Week 8

Time flies
And we are nearing the end of term 2...

Half a year gone
an eighth of your secondary school life gone for my sec 1 students...
seems like a scary thought?

So how are all of you doing so far?
have you met the goals you've set for yourself?
have you been procrastinating a lot?
have your grades for semester 1 met your expectations?
do you spend enough quality time for with your family?

some of the questions you'd like to ask yourself.

just something I'd like to share with all my students...
make good use of your time,
don't wait until the moment before your final exams to start studying hard.
yes, you might still pull through by the skin of your teeth,
but the stress and the risk you put yourself in is not worth it.

the reason why your CAs and SIAs are worth a considerable % of the final grade
is so that it's not so exam-oriented...
so that you can also gain points through fun things like projects and presentations,
and even speaking up in class, joining in discussions.
in my time we didn't have such a thing.
usually it was CAs 40% SA 60%.
so if you're not putting in effort during term time,
during everyday projects and assignments,
then you're really defeating the purpose of an IP programme.

anyway, last week was a packed week.
essays to finish grading before marks submission deadline...
comments to write for students' report books...
SMBO matters...

on thursday,
mr paul tan and I had to station ourselves at the boarding school
to wait for the malaysian participants of SMBO.
we stayed till 8pm, where we received 1 group.
also had boarding school food.
it's actually not bad.
balanced diet...rice (carbo), meat, beancurd (protein), vege, fruit (fibre) and soup (a little salty, but at least it's herbal)

on friday,
i got off my last period of the day to do invigilation work at the boarding school.
ms sarah birchwood and i were in charge of 98 students from s'pore/m'sian schools
and we had half a dozen sec 3 girls to assist us in the invigilation.
the girls were very excited about the whole thing,
for many of them, it's the first time they could play teacher.

well,
come the next 2 weeks, it will be 1 week to finish the poetry unit
and another for the sabbaticals.

i still remember how my sec 1 literature teacher made poetry interesting for us,
and i will do the same for my students.

it's always fun to begin learning poetry,
because we're surprised at how interesting and innovative the use of language can be.

as for the sabbatical for week 10,
i hope to make all the participants start writing their plays,
we'll be looking at examples/extracts from great plays,
how to write good dialogue,
how to create unique characters
and we'll be watching films of plays.