Sunday, August 26, 2007

A few pix to share...

A FEW PIX TO SHARE.....

Hello! I'm back again after quite a long time ya...nothing very very exciting happened to far...juz work as usual..haha...so juz wanna share some pix i took over tis period..enjoy!!!

Lyna

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

The start of my NIE life...

THE START OF MY NIE LIFE.....

haha yeah! finally i'm being paid to study..hehe...dats de privilege tat NIE students get haha, so join NIE if u wish to be paid to study!! haha i sound like i'm doin propaganda ya...but i'm not..hehe.. And so far, i've gone thru my first week of lessons at NIE and for dat first week, i only came to NIE for 2 days!!!!! out of de 5 weekdays!!!! get paid to slack at home for 3 days haha...but of course, de worse is not here yet...de "time freedom" which i'm enjoying now will be paid for in de weeks to come when i start to be busier. Tat's life, i guess.....

So far, i've attended classes for my educational psychology , ICT (IT stuff for student-centred learning), and maths teaching courses, and all of em actually involve group work and projects...haiz...guess i'm dreading it cuz i'm juz not used to it. You dun always end up in de same tutorial group as your frens, but tats ok if no group work is involved, but tats not de case. So, you've gotta form groups wif ppl whom u're not very familiar wif, ppl whom u've juz met for de first day in class for juz abt an hour or so, and you'll be double blessed if u can find sumone in ur group tat u can click well wif. Finding urself a group is not much of a problem, but its de part on clicking wif de ppl in ur group tat is sometimes de problem... but again, tat's life! Just hav to learn to get de hang of it since NIE seems famous for doin group work n projects all de time. But thank God tat so far, I havent met anyone whom I die-die cannot click wif one... haha...

And in NIE, we hav this project on service learning tat we hav to complete. Every group hav to organize or do something tat wld benefit de community, like organize a survival kit course for primary 1 kids, or bringing disabled kids out for an excursion, or stuff along tat line lah... i find tat i'm de type who wan to faster get tis over and done wif, and choose sth simple w/o too much preparation work...haha..but i tink de ppl in my group r de more meticulous type, maybe cuz they got more experience in community work than me. Oh well, juz hope tat tis whole project wld turn out positively though..heard tat got one group who wanted to organize an outing for disabled kids, but last minute de owner of de home for de disabled kids said tat they've had enuf wif volunteers cuz a kid injured himself during an outing organized by volunteers. Hence, de whole meticulously planned outing had to be cancelled cuz de home din wan to risk anymore kids getting injured, so to put it "not-so-nicely", all their efforts went down de drain n they had to start frm scratch...sianz....juz hope tat such things dun happen to my group can liao... Maybe i'm really too comfortable in my comfort zone, and shd do more community work instead..hmmm....

Yup and this week is quite interesting cuz i get to meet up wif my frens in uni!!! Met Meena for dinner on tue at Secret Recipe, and gonna eat jap food wif my honours chem frens on sunday...yay!!! Feels good to be able to indulge now tat i'm financially independent..haha...juz hope tat i'll be able to be thrifty in my spending and be able to save de target amount i set for myself per month (to buy car..haha). And of course, not forgetting my tithing oso, which I tend to forget...which makes me feel like I'm owing God money lidat... Need to do sth bout it, which requires discipline. I remember sumone ever telling me b4 tat we shd be stewards of our money too, and for him, it is during months when he faithfully tithes tat he finds tat he gets enuf to spend, but when he doesn't tithe, de opposite wil happen. Irony ya? but i guess it's God's way of honouring him for his faithfulness in tithing. And I always remind myself of tithing from tis sharing :) Well, at de end of de day, I find that discipline is very crucial in maintaining a fruitful spiritual life. QT, praying, tithing, maintaining glorifying testimony all requires discipline.

Anyway, my next pay day's cumin soon too!! YAY!!! and hopefully, i'll be a faithful steward of my money :) ....my hair's almost dry..lol...so i shall stop here to go n sleep now...haha...till next time, cya! ^_^

Lyna

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

My Teaching Memories...

MY TEACHING MEMORIES....

Yup my 4 weeks of enhanced school experience has juz ended....and i can say tat those 4 weeks passed by very fast! But it was generally quite an enriching teaching experience, which did not dampen my interest for teaching :) Throughout those 4 weeks, i got the oppotunity to teach coordinate geometry & trigonometry ^_^ Probably one of the most memorable things I received from tis experience was the VERY VERY loud and enthusiastic "GOOD MORNING MISS LOH" greeting i received from my students on my last day wif em...and of course, not forgetting the little farewell notes that some students passed to me. Even though they wrote it kinda last minute, those notes are stuff that i really treasure (even more treasured than love letters...haha), and I will definitely keep them for life. I recently read sth from a book entitled "1000 Best new teacher survival secrets", and one of the secrets was,

"Remember when friends are receiving holiday bonuses that you receive your bonuses from much greater things. The bonus includes students saying thank you, telling you that you are the best teacher, little notes and formal letters, and general job satisfaction." :) :) :) :))))

And i totally agree wif it especially when i personally received those little notes from some of my students :) So even till the very last day I had to teach, my class mentor did not enter the class to observe me and i was allowed to run the show by myself throughout, or can say, throw me into the ocean and let me learn to swim on my own. Which was actually a good thing, cuz having the chance to teach and manage a class on my own was actually the thing that made my teaching experience meaningful :) And on the last day of teaching, I gave each of my students a farewell card (i had 28 students, and hence 28 cards to write...it indeed trained up my hand muscles...lol) which i hope might motivate em to study harder (and oso remember miss loh..haha) Will they rem me?? hmm... Well, at first i tot of juz buying some small gifts like chocolates for em, but i tot tat after they eat my chocolates, they might forget bout me, so decided to write each of em a card, which is more "eternal" than chocolates, so tat hopefully, they'll rem miss loh, at least for as long as miss loh remembers each of their names..hehe...hopefully...

Well, the next time i'll get to do classroom teaching would be during my practicum in Feb 2008. Not sure of i'll get back to the same school though...but in de meantime, i'll be back at NIE to be trained to become a full-fledged teacher. The first week back there was really boring in comparison to the sch teaching experience, cuz it was juz briefings, briefings and more briefings... :( boring... but anyway, NIE is the last chance for me to be a student, so its back to wearing jeans, bermudas and mini skirts instead of formal wear!!!!! hahahaa....hopefully i'll get used to the lessons at NIE which is very much group-work based, which is sth i'm not very used to doin yet cuz most of my modules in NUS don't practise that. Yup, so i'm back to being a student again!! For the last time... my final chance at being a student... :))

Anyway, I took some pics on my last day of school to capture the precious teaching memories I had at that secondary school. It was the very first sec sch i ever taught, and so that maths class tat i taught shd feel honoured to be the VERY first sec sch class i ever taught in my life!!! It has indeed been a valuable experience, kids! Thanks for it!!! Let the pics below do the talking for now, enjoy!! :)









My temporary abode at the staff room...





Yup tat's basically all of my fond memories at the very first secondary school I recently taught at!!! :) Pictures really speak a thousand words, and capture memorable moments for a lifetime... ;)))

Lyna