"Treat teaching as a service not as a job". I heard this from a stranger who knocked on my door. Even the minister of education couldn't have said it better.
About the soccer issue, it's true that not all of us share the pasion for soccer. I personally am not very keen about it but rather take sunday soccer as a chance to meet up. However it doesn't undermine the fact that i try my best to keep up with the team so as not to dissapoint(even though i still suck with 100% effort). I have a mild personality and so i do not have such a craving for competition and the elation of victory. I just want to have fun...=p
I think all of us appreciate Talen's efforts in organizing. Most of us just don't say it out loud. Pls don feel unappreciated.
Soccer aside, i want to share my view on how kids nowadays are crazy. It may be hard to believe but i've received love letters from 2 pri 5 girls and i have only taught them for 2 days. I'm sure we all had childish infatuations when we were young but to openly express it? And isn't the word 'love' too strong for 11 yr olds to be using?(parents and relatives aside) Even more amazing is that some teachers may be encouraging such behaviours. When i was helping out with athletics, there was this other teacher thats joining in with some p6 boys gossiping about who love who bullshit. Yes it's fun and you can build a pact with the kids etc...but what if they do something stupid? Especially with the raging hormones of this puberty age. And you can't believe the rate kids grow nowadays, some p6 boys are even approaching my height and girls looking like 16. I don't know if any of you have read this but there was this article about girls in a secondary school in JB indulging in a competition of who gets laid most by total strangers. We are talking about kids between 12 to 16. If this ever happens in Singapore, the question is should we blame the kids or adults like ourselves?
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Lithium...
Back to the soccer issue again, it just never cease. Being an avid Man Utd fan, there are a few players that I really dislike - Darren Fletcher, John O'shea, Rooney & Gary Neville. However, I'm still able to cut Rooney and Gary Neville some slack. Although he's not really a wonderkid to me, Rooney is still able to conjure up some magic occasionally. As for Gary, I can say he really plays with his heart on his sleeve. This is the kinda attitude I hope from everyone for our sunday games may it be competitive or just among ourselves. Yes, it's true that I don't play well myself sometimes and can be rather selfish but that doesn't mask the fact that I always give my all while playing. Even when i was recovering from my injury, I insisted on playing coz soccer to me is like lithium (carbonate form). It's time when I bond with the rest of you guys and seek solace in the game itself. Whenever I score a goal, I celebrate somewhat hysterically like it's some kinda cup final. I see it as something that helps everyone of us de-stress. Reminiscing bout the good old times when I could still run around the court relentlessly really my legs itch for more action. Maybe I can never play like how I used to, I'm still relishing the chance to play with you peeps again come 28th. May my passion and desire be shared among those who don't yet realise the importance of our sunday soccer sessions.
Avan aka Van Nistelrom...
Avan aka Van Nistelrom...
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Buy UK land, I did, no we did, well she did.
Whaasssaaapppp fellow GMH-ers, this is Kumar making his maiden entry for 2007. I have my own blog - FYI - but I haven't written for ages, guess I don't have much time like most of us don't, unless you're Binghan and can afford to go to the toilet 10 times a morning at work!!
The weekly soccer issue caught my eye as I'm sure it did for many of you. Talen, I have to admit something, I have deliberately not offered to help organise soccer even though you were not enjoying the experience as I knew you would voice out when you buay tahan anymore, and rightly you did. Some of you have already mentioned what I want to say, but I want this to come from me.
As Talen mentioned, the guys who have organized soccer have invested time, effort and money in doing so. I did my fair share too. And it was even worse at that time because I had to get consensus on whether we played on Saturday or Sunday and what time to play, according to the majority's schedule. But I took great pride in doing it, because the rewards for a good soccer session with friends are priceless.
It was also a learning experience for me, because I got to know the different characters and personalities of everyone in the group - some good, some not so, to be frank. To me, one of THE biggest foundations of our group is our love for everything soccer. But as more GMH-ers joined, I realized not everyone was soccer-crazy, not everyone gave equal priority to soccer. So actually, to those who play soccer despite it not being your passion, you guys deserve a round of applause.
Like Alonso said, there are only a few peabrains in the group who cause most of the problems. I think we shouldn't bother with them, unless we really need people to make up the numbers. Personally, I would also let them know in a 'nice' way that what they're doing is not cool, assuming they don't have good reasons.
But that's where another issue lies, what is a good reason, and what isn't? We're all going down different paths in an important phase of life, so understanding each others' situation is important. But the responsibility also lies with the source to let others know of his/her situation. Don't expect people to read your mind or let you off without question. Responsibility and accountability is a touchstone of friendship in my books.
My last and most controversial point - all this off the court nonsense is affecting us on the court. We have fun when we play; but I don't like spending hours of my time getting outplayed, thrashed, waitng for my turn to play, or playing with incompetent people every week, neither do all of you I think. Seriously, our form has dipped - some players aren't turning up regularly, some aren't communicating and playing as a team, some aren't putting in enough effort, some have fizzled out. I haven't been playing that well either. And I don't play last man because I really want to, I do it for the team, even though I am better as an outfield player. My outfield skills have actually dropped because of that, FYI. I believe we all owe it to each other to put in more effort and make our precious time more worthwhile. This may sound corny, but we should be enouraging and pushing each other and display more will to win, this is a team game after all. I believe we have more fun when we play well. And I personally hate losing to the fucking lao cheow team so often. But they actually deserve it now as they're more committed, disciplined and organized. So we should learn from them and start beating them more!!
That's all I have, thanks for reading. I look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday. (if no heavy rain la)
Agent "Nandha" Smith
"The habit of football is more important than the love of football"
The weekly soccer issue caught my eye as I'm sure it did for many of you. Talen, I have to admit something, I have deliberately not offered to help organise soccer even though you were not enjoying the experience as I knew you would voice out when you buay tahan anymore, and rightly you did. Some of you have already mentioned what I want to say, but I want this to come from me.
As Talen mentioned, the guys who have organized soccer have invested time, effort and money in doing so. I did my fair share too. And it was even worse at that time because I had to get consensus on whether we played on Saturday or Sunday and what time to play, according to the majority's schedule. But I took great pride in doing it, because the rewards for a good soccer session with friends are priceless.
It was also a learning experience for me, because I got to know the different characters and personalities of everyone in the group - some good, some not so, to be frank. To me, one of THE biggest foundations of our group is our love for everything soccer. But as more GMH-ers joined, I realized not everyone was soccer-crazy, not everyone gave equal priority to soccer. So actually, to those who play soccer despite it not being your passion, you guys deserve a round of applause.
Like Alonso said, there are only a few peabrains in the group who cause most of the problems. I think we shouldn't bother with them, unless we really need people to make up the numbers. Personally, I would also let them know in a 'nice' way that what they're doing is not cool, assuming they don't have good reasons.
But that's where another issue lies, what is a good reason, and what isn't? We're all going down different paths in an important phase of life, so understanding each others' situation is important. But the responsibility also lies with the source to let others know of his/her situation. Don't expect people to read your mind or let you off without question. Responsibility and accountability is a touchstone of friendship in my books.
My last and most controversial point - all this off the court nonsense is affecting us on the court. We have fun when we play; but I don't like spending hours of my time getting outplayed, thrashed, waitng for my turn to play, or playing with incompetent people every week, neither do all of you I think. Seriously, our form has dipped - some players aren't turning up regularly, some aren't communicating and playing as a team, some aren't putting in enough effort, some have fizzled out. I haven't been playing that well either. And I don't play last man because I really want to, I do it for the team, even though I am better as an outfield player. My outfield skills have actually dropped because of that, FYI. I believe we all owe it to each other to put in more effort and make our precious time more worthwhile. This may sound corny, but we should be enouraging and pushing each other and display more will to win, this is a team game after all. I believe we have more fun when we play well. And I personally hate losing to the fucking lao cheow team so often. But they actually deserve it now as they're more committed, disciplined and organized. So we should learn from them and start beating them more!!
That's all I have, thanks for reading. I look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday. (if no heavy rain la)
Agent "Nandha" Smith
"The habit of football is more important than the love of football"
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
~~Auntie I Swear Its Deja Vu~~
‘I wonder if God will forgive the things we do to one another, then I look around and realised God left this place a long time ago.’
My fav quote from Blood Diamond, yet again I’ll give Leo credit for his amazing African accent he adopted. Boy, he can act. Yeah as Bing said, go watch it, it was better than I expected. If this was going on in the world, then perhaps many of us would want to think twice about buying diamond, and insist on the conflict-free ones.
You know, the funniest part of the movie was after it, where I though out loud that this movie wasn’t made for us, cause who in the world would wanna spend huge amounts of money on stones that u can barely see but sparkles anyway. Probably the only the girls. And the only occasion for the guys is when you slip it on the girl’s second finger.
Jokes aside, I wanted to put up this quick post with watever free time I have nowadays. Juz went to Macdonald’s with KZ and Puiboon and they were teaching me maths and chinese. Two of my favourite subjects and the ones I’m gonna depend on to lift my grades up. I realised a startling fact, despite not writing chinese for 7 years, i’m amazed at how much i can remember. They just popped up in my mind! Of course the machine is not running at full throttle yet, but coupled with guidance and constant reading, i sincerely feel i’ll more than juz pass! I was juz relating to the girls yesterday how the students from China were laughing at me when i stood up and read a paragraph that the teacher asked us to. By the way we took turns to read a whole article. We were cruising along juz fine thanks to the China ppl, but all built-up momentum was lost when it was my turn. Damn i looked like a fool despite my frantic filling of hanyu pinyin & anticipation of where the teacher might ask me to start reading. Suffice to say, i’ve still got a long way to go, but don’t worry, i’ll get there. Look on the bright side, i wasn’t offended by them and i bet they didn’t mean any harm, but i have 5 other subjects to turn the tables on them..haha..
My maths however, has taken over Chinese as my ace subject. It was all Greek to me. Luckily the teacher was very patient with me and after class, some of my classmates tried to help me at the expense of their own time. (btw, one was really kip huip). But despite that, i think i wasted everyone’s time.
Guys, I really need a maths tutor URGENTLY. If you guys know of someone who can teach well, kindly let me know ASAP. Hopefully its some really fierce teacher who knows her stuff. In the mean time i’m gonna seek help from LuLu.
Alright its getting late and i still haven finished my ‘chen yu’. I’ll write a post all about the happenings in my school to cheer everyone up when i have time. I guarantee you’ll laugh till you drop. Just doing nothing and observing a Viet trying to communicate with a Korean in English will make your day, especially if you are a translator like me.
Looking forward to the next happening event on the GMH calendar. The cage and psycho/ ah du’s birthday, the stress-reliever I yearn for.
The feeling of being back at school is, as my new american friend will put it, “awesome”! Of course the stuff are piling up, but I kinda relish the challenge again. The environment is the stuff fairy tales are made of. I’ll tell you guys next time.
As for now, back to my “cheng yu”.
You’ll never walk alone,
Alvin Lim
Class Pre U 1A
My fav quote from Blood Diamond, yet again I’ll give Leo credit for his amazing African accent he adopted. Boy, he can act. Yeah as Bing said, go watch it, it was better than I expected. If this was going on in the world, then perhaps many of us would want to think twice about buying diamond, and insist on the conflict-free ones.
You know, the funniest part of the movie was after it, where I though out loud that this movie wasn’t made for us, cause who in the world would wanna spend huge amounts of money on stones that u can barely see but sparkles anyway. Probably the only the girls. And the only occasion for the guys is when you slip it on the girl’s second finger.
Jokes aside, I wanted to put up this quick post with watever free time I have nowadays. Juz went to Macdonald’s with KZ and Puiboon and they were teaching me maths and chinese. Two of my favourite subjects and the ones I’m gonna depend on to lift my grades up. I realised a startling fact, despite not writing chinese for 7 years, i’m amazed at how much i can remember. They just popped up in my mind! Of course the machine is not running at full throttle yet, but coupled with guidance and constant reading, i sincerely feel i’ll more than juz pass! I was juz relating to the girls yesterday how the students from China were laughing at me when i stood up and read a paragraph that the teacher asked us to. By the way we took turns to read a whole article. We were cruising along juz fine thanks to the China ppl, but all built-up momentum was lost when it was my turn. Damn i looked like a fool despite my frantic filling of hanyu pinyin & anticipation of where the teacher might ask me to start reading. Suffice to say, i’ve still got a long way to go, but don’t worry, i’ll get there. Look on the bright side, i wasn’t offended by them and i bet they didn’t mean any harm, but i have 5 other subjects to turn the tables on them..haha..
My maths however, has taken over Chinese as my ace subject. It was all Greek to me. Luckily the teacher was very patient with me and after class, some of my classmates tried to help me at the expense of their own time. (btw, one was really kip huip). But despite that, i think i wasted everyone’s time.
Guys, I really need a maths tutor URGENTLY. If you guys know of someone who can teach well, kindly let me know ASAP. Hopefully its some really fierce teacher who knows her stuff. In the mean time i’m gonna seek help from LuLu.
Alright its getting late and i still haven finished my ‘chen yu’. I’ll write a post all about the happenings in my school to cheer everyone up when i have time. I guarantee you’ll laugh till you drop. Just doing nothing and observing a Viet trying to communicate with a Korean in English will make your day, especially if you are a translator like me.
Looking forward to the next happening event on the GMH calendar. The cage and psycho/ ah du’s birthday, the stress-reliever I yearn for.
The feeling of being back at school is, as my new american friend will put it, “awesome”! Of course the stuff are piling up, but I kinda relish the challenge again. The environment is the stuff fairy tales are made of. I’ll tell you guys next time.
As for now, back to my “cheng yu”.
You’ll never walk alone,
Alvin Lim
Class Pre U 1A
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Blood Diamond
Ok actually this is my very 1st post here cos i'm normally lazy to post. Anyways, regarding Blackburn post, I think is a case of having zero initiative and about accomodating.. I'm sure Kumar will know what I'm talking about.. it has always been the case.. there may be an activity you may not like to do but somehow i believe u should see it as a chance of getting together, jus try to be accomodating n try to think less of urself althou i do think e world is selfish.. (anyway I hav enough said about the ugly side of this world n esp ugly singaporeans n i wish to say no more..) In whichever case, I wish to say no more.. tink Kumar will probably understand the probs in the clique and what I am getting at..
Anyways the main thing i'm gonna write here is to ask u all pls go watch Blood Diamond if you hav the chance, Leo's acting is getting better unlike his Titanic days, and most implty of all, the movie bring your attention to another continent in this planet that has so much unrest yet nobody really pays great attention to it in their midst of chasing fame and money. I esp like the line by Jennifer Conelly, "The world is tearing apart and yet they (CNN) are reporting so much about Clinton and his BJ!" The line has a touch of humour in it and yet hit the nail on the coffin. Maybe we all should stop and pay attention to the things around us.. but it is esp hard to do in crazy sg.. an absolutely crazy materialistic and stressful country.. I am really sick of here.. really sick of my fucking life! Maybe one day i will jus pack my bags and disappear.. but still you all should watch Blood Diamond!
The Little Ronaldo
Anyways the main thing i'm gonna write here is to ask u all pls go watch Blood Diamond if you hav the chance, Leo's acting is getting better unlike his Titanic days, and most implty of all, the movie bring your attention to another continent in this planet that has so much unrest yet nobody really pays great attention to it in their midst of chasing fame and money. I esp like the line by Jennifer Conelly, "The world is tearing apart and yet they (CNN) are reporting so much about Clinton and his BJ!" The line has a touch of humour in it and yet hit the nail on the coffin. Maybe we all should stop and pay attention to the things around us.. but it is esp hard to do in crazy sg.. an absolutely crazy materialistic and stressful country.. I am really sick of here.. really sick of my fucking life! Maybe one day i will jus pack my bags and disappear.. but still you all should watch Blood Diamond!
The Little Ronaldo
Sunday soccer No more...
Hi Ppl,
This is the organizer of the lately Sunday soccer session, Mr. Blackburn.
Let me apologized for what I want to say next.
F****************CB****************!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now that I have been doing this for some time, I know the problems that Avan, Kumar, Alvin and sometimes Lulu have in organizing clique events. The worst is organizing this event every week.
1stly, you waste at least 10 sms telling people to go.
2ndly, people will give excuses like “see how” and “got barca match will come late”
3rdly, you need to waste some more sms to reply these people.
4thly, some of them don’t even reply you! WTF!!!!!
5thly, the next morning, people will wake you up from your sweet dream with their sms like “Is there still got soccer?” or “got enough people?”
6thly, Then you need to reply them, wasting more sms.
7thly, you will then hear last minute kangtao like “I not going already”.
The worst being the organizer is this point. You hear people complain about waiting and raining. WTF!!!! Some can even say “I also actually did not feel like coming.”
The next point is also the organizer will get scolded for asking people even I know they have to work. My point is if they have no work, they can come and play because I do not know when they are not working. I just did not want to leave out anyone.
The last point I have is SO WHAT IF IT IS RAINING, UNLESS IT IS SUPER HEAVY, WE WILL BE STILL PLAYING RIGHT?
Anyway, I do not want to organize any soccer session again. Someone please take over.
However, I guess over the next few weeks I’ll just be rotting at home because NOONE will organize.
(I am going to do the next organizer a favour, I am going to sms everyone to read this and hopefully he will not this kind of problem.)
Regards,
Blackburn
This is the organizer of the lately Sunday soccer session, Mr. Blackburn.
Let me apologized for what I want to say next.
F****************CB****************!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now that I have been doing this for some time, I know the problems that Avan, Kumar, Alvin and sometimes Lulu have in organizing clique events. The worst is organizing this event every week.
1stly, you waste at least 10 sms telling people to go.
2ndly, people will give excuses like “see how” and “got barca match will come late”
3rdly, you need to waste some more sms to reply these people.
4thly, some of them don’t even reply you! WTF!!!!!
5thly, the next morning, people will wake you up from your sweet dream with their sms like “Is there still got soccer?” or “got enough people?”
6thly, Then you need to reply them, wasting more sms.
7thly, you will then hear last minute kangtao like “I not going already”.
The worst being the organizer is this point. You hear people complain about waiting and raining. WTF!!!! Some can even say “I also actually did not feel like coming.”
The next point is also the organizer will get scolded for asking people even I know they have to work. My point is if they have no work, they can come and play because I do not know when they are not working. I just did not want to leave out anyone.
The last point I have is SO WHAT IF IT IS RAINING, UNLESS IT IS SUPER HEAVY, WE WILL BE STILL PLAYING RIGHT?
Anyway, I do not want to organize any soccer session again. Someone please take over.
However, I guess over the next few weeks I’ll just be rotting at home because NOONE will organize.
(I am going to do the next organizer a favour, I am going to sms everyone to read this and hopefully he will not this kind of problem.)
Regards,
Blackburn
Thursday, January 11, 2007
school again
I have been a form teacher of a primary 3 class since 09/01/07. It was a sudden and unexpected change. Stress just starts to build up, working from 7 till 6 plus everyday, juggling between english, maths and science. Coarse throat, lesson plans, peer pressure, added assignments, notice board decorations, work markings, remedials, ECAs, meetings. It's crazy how they can think of making an inexperienced and untrained teacher as a form teacher, directly affecting the lives of 33 children. My biggest fear is that i can't teach them properly and affect their one year of study and i believe the fear is becoming reality.
Another colleague in the school, also a contract teacher like me waiting for NIE and also a form teacher has just decided to quit the service. She will tender in her one month notice resignation tomorrow. It's no surprise really as i've seen her looking more haggard with each passing day. The tremendous workload and responsibility can dampen anyone's passion especially when one don't have the skills to teach properly. I don't know what MOE is thinking, if they expect an untrained teacher to teach properly as a form teacher then what the hell is NIE for. What does the 2 years in NIE equip you with if inexperienced teachers are allowed to teach. I feel that i'm letting my class down, they deserve a true professional not someone who has never learnt anything about teaching.
Another colleague in the school, also a contract teacher like me waiting for NIE and also a form teacher has just decided to quit the service. She will tender in her one month notice resignation tomorrow. It's no surprise really as i've seen her looking more haggard with each passing day. The tremendous workload and responsibility can dampen anyone's passion especially when one don't have the skills to teach properly. I don't know what MOE is thinking, if they expect an untrained teacher to teach properly as a form teacher then what the hell is NIE for. What does the 2 years in NIE equip you with if inexperienced teachers are allowed to teach. I feel that i'm letting my class down, they deserve a true professional not someone who has never learnt anything about teaching.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
First day of school
Just thought to share my experience of my first day in school. It was orientation so no lessons to be taught but i had an hour of class time with my small group of pri 5 12 students who i will be taking for maths in the future. I was totally unable to control them, they were rowdy and playful. When i reprimand them they will be nice and quiet but once i turn my back on them, chaos breaks loose again.
One lesson i had when i was in the 2 day preparation course was not to smile at the children but i just couldnt help myself, they were so cute...but i guess that marked my downfall, the children know i'm a goody person who they can walk all over of. Sigh...kids nowadays are so perceptive. Another thing was that i was quite dumbstruck when i was infront of the class. I totally didnt know what to say or do haha.
Then i had to relief a class of pri 2. That was worse, they were just running about and when i stood close and stared at the rebellion leader, he said i was smelly...Things would really be much simpler if i could just whack him on the head or something.
Well, i just hope that it wont be this bad everyday. And i guess i really need to wear a mask in class, no hint of a smile or mr goody.
One lesson i had when i was in the 2 day preparation course was not to smile at the children but i just couldnt help myself, they were so cute...but i guess that marked my downfall, the children know i'm a goody person who they can walk all over of. Sigh...kids nowadays are so perceptive. Another thing was that i was quite dumbstruck when i was infront of the class. I totally didnt know what to say or do haha.
Then i had to relief a class of pri 2. That was worse, they were just running about and when i stood close and stared at the rebellion leader, he said i was smelly...Things would really be much simpler if i could just whack him on the head or something.
Well, i just hope that it wont be this bad everyday. And i guess i really need to wear a mask in class, no hint of a smile or mr goody.
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