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