Microsoft Academic Skills Challenge results are out!

http://www.acpcomputer.edu.sg/mos2007/results/Prelims%20-%20Zone%20Championship%20Results.htm

Dingyan is the 2nd runner-up for the North Zone in the Microsoft Word category and is ranked 6th in the National overall. Congratulations to him.

Chee How is ranked 5th in the North Zone for the Microsoft Powerpoint category.

As for me - I am the champion in the Microsoft Powerpoint category for MOE staff! Didn't really expected that as I mentioned before that I completed it in 20 mins instead of 50 mins due to the cold.

Well - though happy about the results, I am still down with throat infection and I hope I will regain my voice next week!

Microsoft Academic Skills Challenge 18 April 2007

2 of our students managed to pass the challenge - quite a comfort as they had spent the last 2 days training with me. While waiting for them, I overheard some of the students from other schools telling the teachers that all of them failed! As for the other 3 students, I think they can try again next year as they were not very well prepared this year.

Microsoft Office word 2003: Lim Ding Yan 853 (passed)

Microsoft Powerpoints 2003: Ho Chee How 667 (passed)

Congratulations to the 2 of them as they would be awarded the Microsoft Office Specialist Certification. The Microsoft Office Specialist certification is the globally recognized standard for validating expertise with the Microsoft Office suite of business productivity programs.

I also passed the Microsoft Powerpoints 2003 with a score of 818. I think Powerpoints is thougher as I can see more teachers registered for Microsoft Words.I will enroll in Microsoft Words next year. As the lab was too cold, I completed mine in 20 mins and rushed out - I might have made some careless mistakes in a hurry. The time limit is 50 mins. I will bring a jacket next year!

I hope that Ding Yan can get into the top 3 for the North Zone as his score is quite high. I am quite eager to know the results and I hope it will be released soon. I don't know how's my chance of winning but definitely I am the first to finish! I will update once I get the results.

The next competitions which I must monitor are the E-card Design Competition and the Geography Challenge 2007. I must say Kiat Yi has taken some very nice photographs and I think she can do well in the E-card competition. I am more worried for the other 2 teams as I have not seen their works and I don't teach them. I have asked 6 boys to participate in the Geography Challenge 2007 and I will show them samples of questions for the previous years. I hope that they can make it to the semi-finals to qualify for the Geo Trail where they will have fun exploring Singapore!

Microsoft Academic Skills Challenge

Went through the training for Microsoft Words with Ding Yan and Chee How today in the Computer Lab with the help from Mr Phoon, our IT trainer.

I must say I learnt quite a no. of new skills on Microsoft Words Today e.g.
1. How to use the format painter to copy formatted text.
2. How to insert a horizontal line from border and shading.
3. How to fit diagram to contents.
4. How to insert hyperlink with bookmark and web address with screentips.
5. How to replace a particular font in a text to another by using the replace function under edit.
6. How to use the autocorrect option under tools to replace acronym with the formatted word. This is a very good function e.g. everytime I type HS for example, the full term for it "Hougang Secondary School" will appear.
7. How to add shapes to a inserted radial diagram.
8. How to make a semi-transparent rectangular from autoshapes selection.
9. How to apply shadow border to a bulleted list through formating the border and shadings.
10. How to orientate only one page of the document to landscape by clicking from this point forwards.
11.How to open up the reviewer's panel and accepting all changes.
12. How to merge documents.

We spent more than 4 hours on practising the mock exercises and will spend another hour tomorrow to enhance the speed. Mr Phoon showed us that the top 2 winners for last year's competition had perfect scores of 1000. The Champion completed it within 20 mins whereas the 1st runner-up did it within 28 mins. Seems like it is going to be thougher this year.

The two boys will also practise on the mock exercises for the microsoft powerpoints tomorrow. As mentioned earlier - I am also going to take part in the challenge for Powerpoints this Wednesday with the students. I will update on the results after the challenge on Wednesday. I am just worried for the other 3 participants who are involved in the Art Fiesta as they might not have practised the mock exercises.

I had just emailed to Bixia some of the solutions. For the other two participants - if you are reading this now - please email to me at lily_lee68@yahoo.com.sg

NECDC heritage gallery

Saw this web link on the NECD heritage gallery:

http://www.northeast.org.sg/NEGallery/demo_gallery.html

I remembered that two of our teams won the 1st and the 3rd prize in the NECD Virtual Heritage Design Competition in 2004. There is much to explore in the North-east and I would recommend that you visit the site to learn about the history in the area we are living in!

National Weather Project Presentation 9 April 2007

A picture taken with the judges and the team members of D-Tect - Tee Kuan, Kit Man, Qi Yin, Cheri and Utama on the day of presentation in our school.

One of the judges commented that their presentation is good. The followings are the points raised by the judges which the team can improve on:

1. What triggered the students to embark on this project and whether they did a survey? The team members mentioned that it was because some of their friends or relatives were actually affected by dengue and that was why they started on this project. They could improve by doing a survey or interview before they start on the project.

However the team mentioned that they visited the NEA exhibition on dengue at the HDB in Nov last year and they learnt more about the Aedes mosquitoes and how dengue is spread.

2. The judges also wanted to know whether the team is sharing their project with the school. The members told the judges about the information which they had shared on the Humanities notice board and mentioned that they will need to collect more data before they can present it to the school.

3. The faciliator also suggest that the students broaden their data collection ie. refer to esphere.net for more information and weather data. The students do not need to confine to the weather data they had collected with our mini-weather station. One of the judges actually asked for the graphs to be interpolated so that the comparison between the weather data and dengue cases can be made more clearly.

4. One of the judges mentioned that the title was good ' Hotspots, Dengue Probe" and the students could actually provide more interesting information on the hotspots.

The results will be released after the 20th April.

World Red Cross Celebration 7th April

A picture of our Flags for the World Red Cross Celebration Day Flag Design competition as well as our Sec 1 cadets taking the Red Cross Pledge in the enrolment ceremony.

We had spent almost a month conceptualizing the design to purchasing the materials and putting them together. We could not find the wire as skeleton for the hand which is made from the surgical gloves and stuffing - At the end we had to use aluminium foil which proved to be better! We shaped the aluminium foil into the shape of a hand before inserting it into the glove which was stuffed with cotton. It allowed us to bend the fingers into the position we wanted. We had a hard time as not all the Sec 1 knows how to stitch. However, we were very pleased with the results and had confidence that we will do well in the competition.

In the morning of the World Red Cross Day Celebration, 5 cadets had to go for the rehearsal for the marching contingent and another 5 cadets as casualties for the Disaster Preparadeness exercise. Sad to say, due to the heavy down pour, we could not really see the performance cadets in the DP exercise.

The heavy downpour also meant that our celebration ended early and the results of the flag design competition could not be announced. We were told that we will be notified later of the results. I just hope that our flags are not damaged by the heavy downpour. Thank goodness we used waterproof paint materials for the flags.

I will update the results once I receive it.

P.S. Just received the news on 12th April 2007 – we won the FIRST prize in the “celebrating service with compassion and passion” category and the 1st runner-up in the ”7 Principles of Red Cross” Category!

Good Ideas

Some ideas for the innowits project. I was told that I will be in-charge of the Sec 2E3 with Mr Wong. The project idea is to get the students to share good ideas with the school. It might not be sometime which they invented but good ideas which they would like to share. I must say I had learnt a lot of good ideas from the following website:




Simply love this Taiwan show:



http://tv.ettoday.com/ettv/include/goodidea291_1.htm

You can definitely get a lot of new ideas from them! e.g how to recycle empty bottle and plastic bag for storage: