I may not be a GEPer, but I identify with them more than other students in a class after teaching for 1.5 years in SBGE classes, a mixture of talented and hardworking 'mainstream' students and a group of gifted students. I do the ' ' for mainstream is because this is just a term used to group different students with the same characteristics together, but I don't think such grouping do any good in education.

Anyway, I digress.

Why do I identify with GEPers? Well, I shared common characteristics with some of them.

1.) I practically 'sucked' in all subjects that I don't like to study (Which includes geog, chem, EL, chinese, chinese lit)
2.) I have great difficulty remembering and completing my homework on time
3.) Somehow, I put in sufficient effort to get the results that I want (which is just a pass then, but I did failed my examinations in one occasion though, not a good experience to get a principal breathing down your neck and had to get my sis to bear the brunt of his fury)

Due to my active contributions to the economy (via arcade and comics) during my secondary school years, I was placed in one of the worst classes in Sec 3.

Anyway, what does identifying with GEPers got to do with the title?

I came from a premier school that is comparable to the premier school that I'm teaching now, both in terms of academic results and status in education right now. And I remember 2 types of teachers clearly, obviously they are categorized into the good and bad types.

The good ones truly believed in every student's abilities to do well academically, after all, we all had a PSLE score of 250 and above so our quality cannot be that bad. Most important of all, they taught us how to learn. Hey, here you have a kid who like failed your Chemistry for like 2 years and you believed in him getting an A for 'O' levels. Here you have a kid who either 'forgets' his homework or submits 'duplicated' copies of it and yet they could see pass these flaws and believe in our abilities.

The bad ones are those who deep in their heart already condemned their students, that they couldn't handle the workload and will fail in exams and in life. They teach us so that we could clear examinations. Hey, here you have a kid who like failed your Geography for like 2 years and you believed that he will be one of the many in the class who will pull down the average grade of the school. Here you have a kid who either 'forgets' his homework and gives them a heart attack chasing for it, or a kid who have no integrity by copying his homework just so to appease you.

Needless to say, I was inspired by the good ones while I loathe the bad ones. When I was asked to write an essay for my application for scholarship, I wrote about them. When I went for interview for teaching positions, I talked about them. They are the reason (Both good and bad ones) why I'm here at the moment. I believed we need to have more good teachers and do away with the influence of the bad ones.

As a teacher in a premier school, I don't believe the crap that many students couldn't cope with physics or any other subject for that matter. I believe that every student, barring special circumstances, would be able to do reasonably well (i.e. B) in every subject as long as they put in good effort to try to do so. Because the limiting factor is not the student's aptitude or potential here, it is their attitude and motivation to excel.

If you believe that you can, you will find motivation to work hard and go for the grades. If you believe that you can't, you will find excuses to account for your failure. I hope you found inspiring teachers who made you believe in yourself and not be affected by those who made you believe that you can't. I found mine.

Learning is not about assessment. So why should we teach to prepare for examinations when we can inspire students to learn?

Easier said than done. But I'm trying.

extracted from questionable content here

Since we were on the topic of nuclear stuff (year 4) and Singapore was on the topic of morality (repeal 377a) issue.

Oh man, I should stop feasting on Pringles by bringing them to the staffroom and share with my colleagues.

Singapore is certainly not cheap. Loads of fun thinking and working on our new home but very damaging on our pockets. If only we got loads of money and loads of time

Some late late late photographs


ODAC trying to charm people with their tricks and stunts


First Old timer trying out the ODAC tricks


I'm flying! (Well, keeper rate will be better with better AF using an A700 plus faster frame rate and also more effective DRO to bring the best out of the environment)


The DJs doing a free live show for the day. (Plus they managed to mixed up my song... sigh.. needs to be more professional)


Non-CCA exhibition related, just happened to be taken on the same day.

Some people believe in getting a 30 year loan and if they manage to earn sufficient money, they can pay off their loan early and lose little interest. Well.. No chance man! It doesn't work for car loans neither does it work for housing loans. Some information I dug out from CPF that your housing agent may never tell you.

I'm going to quote 2 tables computed from www.cpf.gov.sg for hdb housing loans. The first table is a $220,000 loan taken over 10 years, the next is the same loan taken over 30 years.

Detailed workings - 1
Year	Opening Loan Balance	Monthly Instalment Payment	Total Interest Paid for the year	Total Principal Paid for the year	Cumulative Interest payment	Cumulative Principal payment	Closing Loan Balance
1	220,000.00	2,083.96	5,488.48	19,519.04	5,488.48	19,519.04	200,480.96
2	200,480.96	2,083.96	4,974.89	20,032.63	10,463.37	39,551.67	180,448.33
3	180,448.33	2,083.96	4,447.79	20,559.73	14,911.16	60,111.40	159,888.60
4	159,888.60	2,083.96	3,906.84	21,100.68	18,818.00	81,212.08	138,787.92
5	138,787.92	2,083.95	3,351.61	21,655.79	22,169.61	102,867.87	117,132.13
6	117,132.13	2,083.96	2,781.81	22,225.71	24,951.42	125,093.58	94,906.42
7	94,906.42	2,083.95	2,197.02	22,810.38	27,148.44	147,903.96	72,096.04
8	72,096.04	2,083.95	1,596.83	23,410.57	28,745.27	171,314.53	48,685.47
9	48,685.47	2,083.96	980.86	24,026.66	29,726.13	195,341.19	24,658.81
10	24,658.81	2,083.96	348.66	24,658.86	30,074.79	220,000.05	0.00
There may be minor rounding differences in the calculation

I have 3 goals in my life.

1. To start a happy family
2. To make an huge impact in the lives of my closed ones
3. To make an significant impact in the lives of many others
   

The main bedroom is quite small and the attach bathroom needs some work to make it better. Thankfully my Dad will be able to take care of it since he work in the renovation line.

The rooms may seem dark due to two reasons. A camera is not as good as human eyes in looking at high dynamic range scenes like these leading to an apparent dark room and the sample unit is located at 6th floor while my is in the 18th floor. Plus, I get full height windows for my bedrooms too

A shot taken with the Sony's new Alpha A700 dSLR in Sony Gallery. ISO6400, 18mm f9.0 (18-70mm f3.5-5.6 kit lens) without postprocessing

Yes.. I handled evil for like 10 minutes and managed to slip in my CF card to grab a few snapshots in jpg home. Had some raws too but without Photoshop CS3 or Sony's 2nd generation converter, there is little I could do with it.

If I didn't mention, bet you can hardly tell that the photo taken above was at ISO6400. The output looks usable for small prints.

Except that they prefer to be in the other end of the camera.

It's officially out for a month in the states and officially out in Singapore today. The Sony Alpha A700, the high amateur model of dSLR offering for the A-mounters, the daddy of A100. Packed with a weather sealed body, 5 fps burst, ISO6400 max (usable ISO 1600 from what I have seen), much improved AF in terms of speed and accuracy according to those early adopters and a useful DRO function (unlike the less than reliable gimmick version in A100) and a more consistent metering and a vertical grip to die for... I'm getting poisoned slowly....

On top of everything, its now offered with the kit lens of my dream, the Carl Zeiss 16-80mm lens. All for the retail price of $3400 in Singapore. The only antidote to this poison is to compare with Hong Kong price (less than $3000). Even if you include GST it's still about $3200. Now if only I could get my hands on it for $200 less than the retail price... or wait for the vertical grip to be thrown in and get it as a combined deal that might set me off by almost $4000. Gasp!

Then again, all my dream of the A700 will be gone by the time I put my name on the dotted line tomorrow. That is until next year (or when they have a Christmas promotion that I can't resist).

I should be sleeping but I want to wait for my medicine to take effect (a.k.a. drowsy) before I lie on my bed. Meanwhile, something relevant to all the year 4s students, especially after all the 'negative' comments from the year 5 representatives

Adapted from here

Top 10 Reasons Why Physics Is A Difficult Course

10. Big, long words like electromagnetic radiation.

9. Wacky experiments like the Schroedinger Cat Experiment and the Milliken Oil Drop Experiment. (Comment - Year 5 will know Milikan for sure, if they took Physics)

8. There's a whole lot of math.

7. Physics is like a whole other language.

6. It is VERY comprehensive.

5. There's a whole lot of math.

4. It makes you think critically about things that don't make sense.

3. You have a preconceived notion that it is going to be tough.

2. There's a whole lot of math AND we do some things that your math teachers told you never to do. (Just don't tell them I said so.)

1. It crosses over into subjects such as history, astronomy, biology, chemistry, literature, English, art and geology. Oh, yeah... did I mention there's a lot of math in it too?

Top 10 Reasons Why Physics Can Be A GREAT Course

10. Your teacher may catch himself on fire this year.

9. It's alright to be a nerd! In ten years the nerds in your class will be making the most money.

8. Help is only one question away.

7. If you are good at math or you like to study foreign languages then you're in the right place.

6. We do a lot of laboratory exercises that allow you to be a leader!

5. Science can be one of the most rewarding things to study - it is very dynamic!

4. You may surprise yourself with how much you already know about science!

3. You might just find that physics will lead you to a rewarding career.

2. Physics is all around you! If you've ever heard anything, walked anywhere or driven a car then you've experienced some phenonomea that physics describes.

1. You've got a teacher who wants everyone to succeed!

spot your faces here (from the talk by local DJs)


Not you


Not you either


Is that you?


Everyone has the same pose?



Have you found yourself?

not to do work... haha... but the work will get pilled up if I don't recover soon. 2 tests, 2 presentations and 1 proposal waiting for me on top of regular post exams teaching work load. I don't understand why I keep falling sick lately... maybe I can't live without my daily dose of Jia Jia Liang Teh. Darn them for increasing the price.

Something funny...

Saw this in the HOD staff room... always wanted to blog about it but gotta wait till now when it's comparatively stress free to put it up in case someone really follow the prescription during their stressful period. I for one was tempted to use it in more than one occasion.

I have so many things going on concurrently, it's not easy being a student but it's not exactly easy to be a teacher too.. Images of the recent Nanoscience electives.