Going to be very busy

I am going to be real busy soon. Assignments (homework) have been given, there's tons of textbooks to be purchased, lots of things to do. In 6 weeks, we finish learning 6 modules only to take on another 6 modules(subjects). ITs going to be really tiring.

As such, I will not have time to entertain requests to help you fix up your blogs, neither do I have time to teach you how to start your own blog. My apologies.

I do not have the luxury of time now on my side, for I have started on my course and I intend to finish it.

Please ask those students whom I have already taught or have learnt it themselves to help you.

I'm glad to see more children fixing up their own blogs. But they need to maintain it regularly otherwise it would just be another abandoned incomplete project.

however, I will make sure I check on this site once in a while and at the same time do some updates.

So everybody reading this, take care of yourself, be good and study hard!

Till we next meet again.

NTU - My school

The Entrance that greets you upon your entrance.



The Long winding roads, NTU is a huge place






Hostels are homes for students who stay too far away from school or are foreigners studying in NTU.





A lecture hall with many many students waiting for our lecturer.

Some word guides

In case there are some people who still do not know, I have left teaching to go studying.. here it is again.

I am now a student!

And here are some references for you in case you do not understand why i use such words.

Lecture hall is a place in which all the students taking that subject have to go listen to what their teacher is teaching on a particular day. Usually our teachers are called lecturers, because they give a lecture.

Then we have tutors.
Tutors are teachers who teach you in the classroom. And in this case this class room is called a tutorial room and we dont say lessons, we say we are having tutorials. We usually ask our tutors all the questions we have on the particular topic if we have any, and he or she will help us sort things out.

in a lecture hall, there can be a few hundred students. In a tutorial room, there are usually only 10 or more.

This change in the names of the classrooms will come about in your life, when you are in Junior College or Polytechnics.

So are you ready for this change?

Busy day!

Was supposed to help out with one student's blog design first, but was pulled into another because the layout was too messy. glad I hae sorted things out and its much prettier now. however I do not know if she prefer it to be colorful as it is now.

Okie.. let me get round to the other one.. before I get chased at.

By the way, if you can read me at this time of the night, tomorrow I might be going back to school to get tie up some loose ends.

See if you can see me tomorrow!

My first day of lessons

Dearest all, as promised, here are some pictures of the campus.. did not take much pictures because camera was low on battery and I just dont have the mood to take so many. Enjoy.. you might see some familiar faces...


The Canteen, more seats on level two.




Picture showing you part of the campus






Friends and fellow schoolmates at the campus grounds, on our way to lecture.

Am sick

Am sick with the much dreaded flu virus and is given 2 days of Medical Leave to recuperate. Please take care of yourself and dont fall sick like I did. Especially the primary 6s, because your oral exams are just round the corner!

It just seems weird to be home, when it is 7.20 in the morning. All of you must be in your respective assembly areas already, singing the national anthem.

It feels so weird, with nothing to do, just sitting around the house, idling and looking at the time passing and eating your medication.

So, what I have done is reloaded all photos and did some fine tuning of this site.

I still owe somebody some tuning of his blog.
guess I had better go do it now...

Racial harmony day photographs

Recorder recital from the primary 5s

Choir girls singing in their sweetest voices...

Indian Dance, very colorful!

ah.. who is not paying attention?

Forgiveness

The student who caused me much distress over the weekend has finally sent me an email apology today.

I forgave him.

Reuploading the photos

This latest change in how my blog looks is very rejuvenating!

I feel good about it, I hope you also enjoy coming to this site. I have yet to receive my apology from that student in 5E.

However, I shall not deprive my other faithful readers of my blog to not see photos, thus, I shall post them up somewhere else, where you cannot download them at all unless you are my invited guest. =)

I will be a little slow in the uploading because I have to repost all the photos.
Also, I am sick with the flu bug, keep sneezing and coughing and have a really bad sore throat - I have yet to see the doctor =/. (anyone wants to bring me to the doctor?! =~(

So please bear with me.

To all those who are relatively new to my blog,
a very warm welcome to all of you.

My blog did not used to look like this. Most of you might have seen how it looked like before. A student made me angry and I deleted all the picture post. And everytime I look at the blog, it looked so bare, so i decided to do something different yesterday by giving it a new look - even my tag board has got a different color!

In case you are unsure as to how to navigate about my site.
The "bigger box" shoes content of the blog. That is my updates and stories.

In the box marked "4eva friends", you would see my tagboard and links to other blogs made by students. In this box in the near future, I might also include a photo preview. Because this box is small, much of the contents are hidden. To view them, click your mouse over to the black arrow buttons and scroll downwards. This way, you wont miss out on any thing.

Tomorrow is my first day of school and I think I am going to miss it because I have fallen sick. =/

So sad...

Hello dearest children.....

Sorry if you are disappointed with this blank page.
I have saved all my entries and will only post it up when I get my apology from that person who made me very angry...

YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

i am mad

Immediately after I have posted the entry about my last day, I got very mad at one of the supposedly good student.

Why you ask?

This person come from the best primary 5 class. He stole all the pictures from my blog before. He took the pictures of all of my dogs and I did scold him once about it. And he took it without asking. This I consider it to be very rude. It is like me being slapped on the face, and after that you smile sweetly at me and say do you like it?

Today I saw that he has stole pictures I have taken of students sitting for their Physical Fitness Test. I told him that I am not happy about it, and he is unremorseful, unrepentant.

It made me extremely irritated.

If you want something, ask for it. If I did not give you the permission to do anything, you dont do it and tell me "silence for so long means consent."

I told him that I am disappointed by his lack of manners. Dont you think that he is really lacking in manners?! why is it so difficult for you to ask? If you do, I would gladly give u the permission, I might even save it on a diskette for you.

Do you know what is called intellectual rights ? By stealing my pictures without asking me for it, is akin to a crime that is punishable by law.

Until he apologises to me, I am sorry my dear readers, there shall not be any more pictures posted here for your viewing pleasure.

Not happy about it, blame it on him.

My last day is also Racial Harmony Day Celebrations

Last day already - part relieved, part sad, part excited.
Relieved because I dont have to worry about marking anymore books.
Sad because I cannot bear to leave
Excited because I am going to start School on monday!

I will post the photos taken of the Racial Harmony day in another post. And if you find the photos you see here familiar that's because I also took for the school And if anybody asked, you see it here on my blog first! hehe!

I hope you enjoyed today. I enjoyed mine =)

Physical fitness Test

Photos photos... are you one of the many I photographed yesterday?

children doing sit-ups.

Whoa! Superman! see how he "fly"!!!

Someone at the sit and reach station... stretch somemore!!!



Ah... this is shuttle run, I thought this was a nice angle, it captured the precise moment of a child getting her bean bag.. i loved this picture!


Teachers at the shuttle run pitstop, all busy and burnt by the scorching hot afternoon sun.


Isn't it obvious which teacher is the children's favorite?


Teachers busy at the 1.6/2.4Km run. One of the teachers caught me sneakily taking pictures of busy them.


Girls doing their best to last through the run. Look at their determined faces... Good work ladies!


Ah.. look at boy number 1 in the picture.. giving up already...


the partners of the runners who are supposed to keep track of how many rounds their runners have done by issuing rubber bands and sash accordingly.

Do you think they realise they look like cheerleaders actually ? *giggles*

The baby hamsters

I have given out 2 of the baby hamsters yesterday. I am giving away another two today.

These two other hamsters have been living in the teachers' room last night. I hope they weren't up to any mischief. For if they were, I probably would get into trouble.

The 2 students who received the hamsters from me, I hope you treat them well and if you have any questions regarding them, you can always approach me for answers. I will try my best to answer you =)

2 more days to go... and I have got lots to say...

Im counting the days left in the school with a heavy heart. As much as I would like to stay on and be in the company of children, I can't. I have to go and complete my course and then return to the education system in a year's time.

I have wonderful colleagues, they are helpful and they have been extremely kind to me during my stay here - for that I am very grateful.

I have been told some children are actually angry that I am going. But children, do know that all teachers have to undergo training or be away from school for a period of time. We can't help it. All teachers have such obligations to fulfil. Full pledged teachers have all their teaching duties, as well as administrative work to do. In addition to playing the role of mentor to the children, we also have to fulfil our quota of courses to attend in a year. This way, teachers would be kept up to date with what is the latest requirements and developments in the education system.

Ultimately, its our students who would benefit from our courses.

Photo-taking Day
On Monday, the entire school took class photographs. *sigh* I did not managed to take with 3C. Not that I dont want to - Its probably I was not invited, and also I was doing relief with one of the primary 4 classes. If the present form teacher of my former class did not invite me to take photographs with my 4B, I probably wouldnt have taken with my class, even though I would love to have my photographs taken with them. In fact, if I have had my way, I would have taken photographs with all the classes I have taught since 7 months ago. (That would be 17 classes out of the total of 22 classes in the morning session!)

I can't wait for the photographs to come back to the school, but that would probably take about 3 to 4 weeks. I have placed my order and I am awaiting very impatiently for them!

Why always mention 3C?
Some people might ask me also, why the frequent mention of 3C? But no mention of 4B ? My students from 4B are actually a very diverse lot. We have the extremely mischevious ones to the really hardworking and obedient ones. They are much more independent than the primary 3s. However, theyare also more reserved when showing their feelings. I do not know if they welcome me back into their lives. ( Although I do pray very hard that they do.)

I do know 5A loves to have me back in their classrooms, I have taken them through some lessons this semester and I do detect their interests in my lessons. Thank you very much! You have been a joy to teach too!

P6D also have been a joy to be with last week, even though they still make noise, but are more cooperative. Thank you for making my last few days in school very memorable. Study hard and good luck for your PSLE.

I have also made some friends in P6A, many of whom are very talented but they dont know it.

My 53sb tamil students who have taught me how to write my name in Tamil - Thank you so much too! It was a really enjoyable 2 periods with you.

My dear primary 4s, if you are reading this, please work very hard because this coming CA2 and SA2 determines which class you would go next year - this is very important because it is the beginning of the many roads you would have to take in your life.

Same goes to all my p6s, because some roads have no u-turns, therefore you cannot afford to make mistakes.

Physical Fitness Test
Today was the first day of the physical fitness test. It has been a really long day indeed. Actually the last thing I wanted to do was to start blogging. BUt I was afraid if i do not put my thoughts into words now, I probably would not managed to put such thoughts into words the next time.

I have taken some photographs of the action for day 1. The 5 stations and the 1.6Km test. In fact, I only returned home at 6.15pm today. It has been a really long 13 hour work day. ( And you think teaching is easy?! *grin*)

HOwever, I am not able to post the photographs up yet because my camera's battery is flat again. I will post them up tomorrow.

I was put in charge of the primary 6s' 1.6km run. Some of them have very good endurance, some of them run of out battery after 2 rounds (because they ran as if they were in the Olympics in the first 2 rounds!)

When I was in school, I have always attain GOLD award for all my Physical Fitness Test.

Share some tips with you?

• Inflex arm hang - Always help your mother do housework or carry marketing from the market. They are so demanding on your arms, you develop muscles, inflex arm hang 20 times definitely no problem!!
• Sit and Reach - this one the trick to it is to do proper stretching exercises before the test. Also if you do simple stretching exercises daily, you would see much more improvements soon. Therefore those of you who have yet to take your 5 station test, start doing your stretching exercises now!
• Sit-ups - Ah.. my favourite! Because I could easily surpass the gold requirements for the boys. I guess most children shouldnt have problem with this. But if you do, I think it is too late to buck up now. You dont want to hurt your stomach muscles before the test do you?
• 1.6/2.4km run - Trick to it is practise hard during your pe lessons. Do the warm up rounds faithfully. You would train up your stamina for the actual test. Also, conserve your energy in the first few rounds. Never use up all energy by sprinting your friend to the finish line when it is only the 1st round. You only start to run fast when it is the last round.
• Standing broad jump - Trick to it is to swing your arms and your body to gain momentum for your jump. The swinging is especially important. If you get it right, reaching the required distance is " chicken feet " =P

PArent visits
A parent also told me he viewed my blog this morning while i was just outside of the school. *laughs and waves* A very big hello to all parents who happened to stumble on my blog while you supervise your children. I know it is inevitable for parents to stumble upon my blog by hook or by crook... though I tryto keep it low profile. But you know children being children, they will start passing the word around, even though I told them to be quiet about it initially.

My plea
Do note that this blog's content is made suitable for children, however do allow me the indulgence of not checking my grammar and do allow me the space to make typo errors. Many a times, I typed when I am really tired after a hard day's work. But if i have started on something, I would like to keep at it. Therefore, no matter how tired I am, if there has been some interesting bits I would like to blog about I would definitely blog about it and then go to bed.

Then there are also occurances when I am blogging my entry, my children would beep me on their instant messenger and I would get distracted by them and therefore write incoherently.

And since this is a very informal medium I would like to keep the tone of it informal else it would be too dry for the children. ( For example, this entry is too dry for the children, probably many of them would just scroll to the previous entries where there are lots of photographs.)

My last excursion
Ok last but not least, I would be going on my last excursion with the children tomorrow. Thus I would need to go recuperate and conserve energy for tomorrow's long day out with the P5s to the Science Centre.

Will you be there with me?

Hamsters for adoption

If you are one of the few students whose parents gave you the permission to keep a hamster, then let you know I have collected the hamsters already. right now, they are nestling in my bedroom, now my bedroom has got a total of 10 hamsters and 2 dogs. 4 baby hamsters to be given away.

I would be giving out the hamsters by this week. Please get the necessary equipments ready. If you do not collect the hamsters by this week, I might not have the chance to pass it to you already.

This is because this week is my last week in the school.

Yes, you might probably not see me after the 22 july 2005. *sniff*

Excursion to Science Centre with my P3 students

It is a wonderful Thursday afternoon. We arrived early and the children were all excited to be on the excursion. I think they all felt worried that they might have to hold onto live insects at the Science Centre! *giggles*

Anyhow, we left and entered a laboratory on the 3rd level. We had some time to ourselves while waiting for our teacher in charge of this laboratory lesson, so we took some pictures. Her name was Mrs. Chin.

The children were wonderful, with the exception of a very naughty boy from 3B who had to be chased out of the laboratory because he did not listen to instructions to not touch any of the exhibits on the table, unless the teachers told them to do so.

After the very interesting lesson, we even had a little souvenir to bring home. A model dragonfly. Look at the pictures below, you might find your dragonfly or even see yourself busy making your dragonfly model.


.

Sick day

I am on medical leave today because of a very painful shoulder.

Went to see doctor and doctor aint open until 1 pm -.-
But taxi fare already costs me $11 to and fro the unopened clinic. @%@$!$@#%^&!!!

Will spend money to see doctor later again.. *mutter mutter*

Bintan Getaway 2 days one nite!

There has been much changes since I last went to Bintan.
Bintan, a mere 45 minto 1 hr ferry ride away from Little red dot Singapore is a favourite haunt of mine. I used to go there 4 times in a year, making me almost a tour guide to the little rustic weekend getaway hideout.

I love the trainquilty, the feeling of not being hurried, not being contactable, of absolutely wanton freedom to just spend time lazing and wasting time. Definitely a must go when you need to unwind.

I love the sea breeze and I love the ability to float effortlessly ( there's higher salt content, thus you are very float-able), I love to be able to swim among the fishes, to catch fishes during low tide, to watch hermit crabs.

In fact, I think I have painted it to be such a lovely place, you must go there and see it for yourself. (damn it.. the nirwana Pr must pay me!) haha!

However these days there are much changes to the place, probably because frequent travellers to the area must have found the area lacking after such frequent visits. The changes are evident from the ferry terminal.

Ah.. here I am once again at bintan Ferry terminals.. awaiting my hotel ferry to ferry me to hotel. Most Bintan-ians are hospitable lot. Afterall, its how they earn money for their daily lives. Evident in their mascot, a wide tooth local grinning at you upon your arrival at the ferry terminal.




A mega big statue of an eagle awaits us at the exit of the ferry terminal.. although it looked majestic, somehow, I gather that's not very good fengshui. You feel as if the eagle is pecking away at you.. how good can that be?





Checked in and got upgraded to deluxe seaView - no extra charge! Absolutely delightful!!

Check out the beautiful pool.. no photoshop on the photos here! all rawly downloaded from the camera. And since my camera contracted that dreadly pms-al disease, its a wonder these photos turn out marvelously well.









The pool comes in shallow (baby) medium and deep. In the midst of it is a poolside bar, 1/2 sunken so that swimmers can grab a quick bite or a little cocktails there if you are tired of lazing around, suntanning or after a little jacuzzi.




Photos from the beach, I became v facinated with coconut trees since that's probably one of the other thing u find in abundance other than water and white soft sand.




Some picture of the sandy white beaches beckoning with very very clear water. Saw a really huge fish like 2 of my palms fitted together looking like a discus. But it swam away after i started shouting and running on the spot. =P








My lunch on the second day, nasi lemak.. the cheapest lunch u can find. Doesnt taste too bad for $3 and iced indonesia mocha coffee for $3.50 that tasted quite heavenly on a scorching hot day!




We ate at this cafe called Dino's bistro, cos Dino the Iguana lives there, but he was nowhere sighted that day. PRobably hiding underneath the rock with the two land tortoises that lived with him.

Dino Bistro comes with a little cafe and a wine corner. Cafe sell all sort of bread, cakes, coffee tea, mocktails, finger food and italian food. Wine corner, as the name says, sells alcohol.




And at the side of it, sited the Warung Asmara - an outlet of the Asmara Spa where you can get footsie, head, neck and shoulders massage for $25 per service.




Sunset in Bintan, second day when we were waiting for our ferry. We did not managed to get the earlier time slot, so we left on the second last trip we left at Singapore's time, 7.30 and reached home at 9pm+.




That's a picture of our ferry approaching the terminal. After the arriving guests
alight from the ferry, we board it for our return trip home.

Not in Singapore

Will not be contactable after tonight. Not in Singapore. Back on Sunday might blog, might not blog.

HAve a wonderful weekend!
have fun!

Preparing for your hamster's arrival.

If you are bringing a hamster home, you must have the following ready in your home before it arrives.

1. Cage (plastic or wired)
2. Water bottle
3. Sawdust
4. Running wheel
5. Hamster food mix

There are many different type of hamster cages, but they can be sub divide into 2 main categories. The wired ones and the plastic ones.

I personally prefer the plastic tank ones because they are much cheaper than the wired ones, gives you a clearer view of the hamsters, easier to clean and are better at preventing your hamster from escaping.





I bought my 30 cm long, 20 cm wide plastic fish tank from an aquarium shop for $8.
It comes with a cover that is useful to protect your hamster from prying animals like a bird that fly into your house, or a stray cat looking for food.

Before you put your hamster in, cover the base of the plastic tank with about 2 cm thick of sawdust. The sawdust acts like the hamster's bed and help keep the hamster warm. On cold days, they enjoy digging into the sawdust and hide underneath for warmth.




Do bear in mind that the Roborovski hamsters are the smallest hamster in the world. Therefore, they can easily squeeze through the openings of a wire cage.

You must also know that they are not called "speedy Gonzales" for nothing. They run mighty fast too! IF you take one out from your cage to play, you might find that it would jump out of your hands and you might never find it back again.

You must also provide a running wheel for the hamster to exercise, so that it may amuse itself while living in his new home. It will also help keep it healthy. IF you do not provide a running wheel for the hamster, it might find living in the new home boring and it would find ways and means to escape. Worse, some hamster might even die from lack of exercising!

Always leave enough food for your hamster in the cage. Hamsters like to store their food in their pouches. This is because in the wild, hamsters move from one place to another. By storing food in their pouches, it ensures them that there is always food for them to eat while they travel.

If you see your hamster store food in their pouches, do not forcefully push its pouches to make it empty it. This will cause severe hurt to your new pet.

Do not only feed one type of food to your hamster. Like human beings, hamsters need a variety of food in order to be healthy. Buy hamster food mix from your supermarket or from your nearest pet shop. There are a variety of them to choose from. The cheapest brand costs $3 to $4.

A hamster eats about 20 grams of food each day. I always put about a bowl of food of food in the cage and I only add in more when there is no more food in it.

Water bottle is also important to the hamster. It is from the water bottle that the hamster get its water supply. Make sure that there is always water in the bottle and that there is no sawdust stuck in the tube.

I provide the inside of a toilet roll for the hamster to play with. Sometimes they sleep in it.





Apart from giving your hamster a home to live in , proper food and water, you must also make sure that you keep it clean, so that it may stay healthy.

You can help to make sure the cage is clean by washing the cage and all the other things inside the cage with soapy water every week. When you do this, make sure you remove your hamster and place them in a dry clean pail. A hamster cannot take baths. This is because they do not know how to swim and if water gets into their nostrils, they might choke and drown.

When you wash the cage, throw away all the old sawdust and toilet roll, for they might be soaked with the hamster's urine and manure. Once you have finished cleaning up the cage and its other equipments, dry the them with a piece of clean towel.

When it is dried, cover the base of the tank with fresh sawdust again before placing the other equipment in.

Make sure you clean the water bottle and replace the water in the bottle with clean water. Clean out the food bowl and put in fresh food.

After you have done all these, then put the hamster back into the cage.

Your hamster would be extremely grateful to you for keeping its home clean.



.
I think my roborovski hamster is very happy, dont you think?

Science Centre Excursions

Whee~
I would be going on excursions with the P5s and P3s next week and the week after to the Science Centre!

Are you going to be there? ;P

* I have another 2 more weeks before i leave the school to pursue my studies fulltime*