Sick Earth Dying Geography?

Sad to say this - our earth is sick and we need everyone to make an effort to make it better again.

Just look at how our air is being polluted by the forest fires in Indonesia - if we don't do anything now - it would be worse in the future. Not only does it harm our health, it can be very damaging to our economy especially when we talk about its impact on tourism. A news article highlighted recently that air pollution could also affect our status in attracting foreign talents. The impact is simply far greater than what we could actually see.

Up till today there are still hotspots in Indonesia and the haze problem will continue to exist till end of next month. Just look at the smoke haze map today! Click on the map below for a bigger image.

You can also check out our air quality (PSI readings) on this website: http://app.nea.gov.sg/psi/

Check out this website on the 50 things you can do to help reduce air pollution: http://www.airinfonow.org/html/activities.html

Looking at the climatic history of Singapore, the air should be cleared by 25th Nov as the wind direction changes. Check it out at http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/48698.html

I am also quite saddened by the fact nobody opted for pure Geography for next year's Sec 3 level. Is Geography going to die out soon?

I still strongly believe in the importance of Geography and like what I had mentioned to my students "Geography is everything". In learning Geography, one acquires an investigative mind, looking at how the environment has affected us, as well as how we had affected the environment. For the thousands of students whom I had taught Geography to, I am sure you would have found it useful in your life. As you travel, you would have marvelled at the wonders of the Earth's natural landforms and with Geography you would have understood its formation better. Thinking of buying a bungalow near to a beach? Think twice as global warming would actually mean a rise in sea level and coastal flooding could actually mean the destruction of coastal settlements!

Though I was trained in both Economics and Geography, I had been teaching Geography all these years and had developed a stronger passion for Geography. I am simply reluctant to let it die out... but I am so helpless. No doubt, Economics is a very useful subject and I am sure it will benefit many students as half the A level student population in Singapore actually take Economics at A level. I am glad that it is introduced to the students at O level. I have even created a website for the teachers and students to share resources on O level Economics: http://geocities.com/olevelecons/

I will be preparing myself to teach the subject next year ( getting a bit rusty as I had not taught that subject since 1991 after my teaching practise!) There are actually certain parts in Economics that are very Geography based. In Geography, we learn about resources. In Economics, we actually learn how man make use of those limited resources. Certain topics such as the types of industries are similar in both Economics and Geography.

RCY North District Youth Officer Sharing session

I did a sharing together with Mrs Lai on the Red Cross Activties which we conduct in our school and how we managed to get a Silver for the Excellent Unit Award for the last 2 years on Sat 7th Oct.

Mrs Lai went through the 1st 5 criterias and I went through the next 5 criterias for the EUA. This is the powerpoint for EUA which we had presented. Just wondering whether I appeared as nervous in front of so many teacher officers? Well I had Mrs Lai's support!

I also devised a spreadsheet which the teachers can use to calculate their scores to check whether they are able to attain the Award and I posted it up on the Red Cross website. This is the Excel Spreadsheet I devised to calculate the EUA points. It was also the official launch of the North District RCY Website I also helped them compressed and posted a video on the North District Camp on the web: North District Camp 2006 Video .

Recalling back the days when I actually volunteered to take over Red Cross - I was formerly in-charge of the Green Club and I must say I did not have the Green Fingers and I had no interest in it. The teacher-in-charge of Red Cross then was leaving and I went up to Mr Khoo to volunteer to take over as I was formerly with the St John Ambulance Brigade. I struggled over the first year - however I was fortunate to have very responsible VIs - Annie and King Wei. 

Recruitment was good and our unit grew to be over 100! I appealed to Mr Khoo for an assistant but the ones assigned to our unit left very soon (hardly a year), I think our unit was very fortunate to have Mrs Lai being assigned as the other teacher-in-charge. Before she joined in - we only managed a Bronze award for the Community Service. I was too overwhelmed with work alone and could not really see into building up the cadet's proficiency in getting the badges. When she joined in the unit, the two of us went through the Youth Officer course and we passed the SFA. This actually contributed to part of the score for the EUA. We also work together on many of the activities as well as the camp.

I am proud to say that all these paid off as we acheived the Silver Award for EUA as well as the Gold Award for Community Service for the past two years. I am happy that we attained the awards as it would benefit our cadets in their CCA points. As mentioned earlier - I feel a lot for our Red Cross Unit - I always feel that our cadets are angels who are willing to volunteer their help for community work and are able to contribute to the good of our society as first aiders.

I would like to say a big thank you to Mrs Lai and also that I am proud of our HS Red Cross unit.