The Power of Facebook

Now I can see that Facebook is very powerful. I just signed up and I immediately learnt that a JC classmate just passed away on 8 June 09.

This is very interesting... Please cry.

June Holidays 09

I have no holiday this June!

Things to Do

Academic
Mark practical books. (started)
Prepare CME admin.
Mark workbooks.
Mark SPA Skill 3 (DONE)

Practical Coursework
Mark Practical Coursework. (DONE)
Prepare mark list. (DONE)
Prepare Comp Matrix. (DONE)
Prepare teacher's answers. (DONE)

Course
Balanced Scorecard Course (DONE)
Data Logger Course (DONE)

Admin
Call parents to check for Internet and PC availability. (DONE)
Update data on PC and Internet availability. (DONE)
Call 3 parents of failures. (DONE)
Call 2 parents for Physics. (1 done)
H1N1 admin (DONE)
Prepare Olympiad admin package. (DONE)
Send student leader nominations. (DONE)
Class committee final structure.
Supervise Happy Toilet drawing (DONE) and painting (DONE).
Work Review admin. (DONE)
Balanced Scorecard Dept Plan (DONE)
Finalize EL Dept ISPL (DONE)
Clear mailbox to 50%.

Teaching
Teach extended programme 4E1 and 4E6. (DONE)
Remedial groups for 4E6. (DONE)
Remedial groups for 1E2 (1st done) and 1E3.
Remedial groups for 4E1.
Remedial groups for 3E5. (1st done)
Teach 4E1 extra lessons. (DONE)
Teach Olympiad group. (OVER)

NCC
Follow Spec Course II (DONE) and Spec Course III last day. (DONE)
Finalize NCC admin. (started)
Finalize NCC Leaps points.
Finalize Camp admin. (DONE)
Attend Camp. (DONE)
NCC photos (DONE)
Supervise the NCC Room move. (DONE)
Create leadership form (DONE)

Resource Generation
Finalize Sec 3 online project rubric. (DONE)
Finalize Sec 2 video rubric. (DONE)
Finalize Sec 1 eLearning. (DONE)
Finalize Physics poster.
Do Physics eLearning (2 weeks) (DONE)
Do EL eLearning (writing) + HBL (2 weeks) (DONE)
Finalize Sec 1 EL SOW. (DONE)
Finalize Sec 1 EL Food unit. (DONE)
Finalize Sec 1 EL Supernatural unit.
Speech Day Programme Book (DONE)

Others
Tidy car.
Tidy table. (started)
Do serious dating that we cannot do during term time. (DONE)
See cancer specialists. (DONE)
Send car for servicing. (DONE)

I attended a Physics Sharing at TJC yesterday, conducted by a TJC senior teacher. And that's the difference between a JC teacher and a secondary school teacher. Almost all of the secondary school teachers there had weak Physics concepts and did not know most standard misconceptions or explanations. (But I'm a trained JC teacher...)

And he also mentioned that sometimes what teachers do in secondary schools is quite strange. For example, there was one school that took students out to experience an MRT ride to see inertia at work.

Yes, exactly. If you ask me, almost all students would have experienced that before. And experiencing it does not help you to understand or explain about it. The real reason why secondary schools do it is that it looks good. It is fashionable to have out-of-classroom lessons.

And he also mentioned that while Temasek Academy (IP) students do a lot of interesting lessons (THINK ©, PBL, Inquiry), the JC students actually don't because they are more focused on the A Level exam and preparation for university rigour. For bread and butter results, direct instruction of concepts is the way to go.

Over the weekend, there was a series of articles in the ST on MFA overseas offices. And there was an article on the embassy in Indonesia.

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Anyway, career teachers (not Ps, VPs, HODs and others) seem to have short lives. Many of my primary school teachers are dead. And apparently, a study in the UK proves that career civil servants (non-head) have short lives. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehall_Study

It has been most demoralizing this few weeks. Not only have my students not been studying, I've also been way too busy to coach them properly. And the usual stresses of being a teacher. And the unfairness.

It's really meaningless.

And I received some numbing news last week that not only am I a physical wreck, but I failed two cancer screening tests. My ENT cancer marker is astronomical while the GIT cancer marker is slightly high. This means that I most likely have a malignancy or am going to develop one in the near future. And that was why they called me by phone. The report will only be ready next week.

And I'm too busy to do anything about it until next week. Mid-Year exam marking as usual.

I'll start marking again at 9 pm after I take a shower and then read the papers.

Here is an excerpt of a speech...

Speech by: MRS YU-FOO YEE SHOON, MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, YOUTH AND SPORTS

MCYS SPEECH NO: 57/2007
DATE OF ISSUE: 11/11/2007

AT 2.30PM AT SINGAPORE EXPO

"While the Singapore family remains generally strong, like families in most developed countries, they are facing challenges. Today, we have higher divorce rates. The general divorce rate increased from 3.8 per 1,000 married resident females in 1980 to 8.0 in 2006. Although the duration of marriages for divorces in Singapore is on average 9.5 years, we are seeing more young marriages breaking up. Two decades ago, only 2.6 percent of civil marriages registered in 1987 lasted less than 5 years, now 3.8 percent of the 2002 marriage cohort divorced before the 5th year. We also have higher divorce rates for older couples. Twelve percent of civil marriages registered in 1992 ended in divorce before they hit the 15th year mark. This is an increase of 2 percentage point compared to the 1987 cohort."

"Notwithstanding this rate of increase, I note that Singapore continues to have one of the lowest divorce rates when compared to countries like Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom and United States. In Singapore, 2 per 1,000 of our residents were divorced or separated, as compared to 3 in Hong Kong, 4 in Japan and 8 in Britain."

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According to the Department of Statistics, in 2007, there were 23,088 resident marriages and 7,226 divorces and annulments.

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With high divorce rates, how to find someone to love you and marry you for who you are...?