Whatever

What has four wheels and flies?
A garbage truck

What starts with P, ends with E and has a million letters?
Post office

Who's the boss?

Seen in Dilbert

Wally: I find it demotivating that you never praise me for a job well done.
Pointy-haired boss: You've never done a job well.
Wally: That's because I'm demotivated.
Boss: You have to go first.
Wally: Wouldn't that make me the leader?

Laws of the Game of Life

Law of Mechanical Repair: After your hands get coated with grease, your nose begins to itch.
Law of the Workshop: Any dropped tool will roll to the least accessible corner.
Law of the Telephone: When you dial a wrong number, you'll never get a busy signal.
Law of Driving: When you change lanes, the one you were in will start to move fastest.
Law of the Bathtub: When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.
Law of Close Encounters: The probability of meeting someone increases when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.
Law of the Result: When you are trying to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.
Law of the Theatre: The people whose seats are furthest from the aisle will arrive last.

Have you wondered...

Why the sun lightens our hair but darkens our skin?
Why women can't put on mascara with their mouths closed?
Why you've never seen the headline 'Psychic wins lottery'?
Why doctors call what they do practice?
Why you have to click 'Start' to stop Windows?
Why lemon juice is made with artificial flavouring, while dishwashing liquid is made with real lemons?
Why they don't make the whole plane out of the material used to make the indestructible black box?
Why sheep don't shrink when it rains?
Why since con is the opposite of pro, Congress isn't the opposite of progress?

Meet the Parents session

Oh man. I can't believe I sat for 3 hours straight listening and talking to parents. Thank goodness I have the ability to ad-lib. Shirley wasn't feeling well so I had to take over. Talk about 6hr relief man. Things are halfway through and I have another 14 to go.

Ugh. That was horrible. I was dehydrated, tired, sticky, and my left eye started twitching halfway through. An experience certainly. I enjoyed talking to some parents and realised that most of them really need the teacher's advice in handling and helping their kids. I found myself repeating advice about reading journals, checking and reward systems. I also realised how woeful my Mandarin is. I struggled to link three sentences together and was always looking for the right word to use. Translated, some of it sounded like, "In order for him to improve, he must improve by putting more interest in his work. This is done by increasing his interest." Spastic right?

That aside, I always felt this feeling that they were hanging on to my every word, trying to know what it was they had to do. It also felt that I was one wrong adjective away from an argument. I was glad to provide my observations, with most of them concurring. Some were in such disbelief that the pupil I described was so unlike the one they had at home.

I'm gonna take my class for PE on Tuesday, but I hope it can be a time of photo-taking. I'll always remember my first batch of little angels and devils. Damn, I miss them to bits.

Apprentices

During oral I had nothing to do, so I started assessing my men using a rubric I created. The results are pretty surprising, but the disappointing is that I just don't have a clear candidate. I used criteria like leadership, spiritual walk, language, respect and personality to assess those and I really need to think about who I choose when and if I interview them. Basically I want someone committed and who loves God. The rest we can work on. Idealistic huh?
Each candidate has flaws that need ironing out - some more, some less. I pray I make the right decision. There is also a question of when. Making a change at the end of 2006 seems the best solution, but yet I relly shouldn't wait as the members need more top-down support. Must also work on their bottom-up initiative. Only a few are showing that now.
Sometimes I do feel inadequate. Need Your strength Lord.

COLD

Wah, it's so cold in my staff room. It's such a small room so with a dearth of human bodies and two air-cons blazing away, I'm freezing my socks off!

Winding down

I'm starting to let certain things go. When previously I was afraid of taking MC as my class would suffer, now I'm much more open to the idea. Not for nothing of course, but I've learnt to let go.
As a result I'm happier, healthier, and errr, hungrier. ORD mood liao.
Took a few photos of the school environment just to remind me of my days here. What a lovely place when you've got little work to do. =]

Football, bloody hell

Was very gian to play and finally did today. But alas it was a game to forget as I did not get much of the ball and managed to slide on sand, scraping half my butt off in the process.
Moreover, managed to get into a verbal tiff with Darrell over Ben's handball. Hate in when people wanna argue when they got no case. Really lost it and had to apologise. Then he said, "Sure, sure." Wah macam you not wrong laidat.

England replica jersey for $35

Hi All,

I ordered a replica England home jersey by mistake, so I'm looking to sell it off. It's not original Umbro, but it's a very faithful replica. I have a Holland one myself, and it's almost like the real thing. Selling for $35 (size L for guys). Anyone interested drop me an email at aaronwong@journalist.com! Thanks!

10,000 hits!

By the way in case some of you missed it, my blog has surpassed 10,000 hits!

Yes, yes, just like ORD it was only a matter of time, but still it's some achievement. Granted most of the hits came from me while I was editing and posting, so there's some embellishment to that figure. here's to 10,000 more!

Spoonerisms

Q: What's the difference between a flautist and a seamstress?
A: A seamstress tucks up the frills.

Q: What's the difference between a drummer and a donkey?
A: A donkey bucks up his feet.

It's not about me, it's about IT

As our APBL approaches its climax, the more I realise it is not about the teacher but the student. Over the last three days, I have been there just to facilitate, guide, help, you name it, but never to do it for them.

Education is empowering the student with knowledge, skills and the wherewithal to do anything he sets his heart to do. After that. he's on his own to find resources, think of ideas, plan and arrive at the solution. And my goodness do they need all the assistance they can get. With the proliferation of the Internet in many homes, one drawback is that the have-nots become severely handicapped and disadvantaged. It pains my heart when they propose a solution but are forced to find a way around their lack of a computer.

Like it or not, there kids eventually need to be equipped with the IT knowledge. This is already being done in our school, but with any skill, the lack of practice renders it forgotten and useless. How many of us actually remember how to do differentiation and integration ('O' Level Additional Mathematics) except for perhaps the engineering students?

Despite the vagaries of this cycle, I hope my students prove me wrong and produce a non-IT end-product that will blow me away. One group has started making a clay model of the digestive system, another a pretty nifty-looking scrapbook. It is already looking more impressive than most of the PowerPoint presentations.

I'm glad aesthetics still holds higher regard than fancy-schmancy graphics and effects.

Authentic Problem-Based Learning

Tomorrow is the big day as far as APBL is concerned. The kids will finally be starting work on their end-products and using materials they have garnered.

The conundrum is how much do we help them and how much do we let them sink if they fall short. They profess to understand, but we'll know just how much tomorrow.

That aside, my level is planning a makan for Susan and me, through the place is undecided. It's also going to be a end of APBL celebration, so let's hope we have more to smile about than cry about.

I will also be assisting them for Maths Trail next Thursday and Friday so I get more time to spend with the kids. Hope I get my class again.

Super-duper-man

Superman returns!

But despite a Christopher Reeve doppleganger in Brandon Routh, it was rather disappointing, and lacks the gravitas of Batman Begins.

The special effects, good-looking leads, maniacal villain were all there, but that X-factor was just not there. It was all too archetypal.