Yesterday was 9 August! Our NDP has ended at long last. To tell you the truth, towards the end of it all, I was sort of hoping this thing to never end. Not sure of why, but it sure seemed nice gathering every week at the old grey Stadium. The fireworks displays were the best of all. We watched it like at least 5 times, through all those practices. And the whole Singapore held a birthday bash for me! I wish. Unusual experience though, performing on my birthday. Its gota be the first time for me.
And I received my first ever presents yesterday!
3-Pack Kinder Bueno and class photo from Fauzi!
Getting presents from people (other than relatives) is a rare treat for me. Im not a girl so we dont go mad and exchange presents for no reason. Anyway, it was a thoughtful gesture from our AI in Guards and Kaiwei probably received the same. Wonder how many other Singaporeans are born on the same day as us, 9 August 1992. Sorry for the lack of updates, but due to the oncoming tests, I shall have to refrain from spending too much time on the comp( my already-deteriorating typing skills is evident to that). Many Thanks for all the birthday wishes/presents! Onward Singapore! and me.
9 August
Time Table
Ok I have uploaded the new class timetable. Please click on this link if you want to download.
Teach Less = Learn More
Im really sick of Nanhua.
Enough with the NDP; its ending soon in August. Our over-worked sweat glands can finally rest. Whats wrong with NDP? Its doing a service to the country! It builds rapport and teamwork between students. It serves as a extra-curriculum activity to keep students healthy. It is fun!
Well I shake my head at the deluded people who think that way. Not only are we sacrificing our time and energy for this program (free of charge), we are now in danger of not getting anything for all this effort. And anyway, only Mr Foo is benefitting from this NDP, as it might give others the impression that Nanhua has holistic education and should enrol their sons/daughters here. Yeah, we are not performing very well (as pointed out by Mr Loh on several occasions). Face it, enthu people. What can you expect from freebies? We are doing labour with nothing in exchange. If you want to see a good performance, go pay for some concert through Sistic. Their ticketing hotline is 6348 5555.
Nothing? I thought there were 2 CCA points given for our efforts spent from March to August? The so-called 2 CCA points we are going to get are going to be null and void by the time we reach 2008, our sec 4 O levels. Our education system is going through a revision so CCA points would not be counted by the time we do our O levels. This year's Sec 3s are supposedly the last batch that includes CCA points into their O level results. Although this is not 100% confirmed, it is most likely true, and the school will never tell us students to prevent mass-quitting of CCAs. They are virtually useless. The revision is somewhat like the ones on the taxi fare/special school fee/electricity bill rises. And the goverment just can't accept the criticism. Well, if you get so high up there in the clouds you are bound to get a swollen head. Anyway they control the media so we cannot do anything, because the MICA might send us a letter for giving cynical remarks, non-constructive criticism that only hinders the "development" of Singapore. So much for freedom of speech and democracy.
Now lets talk about our Tablet PC programme from Sec 1. Our parents were told that their children are highly encouraged to join, as they will enjoy benefits that other kids don't. This "benefits" basically include enjoying a Tablet PC (which is paid by ourselves). Needless to say, I have also enjoyed other perks such as deteriorating eyesight. We have basically done nothing with the Tablet PC, except for the occasional jotting down of notes and downloading of revision notes from the school's online portal. It is used mainly for gaming in school and/or collecting dust at home. Well, at least the school tried to do something about it.
They introduced this brand new concept of Teach Less = Learn More, Problem Based Learning (PBL). Gosh, it sounds cool doesn't it. And and and then we learn more when the teachers teach less!!
This new concept of teaching was introduced recently in this later half of the year. Wow, it was implemented right when NDP is finishing. What a coincedence. Now we can experience all the new advantages of this cool programme. We have this PBL on Mondays and Tuesdays, the former for Science and latter for Maths. Each session would take up 7 periods (3.5 hours or half of the school day). During this extremely long period of time, the teacher would break us up into designated groups and we would be asked to solve a problem. By the end of the 3.5 hours, we would have to do a group presentation and explain the solution whether on whiteboard or PPT. For example, if we are learning the formula 1+1=2, we would organise information into three areas: What we know, what we don't know and what we need to find out. So if we know what is 1 we put it in its respective colomn. If we are not sure of what + means, we would use our Tablet PC to check it out on the web. Finally, after finding the solution, we would give a presentation to the class. After all presentations, the teacher would explain the solution. This is basically an extended version of Project Work.
This arrangement would give rise to some problems. Firstly, the groups are selected by the teachers to offer all-roundedness, a conducive environment for learning and to build rapport, it might
cause some students to be unable to communicate properly with other members, as they might not be very close or have no idea to break the ice due to different interests. This could lead to a negative attitude towards PBL and the student might not want to participate in the team. If that happens, it would not be very easy to change his thinking. Secondly, this programme takes up a lot of time in the daily curriculum and it would leave lesser time for other important subjects such as languages. Thirdly, this arrangement might not be very effective as some students do not learn as well in a group as compared to the conventional method of teaching, where the student listens to the teacher explain the facts.
In my opinion, this programme is a total waste of time. If I was the head of MOE, I would probably slap you in the face if you suggested this. The reason mainly is due to the undesirable groups. In my case, I have to be with those I am familiar with to be able to exercise peak performance. That aside, I find that teaching us facts and letting us practice is much more efficient than solving only one problem. If you listen in class and practice/revise at home, you would probably have a good understanding of the topic. The areas that you do not understand can be explained again by the teacher. In the PBL case, you simply solve one problem by searching for your own solution. This in itself is very unreliable as the student would not be sure of the solution and would often result in group to group discussion, which is not supposed to happen in the first place. PBL is also impractical as the student might grow to become comfortable with the long period of time given for solving and might perform slower in exams, which the student is given only a short period of time to finish. If you compare side by side, the conventional way of teaching is where the student absorb(2-3 periods) and practice, then ask questions. Whereas in PBL, the student spend a lot more time absorbing through discovery (7 periods), ask questions and then practice. As you can see, the conventional way spends way lesser amount of time for the student to familiarize with the topic than the PBL way. Furthermore in PBL, the student might understand the topic only to a certain extent as the work on finding the solution is splitted up among group members. This shows that PBL is completely inefficient and serves no purpose but to make education more interesting/relaxing, include Tablet PC into curriculum, and most importantly lessen the workload of teachers (they just serve as "invigilators" or "facilitators") for the same pay. Even if they had to test it, they should not test it on us Sec 2s, as we are having streaming this year. Furthermore, they implemented this programme with very bad timing, as it is already the second half of the year and we will never adapt fast enough for the end of years. In my opinion, the best candidates for all the evaluation are the sec 1s. They are free almost everyday and since they have nothing bettter to do, they can waste their time on these evaluations. If their grades drop significantly, they can still catch up on the starting of sec 2.
As you can see, our education system is really lacking. Maybe its just me, or maybe we are just unlucky to tio all these evaluation programmes that give us an "advantage". Seriously, there isnt an education system in the world that puts so much stress on their children at such a young age (previously P4 streaming, p6 PSLE, sec 2 streaming, sec 4 O levels, JC A levels). And knowing all that, they are still trying to cram every single thing they can into our already packed schedule (NDP, SYF) and change the system of teaching (PBL, nulling CCA points). I am almost certain that I have a doomed future. What a sad world.
Disclaimer: This post is absolutely fictitious, and any person or place described above that bears any similarity to that living, dead, demolished, undemolished is pure coincidence. I do not bear any responsibility for any influence of opinions the above has on anyone. Prone to grammar/spelling errors.
SYF
We had the SYF performance today. It was nothing much actually, seemed like the usual practice. Teresa was slacking. She was lip-synching the theme song which she was supposed to be singing and made up by waving her hands and smiling. And her dress+necklace seemed to be the same from last practice. He lip-synch sucked like hell. It was like she didnt know the lyrics at all. I know because the video cam zoomed straight onto her on the LCD screen. Didnt see Zhiyang at all. Maybe she read the script while singing for the record. And Nanhua really was the worst in all the performances. The whole thing was not in-synch and stuff. Very disgraceful.
Having NDP practice tomorrow.
NDP
NDP rocks.
Yes, it does. It it taking up the whole life out of us.
What is, in your view, NDP? Does it appeal to you being cheered by the adoring audience, your fellow Singaporeans, shouting "ONWARD SINGAPORE!!"? Well, under all that swaying bright red sea of flags and banners is actually a lot of sweat, blood and flesh. We, the people who are going to perform and entertain you on the big day, are actually almost worked to death during the gruellling practices. The very people about to have their streaming this year.
This damned NDP have taken every Wed or Fri since March and at least 1 week of our holidays. And now even our school curriculum. Every Saturday during June when most of the nation's secondary 2 students can sleep right up to noon, we are at the National Stadium, running to and fro on the green field raising flags high in the air for at least 2 hours. Don't make me talk about the full day rehearsals. Ok, I know that since this is NDP, there will surely be sweat. You might even say that the Army guards, instructors, teachers-in-charge are all sweating it out, helping us to run this program smoothly. Ah, but they are paid. Money is a very big form of inspiration. Dont shit about money being unimportant, and the pride for our country is more important. No money = no you. And earning money is helping Singapore's economy anyway. Now what about us? Two measly CCA points for running and training for 5 months, and then performing for the country twice, once SYF once NDP. What shit is this. And they dont even do much anyway (teachers can slack because they do not need to teach) , aside from the instructors (they are paid a hell lot more than teachers). So why did we even choose to do this in the first place? Oh no, we did not even have a choice. Mr Foo simply decided one day: "Ah! I shall have my school to be in NDP! It will bring glory to the school, country and even give the students a whole new experience!" and then we had to do it. Sort of like God saying "Let there be light!" and there was light.
This is simply taking too much of our time. This starting week of the new term already has Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat all booked up for full day NDP rehearsals. That means we go to school on these days and get chartered to the National Stadium just to practice, from 10am right up to 7pm. Can you imagine? On school days we instead of having classes, go and run about the field to celebrate the country's birthday. And I expect those elite schools like Hwa Chong and Raffles would have enrichment classes while we were training for NDP during the holidays. I suppose the sec 1s shouldnt mind NDP too much. It is both an enriching and fun experience for them, plus they get 2 CCA points. They have too much time on their hands anyway. We, on the other hand, have our streamings to worry about. Ah. Hopefully, just hopefully, we will have enough time for studying. We might just adapt quick enough to balance the activities and our studies at the same time. Yeah, and I might even enjoy performing and quit school to join Tan Ah Kow's Dancing Troupe and eat nothing but tofu everyday.
Disclaimer: This post is absolutely fictitious, and any person or place described above that bears any similarity to that living, dead, demolished, undemolished is pure coincidence. I do not bear any responsibility for any influence of opinions the above has on anyone. Prone to grammar/spelling errors.
Dopod 585
w00tZzZ! pH34r mY d0p0d 585!! 1t r4xX0RZz and pWnZ!
Wahaha! I finally got my Dopod 585!!
The given accessories in the box consisted of a charger, mini-usb cable, in-ear earphones, a white leather pouch and a small cloth bag which I do not know the reason for it. As promised by Dopod, it is an identical clone of the o2 xPhone IIm, albeit a cheaper one.
The Dopod 585 is clad in white plastic, an ever-growing trend setted by Apple for its iPods. It even has neat buttons dedicated to playing music. I am satisfied with its large 2.2" screen with 65k colours. Switching it on, the red Dopod logo greeted me with its fluttering butterflies and twinkling of sweet music. After around 3 seconds, the important part came in; Windows Mobile booted up with its trademark blue screen and Win Mobile in white. After waiting for 15+ seconds, the main screen appeared. The Menus and everything were quite clear cut and easy to use., though there was not a proper selection screen for apps. There is one screen which appears when you press the first round button on the phone. It shows some commonly used apps, and the 'Album ' file inside is basically a My Documents, but only view image files. If you wanted to search for other docs under my Documents, you had to use the File manager which will then show you all the files in the phone using a tree-branch format. The Bluetooth is a little puzzling, as you will need to switch on your Bluetooth and Beaming function. It does not have any problems receiving but I dont seem to have much success in sending files to my sisters.
The downsides of this phone is that the storage space of the Dopod is miniscule. It has an advertised 64mb, but after adding the Windows Mobile, it is left with around 24 mb. Furthermore Windows Mobile lags at startup just like its PC counterparts. Another badly designed part of Windows Mobile is that its applications dont close down, but gets pushed into the background instead, using up RAM. So the user will have to use the Task Manager to close down the apps. A pity this smartphone does not have Wifi capabilities, as that is the essential part of a smartphone: to be able to surf wireless.
The pros for this is that its sound quality simply rocks. Added with the in-ear earpieces, the music that blasts into your ear is guaranteed 100% good. There was also good support for synchronising files and Outlook information with the PC, through ActiveSync and mini-USB. The beauty of ActiveSync is that it allows you to drag-and-drop files directly into your Dopod. It does the rest of converting them for you. The keypads are soft for this phone, providing comfort when you message, though the T9 is a little slow. Last but not least, the Dopod comes with a 1.3 mp camera with X2 zoom and environment ambience (auto, daylight, flourescent, incadescent, night, grayscale, sepia and cool) and view options. (brightness, hue, saturation and gamma) The video function had the same capabilities. The pictures taken are rather sharp and good looking.
All in all, I have to say that the Dopod 585 is a cheap and good phone, though I would love it better if it had more clear-cut menus and came with WIFI.
It rained while it was sunny today so there was a rainbow.