Sunday, January 30, 2005

Joke of the Day

Another complaint letter from weird parent and kid. The one kena this time is Dong.
I understand that you have been informed of the incident which I found out only while packing Kxx's school bag tonight. This is what I gathered from Kxx:He had been asked by you to lend out his pens to a boy in the same MT class. His classmate (a girl) told Kxx that the boy spolit the pens. Kxx therefore informed you. The pens are indeed no longer useable. As a parent, I try hard to cultivate the sense of responsibility in my son for his belongings and studies.When I bought the pens for him, he has been told of the consequence should he mis-handle them. (He was so worried when I questioned him.)I am not feeling lost over the dollars. Kxx is helpful and listens to teacher's instructions. However, it is not fair to Kxx and myself. While Kxx is afraid that if he does not lend out his pens, he will be looked upon as selfish (which is not a moral value that I teach my son). For a parent, it is unfair to me to fulfill the teacher's class requirements and yet having to keep paying out for what is not my son's doing.So what if Kxx does not have the pens for his lessons? Either he will have to keep borrowing from his classmates (or else not able to do his work and have to face worse consequences) or he may have to carry the message back to me that he needs to have It is not that I can afford to buy good pens for my son. Certain pens do not produce clear ink, especially green. Thus, these pens do cost me a few bucks than cents, just to make sure his work is clearly done to teacher's expectations. I'm writing to you to try and avoid similar occurrence. Otherwise, there's no use for me to keep replacing. In future, I would like the teacher or student concerned to hold the responsibility to replace them accordingly where the case is clear-cut like today.I sincerely hope you understand where I'm coming from. Normally, I will just replace but there are other aspects that I have to balance in Kxx's growing mind stage. If you need to reach me, please do not hesitate to contact me at 9XXX XXXX. Thank you.
P.S. Mdm xxx, this is just FYI. Hope our meeting today has given you an insight of the active role I play in Kxx's school life. You will probably understand better why I have to get this matter straighten out. Thanks for your patience.

Ha..the thing is...the kid was asked to lend his PENCIL...and it turned out his GREEN PENS are spoilt...

Saturday, January 29, 2005

new blog

嘻嘻~ 昨天请病假,闲着没有事做,突然突发奇想,竟然制造了个blogspot给我小五的学生。哈~无聊的人真的能作出无聊的事~~
其实网站也没什么~就是这里的小小翻版~~有兴趣的可以去看看哦!

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

when chers get satisfn

totally lost my voice today and it did not come back by afternn. but those kids are so adorable today...all 3 levels. They tried not to make much noise and those who did were hushed by others. gonna give them all a good treat when i recover. At first I thought the P1's would be my nightmare, but they all behaved when i asked them to cooperate with miss tan. hee. adorable angels.
still keeping fingers crossed and hope that tomoro my voice will decide to come back to me....

Bring back, oh! bring back, oh! bring back my precious to me, to me...
Bring back, oh! bring back, oh! bring back my precious to me.....

Cher's worst enemy

What's worse enemy than losing one's voice??

Haiz.... I came down with severe sore throat from 4 pm onwards. It was all fine until after P5 class. and suddenly, *snap* of a finger, I lost my voice and was croaking during P1 Class. Argh!

I am drowning myself now with lots of brewed LoHanGuo. Pray that I could get back half of my voice by afternn tomorrow. I don't want to sound like a toad! *CROAK*!

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)

Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) - Josh Groban



Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and grey
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul

Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colours on the snowy linen land

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen
They did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds and violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue

Colours changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artists' loving hand

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen
They did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left inside
On that starry, starry night
You took your life as lovers often do
But I could have told you
Vincent
This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you

Like the strangers that you've met
The ragged men in ragged clothes
The silver thorn of bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow
Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen
They're not listening still
Perhaps they never will...

一直能让我感动的歌曲和画家梵高

人老了!

哈!真的是老了~
以前要走完整条乌节路都没有问题,昨天和紫铃走了bugis和Plaza singapura和Robinson's,两个人就开始脚软了~真的老了~~哎~

Friday, January 21, 2005

Chinese New Year Shopping

This time of the year has arrived again. Chinese New Year shopping. Going Bugis, then dhoby ghaut, then somerset, then orchard. heee.

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Stage Beauty - finally



yipee!!
Stage Beauty is finally gonna be staged here in March!
Been waiting for this film for months!

五月天@Fajar

今天,又和巧玲、婉珍和维芳到Fajar看五月天去了!情绪好high哦!
=P 温蒂姐!真得很对不起!忘了通知你!! 真的真得很抱歉!!!

今天五月天出来后,唱温柔那段时,演唱会的现场亮起了盏盏的仙女棒~~真的好漂亮~~

温柔+仙女棒

怪兽、石头、阿信 + 冠佑的背后(哈哈!)

五月天!!!

Saturday, January 15, 2005

offending complaint letter + response

Below (in colour) is my Level Head's response to the parent's complaint:

My 3 children attend DLS. For years, the school HOD of Mother Tongue has been compelling the students to subscribe to certain children magazines published by local publishers. Different magazines for different grades. I think they make this decision in the name of providing the students supplementary reading material. After reviewing the results of such magazines for many years (my eldest child has graduated the primary education. I have stacks of magazines which my children never read except for the page that teachers ask them to do the exercise at school), I think the MOE should check on this practice.
To make these magazines look like they are necessary, the teachers select only one passage in the magazine which is intended to certain grade to be the classwork or homework. Students are expected to read the rest of the magazine on their own. The fact is. They don't. The reason being the content of the magazine. It is not interesting in the first place. While the school select different magazines for different grades (I have 3 kids, I have to subscribe to 3 magazines - two of them identical), the content for the intended grade are limited as the magazines are targeted for ALL grades.
There are altogether 6 magazines from 2 publishers targeted at different groups of pupils:
P1 & P2: Xin Peng You / Hao Peng You
P3 & P4: Xin Lie Che / Zhi Shi Hua Bao
P5 & P6: Xin Tian Di / Zhi Shi Bao

It is not true that teachers select only a passage in the magazine to be completed as homework. The teachers will require pupils to complete exercises designed for their level and read the articles found in the magazines with the pupils whenever time allows. However, it would be unreasonable or too much to ask of a pupil of a lower level such as P1 to complete the P2 exercises, even though the P1 and P2 exercises are found in the same paper.
This parent has to subscribe to 2 identical papers most probably due to the fact that 2 of his children are only one year apart. However, since sourcing from 2 vendors last year, the siblings should bring home 2 different papers published by 2 different publishers. And if the parent is wise enough, he can actually ask these 2 children to exchange and read both papers, complete both sets of exercise in both papers. As such, his children can actually reap more benefits from the subscriptions since they have 2 sets of magazines to share with each other.


If the intention of the school was to encourage the students to read, I think these magazines are not useful. My questions:
1. Why are the magazines subscription made compulsory? Why not let the parents decide?


The magazines were used during curriculum / supplementary / remedial time to enhance the pupils' language ability. According to the publisher, around 80-90 percent of the schools in Singapore subscribe to the magazines. Based on our professional judgement, the CL teachers have found the magazines value for money. Thus DLS adopts the magazines and strongly encourage pupils to subscribe year after year. Parents only need to pay $14 for 35 issues, which is equivalent to $0.40 per copy. Those children with financial difficulties can approach their teachers and get free copies from the publishers.

The subscription is made compulsory so that pupils can follow the lessons closely. By allowing the parents to decide if they want to subscribe to the magazines, teachers would not have been able to make use of the magazines as a teaching resource. Also, wouldn't parents of pupils without the magazines be concerned if their children have no access to the exercises, while those pupils who subscribe have their work marked / monitored by the teachers?
For $14 a year (which cannot even get a person 3 extra value meals at MacDonald;s), what pupils receive include:
1) Articles on current affairs and celebration of festivals (front page)
2) Passages rewritten using words pupils of that level just learnt from the textbooks in that week, which reinforce pupils' learning
3) Quality exercises which teachers use to hone the pupils' skills.
4) Model essays contributed by primary school pupils
5) Games and quizzes


Other than the mastery worksheets set by teachers to strengthen pupils’ performance in some weak components identified through Item Analysis, teachers utilise the magazines as a teaching / revision aid to achieve results. Consequently, DLS pupils were not asked to purchase any assessment books. Whenever possible (if time permits), the CL teachers will devote ample time to read the articles found in the magazines with their classes. This method of teaching has proven to be effective, as evident in DLS achieving its first ever above national PSLE CL results last year.


2. If this is compulsory by MOE of school, what are the seletion criteria to decide that these magazine fit the standard?
MOE does not require that schools subscribe to these magazines, thus I do not know of any selection criteria to answer this question. However, we make it compulsory, and strongly encouraged pupils to purchase the magazines based on our professional judgement as we believe that pupils can benefit tremendously from reading these magazines. MOE's stand with regards to this matter is: Schools should assess and review the effectiveness of the magazine found in the market, and have the autonomy to decide if they want their pupils to subscribe to any of the magazines.


3. Are the magazines endorsed by MOE?
The distribution of the magazines is approved by the Ministry of Information and the Arts (M.I.T.A.). On every front page of the magazines, parents would be able to find the MITA registered number on every issue. The Curriculum Planning & Development Division at MOE gets a copy of the magazines every week as reference materials.

4. Does the school/teachers receive any revenue, commission or other form of benefits from the sales of the magazine? If not, why are the school teachers so eager to push for the sales of the magazine for many years?

Personally, I find this question absolutely humiliating and most offending. I would like to query: on what grounds did Mr Lee make this accusation?
The teachers go the extra miles to collect money from the pupils, distribute the papers to the pupils every week, ensuring the pupils complete their exercises, go through the papers with the pupils, and ultimately landed themselves in more markings to complete. What have they to gein from the subscription?
I guess the teachers could have made their lives easier if the subscription is not made compulsory. Now that they have worked so hard to try to help the pupils improve their CL results, this unreasonable parent has the guts to ask such utterly rude question. I definitely feel very disgusted!!!


5. If the school/teachers made the subscription of the magazines compulsory, then time should be spent in class to guide the students read through the whole magazine.

Teachers certainly spent time to guide pupils and read the magazines together with their classes. The heads of CL department monitors this closely by checking stacks and stacks of pupils' magazines during the Book Check Exercise conducted every year.
Nevertheless, limited curriculum time is one constraint all teachers face. While teachers tried their best to read as much of the magazines together with the pupils, it is unreasonable / unrealistic to demand that the entire magazine be read in class as we do not have the luxury of plentiful time with the pupils.
As such, pupils should be trained to be independent learners and parents should play an active role in ensuring that pupils read the magazines at home if they wish to see improved CL results.


6. There are other source of supplementary Chinese reading material such as Lianhe Zaobao which has a student session, can it be considered?

The Lianhe Zaobao is meant for adult audience as the vocabulary found in this paper is definitely too difficult for primary school pupils. However, the CL department did simplify and make use of some reports on current affairs in the Lianhe ZaoBao to set Higher Order Thinking Skills questions in P4-P6 levels.
The student section that the parent refers to is most probably the XIAO BAI CHUAN section which is published in the papers every Sunday (1 full page per week). This section showcases selective P1 - P6 pupils' compositions. Other than that, the Wednesday BAO MI HUA section is targeted at the secondary school students which perhaps only some of the P6 pupils can attempt to read and most probably would not be able to understand fully its content.
Another supplementary reading material that is suitable for primary school children is the "Thumbs-Up" magazine. However, CL department does not require pupils to subscribe to Thumbs-Up as the pupils have already bought one. However, nearer to the exams, Thumbs-Up publish mock exam papers for P4-P6 levels, and Mrs Wang did assign one of the teachers to be in charge of ordering the papers (with mock papers) on behalf of the pupils if they wish to purchase.


complaint was emailed directly to MOE. weirdo parent. Level head was asked to reply to parent minus the fire...heee...but who wont be?

Friday, January 14, 2005

Quote

From the first day life was received
we are ready to receive death
Live everyday to the fullest

Thursday, January 13, 2005

ipod mini

terribly excited today.
finally...my long awaited ipod is here!
yippee!

Monday, January 10, 2005

开学第二周

开学已经第二周了~ 今天有个小五的小瓜,竟然没有交习字,还说他没有交习字是因为他没有本子!结果给我训了一顿~

小一的小豆豆们渐渐上了轨道了~~他们还真可爱~~慧雯小妹妹还特地画了一张卡给我呢~ 好贴心~~ =) 明天照了后将它放上来

Sunday, January 09, 2005

新电脑

用学校的电脑用得真的有点气愤了~今天终于和冬梅到Best买了台电脑~~现在好开心~=)


我的新电脑 V2010AP Chassis 400

Friday, January 07, 2005

幸福简讯


http://tw.comics.yahoo.com/040621/90/17s1b.html
刚刚在浏览网页的时候看到的一则Flash动画~~相当有意思

幸福常常像猫和它的尾巴
当猫咪拼命追逐尾巴时
尾巴却跑给他追
但是当猫咪决定努力往前走时
幸福 反而悄悄跟在身后了


开学第四天

=)小一的小豆豆们开始懂得什么时候该做什么了~~ 终于啊!~ 现在来比较,他们比我去年那批小豆豆机灵~~

小五和小三~真的和去年的比起来是天渊之别啊!他们实在太乖巧了!

今年终于觉得自己是在教书了~不是在打杂的~~ =P

Monday, January 03, 2005

开学的第一天

2005年,开学的第一天。

今天终于看到了我的学生了,对他们的印象还不错。

小5这班有一些比较懒惰的学生,但是比起其他的老师拿到的班级,我算是满幸运的。这次的小5有超过半数的女生,所以相信他们应该比较安静吧。跟去年20人只有4个女生的情况,我很满意了~哈哈~~

小三这班算是好班,今天我在白板上写下的功课,他们在我没有说的情况下,都拿出了自己的笔记簿,将我交代的事情抄下来!这还是我第一次碰到一班学生这么自动的哦!都觉得他们好可爱哦!希望他们能保持哦~

说到小一这一班,我就头痛了~~现在是不是小孩子都不能遵守规则呢?说一,他们也听不懂!真大点就被他们搞死了~~ 告诉他们,看到老师进课室的时候,只有子健同学叫“起立!”结果模拟的时候,竟然全班都一起叫出来!天啊!我真地给他们小豆豆们打败了!救命啊!好~我今天脾气还不错,看在他们还不懂事的情况下原谅他们。如果明天他们在这么做,老师我就给他们颜色看了!等着瞧吧!


Saturday, January 01, 2005

一月一日

今天一月一日。到了Sri Lankaramya Buddhist Temple帮忙搬运包装救援物品。现在是全身酸痛。但是觉得付出的劳力是值得的。看到善心人士将一样一样的衣物,被单等用货车载来,义工们将不同的衣物,用品分类装箱,那种自动自发的精神,真地看了令人感动。更开心的是,我看到了不少的年轻人前来帮忙。谁说我们是无情的?有心的年轻人士还是很多的。想到中餐的时候,寺庙的师父叫义工们去吃饭,但是每个义工都想把手头上的东西分类好,结果师父走到人群中,一个一个指定,命令他停下来,去吃午餐。哈~~真的好有意思。



爸爸。后面都是堆积如山的救济物品。这还是小小的一堆而已。更壮观的没有机会照下来。

现在的双臂都黑青了~~ =*(

pictures for use



Happy 2005!!!

Happy 2005 Everyone!

Have a smooth-sailing year ahead,
and stay happy always!