Term 1 Weeks 8-9, March “Holidays”

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! =)