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