cos I memorised the answers after marking another class' work. It was Jonathan's birthday and they brought me 2 pieces of cake cos I had a meeting during their recess so I couldn't be there for the celebrations - so sweet of them! Haha, it was a good thing cos I didn't have time for breakfast and the cake was mango flavoured - my fav! =)
Feb 21st (Sat) - MJC Road Race. Wasn't planning to run actually cos lacking sleep recently plus lack of training plus the fact that only the top 5 get extra points for the house plus some of us planned to go out for brunch after that so didn't see a point to run. I even had a late breakfast since I planned to walk but then I saw some students along the way to the starting point who told me to jia you and they seemed disappointed when I told them I didn't plan to run cos I was feeling v. tired so in the end I just ran and at least I never stopped and the pace was pretty ok. On the way back, came across Miranda house and some were encouraging me and joking to tell me to focus, to which I pointed to my brain to signal that I have the mental strength to go all the way though I don't know what they may have interpreted of that haha.
Oh, and there was something super funny in the morning. I was supposed to meet my friends (A and B, both guys) to go there together but I was late so I called one of them (B) to tell them to go off first. Later on when I saw them A told me this funny incident. Apparently, when I called B, A heard the ringtone, which was the phrase "How do I live without you?", to which A gave B a dodgy look. Anyway, it turns out that the song was B's standard ringtone for everyone (and not a customised ringtone), but the story was hilarious. =P
Anyway, back to the race, I was talking to the others about how when I first came to MJC and took part in my first road race, I came in 9th and I told myself I would work towards getting into the top 5 but somehow once I started teaching I never found much time to exercise so instead I find myself slipping in recent years. Then my chem. bro suggested we go train together then next year we'll be amongst those going onto the stage instead. Haha, it was a good suggestion actually and I was quite excited about the idea but last week I was too busy and tired to run again so we postponed the plans haha. Hopefully this week I can find some time... Would be good training for IPPT as well!
During the prize presentation, I went up to 08S416 cos they were standing almost in front of our teachers' tent then I joked with them, "So how? Have you all studied for SPA?" Then I pretended to jog and recall what they learnt during SPA, much to their amusement.
After the prize presentation we went to E-Hub for food and ended up at this place called "Fig and Olive" which serves some Mediterranean cuisine but quite a few of us felt that the food and service was quite poor. My exotic-sounding dish seemed more like a hyped-up version of nasi-bryani to me and there were also complaints about the "melted" cheese which was more solid than liquid and the bread, which needed a saw rather than a knife.
Anyway, the company was good as usual and there was one super funny part when A said he liked using the massage chair in the staff lounge because he liked being vibrated then B tapped A rapidly on his shoulder and asked, "How? Does it feel good?" LOL, super crappy!
Went home to take a nap then marked test papers again before going out to meet some of them for karaoke at Crystabelle. Tried to sing some other songs instead cos I wanted to try new stuff but there were still some of the usual songs being sung by others, which actually to me were being sung too often so for me it was a little boring during some songs. But the good thing is that there's never a need to pay for concerts cos we have our own Jay Chou / Wang Li Hong / Jacky Cheung / Stephanie Sun / Tanya Chua! Yes, there are talented singers in our Chem Dept alone!
After that we went out for supper at this Rochor Beancurd place and the beancurd was really nice! Talked about a lot of stuff, heard a couple of lame jokes and the funniest part was the Chinese stuff I learnt from some of them. A joked about some censored stuff then B said, "yuan lai ni you zhe xie wo4 cuo4 de xiang fa" (so actually you have such unclean thoughts) and we were like, "Wah, wo4 cuo4! What does it mean?" Apparently some of them knew also, so only the jiak kantang people like me and a few others didn't understand. Then later on somebody mentioned about reading those "wei3 xie4" (crass, uncouth) type of comics and we were like, "Wah, wei3 xie4! What does it mean?" Later on we kept trying to use the terms where possible and we joked that we will be hearing a lot of these terms in school next week haha. There was something super duper funny about what they used to call Chinese toilets also but I can't remember. Will ask and write in my next post!
Feb 22nd (Sun) - Marking again plus setting block test plus catching up on sleep cos I seriously lacked sleep during the last week. Only watched "Let's Dance" and I really love that show cos I love dancing (at least the thought of it) and my favourite is this group called "Hei Jiao" cos they are like really cool with their hip-hop/breakdance and their routines are pretty innovative and well-choreographed and their movements are very synchronised.
Ok, it's back to work for me (vet block test, set common test, prepare SRP worksheet + answers, prepare for tutorials and lecturing for mass tutorial, marking holiday assignment and extra work for my "special task force") - hope to find some time to post about Week 7 soon! =)
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