KTV again!

Yep, went KTV again today. Ha. This time with my NIE mates. A total of 2 guys and 2 gals.

It was the same location as last week, KBox Clementi. Even the person who served us looked familiar to me. Ha. Two free drinks... but no hot honey for students... so I ended up drinking an iced lemon tea and a hot milo.

I sang more songs than last week though, since there were now less people. Tried some songs which I couldn't sing... but I sang mostly songs which I know I can sing. I'm not really an adventurous person when it comes to singing. Heh.

Another week over. Two more weeks to pay day. Ha

Village and Fondue

Another quick and short update amidst my occupied schedule.

Eh, I overslept this morning :/ My mum came into the room to help me off my alarm clock and asked me what time I had to wake up. Still in dreamland, I told her 8am. Well, my lesson happened to be at 8.30am and I normally leave my place at 7.25am. I only woke at 7.45am... had to take a taxi... and... I spent SGD18 on the trip. Zz... that's almost one week's transportation fare lo :/

Anyway, was at Village this evening for dinner. I saw a friend from church who is working there. Quite a surprise actually, since I didn't know that he works there. Ate Rosti with Cheese Sausage and shared a Fruit Fondue with my friend. Quite a nice meal... but dunno why the both of us felt weird after eating the food... as in... our tummies ached a little.

Saw Thomas Ong when we were walking towards the junction at Chinatown Point and I told my friend that that guy looks like Thomas Ong. He took a look, and sure enough, it was confirmed that he was. He walked quite fast though. We followed him into Chinatown Point in hope of seeing more TCS artistes, but nope... there were none. I met my Secondary One Science teacher though... and another friend while I was in Chinatown Point... all within a span of maybe five minutes or so.

Time for tuition... Tired.

Quick points

Friday: Dinner at Jurong Point Fish & Co. Supper at Bukit Panjang Plaza Macs.

Saturday: Yvonne's 21st birthday party at her place. Mum's birthday cake cutting at home.

Sunday: Discipleship lesson. Tuition at home.

Let's just say that I'm a little out of breath to blog at this moment.

The week thus far

It has been a crazy week. I've been reaching home only after 10.30pm everyday for the past four days. Where is my much needed sleep? :/ Reason for the late nights? Tuition on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and a KTV session with the #JustBlog gang today evening.

Nothing much about school except for the fact that many assignments are due and I'm rather busy working on them. Coupled with 2 websites that I have to work on but am procrastinating over, it's going to be hectic next week as well lo... and maybe next next week as well. Ah, I'll be busy for many weeks to come ba. Zzz

KTV was ok. A good break, but tired ah. Met Celine for the first time =] People who turned up were Elaine, Victor, Boon, Tammy, Howard, Celine, Cyn and myself. One more KTV session with a few of my NIE coursemates next Thursday. Hmmm... that makes three consecutive weeks with KTV. Not that it'll make my singing better. Ha

Another week

Hmmm... I basically slept my weekend again. I might be falling sick soon. There's this ulcer on the inner side of my lower lip that's growing slowly. 发热气 ah. Sian. I think it will be another one or two weeks before I will recover. Ah... the suffering~ :/

I dread going to NIE on Monday mornings. Hmmm. Actually, I dread going to NIE on most mornings :P But... I was enjoying myself when I had to reach my ESE secondary school by 7.20am every morning. It wasn't a chore... because I know I'll be "having fun" teaching. Quite looking forward to my practicum next year. Heh

Long day today... 8.30am till 10pm... school, then tuition. There's tuition tomorrow evening as well because my female cousin is too tired to have tuition today but is now happily chatting on the phone. There's tuition on Wednesday evening as well... and school ends at 7.30pm on Wednesday. Lots of assignments due as well, at the rate of about one per week.

A night at KBox

It was a last minute decision... well, sort of. The idea was "conceptualised" in the evening and carried out in the late evening. I was at my friend's place playing Maple Story (because... I have no idea why my Singnet connection lags the game and my friend's doesn't) and we were contemplating if we should go to KBox. Then we decided that we should go. So... the two of us took a bus and headed over to Lot 1 KBox.

Getting a KBox membership card seemed to be a good thing to do, so I got one which will entitle us to a 10% discount I think. Went for the KGolden or something plan, since KStudent (which we could possibly use our "expired" NUS student cards for) would only allow us to sing for about an hour and half, from 8.30pm to 10pm at SGD12+++ per pax.

It was a rather enjoyable time. I could really sing to my heart's content though I got bored after some time. Four hours at the ktv is no joke. We left before the place closed (we could sing till it closes) because we got really bored of singing, or rather, shouting. Supper at MacDonald's and I ate my favourite new Mac food... the Grilled Chicken Foldover. Nice =]

Life insurance

I met a friend of mine yesterday to get a life insurance as well as a basic savings plan from him. Well, basically, I'm not the kind of person who's very particular about financial stuff, so I normally leave it to my friend to determine what kind of plan I should be getting. That aside, is there anyone who has any recommendations on which particular company is good? Should a person only get insurance from reputatable companies such as AIA, Great Eastern or Prudential?

Actually, life insurance should be termed as life insurance and assurance for best effect. If one is insured but not assured of getting the money if anything bad happens, then what's the point of getting life insurance? And if that is so, what is the criteria for determining if an insurance company can provide that assurance?

It has been a tiring week... with mostly 7am to 10pm days.

Friday is always a day worth looking forward to =]

Firsts, Trigonometry and TCC

Forgot to write about a few firsts in my life that occurred last week. I'm just going to list down those that I noted. My first time trying Smelly Beancurd at a pasar malam near a friend's place. My first ever thumbdrive of my own. Lastly, my first completed Su Doku puzzle :P Actually it was my first time trying it. Gave me quite a headache.

Oh yea, given the frequency at which I'm updating my blog, I've decided to do a double posting each time. Both at my Bloggie, as well as at LiveJournal.

My Trigonometry presentation group project was concluded yesterday with the actual presentation. My portion was with regards to hands-on activities and worksheets. Well, worksheets are hands-on activities as well, aren't they? I never knew that learning Trigonometry could be this interesting... I wonder why my teacher didn't teach it "my" way :P

Today's the birthday of a good friend of mine and we had a dinner gathering last night at Sakura restaurant at City Hall. Off to CityLink TCC after that. We settled down and were looking at the menu, when I suddenly remembered that Galare was having half-price. Zzz... too late. I ended up with a chocolate milkshake which wasn't too bad. Heh

Was quite late by the time I got home... slept early.

Nothing much today... was in school from 8.30am to about 7pm. Life~

A weekend in September

Saturday was spent at home doing nothing much. Really.

Sunday was more productive. Church in the morning, then over to a friend's place to help set up his new Dell PC. The setting up was quite ok, except for the fact that I had to help do some "spring cleaning". Installation of software took some time... Had to uninstall some pre-installed software, then install the desired ones. It took quite a bit of time for Windows update as well, not to mention all the other updates.

The specifications of his SGD1.3k Dell PC:

Dell Dimension(TM) 5150 Pentium(R)D 915 w/Dual Core Desktop
PACK-DIM-018B(SG) 3Yrs Limited Warranty (Next Business Day Service) - SG Pcfair Special
WXPN122-DXPS(1) # Includes Year 2 To 3 Next Business Day (8x5) Onsite Response
DXEOX91OP-XA0190-ALL 30 Days Online Training
WXPH813-DXPS(SG) 3 Years Plus Phone Support: Mon-Fri 0900-2100, Sat 0900-1600
RH284 Dimension(TM) 5150 Intel(R) Pentium(R) D 915 with Dual Core Processing
BPR-091 (2.8GHz, 2x2MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB)
BCH-106 Intel(R) 945G Chipset
BNC-012 Integrated Fast Ethernet 10/100
CF565 Dimension(TM) 5150 Badge
UC686 System Drive CD Kit
F9011 1GB (2X512) NECC Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz SDRAM Memory 1
JH474 128MB PCIe(TM) x16 ATI Radeon(TM) X300SE HyperMemory(TM) w/TV-Out, VGA and DVI
DJ423 Dell(TM) USB Enhanced Multimedia Keyboard with built-in 2-port USB Hub
CJ340 Dell(TM) Optical USB Mouse
54562 Dell(TM) Mouse Mat
FC237 17" UltraSharp(TM) Flat Panel LCD Monitor (Analog & DVI)
UD296 160GB SATA 3.0Gb/s with Native Command Queuing
N7989 Genuine Windows(R) XP Home Edition(English)
K7997 Genuine Windows(R) XP Home SP2 Edition(English) CD Media
PN175 Microsoft(R) Works 8.5 - OEM version
KH744 Dell(TM) Media Experience Software
PC921 16X DVD+/-RW with Dual Layer Write Capabilities
CH991 Roxio Creator LE and Roxio MyDVD LE
RG893 Sonic(TM) CinePlayer
4U425 4.7GB DVD+R Blank Media (1 pc)
DC229 Integrated Sound Blaster?Audigy ADVANCED HD Audio
DJ405 Dell(TM) A225 USB Stereo Speakers
RF581 56K PCI Data/Fax Modem
MF300 Norton(TM) Ghost 10 Software - 90 days Trial

I personally think that it's quite a good buy, considering that the specifications are quite good.

It's going to be a hectic week ahead. Zzzz

Free Friday

Yay, yesterday was a free day for me =] My maths tutor shifted the Friday lesson to Tuesday so that my class can have a free day on some Fridays. Well, that meant that we had four hours of Maths on Tuesday. Anything is better than going to school on a Friday afternoon just for a two-hour lesson :P

I went over to Lee Kong Chian Reference Library to meet a friend for lunch, then went over to Sim Lim Square and window-shopped for two full hours. Not really a rewarding trip, but it's been quite some time since I last went to SLS. I saw the Micro SD cards... really very very small. Losing it will be an easy feat. Ha. Anyway, got myself a thumbdrive after much deliberation. A 1GB Imation FlashGO! thumbdrive for SGD49. The Sony Micro Vault Tiny is too small le... and it costs SGD68 or so. I'm not really a fashion person, so... I bought the Imation one in the end.

The FlashGO! thumbdrive has this feature which allows the user to create a password-protected partition. I think it's a good feature... can password-protect files without having to encrypt them. Sensitive data won't be leaked out even if it falls into the wrong hands also. Amateur wrong hands though. Professional wrong hands will still be able to get the data out I think. Ha.

Next was a one-hour stay at Bras Basah Complex. I bought four E-maths textbooks (4th edition ones... Sec 1 to 4. Schools are using 5th edition) for SGD1 each. So... I spent a total of SGD4 on four textbooks. Heh. 4th edition is good enough... since the content won't be very much different from the current syllabus. I need the textbooks so that I can study for my SMMT (Secondary Mathematics Mastery Test) in November 2006. Well, not that I will be studying for it, but it's good to have some books with me in case I feel like doing some revision.

Another hour was spent in the library, browsing through one origami book, two sand sculpting books, one paper sculpture book and one-quarter of a DIY fountain book. Not bad... ha. So relax right, can spend one hour reading books. I couldn't find a seat though, so I was just standing/sitting in front of the shelf with the books.

Not a bad day out ba =]

Why do people shout when they are angry?

This was a question posed to my "classroom management" class by a relief tutor who happened to be my "ICT in Teaching" tutor. A few people volunteered their views, but none of them was what she had in mind.

After a little pondering, I found that what she said was rather true, that people shout because it serves to widen the distance between their hearts. The more you shout at a person, the further you are from the person in terms of the "heart distance". It's manifested as well in couples who are in love. Would two people who are truly in love shout at each other in normal circumstances? Could they bear to shout at their loved one? How true is it when it's applied to family members instead of your life-partner?

Another question to ponder: Does teaching necessarily constitute learning?

Well, the answer would, in truth, be a big "no". For why that is so, do think about it in your free time, since that is not really relevant to the everyday lives of most people.

We have been taught to, as much as we can, facilitate student-centered learning... but it is, in essense, not an easy task. We can churn out numerous activities which we think facilitate self-discovery of concepts by students, but we cannot be sure that students will learn, or if they are "discovering" the correct concepts. Perhaps therein lies the difference between a teacher and a good teacher.

A good teacher is not one who can teach, but one whom students can learn from.

COTF

Was browsing through my last few entries... and I realised that I did not mention anything about the supposed singing punishment that I was to get. Well, we sang as a group in the end... and the song that we sang? Twinkle twinkle little star. And that marked the start and the end of my singing career in NIE :P

Anyway, I've been busy these days and haven't been feeling well. Had a family BBQ last Saturday. Nothing much ba... just that there was quite a lot of food. Sotong, pork chop, sweet potato, sting ray, satay, etc. I didn't eat much though, but still ended up with a sorethroat in the end. Must have been the horrid weather. Anyway, feeling much better now. I'm actually typing this while giving tuition :P

Decided to write something today because well, there was something worth mentioning lo... I went for a COTF tour this morning. What's COTF? It stands for Classroom Of The Future. It's actually a collaboration between NIE and Microsoft to come up with a display which incorporated technology into the teaching environment. It's not a new display, so some of the technologies are already in used in some schools today. However, it was a good experience, especially when it's my first time using a tablet PC :P The whole experience was an enjoyable one, thanks to the tour guide. He was really professional, bringing us through the experience of a group of 14-year-old students living in the "future world".

ICT lesson for Mathematics is rather interesting. No, ICT does not stand for In-Camp Training... it stands for Information and Communication Technology. So far, we've been exposed to about four tools which are useful for the teaching of Mathematics and there are more to come. Most of the tools are free, which means that students can actually make use of the tools at home to do self-exploration tasks.