Wednesday, July 2, 2008

It's Already Been Almost A Year.....

Yes, time flies.

Just came back from prayer meeting today.

Realised tt it's been almost a year since I started praying for you whenever i attend prayer meetings every tuesday.

Ever since 13th July 2007, the day you embarked on your new chapter of life, I'll always mentally add you to the list of items stated in the prayer list, praying that God will preserve and protect you, so as to bring you back safely every week...

Apparently, my prayers were answered, as I believe you have been doin fine so far.... =))

Though we may not talk to each other, it nevertheless still feels blessed to be able to pray for you, that you're still remembered in a different way...

Good nite, and may God's protection and guidance continue to be on you throughout the rest of this week.

Lyna

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Juz a quick update.....

1) I have NO CLASSES EVERY MONDAY!!!!!! (very helpful in curbing monday blues...)

2) I juz had my very first lesson today!!! Was a 1.5 hr lab session. Went on without much hiccups lah... the classroom environment's rather diff frm practicum though. In fact, it's VERY different. For once, classroom management did not hav to ALWAYS be put into action. Academic engagement is now more crucial.

3) Can really save money on food expenses when working in school!!! Cheap food, but i too tend to avoid the canteen when there's long long queues of students. I'm not a queuing person..haha! In buffets, i'll juz sit and wait for others to finish taking their share, and then i'll go and take mine when there's no longer much of a queue! LOL!

Okie, tt's all for now... =)

Lyna

Saturday, June 14, 2008

The End of Home-Alone...

My home-alone period juz ended @ 1640... when i received an sms frm my bro asking me to go to church and fetch em back.... :(

Now it's back to the dreaded normalcy..... =(((

But at least i'll still be free on monday, tuesday, wednesday next week. So that makes me glad.... and sad too, cuz those 3 days will mark the end of my irreversible honeymoon period in my teaching career....

miss NUS days....
miss NIE days... (even the days of induction when we juz hav to come and listen to lectures all day...)
miss Hua Yi days too.... (tink i din treasure my time and the people there as i ought to...zzz)

Nostalgic feelings make me sad....

=(((

Lyna

Friday, June 13, 2008

Home-Alone Part 2

YAY!!! I've just received news tt i only hav to report to sch on thurs and fri next week!!! So tt means 3 more days of holidays!!!

Went for a tour to ITE (East) ytd. Super far! But it definitely wasn't a trip wasted, as it was really a great eye-opener! ITE's very well designed in terms of it's building's infrastructure (compare ITE Dover and NUS which are facing each other and u'll noe wat i mean), very well equipped with the relevant facilities for various courses, has very very interesting courses, like Hair Fashion & Design, Beauty Therapy (beautician, manicurist, pedicurist!!!! Me oso wan!!!!), Pastry & Baking, Culinary Skills. Basically very specialised and hands-on courses, as opposed to drilling theory thru rote learning.

But, the BEST part of it all, is that, the government subsidises 97% of each student's school fees!!! Such that each students pays only abt $300 each semester!!! Which is like 10 times less than my uni school fees!!! Very cheap and good place with many good and up-to-date facilities for u to send ur child to!!! (I'm not trying to advertise anyway lah..haha!)

Heard tt they do accept part time students, and my fren asked if ppl like us can go there to take part time courses (esp the beauty therapy and hair design courses!!) anot, but the conclusion is tt we better not snatch places from the students lah, cuz the courses were intended for em, who need em more than us to stay marketable. Plus, they were saying tt the courses' design were mainly geared towards a teenage audience, and "old" ppl like us joining em might hav problems fitting in..haha! Indeed, it's a very huge investment from the government. However, it's nonetheless a worthwhile investment, as prevention is better than cure. It's better to invest to prevent the social problems tt might occur due to unemployment and high school drop-out rates, than to invest in a cure to the social problems.

Plus, for the beauty therapy course, we actually asked if there were any boys taking it. Apparently not...yet! They did not restrict boys frm taking the beauty therapy course, just tt it still haven't attracted the boys yet. The person-in-charge of the beauty therapy course was saying tt nowadays, there's been an increasing number of males who actually patronise beauty services... I know of a particular beauty salon which has 30% of its customers as males, and hav seen guys doin manicures & pedicures too (as in not colour their nails lah, but juz trimming and cleaning up their nails to make em look clean, neat and presentable) And it seems tt guys r usually more malu when they patronise such services, and dun really feel comfortable asking too many questions (maybe cuz all the staff at the salon are females..haha). Hence, it might help em a little if they're served by male staffs..hehe!

So, given the increasing number of males patronizing beauty services, there might be a possible market for males to work at beauty salons! Imagine one day when u're greeted by male staffs at beauty salons... and have males performing manicures and pedicures for customers!!! LOL!!!! Who knows??? Hahaha!!!


Anyway, below are some pix of the places where students in the Beauty Therapy course are trained at ITE... they really hav good facilities that model the real salons in the market! And during classes, they actually perform the hands-on practice on each other! Can get free facials, mani, pedi sia!!!!

Lyna

Thursday, June 12, 2008

More Pix...

Here's more pix to the previous post. =)))

Lyna

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Home-Alone Part I

Had a gathering wif the frens i got to know at Hua Yi ytd @ my place!!! =)) We decided to try our hands at whipping up our own dinner, and in the end, we managed to come up wif a satisfactory meal of spaghetti, cream soup, and mango pudding dessert! We were all sooo full cuz the dishes were quite creamy and cheesy. (Pictures to come once mr kok sends it)

And after our meal, mr kok intro-ed us to this game called "Saboteur". Quite an interesting and exciting game, one tt involves strategy, and one tt can give u away by ur body language if u're not careful.. Quite funny, at first, i was still kinda blur abt how the game goes.. If u're familiar wif tis game, in one of the rounds, Alvin and I were supposed to be the saboteurs, and mr kok, peiling and lingzhu were the miners. Miners are supposed to build paths to reach to the gold, and saboteurs are supposed to sabo the miners by destroying or stopping their path to the gold. So at first, i tot saboteur can oso collect gold, on top of destroying the miners' path... and so, i was the one who completed the path to the gold when i was supposed to destroy it instead!!!!! -.-''' So in the end, Alvin was the person I sabo-ed instead..LOL! Haha, a saboteur sabo-ing another saboteur...Haha!! But it's really an exciting game overall once u've gotten the hang of it... highly recommended to be played if u've not played it b4. =))))

So we ended everything at abt 12 midnite (thankfully the next day no nid to go nie sia...), and i became their chauffeur to drive em back to their doorstep..haha! Anyway, here are some pix tt we took for memories... (cuz forgot to take pix wif em on last day @ Hua Yi...)








The group pic and other pix will be posted once my kok sends em. =)

And for today, when i wanted to watch TV, i realised tt the cable TV channels were "not working". Notice the inverted commas. So, no one to ask to help me, so called customer service 1633 lor...and it turned out to be a technical error in having to adjust the TV to the right "mode" first b4 being able to view the cable channels. I rem my bro saying sth lidat b4, of having to switch the TV to a particular mode first, but din really get it, cuz whenever had such problems, it's my bro who usually settled it for me. But this time, thanx to experiential learning through the hard and independent way, it's really more effective! Thankfully that customer service officer tt helped me was very patient! =) Seems like i always learn best through the hard way, once i've experienced the difficulty of a task... Like i only truly understood the game of Saboteur after the blunder of sabo-ing i made..LOL :P

Later, i went to place some of my stuff at my newly posted sch, cuz i hav the car to transport my heavy stuff conveniently!!! But haven arranged them out properly yet cuz it seems like the previous teacher of that table hasn't cleared everything yet... Then I took a walk around the school.. nothing's changed too much ever since i was studying there... din hav much problems navigating around the school lah...afterall i've been there for 2 years...haha!

Also went to Delifrance, which made me happy, cuz i ordered sth and it took quite long to come. When i approached the stuff, it turned out tt they apparently forgot abt my order!!! And cuz of that, they gave me a complimentary bowl of soup!!!!! YAY!! haha, service recovery!...

Tomorrow wil be goin to visit ITE (East), which is so far for me!!! Looks like Singapore has done quite alot in developing ITEs and introducing the EM3 stream to help reduce the school drop-out rates. And comparing ITE (Dover) and NUS which are facing each other, separated by AYE, the difference is apparent in both buildings, and it shows the effort invested in setting up such institutions. I heard sumone once saying that when a graduate is driving a car, and it breaks down, he will juz probably call AA and wait for help to arrive. But if an ITE students drives a car, and it breaks down, he will be able to try and repair the car and drive on to get more help. Meaningful and makes sense, and shows that everyone is good is his own way with his own unique good points, such that no one is indispensable in this world. =))

Ok i shd slp now.. gd nitey! =)))

Lyna

Monday, June 9, 2008

Home-Alone Experience Prelude.....

YES!! I'm gonna be home-alone again for the whole week!!!!!! Hope I dun turn the whole house upside down..lol.. Basically my family's goin for church camp at Kuantan, but i'm not taggin along cuz MOE has planned activities for us during this week...they've choped us very very long ago liao, like abt 1 year ago when we first joined em...smart move..haha!

Ok, it feels kinda weird wif everyone ard me busy preparing for camp, but not me... but nvm, such a good waster of time like me wil surely be able to somehow find stuff to occupy myself wif..haha! And one thing tt hav kinda occupied me is a RPG (Read Pray Grow) book in bahasa indonesia which is produced by Calvary Batam. Somehow, it feels exhilarating to be reading stuff in bahasa once again, and being able to make sense out of it!!!!!! The copy tt i picked up is actually the one for april till june, but i'm starting to read it frm april anyway.. =)

So the theme of it is "Panggilan Seorang Pelayan Allah (I)" which i translate it to be "The Calling of a Servant of God (I)"...maybe u might hav a better translation? hehe... anyways, the servant of God in focus is Paul (Paulus), where it talks bout how he was first a persecutor of christians (penganiaya orang kristen) turned servant of God, through God's calling. However, what's important is that, if one wants to be a servant of God to spread the Gospel (Injil), he muz first be saved by the grace (kasih karunia) of God through faith (iman). =)

And just like the format of the usual RPGs, it ends of with a "Thought" (renungkan) and "Prayer" (doakan), and here's how it goes:

Renungkan: Sudahkah saya menerima Yesus sebagai Tuhan dan Juruselamat pribadi saya? (Have I already accepted Jesus as my God and my personal Saviour?)

My answer: Iya, sudah. Karena iman, saya percaya. (Yes, I have. By faith, I believe) [haha the bahasa part might not hav been expressed correctly, but the intended meaning is in english]

Doakan: Terima kasih, Tuhan, karena telah meninggalkan tempat-Mu di surga dan turun ke bumi untuk hidup dan mati bagi saya orang berdosa. (Thank you, Lord, because you've left your place in heaven and came down to earth to live and die for me, a sinner.)

(Words in brackets are my translations ^_^)

Doing translations can give a sense of exhilaration too!!!!!! =))))))

Prayer Requests:
1) Family and other campers goin to camp for journey mercies
2) Keene - accomodation in Australia
3) Bendick - exchange in HK to go smoothly
4) Jeffrey - Overseas posting in job
(Wah so many ppl goin overseas sia....)
5) Me to be able to adapt to my new working environment (which is in beloved singapore)
6) Me: that there wun be any big flying cockroaches appearing at my house during my 1-week home alone experience..LOL!!! (cuz my bro who's my roach-catcher is on leave for a holiday at kuantan...haha!)

Lyna

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Results are OUT!!!!!

Just a short post (hopefully), results are out!!! Quite satisfied wif wat i got lah, considering tt i'm not expecting sth wonderful either, got a Credit overall! Thank God! =) Last sem my average score was 3.14, but it went up to 3.5 now, which is a credit just on the dot!!

And realised a trend in my results... for those theoretical modules tt teach us stuff like the pedagogy, educational psychology, and basically the theory part of teaching, i dun do well. Mainly Bs and Cs. But for the more pseudo-practical (cuz at nie, it's still not really a REAL classroom yet, hence, the word pseudo) parts like microteaching (pretending tt ur peers r ur students and teaching em like in a smaller-sized classroom setting) and communication skills (where a major part of the assessment is making a 3-min school-based speech to either parents, students, HODs, MOE officials, based on the scenario given, with only 10-mins preparation time), it is where i get my As. Haha.... I cant very effectively digest the theoretical stuff tat u throw at me well, but ask me to do it out hands-on, i can manage better... or maybe i've learnt the art of smoking, cuz those mods where i got my As are those tt require much speech delivery for assessment...LOL!

Seriously, i tink tt the art of teaching is best learnt on-the-job than theoretically in the classroom, where they always assume ideal classroom conditions which hardly ever occur. Plus, most of the things learnt can only be applied practically in the REAL classroom if there's an unlimited supply of time, and ideally, smaller class sizes. Hence, i feel that i've learnt more during the 10-week period of practicum at a REAL sec sch than the 7 mths odd at utopia NIE . And i got a Credit for practicum too!!! =) Quite expected lah, cuz my NIE sup kinda hinted it to me b4.

Personally, I can say that I've achieved the practicum target i set for myself. =) It's somewhere above a credit, but below distinction, which can be achieved without a moderator coming, and I never had one cumin. Shall that disclose wat exactly the target was that i set for myself lah, but juz happy to hav achieved it. Glory be to God!

And btw, i was already told tt i'll hav to take a class for JC project work tog wif another tcher. And thankfully can virtually interview Keene on some of the latest "developments" of it..haha! I tink tt interviewing a recently graduated JC kid is better than looking at the MOE website on PW to gather info on it...haha! More dynamic! At least now in case if asked on wat i already know bout the latest in PW, got enuf things to "smoke" abt lah..i hope..haha!

Okie, i shd sleep now, bye!

Peter Pan Syndrome.....

Singletini.....

(random words tt revolve in my mind..but nvm, gd nitey!)

Lyna

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Another Hurdle Down!!!!!

Practicum's over....which is the reason tt enabled me to start bloggin again... Initially, i had planned to shout "Yay!!! Practicum's OVERRRRRRR!!!!" the moment i stepped out of the school on my last day...but upon realizing that i probably might never step into the school to teach again, it felt kinda sad... (if i were to come back again, i wld hav to wear a visitor's pass..LOL!) =( guess i've started to miss the school, the students, the teachers, and everything there... Oh wells, all good things have to come to an end... just be thankful that i had a fun and fruitful experience there, which I'll elaborate more later... (which means tis post is gonna be uber uber long....)

Perhaps it's really human nature that we only appreciate things better when we no longer are in accessible access to it. And on my last day home, i had to call a cab, cuz lazy me only started packing up my stuff on my very last day!! And i ended up wif 2 big boxes, 2 big bags, and 1 long umbrella to transport home... the taxi driver probably tot i got retrenched seeing my 2 big boxes..LOL!

But anyway, once i got home, i realised tt i forgot to sign out on the record book in the office, and i forgot to return my toilet pass!!! (as in the pass for students to go toilet...see pic below...haha!)

Lyna

Monday, February 11, 2008

MY MIND PAINTED ME A PICTURE.....

Here's how it goes...

In a particular youth fellowship meeting, the game "Blow Wind Blow" was being played. Everyone will sit in a circle, and someone will shout "Blow those who wear specs/red shirts/socks" and what not, and those who are under the mentioned categories will have to exchange their seats with someone else in the circle who also falls in the mentioned category. Whoever is left without a seat will have to be the next person announcing "Blow those who....".

So, someone said, "Blow those who are Christians." And everyone got up from their seats and ran frantically looking for someone else's seat. And the person without a seat went on to shout the next item out. For the next few rounds, it was blow those who have sisters, brothers, wear Nike shoes, study in co-ed schools.....and so on...

Then came the next round. "Blow those who are GROWING CHRISTIANS."

Some were about to lift their butts from their seats, but hesitated, seeing that not many others were actually moving. Others were frantically looking around at their neighbours, trying to decide whether they should move or not. Or maybe they were indecisive as to whether they belonged to that category.

The minority who mis-heard it for "Blow those who are Christians" were quick to lift their butts from the seat to find another seat fast....but became confused when they saw that majority of the others looked deep in thought and were not moving, they wondered if they were doubting their salvation. Upon realisation that they had mis-heard the command, that it was supposed to be "Blow those who are GROWING CHRISTIANS" instead, they hesitated while being stuck standing in the middle of the circle, unsure whether to retreat back to their original seats, or to exchange seats with the few others who were standing up, being caught in the same plight as themselves...


"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." - 2 Peter 3:18

Lyna

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Another Microteaching DONE!!!

Yup, another of my microteaching is completed! The math one, in particular, the one on Percentages, remember? Can say tat it went on quite fine, 80% of wat i expected of myself lah. Once again, i realised while rehearsing for it, tat my weakness in planning lessons is tat i tend to over-plan, and once again, i was only able to carry out 3/4 of wat i planned within tat time frame...really need more practice on tat to ensure tat everything can be completed even w/o rehearsing b4hand.. and anyway, this time i rehearsed when i was alone at home...haha!

I guess the 20% which i'm not satisfied with myself was during one part of my lesson when i kinda "lost myself" and ended up laughing wif the class for awhile at the "joke" i created. Well, the "joke" came frm one of my slides which was supposed to intro to em wat GST is, and it basically looks like the pic below, with the heading of "GST (Goods and Services Tax)", and a scanned pic of a receipt below. My original pic only had de red circles, no blue ones. I meant it to focus the students' attention on the part of the receipt tat mentions the GST to be paid, BUT, instead, they were paying greater attention to the stuff bought even though it was nt completely scanned, as shown by the blue circle. Since it wrote "Anti-wrinkles", "Blemish control mask", they were like asking "Cher, why u buy anti-wrinkles stuff?" and the whole class started giggling.... and ME TOO!!!LOL!! I kinda expected such a reaction from them lah, but din expect it to be so extreme..LOL..haha, my peers really noe how to pretend to be real sec sch students sia!!! And cuz of that, i started laughing wif em for a few seconds in between words too, which sounds bad..haha...lost of composure as a teacher! But nvm, at least i now noe tat i'll hav to learn how to not laugh too heartily when i hear a joke in class while teaching...HAHA! (Bottling up one's tears is unhealthy, hope bottling up one's laughter wun be..haha!)

But on the whole, I felt tat my math microteaching class did a great job in pretending to be real students to mimick real classroom situations...at least compared to my chem microteaching class who always give correct ans and quite quiet one, the math class is much better..haha! At least it not only gives us a feel of doin teaching in class, but it oso gives us the chance to perform classroom management. Great job guys!

Anyway, microteaching does hav it's limitations too. Like when i teach in real classrooms, i'll hav to speak at a much louder voicer than during microteaching. And in real classrooms, we'll hav to battle wif a higher surrounding temp than in the air-conditioned microteaching classroom. When teaching in real classrooms, i'll hav to handle cold sweat and warm sweat too (LOL!), but in the air-conditioned microT classroom, it's abit hard to sweat ya.... During microT, ur peers tend to "give u face" more (so tat they dun get sabo-ed by u during their turn to mictoteach..haha), but in real classes, students can't wait to see u make mistakes and crumble..(well, maybe nt all students r lidat lah, but i prefer to prepare myself for the WORST-CASE SCENARIO..) but having microT is still better than nothing at all b4 putting u in the real test in schools.

Today oso had a "Teaching in the social context" lesson, and we discussed on the teacher appraisal system used by MOE. Muz admit tat i came out of class rather disoriented (but not disillusioned, thankfully) upon knowing better what is in stalled for me in terms of teacher appraisal. But nevertheless, a good mental preparation for what is to come. The EPMS (Enhanced Performance Management System) does tend to promote politics among tchers to ensure tat u get a reasonable grade for appraisal, which is bad...wats more, the size of ur bonus and capacity for promotions will be affected by it too..oh wells, tats life i guess...Not to mention, there'll be more work on documentation of de stuff u've done for de year oso... apparently, a teacher's job isn't only to teach and teach well, he/she has to be all-roundedly proficient too (juz like students) in terms of management skills, teamwork, administrative skills, and any other skills u can think of.

But i guess at times, whether one gets to shine or not depends quite alot on the oppotunities he is given (some call it luck) and not merely on one's abilities. True to a certain extent i guess, but i'll call it God's provision instead of luck =) Just like in microteaching, i feel tat the topic u get to teach does play a part in how much room for creativity and innovation in teaching u have.

In any case, I believe that the Lord who has helped me through 19 years of stressful Singapore education system will be able to also help me thru seemingly minute matters like staff appraisal =) "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth." - Psalm 121:1-2 Pray that i do not get disillusioned in my purpose of teaching bcuz of things like appraisal and politics. NOTHING should make you crumble and fall when you know that you have God as your 24/7 helpmate. Honour God, and He will honour you too. Lord, please help me to be the teacher You want me to be.

Lyna

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Ms Loh Feels Liberated!!!

Yeah, i noe NIE does a great job in preventing me frm blogging at regular intervals, but for now, there's a few reasons which makes me feel LIBERATED!!!

1) MY QED523 GROUP PRESENTATION IS OVER!!!
Yup, that's the grp proj where we hav to facilitate a class discussion for AN HOUR!!! First time doin such a proj apart frm the usual presentation ones. But it din turn out tat bad, cuz afterall, de facilitators are not the ones who do most of the talking, active participation shd come from the participants. The social issue we chose was on primary sch streaming - the hoohaa of EM1, 2, 3. At the end of the day, i still feel that i agree wif streaming, mainly cuz it helps in the long term to fill the rice bowls of academically-less-inclined students. Even though the problem of "branding" or "labelling" will surface, i feel that they shd take tis oppotunity to cope wif it and be exposed to it frm a young age. It's a cruel world, we cant escape frm labelling in Singapore since ranking, which inevitably gives room for labelling, is done so often, such that we always hav the mentality to be number 1. Even without EM1, 2, 3 and ranking of schools, the labelling of "academically-good schools" and "neighbourhood schools" inevitably still exist. So, one should learn to cope wif it since it's likely to be here to stay. If dealt with positively and properly, the academically-less-inclined students not only will find themselves not dropping out of school so easily but having their rice bowls filled, they'll also learn to deal with their social labelling in life. Or maybe i'm being too optimistic considering that i'm not a parent of a kid in EM3. Perhaps. But i still feel that it's better to "suffer" labelling than to hav an empty rice bowl in the long run. Who knows? Perhaps suffering frm being labelled might just be the impetus for them to prove their worth, which was pretty much the source of my motivation as someone who grew up in neighbourhood schools.

2) MY TRIAL CHEMISTRY MICROTEACHING IS OVER!!!
Yup, trial chem microteaching is done, and it went on relatively smoothly lah. Microteaching is basically treating your peers in your tutorial grp of 12 as students, and teaching them as if u're in school. I taught on the topic of percentage yield. Basically after my teaching and after the class gave comments, the tcher was like saying, "So, besides the good comments, wat bout some criticisms?" (hee...i din mean to boast or anything lah) And the criticism I received from him was on the definition on "Actual Yield" on one of my ppt slides. Can say that he's quite sharp for his age..haha...the mistake was tat i completely followed the textbook definition, which was nt wrong, but the way I applied tat definition to the activity i was doin wif the class made it somewhat incorrect, and incomplete, maybe. So i shd be more careful when it comes to the words and definitions, that i dun end up explaining concepts which clash wif scientific principles. Other comments i received from my fren was tat my handwriting on the whiteboard needs improvement (which i totally agree!), i tend to use fillers like "ok", "right" in teaching (yup, agreed!), and i seem more suited to teach in JC cuz i tend to ask thought-provoking questions which are indirect(do I?) haha... And my preparation for this microteaching was quite funny. I wanted to rehearse the day before, but my sis was in the room too, den i malu to rehearse and talk to the wall in front of her..haha..cuz she'll laugh at me!!! LOL!! So wat she did was listen to music using earphones at the loudest volume, while i talk to the wall and my students - bolster, pillow, fan, blanket, minnie mouse, twinkle, lion, and door. LOL!!! And i realise that i tend to overplan my lessons only after i actually practise teaching it out. I tend to plan too many activities in my lesson, such that i actually can only teach about 3/4 of wat i plan within that time frame. Have to practise more on this. =)

3) CNY!!!
I realised that this year, CNY falls on a thur and fri!! Which means a long long weekend from thurs to sun!!! (Wah those wif mon as free day even better lor! hav holiday frm thurs to mon!!)

4) EVERY FRIDAY IS MY FREE DAY!!!
Yup, i hav 4-day week for this short semester in NIE! And fri free = long 3-day weekend! muz start planning how to enjoy tis period b4 the dreaded practicum begins! So if wan to go out can ask me out on Fridays!!

5) I DRANK ANDERSONS ICE-CREAM'S MILKSHAKE FOR 2 CONSECUTIVE DAYS!!
Yeah! I realized that buying milkshakes frm Anderson's is more worth it than buying ice-cream! Double scoop ice-cream costs $6, milkshakes (milk + 3 scoops of ice-cream blended tog) costs $5.80! And the portion is quite large too! somewhere like the medium size of McDonald's drinks. Rum & Raisin is still my all-time fav! And of course, it has to be part of my milkshake too! Yummy! Another "delicacy" to be added to my list of fav foods!! haha...

6) 2-DAY WEEK FOR THE WEEK TO COME!!!
For some reason due to efficiency, i wont be having chem microteaching classes next week! And maths lecture juz ended too! So for next week, only hav to go to NIE on mon and wed!! YAY!

And now, for some reasons which make me feel less liberated... =(

1) MICROTEACHING LESSON PLANS TO BE DONE
Math lesson plan in particular, to be done by this monday...and hav to start thinking of the chem assessment microteaching too...

2) PLAYING ORGAN FOR SERVICE THIS SUNDAY
So it's back to practising my organ again since the period of intense practice for Christmas. BUT MUST SERVE GOD WIF JOY IN MY HEART!!!

3) GESL WORK TO BE DONE
Just when i tot it was almost over, it's not! More gesl work to be done...seems to spoil my beautiful thurs ya...oh wells, i need to put more positive thinking into place...

4) PRACTICUM MIGHT COME SOONER THAN I'M READY FOR IT
25th Feb is the day i return to schools to teach and interact wif students. To me, interacting with students is more enjoyable than the teaching part of it, but not when they start climbing over your head...hopefully i can prepare myself well for it when the time comes...

Okie, tats it for now...but overall, still feel more liberated than un-liberated lah...haha! Gd-Nitey!

Lyna

Sunday, January 6, 2008

A Beautiful Fullstop to my Holiday!!!

Yup, my holiday's ending soon, and it ended with lots of organ practices for christmas and year-end service, choir practices, and a sumptous dinner in celebration of our church's 35th anniversary!!! And i tot it was a nice way to end my holiday, because, through these events, i saw and appreciated church unity better. Could sense that we were all united in gratitude to God for preserving our church for 35 years =))

Firstly, I was kinda surprised tat most of the choir members turned up for the extra choir practices for church anniversary =)) Thank God for the sense of commitment He has given to us in our service to Him! Despite the late hours of extra practices, we still made an effort to attend them. Thank God for preserving our voices too. (Got once i ate laksa juz b4 a choir prac...haha) Hope that our items sounded fine, but more importantly, hope that we have sung with the right heart to praise and glorify God, that He may find our service acceptable and glorifying in His sight. 1 Corinthians 10:31 =))

On top of that, the 35th anniversary celebrations were even more meaningful as it was also for Rev Chan's retirement from pastoring the church to do mission work in Thailand. Last Tuesday during prayer meeting, when Rev Chan went up to request prayer for his travels to Thailand for a month, it somehow felt different to me frm the times before when he requested prayer for safety in his travels. This time, although it's only for a month, it felt like he's goin to be gone for a long time before we can meet him again...Maybe it's juz a psychological effect on knowing that he's retiring from being our pastor... His "last words" as our pastor during his sermon at year-end service was especially meaningful, particularly the part where he advised Sunday School teachers. (I guess one's "last words" are usually meaningful and impressionable...) He was saying that bible teachers should dig deep into the Bible to search for quality materials like gold, silver and precious stones to use as the materials to build the foundation based on God's word in the children's lives, instead of using only wood, hay and stubble which can be easily found anywhere (metaphorically). It made me realise that more often than not, I do not spend enough time searching the Scriptures when I prepare to teach in Awana. It's rather last min, and i tend to use a "quick-fix" of juz reading the teaching materials given, instead of looking into the Bible. Perhaps I shd make it one of my resolutions tis year to be more focused in preparing for Awana story-telling, such that the children may learn of the life-changing truths frm God's word, to build the foundation of their lives and character based on God's standards.

As a teacher-to-be in NIE, I have been taught the importance of treating and preparing each lesson seriously (like writing a very super detailed lesson plan). Since school textbook teaching has to be dealt with seriously, what more the teaching of God's truths in the Bible which can change lives? Consider the amount of time and effort that goes into preparing a single 35 min classroon lesson in school, should the preparation in teaching children from the Word of Life and it's far more precious and unchanging truths be any lesser? Furthermore, a lecturer in NIE likes to talk bout this thing called the "multiplier effect". It goes something like, "Every year, about 240 chemistry students go thru you, and if u teach a concept wrongly, 240 students will live in misconception. And what will happen if these 240 students become teachers in future too? How many ppl will now live in misconception? The multiplier effect will apply in the propagation of the misconception....." Since, it is a rather serious matter to teach wrong concepts in school, what more in the teaching of the Bible? Tis might just give heresies the chance to creep in subtly. So, I should dig deeper into the Bible each time instead of juz relying solely on the teaching materials given to prevent myself frm teaching wrong things. Afterall, the teaching materials are written by man and subject to fallibility, but the Bible is written by God, who is infallible! Psalm 19:7, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 =))

Okay, and the anniversary dinner was great too! Had yummy food to end the day of our church's birthday. I remembered someone once preaching on what is the best birthday present to give to the church. And it's undeniably bringing in lost souls since the purpose of starting a church is to win souls to Christ. And if x people each bring a lost soul to Christ as an anniversary bday present for the church, then there'll now be 2x ppl. And during the anniversary next year, if each of the 2x ppl bring a lost soul to Christ as their present to the church, there'll be 4x ppl... and so on.. and the multiplier effect will now apply too, but in a good way. =))

Yup, and it's not impossible to accomplish, if only we all try. Ok, and it's time to sleep now, so good nitey!

Lyna

Sunday, December 30, 2007

WHAT TO BLOG ABOUT???

Hmmm....wat do ppl blog abt when they have nothing to blog abt?? Their routine life? Their pets? Their dreams? Hahahahaha.... Anyway, supposedly still on holiday, but the kiasu-ism made me start thinking of my microteaching topics liao (mini-teaching of school topics in NIE)... haiz...typical singaporean....

For maths, i've been assigned to teach percentages to sec 1 NT, and for chem, i'll hav to teach "O" level redox... tried doin some research for creative materials to teach it, but haven come up wif sth constructive yet.

For percentages, i've found:
-use 100 squares, colour some red, blue, green, yellow...cyan, magenta, maroon, indigo, blah blah blah and teach de concept of "out of 100"
- Role play, give students a budget of vit M to spend at diff shops wif diff sales and discounts (ermm..might be quite messy to be done in class..haha)
- Use animations and online games on percentages (found a few nice ones, but dun noe if bring students to com lab, wil they end up doin stuff like blogging or chatting instead...LOL)
- Teach by showing students real stats of the votes for Singapore Idol or Star Search, and ask em to analyse de percentages (if i can actually find de real info, or if not juz fake sth out..haha..trying to get into their "world")

For redox, haven really done much yet, but so far, some ideas:
- show a video on "magic" of green leaves in spring turning reddish-brown in autumn in a few minutes (i actually saw tis as a participating entry on chao ji bian bian bian b4 last time...trying to find such a video if possible)
- haven tot of any other more interesting ideas yet :P

Hmmm...last time when i was in sec sch, my tchers din use such methods to teach me lor :( always juz de normal textbook, notes, whiteboard... but i still studied though, guess it's cuz of singaporean kiasu-ism tat kept me goin most of de time...quite sad :( Kids seem more "spoilt" nowadays to need such creative teaching methods to get them interested in studying... maybe de fear of failing "O levels" isn't such a strong pull factor for studying anymore...

Anyway, I once tot of an "interesting" way to intro the topic of trigonometry... which was quite CMI and lame according to my sis..LOL...and i tink i agree too..haha.. here's how it goes....

Remember a Mr Bean show where he took an exam?? He basically tried to cheat throughout cuz there were actually 2 topics to choose to do from in the exam, but he tot there was only 1, and apparently he mistakenly realized tat the topic he studied was not goin to be tested, but the other of the 2 topics (which he din study) was to be tested instead...so obviously he din noe how to do, n tried cheating!! BAD STUDENT!! does it ring a bell?? if not, juz click de link below to view tat video on the show...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV_r7OXPhkI

So, wat i'll do is to let the students watch tat video, and then ask, "So, what is the name of the maths topic which Mr Bean studied on, but he wrongly realized tat it din get tested?" (Basically, the 2 maths topics given as options to choose 1 from in Mr Bean's exam paper are Calculus and Trigonometry) And the correct answer wld be "Trigonometry"....."And so, the topic we'll be starting on today is something tat Mr Bean studied oso - TRIGONOMETRY!!!" (sth lidat lah..LOL)

OK, and i've started laughing at my kinda lame idea of intro-ing trigo to a class... hahaha... and r u laughing too??? lol...

Lyna