T2 W3-5

Ok, let me finish updating the recent events!

Firstly, something v funny that I left out. T2 W1 Wed - Went to find 10S103 to give out my hand-made prizes for the winners of the redox half-equation challenge that they did during the last week of Term 1. I gave them styrofoam stars that I bought from Artfriend decorated with an animal sticker and also wrote on each arm of the star a common half equation (those involving MnO4-/Mn2+, Cr2O72-/Cr3+, Fe2+/Fe3+, I-/I2 and S2O32-/S4O62-) and also signed on the opposite side of the star.

Some cheeky kid (who didn't get the star) was joking, "Huh? Mr Lau, that's it ah?" And I was joking back, "Eh, this is priceless ok! You think you can get this from anywhere? This involves my precious time and effort you know! Besides, it has my signature on it! Who knows maybe 10 years down the road if I'm famous you could even sell it!" =P Then the kid joked again, "Later she kenna scolded by you in class then she scold you and cut off one part of the arm each time she gets scolded!" LOL. So full of nonsense man! In addition, the kid gave such a funny face and made such dramatic cutting actions that I just burst out laughing in my fits again and they all cracked up as usual.

Then as I was talking to them about their CCAs cos I went to do some research somebody joked that I was stalking them and I joked, "You think I'm sooooo free to go and stalk you all ah? It's to know moooooore about you so that I can foresee your CCA commitments!" Then as I was naming each of their CCAs I realised I forgot one of them so I took 2 dramatic steps back and gave this funny face as I tried to recall and we all laughed again. Funny!

T2 W3 (Mon)- Tut with 10S103 was funny again and the best part was prob when one of the students sitting in front saw my new cufflinks and asked what was written on it and I jokingly said something like, "How come you're paying soooooo much attention to me? I know I'm VERY interesting but you should be focusing more about what I'm teaching rather than on me!" So funny! Anyway I took 10 sec to pose and showed them the words - one of the cuff-links said "I'm the Boss" and the other one said "I'm Never Wrong". Haha I like the cuff-links! Only $20 some more!

Double period tut with 10S417 and it's always tough during these kind of periods esp at the end of the day at 3.25pm with the hot weather and stuffy lab - confirm the students (and myself to some extent) are half-dead so gotta do even more to keep them on task. They also asked if they can finish earlier so basically I set the agenda of completing the few items that I had in mind and as long as we finish then they can go.

As I was asking questions, again they were a bit dead even for a simple yes/no question to check if they have any problems so I suanned them and said, "Eh, you want to go back early then you need to participate? If everytime I ask a simple question and it takes so long to be answered then how to finish early?" Then suddenly they got all hyped up and answered a lot faster. Think in the end it works much better cos they are more focused when they know I'll let them off so they are more motivated to answer faster. =)

Met up with the EXCO Nominees to run through ideas regarding the publicity and marketing strategies for our 8th SC Presents fund-raising event and it was quite interesting cos I gave them detailed feedback over the weekend regarding their plans so they refined it a bit and we came up with quite a few interesting gimmicks about how to make things more visual and appealing to people and ideas for interesting videos to promote our cause.

Tue - H1 Tut on Redox was painful and it was a struggle getting the answers from the kids so much so that I gave a dramatic look and acted like I was going to kill myself to liven up the lesson as I got various ppl to answer my questions. Really needed to work from the basics for many of the questions but ok lah, it's a challenge that I enjoy. Ultimately it's v different teaching H1 and H2 but I feel it's more of the time factor rather than just solely motivation factor cos with more time I could afford to go slowly to make sure they understand.

PBL Presentation for both my H2 classes and it was quite interesting since it's our first time conducting PBL. The funniest part was again with 10S103 when someone was rattling on about a whole lot of fanciful stuff and I was trying to process everything that he was saying and making sense out of it so I was making some funny action which got the kids laughing and apparently I made a face which someone described as "classic". =p

Wed and Fri - Had our 8th SC Council EXCO Nominee Interviews and there were some interesting interviews though at certain junctures it felt a bit like the earlier interviews for the "normal" Council Nominees so it was not so interesting.

Fri - With the help of my teacher I cooked fried rice again and it was again well received so yippee! We also had a lot of other good food to eat courtesy of my si-fu like honey-coated chicken wings, fried wanton, and dessert and we had our Wii Party in the pantry so it was an awesome night of relaxation after a hard week of working!

T2 W4 (Mon) - Tut with 10S103 and the funniest moment was when I was stuck at asking someone a question on noble gas configuration and it was clear the person didn't know what was going on and didn't even seem to understand my question when everyone else seemed to have understood. The person was like looking all over the place and looking blur and said that must find me for consultation and I was like replying in a dramatic tone, "YES, definitely PLEASE!"
Then someone pointed out I pronounced the person's name wrongly and I was just repeating the person's name when I randomly said that it rhymed with a fruit which entertained them.

Tue - H1 Tut was quite funny today cos it started with me implementing my new rule for punctuality regarding the H1 class and I locked the classroom doors to prevent the latecomers from entering and questioned them why they were late. In the end some of them were made to stand at the back of the class until they could answer my questions since they were only slightly late. Hopefully that'll put them in place for future tutorials!

8th SC Presents (Fund-raising Event) - Our SC started this new event this time for the Council Elects because we wanted to see how they work together and also to test out the abilities of the EXCO Nominees and I was in charge of the fund-raising event which I felt was really interesting cos I enjoyed the planning of the publicity and marketing and also tabulating the finances hahaha for some strange reason. So today was the start of our soft launch for the event and it was ok but it was a very busy morning getting the things shipped out and setting up the booths for everyone.

Later in the evening, our Council TAs met up with the 7th SC EXCO to decide who would be in the 8th SC EXCO and the various posts of the other councillors and it was an interesting debate regarding some of the keenly contested posts. Quite an interesting process and it wasn't the perfect EXCO but it's something we can work with since people can be trained and overall we were happy with the outcomes so hopefully in time to come our judgment will prove to be correct =)

Took me a super long time to get home cos waited super long for the bus and still had to sort out our video for publicity tmr till almost midnight =s

Wed - Publicity for our SPAMAD (Suggestions, Power and Might - our feedback and suggestions segment of 8th SC Presents and Make a Difference - our fund-raising segment) and it was a stressful morning as we felt the preparations were not thorough enough and in the end I rushed to come up with something for the kids (the script, Powerpoint slides, and emphasis of the briefing) in order to make an impactful publicity. The final outcome was pretty satisfactory but I wondered how they would've done if we left them to their own devices. Certainly something to be reviewed during our AAR!

Council TA Meeting - Started with the guys watching this cartoon movie which was pretty funny but we didn't get to finish it as we had to start working on deciding the events ICs for the 8th SC and also refining the 8th SC Constitution, which was also something new. It was very funny as with all our TA Meetings and the funniest part was the suggestion to play music before assembly, starting with soothing music then as the time for assembly nears it gets more upbeat and then our funniest TA got all dramatic again and started to sing the music from Phantom of the Opera together with all the dramatic actions! Hilarious!

Thu - It's Maths Awareness Month and today there was apparently a Sudoku mini-competition during Common Lunch with teachers and students which I didn't know initially until they announced during morning assembly so I was joking with my good friend from the Maths Department how come they didn't invite the other teachers (which they did in the email actually but I missed it haha =p) then she joked with me saying that she'll let the teacher-in-charge know.

The next thing I know in the morning I got a call to ask me to make a guest appearance and play a PK match against the winner, which I agreed. So during common lunch after helping the Council kids to set up our fund-raising booth, I popped down to make my guest appearance and won both rounds of the Sudoku game. Some of my 10S417 kids were cheering me on and after that they asked me how come I didn't inform them to come support. Haha, well, it was a last-minute thing and it seemed kinda weird and stressful to ask them to support haha. Like so bhb. Anyway it was certainly a thrill for me since it's been sometime when I took part in any form of competition and I liked the adrenaline rush that I used to feel when I play in chess/bridge competitions. =)

Chrystal was about time-management and I spent some time at the start talking about the significance of this coming Sat. I asked them, "Do you know what special day is this Saturday?" Then they started guessing things like my birthday, World Sudoku day and can't rem what other funny stuff which I said it was wrong. Then I drew their attention to the date as I wrote on the board 4 17 (April 17th) and said, "It's 417 DAY!" They were so amused and some were joking that it's lame and some said that it's sweet haha.

Anyway I told them that we'll have a class party tmr and I'll order pizza in to eat after our tut since it's our last period and that I'll pay for it but they must make sure they entertain me. They asked me to sing and I jokingly said, "What? I'm paying and I have to sing to entertain you? You should be entertaining me!" Haha. I came up with the idea cos I felt that more needed to be done to get the class bonded together and what better than eating and playing together so in the end I borrowed some simple games also from IGC for them.

Fri - Had our 417 class party as planned and the food was pretty good though they sure were a bunch of hungry kids! 6 extra large pizzas for 4 guys and 18 girls and everything was gone in a flash. Got them to play various games and some also played their own reflexes/coordination game which was very funny and even I had some difficulties. Overall I think it helped them to bond a bit more but not as successful as I hoped for cos some were not around due to CCA then some were still quite detached during the playing. Need to work on it still!

Went out for dinner with some of my friends at Tampines One, the Japanese foodcourt on level 3, and it was pretty ok before we went to shop. Funny part was both said they wanted to shop but in the end it was me who ended up buying about $300+ worth of stuff from Natural Project and I wore my new belt and shoes immediately haha. Nice!

Later on, we all went for the guitar concert by our Guitar Ensemble Meridian (GEM) and it was really fantastic! Without a doubt, it was the best school production I've attended. They had a musical about a love story and even though the storyline had some cliche parts, I found it very entertaining cos the lead actor was really super comical and he had such a comical face to boot so the humorous moments were really funny and yet also touching at certain parts cos of the storyline and believeable acting, to the point that I had some tears in my eyes. Not so cold and aloof as some people make me out to be I guess haha.

I also appreciated the original composition by the lead actor which showcased his talents, the video/spotlights which were done professionally, the pieces chosen and background to match the various parts of the musical. All in all, I think the story was enthralling to say the least (with a sad ending like those Korean dramas as a friend said) and apart from the first piece which was quite messy, the playing was generally pretty decent, esp the alumni which was v good. If they ever perform this musical again, I'd strongly recommend anyone to watch it as I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

After that we met up with some of our other friends and went out to chill. Initially we went to Swissotel but the place we wanted to go was closed so we ended up going to Dempsey Road which had a lot of pubs/bars and we settled down for drinks at a quiet dinery before moving on to this place called CMPB (nothing related to the army!) where we bumped into an ex-student from MJC who just graduated. Anyway I was soooo tired I was already falling asleep at the first place so by the time I reach the second place I was just resting in my chair

Sat - Went out for lunch at Aston's and then pool with Jon, Leon, PY, ZT and Samuel. Pool was disappointing to say the least and the last game was totally disgusting. Having gone 6-0 up with some good play I contrived to lose the game with quite a few disgusting shots. Crap! Oh, in between I sent out a msg to my CG to wish them happy 10S417 day haha!

Anyway I had to rush off cos I was meeting another group of ppl for dinner - 2 x MY, Caroline and HS. Met up with Meiyan and Minyu first then we jalan around Somerset 313 and the funniest part was when Minyu bumped into me at the shop. Then I got a drink as we sat down to rest and chat about various stuff like teaching, their future plans, and even horoscopes.

We met the other two later on at the Marche there and proceeded for dinner which was pretty ok, but nothing fantastic. After that we went to Cold Rock Ice Creamery for dessert. My first time there and I liked the Cheesecake and Aussie Vanilla ice-cream! Smooth and yummy! Then we headed to the Sky Garden at OC to chill for a really short while and it was so funny to see HS and Meiyan's reactions cos they were scared of heights (actually me too but I was still quite ok that night haha). Finally we took photos inside OC before making our way home. Good to see them after so long!

T2 W5 (Mon) - 10S103 seemed quite hyped up today even without me having to do anything haha. However when I was greeting them they sounded so dead so I made fun of them by saying in a dead tone, "It's only Monday and all of you are dead already..." That cracked them up haha. Funniest part was when I drew out the Periodic table (a pretty ugly-looking one) to illustrate the s, p and d-block elements to discuss electronic configuration and they all jokingly said and nodded together, "Ya, ya" as they were laughing at my drawing.
My forever hungry student was again griping jokingly about being hungry so I said something like, "If it makes you feel better, remember that I don't get to eat until you have eaten".

10S417 SPA was ok - some funny parts as I showed the demo about collecting gases and two girls were hugging each other when they got back their test results cos they both got A which I thought was quite funny but it's good to celebrate your little successes =)

Wed - Tut with 10S103 and there was this funny moment when I was suanning somebody. I was at this question which asked them to suggest some reason why radon is not used for lighting up signs (like neon signs) so I said that this question needed them to think out of the box so I directed the question at somebody and said, "Let's get you to try answering it. After all, you are FOREVER thinking out of the box."

Some of them got my drift and laughed at my subtle poking haha. As the student started explaining quickly at length about all kinds of things I gave another stunned face which the kids were laughing at. But anyway, for all the various mumbo-jumbo stuff that was said, there were segments which were correct so well, it's not that bad.

Had Council Investiture in the afternoon and it was quite good I felt. Looking forward to an interesting time working with the 8th SC and it was a good experience working with the 7th also, despite the little time that I had with them. We had our final debrief for the 7th SC where we gave them their name tags with their nicknames and some were really funny! The funniest part had to be in the evening where our funniest TA had a showdown with the 7th SC and we laughed our guts out at the events that followed. Super hilarious and it was like watching a horror movie with all the screaming and running!

Thu - Chrystal lesson was a talk by this Mr Martin Tan who talked about the concept of Paying It Forward like the movie and it was an interesting talk! The part about the meeting between Nixon and Mao Ze Dong was pretty funny but it was a good link to ask the students to think about who they are.

Sat - Went out for dinner with friends at Sun Restaurant at Chijmes and the food there was AWESOME! I enjoyed my mocktails (a calpis drink and a mango Mojito), the foie gras, beef steak sushi, salmon sushi and salad, unagi rice, and prawns. The foie gras and prawns were really fantastic and the fizzy drinks just gave more kick to the food!

Then we headed to The Loof to chill and ended up talking about something funny regarding men, women and fruits and I got another mocktail called "Running Amock" hahaha! Funny name! Then it was off to Fullerton Hotel Post Bar which had really comfy chairs but it was in the open before finally going to New Asia Bar at Swissotel. I just tagged along for the experience but I'm sure I won't be going to any disco place anytime soon or in the future cos I really don't like all the noise. I like a place with ambience to chill rather than music pumping away. But oh well, it's all for the experience ya? =)

Ok, finally finished updating everything (save maybe for some other things that I may recall next time)! Time to get some work done and then sleep!