Feathercraft K1 review

It was, after all, a great day of paddling yesterday, from Changi to Punggol jetty. The sun was in a fiery mood when we started but was eventually pacified by the clouds. The wind picked up after lunch and the resultant drift made us return on the dot at 5pm, but it was all right. I sprinted back the last stretch and then did rolls and self-rescues with my K1.

I should have assembled it much quicker, because things went into place much easier this time round - the boat was assembled for the past week and that must have stretched the skin well. When I put in the last crossribs I was actually thinking hard wondering what I could have missed out, because it was all smooth and fast going. I did miss steps though - footrests not in, pins on crossribs didn't fit nicely into their blocks. The former made me released all the rods' tensions and withdraw the chine bars so that I fit the footrests in. Damn, I could have gotten it in 40mins.

Made a mistake and just want help to settle the problem fast...

Paddling speed is so-so only, and it's definitely not as fast as a sleek hardshell due to the size of the beam. Cadence have to be a little bit faster to keep it cruising, and doing high angle aggressive strokes doesn't really propel it faster (or is that the case for all boats?). Roland speculated that the lack of load prevents it from gaining momentum. It tracks very well though, and holds an edge easily, thus making the rudder unnecessary. Besides saving on assembly time, I rather have a solid footrest for me to push against.

At Punggol point for lunch under the shade from the sweltering heat
*notice Roland behind returning from a coke - buying trip from the hawker.

Seat is comfortable but after 2 hours the sides of my gluts have a burning ache sensation probably due to numbness - must change positions once in a while! I like the fact that the sprayskirt is tight and reliable but at the same time easy to remove and put on.

Roland in a dancer...he haven't been in one for ages.

The seasock is excellent! I tried wet exits and rescues in it and it definitely helps a lot in limiting the amount of water that goes into the boat. It doesn't makes my legs overly warm too either. The boat can also be rolled! Tried both forward and backward recovery on left and right side, allare good!

Happy paddlers - Roland and Edwin

When I disembarked, I noticed that the skin in between the keel and chine bars at the seat area is pretty loose and is pushed upwards by the water underneath, I wonder if that is supposed to be the case. On the water, I can feel the fabric on the hull rippling when going over rough waves - this effect is supposed to aid the crossing of such waters by absorbing their energy, and I do feel that it is much less 'disturbed' when going through rough patches. The boat is surprisingly easy to balance and carry on the shoulder despite the 5m length, sweet!

A happy paddler and a tired paddler...

Disassembly was so easy; I even save time by doing different things with each hand, such as taking out a hatch rim and releasing the screw on the crossribs, or opening the sponson's valve and removing the thigh brace bars simultaneously. The washing was another matter though...

All in all, right now I really don't mind assembling it for day trips because it's really part of the fun, and I'm finding it so much easier to set up even on my second attempt. Such a long time since I went out to sea, and I really miss this whole experience. Must go out more!

TAF activities

It's shameful, but I have to admit that it has been a while since I have done anything innovative in my classes. I think I do my badminton lessons pretty good, and there is only so much I can innovate when it comes to teaching fundamental techniques for net barrier games.

So anyway, I was in a playful mood the last Tuesday when the TAF kids were out doing rounds at the field. I joined some other kids in playing football, and then one of the boys asked if he can have the ball to play with while walking the rounds (yes they don't actually run la, but I close an eye). Oh ok, go ahead and dribble it round the field, if it makes you happier.

Then I thought about finding new ways to make the kids have fun and do physical activity at the same time. Currently, they do rounds, interval runs, rope skipping and play badminton for their sessions. Today, I gave them these choices:

1. Run/Walk 4 rounds
2. Make an accurate frisbee pass across the 18yard (16.5m) penalty box on the football field to a partner,
   
3. Juggle a football with any parts of the body (except for the arms)

Of course, no one choose option 1, only 1 boy chose option 3, and he completed the task pretty quickly. All the girls choose option 2. Did it work? It does! Think it's pretty obvious that they are intrigued by the tasks, and they reported being tired just by picking up the frisbees.

Anyone can think of more skills tasks to share?

Lull period!

The lull period is here! All assignments marked, results keyed in, lessons finishing...this is the moment I've been waiting for!

I had told myself in those crazy weeks where work is nonstop that I'll want to make use of this lull in my work to prepare for things in advance, but now that it has arrived I can no longer remember what those things are :p

This week, I played badminton yesterday night, training polo today and tomorrow, climbing on Saturday and paddling for the whole of Sunday, how shiok man!

I'm a definite sports addict. But it's just reward for surviving the madness of the past weeks.

I want to go kayak sailing!

I think that one of the great thing about having your own boat is that you can attach a sail on it and sail as you paddle! I'm looking at getting a spirit sail for my K1 soon!

The feeling of being able to drift downwind is incredible, and it really makes you grin from ear to ear and want to shout out to the sea in joy when you catch a good wind and fly forward.


Here's a video of someone doing kayak sailing, you can tell how fast he's going - just imagine the excitement!

Water bottles

Bings asked over MSN if I knew about Nalgene bottles containing supposedly harmful BPA substances (I have no idea what that is actually), and turned out that Nalgene now have a line of products which is BPA-free. I don't think my current Nalgene bottle is BPA free, but I really don't care. It's better than using plastic bottles anyway.

Speaking of which, the world should really put an end to the bottled water industry. It doesn't help you one bit to prefer them over tap water, and it just produces a hell lot of waste. Do get rid of the delusion that tap water is not clean enough for us - if you don't get diarrhoea drinking from the tap before, you probably ain't gonna do so at all. Plus, don't bother boiling tapwater too - we're not out in the wilderness, and boiling water doesn't help to remove trace metals dissolved in it, if that's what you claim to be doing. Read more about this issue here too, very good for educators to know.

My red Feathercraft K1

The boat arrived last Thursday, and shipping only takes 3 short days! The box was huge, and the weight of the boat in the bag feels more than the 20kg specified on the website.

Here are the parts of the boat after I took out the boat skin - you see the rudder at the top, the ribs in white and the hatch rims. The black cloth with the yellow safety tag is the seat, with safety advices given on the tag. Paddle safe!

The skin unrolled. It's loooooong! 5m to be exact. The red strap inside the cockpit are for attaching the rudder controls to the footrest, the black tubes are for inflating the sponsons (air chambers) at the side of the boat for stability and to tighten up the skin on the frame.

A whole bundle of aluminium tubes! Thank goodness there are 2 large separate bundles for the bow and the stern; there are only 7 loose tubes apart from those 2.

Friday night - Roland and Enric came over and helped to assemble the boat for the first time. We decided to read the bare minimum and go down to work straight away. Roland had experience with the Kahuna and it was pretty easy for him. But still, it was hard work trying to fix up the center part of the boat. Fingers were bruised and the kayak was marinated with our sweat after one and a half hours of it.

In the end, we decided to take away the center portion of the frame again, because the frame was slightly off-center. Damn.

Next day, I did it myself, and surprisingly it wasn't that bad! I think I can finish the entire assembly myself in 45 minutes the next time round (hopefully).

It's so long that I can't get a decent picture of the whole boat. The rudders well, and I fitted the seasock over the cockpit. I can't help but want to sit inside it for a while or caress the skin of the boat whenever I see it. First time out on the water will be next Saturday at Changi. Can't wait!

I work in a moral hellhole.

Today was one of those days when I felt that the movement to educate our kids here is going to the dogs. The teachers are too harassed by so many different concerns and so pressurised to produce results that a great many mark too leniently to make all parties happy. I refuse to give in and always mark objectively, and people actually start asking me to give more slack to the kids - what good will that bring for anyone???????

Meanwhile, leaders and administrators are so blinded by results on paper that they missed the whole purpose of education. To hell with character development and holistic education - these people will force practice papers down students' throats every way they can. And this unhealthy practice is going to make the whole system disillusioned and failing because nobody likes to do things that they innately know is unnatural. These school leaders are really creating cram schools. Might as well drop all pretense and cancel CCAs and such.

It's really terrible. So terrible. That a new teacher like me with a year's experience only can see things this way. It's the system's fault, coupled with a lack of courageous leaders with moral conscience and a clear belief in the importance of a wholesome education, that caused this problem.

Where is the sanctuary within this hell where I can work under an inspirational leader for the right causes?

FedEx doesn't deliver fast enough...

...at least not as fast as I wanted it to!

My boat is somewhere in transit...hurry come come!

Track it with me here!

Nice things...

The week got better as it goes...it was quite busy for me at the beginning but today went by happily even though I had to be observed for a lesson, and it'll be Friday tomorrow.

I went to get my stuff which I bought on eBay after school today, a nice pair of bright yellow Pro M frame with 3 lenses, a new bike helmet, and a pair of shoes I bought for Karen - ah, the joy of consumerism! I can't help it, but I really love to gawk at my new bright yellow shades, just looking at it makes me feel sunny.

And at my badminton session yesterday, a friend commented that I have shown great improvements in my skills! Am happy to hear that, because I can't see it myself ha. Not sure what I improved in too, but I think I am more aware of what are the things I need to do in certain situations I suppose. Technical skills wise, still need much more practice time to perfect. It really makes me look forward to my Sunday training session.

Now I hope my polo competition will end soon so that I can get back to climbing. It has been an unsuccessful campaign for my team thus far, and so I don't know how much I can hope to win our remaining 2 matches. Ah well. Sad to say, but I don't have high expectations of my team for this season at least.

Nonetheless, a happy week! Next - looking forward to labour-day week hehe.

Opportunities

I can't help it, but amidst the excitement of waiting for my boat to come, I would sometimes wonder if that can really make me much happier, in any sense of the word. I mean it's such a big dream of mine to be able to paddle independently anywhere I can access, and now that I have the means to do so, how much happier will that make me? And inevitably this line of self-questioning will lead on to some really heavy existential questions on the purpose and meaning of happiness and existence... I must be crazy.

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And I was just thinking of all the opportunities we get in our lives. I believe that everyone can make changes to their lives and can go down the way they want, so long as the goals are not too far-fetched (and even then that might not be impossible). But still, life opportunities does so much to help or limit our advancement. There are new teachers in other schools who are marked to be HODs and subject heads etc simply because the school happens to have a position there which requires someone to take over; in these situations, it's quite silly to insist that work ability is the main deciding factor in whether these newbies get the job eventually. Schools will make all sorts of ridiculous arrangements to fill the gaps and allow the system to carry on running.

So, what sort of opportunities will I find next year? Who the hell will know right. Any new posting for me will last for 3 years, and if I end up somewhere where I'm not satisfied it'll be 3 years spent away from my goal.

I haven't heard much about other places, but so far I've yet to hear of a good P who have big and realistic goals and can actually introduce drastic and effective changes to propel the school towards them. I haven't been unhappy about my boss for quite a while, but still I know I should go somewhere else to save myself the agony of working in an environment which only pays lip service to positive changes.

Ok I did it.

I realised a dream - I just bought my own foldable kayak.

It's the Feathercraft K1 expedition model kayak, and it will cost me around $6.5k including shipping from US. I responded to an ad selling it online at a foldable kayak forum, and this guy is selling it brand new after he bought it from a guy who won a Feathercraft-sponsored competition in a copy of Sea Kayaker's magazine. And it happens to be my favourite colour, red!

Ok ok I know this is a big sum of money and half of you readers out there will be thinking I'm crazy for spending this much on a boat that requires manual propulsion. But I know I want to carry on going for long expeditions out at sea and see the world out on the water, and I will have to get this someday. I actually save more than $1k from this deal and that's too much for me to let go. Opportunities comes around once or twice, and when good ones comes we should grab!

So, now on to some water adventures in the coming future! Will probably post some photos when I have it here. And perhaps go paddle round the Marina reservoir with it, something I have not done for a long while already.

Northern Exposure II

It was a great concert that I went for yesterday night - The Philharmonic Orchestra really did quite well with Sibelius 4th and 2nd Symphony. The conductor Lim Yau took his time to explain the 4th symphony, perhaps fearing that the menacing sounds of the opening bars might turn off the audience; it does helps me to understand the music better, and communicated his enthusiasm to us. The nicely presented program notes was superbly written by old friend leon, and I'm sure he's somewhere in the crowd although I didn't catch him myself.

The orchestra's standards' pretty high, and I'm sure I can't tell them apart from the SSO - really looking forward to their last concert for Sibelius's late symphonies! And I was talking about it with my school's music teacher today - it made me listened to his symphonies for a few hours today, and to want to go back try scratch notes on the violin again if I had the chance. It's a joy to awaken old interests once again.

Staying on track.

Ultinately I do not want to be bitter about the beginning years of my teaching career. I have no idea what my career path will be like, and right now I do no know how I can go about going the way I want to pursue. But I think if I want to stay sane, contented and satisfied, I have to somehow be more positive or carefree about things. Do the things I can, refuse the things I can't, and find ways to make myself feel like a person rather than a teacher after work.

That is why I have to stay on as a sports enthusiast, as a amateur athlete. We mustn't 'resign to fate' and give ourselves excuses about having to put work above everything else! I have to dream on about getting my foldable kayak and paddling out in the sea. If I can't make myself happy, I cannot find the mood to teach well in class. The school might not be able to help me, and so I have to depend on myself.

Trying for a view on the bright side...

It is inexplicable - I've got the weeks' lessons covered, but I can't help feeling Monday Anxiety acutely the moment I woke up to Sunday. I do everything with half a mind on the fact that it'll be another depressing week of work with no tangible rewards to be seen or joy to be derived. This is so bad isn't it?

Ok, so I try to make myself feel better. Well, I might be able to go off from work earlier for maybe 3 days this week too, if nothing crops up. This weekend onwards will be the start of my polo competition, and that makes things a little more interesting. Badminton on Wednesday will resume again.

A little further ahead, I look forward to the end of my literature classes with those sloths, and the busy period before and after the exams, settling the paper work before the holiday comes.

Part II...

...and I got off work around 3-4pm for 3 days already since there's no meeting etc. I just wanted to feel what it's like to drop everything take a nap in the noon, and also because it storms every noon and I have to make my escape from school before that happens.

Today I was stuck in the rain with about a quarter of the way back home. I hid under a block and the storm just blew and blew. I was hungry and see no point in standing around the void deck staring at the coffeeshop across the road, so I braved the rain and got a drenching running across for a meal and kopi.

It was already close to four when I got back. I read the news, showered, read something and decided to nap even though it was past five; I have polo training at 7.45pm, and probably need dinner. I ended up over sleeping, waking up at 8plus, got to NTU just before 9pm to find out that training was cancelled.

Ultimately what's the point of my rambling?

• So what if I have no pressing work now? I'll still end up planning for next week's lessons after office hours and in the weekends eventually.
• I'm sick of teaching my stuff, I'm dry of ideas, and the kids and I wear out each other.
• Something about the system must be wrong to have created such situations, though I can't point my finger to it. I know schools can tailor jobs for everyone, but that's just unfortunate.
  

And I pity those academic teachers who have to mark stuff nonstop. I think no matter how busy the work is, one has to pursue things that at least makes you feel like a human being and not a slave.

Oh btw I just got notice of my upcoming promotion in October, but I can't feel the joy.

Heartless

Today I was not in the mood to do my job properly.

The new timetable sucks and I already burned out teaching Literature for 3 consecutive days and CME for 2 days in a row. It is tiring to go 5 lessons straight, even more if I have to discipline kids numerous times throughout the day. And then I had to walk into a class which have no interest in my stubject, and then I have to go crap my way through a CME lesson (no one has told me what to do, or had passed me the resources yet).

I am guilty of staring at the clock constantly wishing the lesson will end, but ultimately, I still look forward to getting away from it all..

New toys!

I've got new toys! I was just eyeing the Gundam Unicorn at the shops recently; it looks really pretty in pink and I'm into Master Grade models recently. Have also been looking at the miniature cute models too, don't even know what they are called but I think they'll all look very cute in my office hehe. I have to resist the temptation to start building them right away every time I see them; already, I have torn off the plastic wrapper to take a peek inside.

All thanks to Karen who bought them for me at some Isetan sale. Looks like I'll have to support her shopping habit from now on!

Good Friday

Good Friday is so good! Somehow, having it coming immediately my short one week break really made me happy this week looking forward to it. Thursday was especially enjoyable when it arrived, even though I had meetings and realised I have another paper to set. I went for polo training yesterday night and also this morning, and after that went climbing till my body's all soft now. Shiok.

Looking forward to more breaks like this!

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On a separate note, there's this prominent blog by a teacher who abruptly shut down his site unwillingly, leaving a farewell note on the site and removing the entire archive away. So sad! I wonder if I'll be forced to do the same one day, with my incessant complaints about my school's people and issues.

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On Thursday, this teacher who used to be a contract teacher (now in NIE training) in the school came back to visit us, and she even said that she hoped she is coming back for her practicum. I didn't know what to say so I kept quiet, but I think eventually I might want to update her on all the unhappy incidents our department faces, and see if she'll need to reconsider her decision. She's such a nice teacher, so I hate to see her 'suffer', though she might be so good that she'll be able to take everything in her stride. I know I can't, because I live for my ideas and I don't compromise on my principles. I just want to go to a school that's at least 'normal'.

Atrocities

My dear principal just postponed my CCA camp again till the end of the year. And my English HOD wants to shut down CCAs for next week so that English teachers can go for some workshop. The P just grilled my HOD for 4 hours yesterday on NAPFA results etc etc, but ultimately it's all about her trying to emphasise that all this school cares about this year is the academic results.

She is the one who does not see the big picture! You don't try to get students to be eager learners by getting them to do assessment work every week. You are not thinking of their physical and mental health if you prevent them from having quality PE lessons (for just 40 pathetic minutes each week) and CCA activities.

Just shut down my department la. 4 more terms before I go, should start countdown already.

Observations in school

1. I think it's damn sad if you're a principal of a school and every time you go to the canteen for lunch, all the teaching staffs avoid you like the plague. Well apparently, a certain principal either can't be bothered to reflect on the reason why, or the EQ just wasn't there to appreciate the situation. If the grade of the school depends on the climate survey, the school is gonna burn every single year...
2. I can't help say this, but outside of the classroom, I will help students very reluctantly. I just have endless admin stuff to do to want to try make time to help students who can't be bothered to pay attention in class. They should thank their lucky stars that at least I take my time to plan lessons.
3. There's a teacher in my school who is sort of the official spokesman to the media whenever there's some functions etc. He is damn diplomatic in his words when it comes to talking to parents etc, but he probably isn't very sincere about his dealings with them, seeing that he is so overworked to care about petty complains. I try to be like him when I deal with parents, but some parents really irritates me with their ridiculous parenting principles, and therefore I really hate to contact parents for any reasons at all. I probably don't really belong to this profession if I don't want to be a hypocrite. But then again, I guess PR is necessary everywhere.
   

The US$ is falling!

The green dollar is getting cheaper by the day, though the price of so many things else had skyrocketed. It's so tempting to go for a shopping spree online, damn! But I can't get the things I truly want...

A NOLS course = Not enough leave for it, too late to prepare for it. (Hm...really? Hm...)

Foldable boat = But Feathercraft has dropped its USD pricing and stuck to CDN pricing to avoid losses! Maybe I should look at other brands...

Maybe I should just go for a holiday at Hawaii or something this June...

I'm a sun!

I actually got the chance to had a consultation with a Chinese geomancer yesterday, who gave me and Karen several good wedding dates for the next year based on our horoscope etc. He also gave us both a personality analysis, and I got to say that most of the stuff that he said about our character was right!

Apparently I have 'big fire' in my character, and uses the analogy of the sun to describe me. According to him, I am generous to everyone, needs freedom to shine, and should engage in business as I have sunny prospects in money-mining instead of getting my creativity and ideas stifled in an environment where no big fortune can be made. I am frustrated and aggressive when I see people blocking my ideas or go against me, and so I should stay away from the government sector as far as possible and go into business and sales myself. From there, I'll have to specialise in something, be humble and work cooperatively with other people (because people will see me as a threat if I'm too aggressive).

Anyone has any ideas on good business opportunities for me?

End of term break!

It's almost the end of the term break; term breaks have never mattered so much to me before. It used to be just play and play. Now, it's still pretty much play and free time, but then there's always the spectre of impending work haunting me, reminding me to repay the debt of due work soon, spoiling my mood ever so often.

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I spent some days climbing, one day playing canoe polo, watched a movie, and the 3 days at a school camp. The camp was rather a waste of time for us teachers, who went around looking as if we are supervising the activities, but actually we simply can't be bothered. We all brought our laptops there to do work, and all we could think of is to disappear and go off to set exam papers the moment we finish our meals.

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Depressing news 1 - I heard from my boss that my principal is going to stay with the school for the next few years, so there's no way I'll stay longer than him. I'll have to plan to make my escape either at the end of my second or third year. I cross my fingers and hope that there's a good school out there for me to go to.

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Depressing news 2 - My English HOD who came visiting at the camp was saying that he chanced upon a bungalow for sale, and that he had wanted to buy it within a $2 million budget. Hm...when will I get to that sort of financial position...

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Depressing news 3 - Every piece of news my department receives from the top is a bad one. In the holidays, the P said that students look sloppy coming to school in their PE attires, so he don't want any students to be seen coming to school in PE attire even if they have PE in the first period. They want us to change our PE module system so that it's easy for them to change timetable, they want us to finish our NAPFA test but don't give us time, and now this. There's so many bloody things that impeded our work already, what's one more man. We'll just do our daily work and all go at the end of our contract that's all.

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So. The term break is coming to an anti-climatic, low-energy end. Thank goodness next week is shorter by a day. After that, my time table will be changed and loaded with more periods, and I'll probably be teaching more nonsense from then on. Teachers are gonna die, students are gonna die together with them.

Wedding bells rang!

Congrats to Xiao Ming and Sharon!~

Thanks for the dinner, it was great! Ah ming ah, when my turn comes you go and help me sing hokkien song ok?

And every time I attend a dinner I will inevitably be reminded of how much I lost contact with friends and people from my past. It was great to see the whole ODAC bunch there, esp. those from the 17th comm. Made me nolstalgic all over again thinking of the times when we see each other at YIH in shorts and slippers ha.

Have a great married life!

If your kid is schooling now...

...just some things you might want to know -

• If the school and certain teachers put in hard work and time to organise enrichment activities for your child, please do take our offer sincerely. We are not trying to do any sort of indoctrination or spread any propaganda through this (though the school might be, by promoting activities under the ministry guidelines, I dunno). But really, we teachers only want to see all students participate actively in everything the school has to offer.
  

• If you really are not interested, just write us a letter of excuse. You do not have to write a long/rude/angry/vehement/malicious one, because we are not really interested in the reason. We just need your signature on black and white to cover our back.
  

• The comments about your child that we wrote in the report book doesn't amount to very much. We try to be as precise as possible when describing your child, but most of the time, they are all just as obedient and attentive as any other kid in class. If your kid doesn't fit in or draws special attention from teachers, you will probably have gotten phone calls about them before that.

• We are teachers, and not tools for you to discipline your child if you don't know how to do that yourself. Please do not come to a parent-teacher meeting and say "Can you ask him not to sleep late/talk too much on the phone/be violent to siblings" etc. They are your kids, not ours.

Passion waning

This week has made me really fed up, mainly because I have to collect stupid forms from my entire level, and chase after the defaulters everyday. Sometimes people will just send out emails, or leave stacks of paper in my paper tray, and ask me collect this and that data or returns from my class. It's all a bloody waste of my time because I do not even have the chance to see my form class to do all this.

I'm really getting pissed off. A teacher's time is wasted on so much useless paperwork, where the hell is there time to try help the students? If the school leaders have some sense, they better reduce all this crap if they really want the school results to be better.

Thoughts of a recreational canoe polo player

There aren't many out there in the canoe polo scene who are like me. I still enjoy playing the game, and (faintly) hope that eventually my team will win something again this year, but don't mind if we end up with nothing either. My team can't even come down to train together much anyway, though we usually can find 5 of us together to whack the junior team.

Not being very concerned with the competitive aspect of being in a tournament, I find it irritating to meet young teams who goes all out to win and abandons sportsmanship to the wind. You can beat people fair and square, but to do that by jeering the opposition shows your immaturity.

Right now, I am actually finding more satisfaction from coaching my juniors even more than playing in the game myself. It gives me great pleasure to see them learn and improve to be a match-winning team, and I look forward to the day when they join my alumni group and play alongside with me.

Ultimately, I like to think that I'm helping the sport to grow in this way. If we cannot exert our influence in great ways to grow the sport, at least we are helping to sustain the teams that keeps the sport alive and raise our standards.

Looking for a nice work place

Last Monday, the news was that our usual staff meeting will only last one hour, but then after that we have to go on a staff outing sort of thingy on chartered buses. It felt as if there's no difference for us in the sense that we'll still leave school at 6pm.

But then when we got up the bus all together, it turned out that I actually enjoyed the experience, of having colleagues laughing and joking about every small thing. We also had a few teachers who went up to the mike on the bus to share some of their past stories. At the end of the trip we all went to an eatery and had tea break together. There was food and talk and it actually made me quite happy even though I was in a terrible and irritable mood that day for no good reason at all.

Now if only my school will throw up nice surprises to us once in a while to make everyone happy like this. All too often, things are piled up onto us, and all of us are juggling tasks big and small day in and out, and the things we need to do are neverending. The school leaders are also wont to throw us unpleasant surprises such as cancelling a forecasted PE event which a colleague of mine had planned nicely, and nearly threatening to do the same for my CCA's camp this March. Even staff welfare activities seems like a drag when people have to specially make time for it.

I'm actually thinking of how I can perhaps try to make the office a nicer place for the other staff once in a while...

Staff welfare?

This year, I was selected to be in the Staff Welfare Committee and volunteered for the Secretary role. But the guy who got the program IC eventually approached me and asked to change positions with me, saying that I have more energy, I am more active, I know more about those PE activities kind of bull. I just gave in and we changed our position. Well he did ended up doing good work as a secretary, including things I wouldn't like to do such as making calls and sourcing out for presents etc.

Meanwhile, I was tasked to hold the first games day session for staffs last friday. It was a total flop. One teacher was there earlier and played basketball with the school team, but when the time came but no one came down to join us for the games, he went back to office.

I can't be bothered too. Fridays are CCA days and most people are in school because of it, and CCA always end late for everyone. If they don't have CCAs, no teacher will want to stay back on a Friday unless they have urgent work to settle, which also means they wouldn't want to come down and play. None of them are dressed in the proper attire anyway.

So eventually I saw my SWC head and she asked me if I can make an announcement to the staff room for teachers to come down. I hate the thought of doing that and didn't do it; I went to join my CCA group instead with the activities. just before 6pm, it drizzled, and I was glad that gave me the reason to make my escape.

Seriously, if I have to stay back on Fridays and I'm not in the SWC comm, I can't be bothered either. What a stupid suggestion. Next meeting I'm gonna shoot down this idea.

An unfortunate epiphany

Walking down the corridors of my school today, I suddenly realised that I really hate this job. In one good day, I bore grudges against the students, school leaders, parents and the work I do, all at once. A student is unrepentently disruptive and sneakily hide behind mummy's back to proclaim his innocence and counter that I used vulgarities in class! And others who refused to take part in an enrichment program of my school, which irritates me because I am collecting the consent forms and have to eventually call them one by one.

Protective mummy had defended idiotic kid for every bloody thing despite the so many complaints against the kid from different people in school. Another mummy wrote outright rude comments that sounded like a primary school kid's outburst on the enrichment program consent form.

My P and VP wanted to cancelled my CCA's anticipated camp, citing silly reasons like the students and teachers will be overtaxed and will end up taking MCs. They want to achieve the national grade for CCA scores, but come up with all sorts of ridiculous limitations to hinder my HOD's effort to try achieve that in an effort to show thoroughly unnecessary 'welfare' for students. They are going to let kids who skip CCAs 90% of the time for 3 years get a passing grade by just helping out for 1 day out of a 3 day CCA camp.

My work consists of handling large amount of paperwork, going for long and tedious meetings, calling up parents for all sorts of silly reasons unrelated to students' academic performances, and having to do silly things like organise games for staffs who are all equally taxed and have no desire to waste time playing in school.

I hate to wake up at 6am, and cycle to school 15 mins later. I hate to spend 15 mins after I reach school to set up the badminton court for my PE lesson, and end up feeling stressed and hungry without breakfast at the start of the day.

For the first time in my life, I am unashamed to say that today, I am in this job for the money, nothing more.

I flooped!

It is a day to remember. Finally, on the 16th of February, in the presence of my paddling kakis, I did my first floop.



Think it has been more than 2 years since Jacob first did the floop, but I have only been trying to do it practicing in spurts, busying myself with a lot of other things. Having been practicing more regularly now, I have got used to some of the required movements, but it was only today that I caught 2 more details to doing it -

1) Takeoff angle must be forward-leaning and not purely vertical.
2) After throwing the body forward, the back-arching and legs throwing forward must be done immediately before hitting the water.

Now to replicate the success in my own playboat, and to aim for consistency and adaptability.

Inequality in the class

I'm marking the comprehension questions for my Sec 2 normal technical class's English common test now, and the disparity in standards among individuals is shocking. The questions are all pretty easy to begin with, and I start off the answers with a few words, so they need only to complete the sentence. There's a third who got almost everything right, and roughly the same number of people got everything wrong. How the hell are these kids going to catch up with the rest?

I have been toying with the idea that perhaps I can start an after-school reading program for the kids, because the kids badly needs to learn to read better, but I have no idea how to go about doing that. Do I get them seated in a circle around me while I read out stories word for word to them, or do I select things for them to read themselves? And how am I going to convince these kids to stay back to do something they know is boring?

It is almost a feeling of guilt, that I don't have the time to think about doing something more outside of class to help them in English. I devoured a book titled There are no Shortcuts by America Teacher's Award winner Rafe Esquith recently, and it sort of stirred up these complex emotions in me, provoking me to consider if I can just busy myself doing what I am doing so far without going the extra long mile like that guy did to make his students mature into outstanding individuals.

Will post a review of that book when I have time, it's really disturbing to my waning convictions.

Pride

An email was sent out to teachers by the teacher of the student council, asking us to excuse those Sec 1 students who are to attend councillor selection. There is a whole list of people from the top 2 Express classes, and only 3 names from my class, the last Normal Academic class of the Sec 1 level. Two of them were nominated by me, but a few others wanted to go for it too. So after assembly talk today, I called them out and asked them to submit their forms asap if they have not done so.

I don't know why, but I am upset by a sense of injustice from seeing the list. I had been discerning and only nominated 2 of my kids with clear potential to be good leaders. I am not sure how many of those in the long list of Express students were actually teacher-nominated (the rest have to get the form themselves and look for teachers to endorse their nomination), but even for these students I suspect there is a lack of care in selecting them, or perhaps over-zealousness in wanting to promote these students. My kids have fine personal qualities too, and I want to ensure that they have equal opportunities.

Post-CNY blues

I spent Sunday morning and evening preparing lessons for 3 different subjects, plus writing up my 15 page work review form.

I have been trying to make myself gain back some paddling power again, and have been doing my pullups fairly regularly. After badminton yesterday, I am now aching at the lower back, rotator cuff group and wrist extensors. And it was a sucky session for me too! Hard to keep up playing standards for the game still.

Woke up feeling like shit, and dozed off at a meeting just now. Next meeting coming, I hope I don't concuss. Not that I mind what I am missing...

This week is gonna be busy...shucks...am hoping to play one more round of mahjong this Saturday before the New Year mood wears off...

CNY holiday!

Ok it has been a good break this holiday. I've been busy offline doing things, and don't even feel the urge to check my mail etc. After the half ay of work in school on Wednesday, I went for badminton session before the reunion dinner. First round of mahjong yesterday night after the visitations, and second round coming later! Have to finish my work review by tomorrow before going for movies and more gambling, and it's sporting Sunday as usual for me.

In the last few days, I...

• finally won money at mahjong!
• nearly got outplayed in pool by a 10+ years old girl, but somehow managed to be pretty good myself despite not playing for years.
• had seen more examples of my Principal's ineptness and lack of EQ. I wonder if the horde of new teachers who joined my school this term did their research before coming over.
  

My holiday seems shorter the more I enjoy it...

Professional Development

Had a talk with my HOD yesterday to discuss about target setting for work assignments and review. I'm glad I did my homework, and all the targets etc were agreed upon. I took the chance to find out from her about my future career path, and I asked her how I can work towards the MOE Specialist track at HQ.

Basically, there are literally only a handful of people who are on the specialists in each branch within HQ, and the rest of the teachers who don't embark on that track will be reposted back to school eventually. Selection for these positions is pretty much by networking - making your name known to the people that matters, such that if vacancies appear they will approach you with the interview offer.

The problem now is that my school has a principal who wants to take the most direct way to getting good results for the students, rather than look at things from a larger perspective and focus on staff development. We can only be allowed to go for a single course if it is a full day program that will cause us to miss classes.

Hence, most likely I'll have no chance to take up important courses related to the outdoors as they are all full day courses lasting several days. If I can't go for any courses organised by the branch, they can't get to start knowing me and the work I do.

5 years will be the longest I'll stay in this school, unless I start getting opportunities for greater things.

Ave Maria!

It has happened! Amazon is offering its digital downloads of MP3 to the international market! I can finally get some esoteric music by individual tracks! It's a chance to replace tracks that I lost due to the CD rot too, such as the 2nd to 4th movement of Schubert's glorious G major quartet by Quartetto Italiano.

Encoded at 256kbps, the quality should be real close to CD quality. It makes me wonder if I should go back to my CDs and see how much I am missing out when I listen only to my ripped music encoded at 128-160kbps these days.

Bad boys

Sometimes people ask me whether I have problem at work dealing with the bad hats in school (usually boys), those who create trouble, make noise, are defiant to the school system etc. I don't - they just don't deserve that much of my time, and no one else should suffer for their misbehaviour except themselves.

It does waste my time trying to deal with those kids if they act up in class - I mean the really psychotic ones which are totally oblivious to the teacher's authoritative presence. If they don't respond to prompts, I will take them out of class. Or at least that is what I think I will do. Truth is, I never do that, because I think it's a plain waste of the time for the rest of the class if I have to send these jokers down to the office myself.

But nonetheless, that's how things go - teachers should go outsource the problem kids (not those who are merely talkative mind you, but those truly disruptive ones) to the pupil management and get on with it. No students should have their lesson time wasted because their teachers are busy dealing with a few recalcitrant kids.

I teach in a new neighbourhood school, and I have my fair share of kids to discipline. But do I worry about them? No. I look forward to teaching those who wants to learn, or even those who need constant reminders to be serious. Those who are not interested to learn at all, suffer the consequences themselves. Their parents usually have no right to blame the school for not giving them equal treatment as the rest, because most of the time the parents is culpable for the kids' faults. It's sad, but true.

Parents out there - if you want to bring a child into the world, make sure you give them all the attention they need (which is not the same as giving them all the attention all the time). How they turn out to be depends on you.

Dry spell

I remembered that the sky threatened to pour every morning and will eventually wash out the island with rain in the afternoon. The past week, it was just plain, simply dry.

Felt that I'm having a dry spell recently too. I stayed at school for a straight 12hours on Thursday and it made me quite upset somehow, to be held back so much at work. Long hours at work is very stressful for teachers as I think almost every teacher has to do a bit of work even after office hours.

Things are manageable right now for me, but I feel restless, I want to do something exciting, extraordinary. My weekly sporting activities are only there to make my life bearable, sessions for me to look forward to at the end of the day/week. But I wanna do something more, though I have no idea where I can find time for anything much.

Should structure my life a little more, a little planning might make me feel more productive. Not much fun blogging if I have a boring life, and I don't wanna talk about my daily struggles at work.

Revisiting the shopping experience

It is not something that I am not too familiar with actually, but the intensity of the shopping experience inside certain fashion boutiques like Zara etc is not something that one will forget easily.

It is just such a spectacle really, a mass of females congregating together almost as if they are in a frenzy to feed; indeed, other animals have little other need to come together like this other than for reasons purely biological or social. One can argue that this is a psychosocial need of a higher level though, and it is distinctly different from a feeding frenzy because the crowd here are highly selective of their catch.

It is a scene that is bewildering and endlessly fascinating at the same time. The females in the shop all have sharp eyes darting rapidly from rack to rack, mentally discounting those the majority of clothings which have no appeal for them. There are strewn pieces of clothings all over trailing in the wake of the numerous shoppers, attracting the attention of shop assistants who hopelessly attempt to fold up the mess in neat piles.

Seats all around are filled with males huddling side by side beside the snaking queue for the fitting room, finding solace and silent companionship in each other, as strangers stuck in the same unfortunate situation. And then there are those others on active duty, having to provide arbitrary fashion judgments when their girlfriends models the latest look in fashion. Hovering near the vicinity of the fitting room, he has to keep a lookout on the appearance of the model while trying not to look like a pervert staring at women trying on clothes inside.

The stakeout place is of vital importance, to have vantage view of the fitting room without obstructing human traffic and risk offending irate shoppers who find male escorts in a female fashion boutique a nuisance for not knowing where to park themselves.

Only duty compels me to follow into a place like this, because I cannot imagine a worse shopping experience. It is as if the theme 'Sale!' have a lingering scent in the air that attracts the females in and induce them into this shopping frenzy. For the other sex however, it is just so stressful...

It's the weekend!

I have been slaving everyday in school, running about doing a few things wherever I go, and I'm gonna enjoy my well-deserved break!

Just woke up at one, and gonna leisurely do some work planning till I meet Karen for some walking about town tonight. Badminton and training comes tomorrow!

I am out to play with a vengeance, because I realised that this initial period of school opening is so busy that I hardly have time to go to the gym or relax for just an hour or so in the evening after work. Can't let that happen to me for long!

Resolving to work hard during work hours and not feel guilty about enjoying myself after that. Maybe I need to get rid of my perfectionist and there's-always-work-to-be-done attitude first.

Helping families

I was called to attend a counselling session of between my school refusal kid's parents and the school counsellors just now, and it ended up being 2 hours long. I didn't know what I should do there, but just thought I listen and learn something from it. I learnt a real lot.

• The kids' parents are reluctant to push themselves to drastic situations to control the situation. At the end of the conference, after all that has been said and with the action plan decided, the mum still said "actually she's ok one lah...", and tried to absolve her from blame by blaming some other external cause for her behaviour. The dad is more rational but is ultimately soft at heart too. These were the reason why the situation was still not resolved when it surfaced in primary school.

• Counsellors has a complex role in mediation, and rightly should handle things very delicately. They must analyse the case and come to accurate conclusions. They need to tease out details of the case gently, phrasing words the proper way so that parents are not influenced by their own perception of the situation. They must present options clearly to resolve the case without pushing for any of them or tempting parents to make hasty judgements. At the end of the interview, one of the counsellor even had to assure the father that the case doesn't not make him a lousy dad.
  

It's no longer about getting the kid to come to school now although that is the official reason for intervention; it's about trying to save the kid and changing the way the family works so that everything will end up right at home.

The most irritating thing in office...

...is to have work that you cannot do. Kanna arrow already nevermind. Give you the job with no info then jialat.

I was thrown the task of obtaining certificates and plaques for the annual Prize Presentation ceremony with scant info. No info about where to order anything, no info about design guidelines, no templates from last committee, no confirmation of prize recipients. And the event is on 6th Feb and I supposed to confirm my orders of those things tomorrow.

So how many times should I go check back with my mini-task group manager, who is equally lost because the head of the entire ceremony committee haven't got much firmed up? You can't just sit around and hope that the latest confirmation of information will filter down to you automatically. In the end, I probably will end up getting the necessary info late, kill myself organising the data to pass on to the company for plaque-making, and end up getting a reply from them telling me they can't do it cos it's too short notice.

I feel like saying something vulgar to this...

Blog reading...

I just stumbled upon the blog of someone I knew in NIE, and reading it was churned up all sorts of poignant memories of the past. His entries were all as sincere as he is in real life, and he wrote how he felt upon being posted to his current school, his attachment to his former classes, his new life now, and his memories of a different life in the past (with all the what-if questions). He spoke of people we both knew about, and that brought back much memories of my own.

Sigh, I'm in such a melancholic mood now because of that read. I don't think I ever wrote very much personal and revealing entries here, just about things that I am passionate about, but which is not necessarily in the private domain. Not that I think you'll be interested to know about my petty concerns anyway. If we are close and the timing is right, I would rather tell confide details in person rather than on this blog - think it devalues your status as a confidante if I publish the same things I shared with the rest of the world eh?

Anyway, I am so unfocused when it comes to work, often choosing to do other things that I have a personal interest in. Really shooting myself in the foot when I should actually get going and move on with things.

Pampered and Spoilt...

...are some of the kids we have here in Singapore today!

• I got a boy in my CCA who is a habitual smoker - the PE HOD talked to the father and the father has zero reaction to the news. Can you blame him?
• A sec 1 kid in my class is having school refusal problems - parents cannot control her and she might be throwing her tantrums sometimes as a symptom of withdrawal from computer games addiction.
• There are 2 retained kids in my class and 2 that got transferred from the Express to their current Normal Academic classes - None of them is interested in paying attention in class, and some go further to piss the teachers off.

What the hell right, I mean, a generation before, I don't think there were that much school refusal problems, and now it's getting so common. It's all about the same - Kids play too much computer games, gets antisocial (except for hanging out with friends they know online), and don't want to go school thereafter.

My second literature lesson, I showed my class pictures of my Nepal trek, and of the small kids who walked hours to go school everyday, as well as websites such as the Nepal School Project and this blog on International Education Statistics to show them how privileged Singaporeans are to have access to education. Next I got them to write several points in considering "What does one gains with an education" and reiterated that they basically wouldn't amount to anything much in their lifetime without an good education and trying to survive in Singapore.

Sigh...feel that parents are really not doing their jobs well still; we need more parents who are aware of parental issues and who are concerned with the way their children develop. I last read that 40% of the students in Singapore are in the Normal Academic stream...is that 'normal'? Is it too much to expect the majority of 15 year olds to start tackling literature and Biology? I am inclined to think that things can definitely be much better, and that the education system definitely needs further improvements, especially at the Primary school level. All the teachers with degrees and masters should be made to taught at the Primary level instead, that might set the foundations right for children here.

Victory!

My polo juniors just won the 3-on-3 canoe polo competition! I am elated at the news and am gonna treat them pizza tonight with my co-coach Zhiwen. During the competition, the junior captain messaged me to say they are going to win it all for me and Zhiwen, and I am deliriously happy that they could keep the promise.

Their win validated our coaching approach, and justified the time that I committed to coaching them. I didn't do it in the hope that they could win competitions in the these few years though, so it was a really pleasant surprise. Their win felt like mine, just as when the BMT section that I taught in my army days won a BMTC games day event a good time training together for it. I had considered that moment a high point in my life, and the news of the win today equaled that moment.

First week in school

Some pictures of my newly decorated workdesk this year! Go count the number of toys all around me...


Ok the first few days of school isn't that bad la. First day with my sec 1 form class saw me collecting lots of paper and settling administrative stuff, and that got my table all messed up. Things are clearing up much better today, and no lessons is taking place still. The weekends should be devoted to getting down to proper planning, but at least I can do that in peace and calm.


There's quite a number of new teachers around me at my staffroom now (we have two rooms, mine is the smaller and cosier one), and any office area is now bursting with office cubicle partitions. The noise level is still remarkably low however, and I am quite grateful for that.


Oh, by the way, if there's something on your wishlist this year and you can afford it, go ahead and grab it. Seems like every single bloody thing on this island with a price tag is experiencing price inflation; Houses, wedding banquets and even my Old Chang Kee sticks increased prices by 20 cents each - a whopping 20% increase!! So get anything you want before you regret ah!

A new year....

...and I'm not very happy about it, because that means a whole load of new workload is coming my way. I don't know, but I can't imagine that being in any other careers will give me this much stress.

But to be honest, my timetable is actually better this year, less things to prepare I think. The more important thing is still to learn how to control my irrational anxiety about work. That's why teachers go crazy - we are all constantly inundated with so many little things to do daily that we habitually believes that there is always something left to be done that has not been attended to yet.

To combat potential stress, I have allocated a portion of my work area to putting up cutesy toys and photos to remind myself that I have a life outside of work and to keep myself happy. Hopefully it will improve productivity too, as it is probably wastes less time to play with my toys than to indulge in chain url-clicking activities. A big reason why this blog wasn't updated recently is because I was busy building up my biggest and meanest Gundam robot model thus far. Look out for more pictures soon!

Looking forward to CNY in a month's time...mahjong and more!

Finding passion

Alex's blog points me to this 'One Week Job' project where this graduate wants to take on 52 jobs for a week each anywhere in the world, and donate the wages earned to charity while trying to find out what he is passionate about. His friend goes around with him on his job and together they produce a 10min video clip every week about his stint.

I don't think he'll be successful trying to find out what he might be passionate to work in, but he'll sure have a hell of an experience. I read the site materials and the blog and I get the impression that he's an earnest young man curious about the world and wanting to have the chance to see as much as he can out there, and it is just nice to read about such people's adventure, compared to the wasted lives of so many other silly ang mohs or the boring settled paths of young Singaporean adults.

Family

It's quite bad, but I never really have the time to be with family usually, so I'm glad to be able to have meals more often with them this holiday. On Saturday, Dad and mum drove to pick up Ah ma and we had a lunch at this vegetarian 'deli' inside this Metta Welfare Association somewhere in Tampines.

The food was superb! Sometimes eating good Chinese vegetarian food makes me feel as if I could give up meat, but only if I get to have those tasteful well made dishes of course ha. Their pineapple fried rice was very good for only $3! Mum enjoyed their hor fun too. We had this 'golden mushroom' or something with pine nut dish, delicious!

Mum likes this 'yam ring' dish too, a staple of the Chinese vegetarian cuisine. Their version had all sorts of vegetables in it: capsicum, pine nuts, cashew nuts, chestnuts, carrots, 2 different types of mushrooms, lian zhi and bai guo. Cost us $20 for this dish though.


Big brother is in Japan right now and my Dad seems to be enjoying the use of his Ford Focus car. I tried it too - the steering is more edgy, you get a slight booming noise with initial acceleration, and it is apparently a petrol guzzler. The most irritating thing about it is that the signal lights switch is on the left hand side, and I unwittingly used the wipers several times when I wanted to signal, argh.

All's good la. Dad is having a long break and think he will be driving a cab soon (he does drive like a cabby, much more adventurous than me!), and mum's hoping to go Australia next year for her dream farmstay. Heard big brother is applying to be a Mercedes salesperson, more money to be made there than in property? And my young niece is now a very comely young lady in secondary school, though she and her sis needs to read more for school.

Perhaps I should go on a family trip to Australia with them next year? Hm...

Days in Bangkok

Wow. It was an incredible day of shopping right from the airport. We got to the city’s excellent backpackers hostel Suk 11 and went out immediately to start feeding our shopping urges.

First, I dragged Karen to this row of sports merchandise shop near the National Stadium and bought myself 2 high-end Yonex rackets costing a total of $285SGD, THE buy of my visit here! Those two babies would have cost me over $400 in Singapore, and I am raring to try them out on the court.

Then we trawled the bewildering row of shops at MBK center for a while. Karen was more interested in this complex opposite the place which offers a great range of fashion wear at good prices, and I have to agree that many of the stuff there is so cute I’ll probably squeal in delight if I’m a girl. Back at MBK, I bought a really cute ‘Darth Vader’ 2GB thumbdrive, with the figure molded out of clay over the hardware. Damn cute.

And the food here must be mentioned. I had to go back to trying the stewed pork rice and the Thai iced tea every time I come here, and regret not having the stomach to get the mango with glutinous rice dessert.

On the streets, we got 2 bottles of the sweet orange juice to quench the thirst, a packet of goreng pisang, and 3 delicious fried chicken drumsticks on the way back. Am gonna get that mango dessert tomorrow night just outside our hostel!

I spent a cool $10000 Thai Baht just on the first day! *gasp*

---

We went for a tour to the city of Ayuthaya yesterday, to see the temple ruins in that area.

We pretty much get the same picture wherever we go, and the day ended with a boat ride back to Bangkok with a so-so buffet lunch on it. Then some walking around Siam Paragon, probably the most upmarket shopping mall in the country.

Stay tuned for more updates!

How to thwart a 'Qian Bian Wen Da Ti'...

(Roughly translated from Chinese dialogue)

TF: "EH! Ask you this question: Why does penguins have a white belly but is black everywhere else?"

YH: "Dunno?"

TF: "Aiyah, you're not even making an attempt to guess!"

YH: "Oh I know! It's for camouflage purposes! Fishes beneath the swimming penguin will see white as the sun shining through the water, while predators above the water will see black as the depth of the water below!"

TF: "Eh, this answer seems correct hor, but why so scientific one! No la, it's because their fins are short so they can only rub their bellies when they bath!"

Off to BKK...

Off to my holiday trip to Bangkok for a week starting tom...

Basically this blog is pretty quiet cos most of the time I'm out having fun these days.

ODAC camp
A great success! My kids feedback that the mobile camp was the best that they ever had, not bad for a first attempt at organising a large scale activity! But then it'll be hard to top this achievement in future years though. Glad that they enjoyed the intro session to bouldering, will definitely give them the chance to learn more climbing skills this coming year. As expected, kayaking is not something they really like, but it's necessary to build character ha.

Playtime
Been trying to go to gym once a week, playing badminton twice a week. Still coaching the polo junior team, but think my playing days are numbered cos the rest of the alumni simply disappeared. For the first time, I finally joined Jacob at OBS to playboat, and it was wonderful to get back into that experience again. I could never find the motivation to continue playing by myself, guess you need to be in that clique to continue enjoying the sport. Strangely enough, I think I am closer to getting the floop than ever before, even after such a long break! Must be due to Jacob's excellent boat.

Work
I told myself to do work related things during this holiday for the next year but it is quite impossible actually, with all those distractions. I was thinking of doing work leisurely during my stay in BKK but don't think that's gonna happen too, sigh.

Anyway, now that things are so relaxed, I can't imagine how I got so stressed during term time. Maybe this is a time to reflect on how I can be more productive at work, like quitting aimless internet surfing in the office haha. Have a feeling it's a feeling of stress that leads to the low-spirited moods, all thanks to the unhelpful upper management at my workplace. In fact, this management helped made up my mind about going over to the MOE specialist track as soon as I can and get out of the factional conflicts of the school environment.

Oh well, to hell with the negative vibes. Enjoy the time while it lasts, I'm going shopping and eating next week, even if it makes me lazy and unfit.

New toy!

I've received my Lego Ferrari!

It came in a nice big box, pieces in different packets, a manual and a set of car decals.

Karen and I assembled in 2 hours or so.

I love the view from the back, rear lights and all.

Right hand drive for us!

It'll be looking pretty on my table in the coming year!

Off to camp...

Visited Stephen's wake just now, and at one or two moments I felt sudden pangs of sharp sorrow that I held back. I don't think one needs to be close friends with him to mourn his passing. So many people had visited his family these two days, and our NIE lecturers were there too; that showed how much his presence meant to us. I realised that there is much less false sentiments at a funeral, unlike weddings when courtesy sometimes made unwilling people turn up. We got to talk to his younger brother, a very eloquent and personable man who is intending to follow his footsteps and join PESS this coming semester. He and his brother will surely help his parents cope with the loss.

I'm off to a 3 day round island trip with my Odac kids tomorrow - it's has drained quite a lot of time from me during this semester, and I am kind of glad it is finally happening, hopefully according to plans. Will update this page with pictures from my grand adventures when I'm back.

Sadness

Just received news today of the passing of a friend I know in NIE - he was from another class, but we took quite a few modules together. We had shivered in the cold waters of the NIE pool together during swimming lessons, laughing at each other's goosebumps. I remember recording a funny video clip of him trying to dive into the water and ending up slapping his front flat on the surface. We played against each other in soccer and badminton, and practiced softball throwing numerous times together. We were never really close but he was one of those good-natured chap whom you get a warm feeling from whenever you see him around.

He was a man with an impressive physique, and I am sure he made his teams proud whichever team he paddled with in dragonboat races. I do not know why the national team's boat that he was in at that race in Cambodia capsized, why no one on the boat wore PFDs, and why he didn't managed to surface and keep himself safe despite being able to swim. It is almost maddening that such a tragedy occurred, because it was probably preventable. I'm not the sort to say that such a way to go was fitting - no one deserves to die for their sport. Sports ought only to empower people, make us feel alive or even give us a reason to live.

Sky Dining

It was Karen's birthday yesterday and we did 'Sky dining' inside a cable car, which went 4 rounds from Mount Faber, WTC and Sentosa. Their menu was quite pricey, but the experience is very interesting - for once, you have a great view while you leisurely consume your dinner, instead of being stuck at a table overhearing others' conversations around you.


The view just pass the WTC stop - there was this 'Asian Cruise' ship docked right beneath us, and we could hear strains of Chinese songs from it. One of the attractions was to see the sunset from the sky, but the weather was cloudy and the only glimpse of it was a parallelogram window of bright orange set among the grey.


Sun setting already - lights coming up. Main courses and appetisers were quite nice, but desserts should have been better for the price.


And finally, her present.

The defining moment of my life

There was this time recently when I went to the toilet at my office to pee, and while I was on the job I had this sudden thought of gratefulness for everything that went my way (Yes, moments of epiphanies can occur to you at the most mundane moments of life) and got me there at that moment of time.

Is this a repeat entry? I am not sure if I had previously recorded these thoughts; I just am grateful sometimes for generally getting what I wanted in life naturally and seemingly without much effort on my part. I guess it helps that I ended up pursuing things I am passionate about it and somehow indulging in these activities helped to advance me forward in life somehow. So how did I end up in JC (after getting 27 points for prelims), landed up in the Arts faculty like I hoped for, and somehow became a teacher (with my dream combination of PE-Literature, at that!)?

And it all started on an afternoon in class 2B of Ang Mo Kio Primary School, during English lesson by a certain Ms Kaur. I can still remember the setting sun outside the windows and that the school day was nearing its end. She handed out card to each of us, NLB membership cards which was laminated plain white cards with only our names printed on it. But what pride we had in it! It became my prized possession from then on, and was my key to knowledge and learning. All I had, I attributed it to the fact that she got me hooked on reading for life though that small little act.

She will never know how much she has influenced the kids in her class, nor do I have any way of expressing gratitude. But I remember this and remind myself that it is possible to effect these changes as a teacher, rare though the chances might be.

Dumb and dumber

The other night I was just telling Karen that I read this book called 'The Odd Brain' which affirms other research that draws a correlation between child intelligence and TV consumption. It writes:

TV programs artificially manipulate the brain into paying attention through the use of frequent visual and auditory changes. Healy claims that TV programs and advertisements, including those designed specifically for children, "are planned to capitalize on the brain's involuntary response to zooms, pans, loud noises, and bright colors, keeping it unnaturally alerted - but at a responding level rather than at a thinking level".

In short, if kids watch TV as the main thing in their life, they're not going to be very smart. And TV happens to be very addictive to them too, and also for teenagers.

Read this account by a columnist in the US who had this long-time teacher reporting to him that schooling kids over there are so unbelievably stupid nowadays. I'm glad our kids knows how to use a ruler at least, but that's small consolation given the fact that their standard of language use is poor.

The courage to expression

Yesterday at a staff meeting, my former supervising teacher, the one who promised brimstone and hellfire to all who opposes her, raised the question to my Principal - Why do teachers have to come at 7.45am and leave at 12.30pm even though it is officially the start of the holidays, with only a few teachers needed to 'teach' some sec 3 classes?

Now it is a common malaise that when the top management make certain decisions, they will usually defend them and wave off probing questions rather than taking concerns raised into consideration. My P is, of course, one of those who believes in standing firm by her infallible logic and the decisions made with that. She gave a 20 minutes reply about how schools need a work to prepare for next year, there are department work (surely!), and (as an aside) that is will be proper for all teachers to follow the same schedule, probably out of a sense of fairness to all.

A whole lot of oratorical BS. She just repeated those few weak arguments round and round, and win only by subduing us with her droning - who could stand it lasting any longer? She basically sidestep the point of why teachers have to stay back if they have nothing to do or if work can be done at home, when it is officially the holidays already. Does she think that the teachers who had to stay back with their classes will get some perverted satisfaction if the rest of the staff all stayed back with them? And I hate how she likes to mention that "In other schools they actually ...", seeking to convince us of her kindness of making special concessions to us (which we do not understand/appreciate and she has to highlight to us especially) compared to the practices of some other anonymous schools out there with sadistic leaders.

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At the end of the meeting, the same teacher voiced out that she realised there are teachers (one or a few, I am not sure) who thinks that she's showing off by always being the dissenting voice in meetings or when she shares her own classroom practices as possible models to follow. She wanted these people to address such things to her directly, says that it is very malicious of them...and then her voice broke and she wept!

I didn't realise that she could be so disturbed by gossips. I hoped she stays in the school, keep on doing what she has always done, and be the firebrand of our conscience. It is just unfortunate that she does not understand that the Singaporean are mostly gutless herd creatures. Not many will appreciate the strong opinionated voice, and they will scorn these voices when they can to hide their shame of being pathetic weak-minded creatures who dare not speak aloud. She can't expect them to tell her their thoughts straight to her face because they have no guts at all! If they have more courage to express themselves in public like her, Singapore will be a nation with more spirit and character.

Alas!

Going slower...

Ok, life is less of a drag nowadays!

Things are winding down already. I still have projects to settle, but it is not causing me much stress now. I still run around for nonstop errands like today, but it feels satisfying to finish them. Good plans are coming up for my PE department next year, and I am getting motivated to help our department go up in professional standing.

English department stuff is rather messy though. There's a new HOD coming in, and that means a break-in period just when I am starting to get used to current routines. There's this rumour going that my former supervising teacher during practicum is pushing for me to take the first ever lit class for upper sec next year, and it's rather startling news. A grave responsibility and I can't help but think that me and the students will suffer a tragic fate at the exams if I am to assume that responsibility, but at the same time, isn't that what I have been looking forward to? I am just painfully aware that I have no experience in teaching literature after my sohrt practicum period, that I shy away from drama stuff and don't really appreciate Shakespeare from the bottom of my heart.

So. My homework for the holidays is probably to come up with resources for PE, since my teaching duties for English/Lit is uncertain. Oh yah, though I think things will stay the same, I will hate to work with my current form-teacher for my form class. That jackass deliberately didn't turn up today and can't be bothered to leave instructions. I can't verify if his sickness is genuine, but most likely not because when I called him to ask for things, he refuse to pick up my call but replied by SMS soon after the call dropped. When I quizzed him on certain procedural irregularities which the students said he permitted, he never answered, probably fearing that his reply will be used as evidence. Gutless wimp who only knows how to make hollow noises.

Sianness at work

I hope the next person who teaches 3NT next year finds my English Scheme of Work plans usable, but that'll be a bit too much to hope for I think. I am right now reading what my predescessor wrote just to find out what one looks like, and I got to churn out 7 modules roughly detailing the content of every English lesson next year by next Tuesday.

I think once people grow older they start getting more apathetic about a lot of things, things that they would be passionate about in their younger days. I don't hate my job and I find it interesting, but once out of school I try hard to keep all thoughts of it out of my private life. I can't really be passionate about anything I do in school for the moment, or maybe it's because I don't have much of a stake in the school as yet.

It isn't fun to work under a leadership crew that you don't feel comfortable with too. Silly admin issues and ways of running things, and general negative vibes emanating from certain leaders, just makes me feel that I don't want to stay in a school's team for long. But a future career option of going to MOE HQ seems like just an escape option rather than something I want to achieve. I guess at this moment of time, I don't really feel like achieving anything.

Also dunno what I'm writing about. Basically I'm just trying to procrastinate, and I think that's about the best thing I do in the office.

Promotion Day

Today is promotion/streaming day, where every teacher will sit down and decide what to do with the kids who fail their exams. I thought it will be a clear cut business, but my principal made it really tedious, going into monologues most of the time, and only taking momentarily breaks when asking other teachers to give comments for student so-and-so in a show that she value their input. I only teach the 3NT English, so I can expect to just stone there for the entire day. We took one morning to do the sec 1s, and probably the sec 2s by today.

And my department got this CHERISH report to finish up by Deepavali, and next tuesday I am supposed to produce a Scheme of Work for the entire 2008 English lessons for 3Normal Technical. So can you imagine what a wonderful waste of time today is for me?