Every Second Counts Competition

Sharing another piece of good news - one of our Red Cross teams won the 2nd prize in the 'Every Second Counts" competition organised by the School of Health Sciences, Ngee Ann Polytechnic on 7th Nov.

A total of 235 students from 16 schools and 25 teams from various Uniform groups including NPCC, girl guides, St John Ambulance Brigade etc took part in the competition. In the earlier part of the event, the students were taught CPR, measuring blood pressure and feeding the patients etc.

I think all our cadets were happy that they had participated in the event as they had learnt something new. During the competition, one of our teams told me that they actually scored full marks for four components out of the five for the competition. However when they announced the results, the team did not win anything. I was a bit suspicious and asked the organiser whether I could look at the score - not because we are sore loser but I wanted a fair appraisal of their performance. Sure enough we noticed something was wrong with our total score. Mrs Lai actually detected that they entered the formula for the spreadsheet for our team wrongly and one component was not added at all. The organiser held a meeting and rechecked the marks - confirming that our team actually scored the second highest and our team should be awarded the 2nd prize. I am glad they rectified the mistake quickly and sent the trophies to our school. As mentioned many times, I have always been proud of our Red Cross Cadets and strongly believe in their ability to excel!

You can click on this link to see some of the photos taken: http://adobe.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=16n5tjhb.jwhlvtr&Uy=8pkj11&Ux=0

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.

National Interschool Media Challenge 2006

At today's award ceremony - our team came in 2nd! Our students won $2000, $250 voucher and 5 Nokia N80 3G handphones. I mentioned I won the motorola v3x handphone in a contest but so far the motorola executive has not contacted me - it is really a far cry from the handphone which my students won today. Basically the N80 can be used to surf the net more effectively - how I wish my prize is the Nokia N80 instead. It cost more than $700 each and I don't think I want to pay so much for one. Anyway, my hubby's phone broke down - I am planning to give him the Motorola which I have won - just wondering when that will be!

I must confessed that I am pleasantly surprised that we came in 2nd, overtaking Nanyang Girls who was the champion last year. We came in 3rd last year. I supposed our girls did a better job by focusing on caring for our community. I think Jamie Yeo mentioned about our blog on the care for the elderly.

I am also happy that our girls have decided to contribute half of their winning cash to charity.
I would like to congratulate Peijun, jialing, kiatyi and Naomi again..... hopefully our team will win again next year!

MOTOCOLOURS Contest winner

I had just received an email notifying me that I am a winner of the MOTOcolours contest. I was trying to encourage my students to participate in the contest which was announced in campusmoblog but I didn't get any response. At the end, I decided I should submit an entry myself. I created a simple one using window movie maker and edited the images with Macromedia firework. It took me around 2 hours. I am surprised that the entry won. My only regret is that the students did not participate in it - I am sure that many can do a better one.

I will be quite busy with my markings - I have to mark more than 40 essays a day - I have 320 essays to mark for the Prelim! I have finished marking the test for Sec 2 and Sec 3. I am quite disappointed with the tests as I can see that many of them did not put in any effort at all. Some of the Sec 3 did not even turn up for the test. Qi Qi and Yihui came in only after my test - can you believe it? Christina, Michelle, Chunfa, Ivan and Zongren were hiding in the classroom - they did not even come to the humanities room to take the test. I just hope that the Sec 4 will perform better.

We had the promotion ceremony for the Red Cross Cadets today. I am so happy to see that the Sec 2 and 3s have achieved so much and had grown to be better leaders. The Sec 1 has also done us proud - all of them were promoted and had received 3 badges or more. You can view the photos here: http://geocities.com/hsredcrosspro06/ Don't be shocked to see that my uniform is a little bluish - I didn't realise it until Jannah pointed that out - the colour must have run as I washed it in the washing machine (we had photo-taking on Wed). I was quite embarassed but I think if I bleach it - it will be white again!

Geography in Movies

For those who know me - I often say that Geography is everything. You often laugh when I relate the Geography to the things around you, even the movies you watch. For example, recently I watched the korean drama series "Jewel in the Palace" and "legendary doctor Hur Jun. Both pointed out the importance of the source of water for cooking and brewing medicine. Chang Jin was asked to bring back different types of water and used them for cooking. She later realised that a certain spring water make a wonderful soup base for noodle and was served to the king. Hur Jun's teacher was angry that he brought back the wrong type of water which was not suitable for brewing medicine. Have you really wondered why there are so many different types of water? When I was young, I brought the water from a well to school and as we looked at it through the microscope, we realised that it was so different from the tap water. As water seeps through the ground, it dissolved some minerals and the water content thus differ. That's why some people prefer to drink from certain springs. I love to watch CSI and it was mentioned in many series that water carries an identity - the water found in a river or even in different swimming pools differ.

In a particular Hong Kong drama "Cha shi Gu Xiang Rong" and it was about how people struggled to grow tea. It is simply so geographical - from looking at the soil type to tracing the water source. How tea plantation was monopolised and of course many features of plantation which I had discussed with the students - such as how the tea leaves are harvested using cheap labour and how the tea leaves are processed in the factories. The growing of tea plants on higher altitude and how roads are constructed to faciliate movement of the processed tea leaves from the plantation to the factory and from the factory to the market.

Even movies like the Hong Kong movie 'the monster' talk about a tragic caused by development. The 'monster' was actually a woman who had lost her husband and kid during the 70's when the government forced the occupants of the slum to move out. Her husband was burnt to death while protesting against the government. She refused to move out of the slum and her boy was eventually killed by a fallen structure while looking for food in the deserted slum. She continued to live in the area (hiding in the ventilation shaft) even though a high rise condominium had been built over the slum she used to lived in. A point to ponder- a slum is considered to be undesirable for development as it has poor sanitation, hygiene and prove to be a fire hazard. However to many the slum is their home and they had developed a strong attachment to the place. Many had been cleared for development and standard of living has been raised. However, slums had proven to be a challenge to many governments in the developing countries as the occupants refused to move out of the slum - even till today!

Of course there are hundreds of movies which look at the natural disasters we faced today as well as environmental degaradation which leads to problem such as global warming. My favourite would be 'Dante's Peak", "the storm" and 'the day after tomorrow." The one I missed most is 'The Medicine Man" - a movie which shows how deforestation has affected the natives living in the Amazon as well as how Man's greed had also led to us losing some of the possible medicine which we can use to treat illness such as cancer. I would really appreciate if you can find a copy for me!

Teachers' Day

Though I had a tiring day today -I was pleasantly surprised to see a dedication for me on the website http://teachersday.sg/ . It is always great to know that we are appreciated - thanks Afidah. I am sure many of you are grateful to your teachers - may it be the teachers who had taught you in the Primary School or even as a mentor to you in some projects. Post the dedications to them now on the website - I am sure they will feel appreciated.

A very challenging day

Didn't know that first day back in school would be so challenging!

I took a cab and reached school at 6.15 a.m. The area below the staircase was converted into an art area(?) and it looked quite threatening with its dark colour scheme. I had to switch on all the lights in the staff room as I was the first to arrive - I couldn't sleep last night and decided to go to school early to sort out my stuff. I was perspiring as I could not find the air-con remote control - I realised later that the attendant now keep it and will switch the air-con remote control at around 6.30 a.m. It was sauna for me early in the morning. My desk was totally in a mess!

My department was kind enough to let me use the humanities room for most of my classes except for 2E6 and 2 periods of lesson with 4E4 on Wed as there wasn't enough classrooms ......

I went to the hall for assembly with the normal stream students. I saw some of the students from my former form class - pretty touched that they missed me and wanted me back as their form teacher. I would love to but I realised that my body does not permit me to stretch beyond my means. I will remember them fondly as my little babies and hopefully they still tag on their class blog which I had created for them.

Some of my 4E4 boys came in 10 minutes late.... I don't understand why they are still so unmotivated even though it is only 3 wks to their Prelim? The same goes for some of the 4E3 boys who were playing with a computer at the back... as if I can't see it! I couldn't move as fast as before and I know that by the time I moved to the back they would have switched it off. I can only pray hard that they realised the very little time left for their revision before the Prelim! It is really frustrating not being able to move around to monitor them. I wonder whether I should exclude them from my class if they are really not interested. ... quite sad as this will be the 2nd last batch to take the syllabus with MCQ.
I reminded my 3E5 that if they repeat they would have to sit for the new syllabus with no MCQ - just 4 essays. Some of the 3E5 students are really very motivated and eager to ask. However, some of them have problems grasping concepts and take more time to understand - but it is still a comfort knowing that they are willing to learn.

2E6 was pretty challenging. I know most of them since I taught 1E4, 5 and 6 last year. However many of them had changed. Though they are pretty kind to me and welcomed me back, I was kind of disappointed with the behaviour of some of the students. Multiple earstuds, nose studs, outrageous haircut and I even caught a girl talking over the phone when the lesson is ending - such audacity!

My legs were aching badly after standing for so long and climbing up and down the stairs. I couldn't wait to go home to apply some Chinese medicated oil to soothe the pain. However Mdm Tan came over and told me that Aidil got hurt in the Music Room. Ms Wong and I went over to check on him. Even though he shows that he was in pain, we checked the area and did not see any swelling or protruding bones, We told them that most probably it is not a fracture but it is still safer to be examined by a doctor. Mdm Tan called his mother to bring him to a doctor. I called up Mdm Tan at night and sure enough she told me that the X-ray shows that there was no fracture.

My Red Cross cadets gave me something to welcome me back - My heart goes to them - I will be seeing them on Saturday and after that I will go over to Yio Chu Kang Sec to support our cadets who are taking part in the first aid compeition. All the best to the cadets here. Mrs Lai is so kind to have taken charge over bulk of the Red Cross work when I am away. I would really like to thank her and my Red Cross cadets here.

After experiencing a fracture - I must tell all of you it is worst than giving birth! It was a bad experience for me and I would not want anyone to go through the pain. I can't help but feel sad over the incident as the boys are taking their O level this year and they are still playing around. Adil got hurt as three boys actually sat on him - what a foolish game to play - have they ever thought of the consequence? If something serious happened, they will regret it for the rest of their lives.

Well - I hope tomorrow will be a better day! I must clear part of my desk which is still in a mess and change my laptop to a new one.... and many more!

Butterflies in my stomach

Getting a bit tensed over the fact that I will be back in school on Tuesday. I have yet to see my new timetable and where I can have my lessons. I was just told that I might not be able to use the humanities room and the school is looking for another room for me. I felt so bad having to impose on so many people.

Though I look forward to going back to school, I am having butterflies in my stomach - will I be able to cope with the hectic life and the students after being away for so long (four months)? Plus I will be having a new class 2E6. I must say I had slacken a lot - I have yet to set the prelim papers which I planned to. I was going out almost everyday so that I can get used to the walking. My sole is pretty sore and the joints hurt. I will give myself a break tomorrow since I am going back on Tuesday. I think the femur fracture will take at least 6 months to heal - I am not that young anymore and I think it might take longer. I have scheduled my next X-ray during the Sept holiday so that I won't miss out any lessons with my students. I hope the X-ray will show good results.

Maybe I shall go back tomorrow to arrange my table? I missed my students - I met some of them and I must say I am pretty touched when they called me or tell me that they missed me. However I am also worried when some of them could not even tell me which topics they have covered during my absence. Quite a lot of repair work to be done!

A better home

Though I am still not feeling too good ( had diarrhoea for 3 days!), I decided to blog on something which really touched me from what I saw on TV:

1. The movie 'From Homeless to Harvard'

A touching movie on how a little girl struggled out of poverty and made it to Harvard University. She was hardly in school when she was young as her mum was down with AIDs and was often down with drugs and alcohol. Rather than her mum taking care of her, she was often seen taking care of her mum, including cleaning her up when she was really drunk. She hardly turned up for school due to her family condition but she amazed the teacher when she scored for her tests. At the end the social worker put her in a home. She was tortured there and finally she ran away after witnessing her a girl was burnt with acid that was poured into her shampoo when she was bathing. Her mother and sister took refuge in her grandfather's place. However, she refused to go there as she had always suspected that her grandfather had raped her mother when she was young. Her best friend had also suffered the same fate of being raped by her father and they decided to run away from home. Rather than resigning to fate like what her best friend did, she decided to enroll herself in a school. She worked hard and finally earned herself a scholarship to study in Harvard. I wonder how many of us can really brave such adversity and rise to success. It really takes a lot of courage and determination. No matter how bad or desperate the situation may look - there is always a way out - if you are determined enough.

2. Recycling elephant dungs.

I remembered I told my students that in India, cow dungs are mixed with water and the gas emitted is then channeled through a pipe to a stove and used for cooking. This would reduce the demand for fossil fuels or chopping down the trees for fuel wood. Now it seems that a man is actually making paper out of elephant dungs in Thailand. As elephant dungs contain a lot of fibre, he mixed it with water and then sieve out fibre which will be dried and made into papers! What a way to recycle stuff. Some of our students had also experimented with using hair to make paper and ink. I think it is really good that we are more concern about our envronment and make an effort to conserve our resources. We should blog to promote the importance of the 3Rs - reuse, recycle and reduce wastage. Our earth is our only home and it is our responsibility to make it a better place to live in.