If I am a commander of a platoon of soldiers and they are not disciplined, cant march well and are not trained for battles, I would be most worried and concerned. If another commander comes along and took up the initiative to train up my soldiers, I would most welcome it as i have the soldiers' welfare in mind and hope to nuture them even through someone else if i realised that i dont seem to be able to do the job well. On one hand, I will reflect what i can do to improve myself and on the other hand, I will not bear any bad feelings towards the other commander if what he did is out of the same geuinue concern for the soldiers. Afterall, it's not about usurping my authority or stepping into my territory as the soldiers don't really belong to me. they are just entrusted to me for the time being to be equipped for great missions in the future.

Conversely, if i see another platoon of soldiers who are weak and i judged that I am capable of helping, i would not hesitate to help as well even though they are not officially my own platoon of soldiers. But of course, there is something that i must learn to do: to be polite enough to ask for the other commander's permission to go ahead in the training of the soldiers. If he is agreeable, I think it is fine to go ahead without informing the general about it. All in all, we are all doing our best to help the soldiers to become a good defensive force for the country.

Will all commanders think this way or will some feel that they are robbed of their territories and making them feel as if they are not capable enough for the job!? I certainly hope to believe in the former always...

in life, we can't please everyone... we will offend some and we will win over the hearts of some. So long as our intentions are right and our conscience is clear, I believe we can proceed with what we think is the best thing to do in our hearts...

case closed.

I am the only one who knows the truth and I will not and cannot tell.

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went toiletries shopping with my family to chinatown on Sun cos there is a shop there that we discovered to be selling things at a cheaper price! so we would usually stock up a few months' supplies each time we visit the place!

anyway, took some random shots along the way...



that's ekklesia and her buddy! :D notice how she pose with her fingers? people usually uses 2 fingers but she does it with 3! who knows? she may start a new trend! :P




I thought that i can only see such a sight in HK but this is a flat located right at the heart of chinatown! oh man! look at all the units of apartment cramped within this building!





Due to their limited space, their living room's windows are useful for hanging clothes! aren't you amazed by how they manage to hang so much clothes with so little space!? I am awed by the sight of it! (especially the second photo!)




One last photo to blog about! Doesn't it make me look like some entreprenaur of the year kinda photo!? That's not the main point anyway. the main point is this: it is actually taken by my 5 years old son! :D don't you admire his photographic skills!? amazing!!!! :D

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I teach many laws of physix to my students but the most powerful of them all has got to be Murphy's law: when things can go wrong, it will go wrong!

yup, that's exactly what happened today while i was teaching 304... as usual, i showed part of the movie (Initial D) to the class as part of my teaching of kinematics. As always, i will usually pause at the right moment to end a section of the movie so that i can switch back to teaching the class. for today's lesson, i did everything according to plan but murphy's law strikes at the wrong time!! when i pressed the pause button, it did not respond and jump ahead to the next scene and pause at that instead! And guess what!? the next scene starts off by showing the cover of a magazine that the lead actor's "dirty-minded" father would usually look at! it showed a woman clad in a red bikinis... omg! and the scene just pauses there and refuses to move on! my face turned as red as the bikinis on the magazine cover and i suddenly wished i am an ostrich who can dig a hole and bury my head inside! what can be worse than that?! a senior teacher happened to be around to observe my lessons today! oh man! that's really the ultimate! :P

when i continued my lesson later, my students started teasing when i used a RED pen to indicate a portion of a graph and they just can't stop giggling and making mention of the whole thing! total embarassment! it's really one of my worst days as a teacher and I admit defeat to the power of Murphy's law! :P

Comment! (2) | Recommend! | Categories: 304 [t], embarassing [t], murphy\'s law [t]

I have a student who has 12 ear stubs... omg! i pity her ears..

students can be so wild these days! someone can actually draw a face on a box, cut 2 holes for the eyes and go around with a broom hitting their juniors and running away! someone actually hang a dart board on the wall and charge towards it with his head! it's painful but he enjoys it!? weird! anyway, they are not from the school i am teaching! :P There are worse things that happened but i shall not blog them here! :P

The parent-teacher conference was enjoyable! I had a good time talking to the parents about their children. Most of the time, I will not say anything "bad" about them and would usually tell their parents how we can work together to help them to excel! :D had a good laugh bcos of the "newtube" joke! :P It serves as a warning to me as well: be sure about what you wanna say before you say it! and another thing, [they] ordered mac without asking me! sad lor! :( had to wait till 9 pm before driving through @ king albert for a quick bite! thanks for the fries anyway! :D

confiscated part of a serial drama (Full House) from my students cos they promised to watch only 2 episodes a day. So over the weekend, I gave them 6 discs (for 3 days) so that they will keep to it and not spend too much time watching and spend more time studying! Took a peek at episode 7 today to see what is so interesting about it and I'm kinda hooked to watch the whole series! LOL! tempting but hmm... only if I loads of spare time! :P

soccer was fun today though it rained! I was sick for quite a while (although it's not noticeable) and today was the first day after so long that i felt that i have overcomed the virus and became stronger! yeah! I just love times when i fall sick and recover without seeing the doc! :D

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The many peaks of excellence is wonderful news to our students as it recognises the multi-intelligences of our children and not just focus on IQ alone. It allows students to develop their best in whatever areas that they are interested and good in. Having schools of a specific nature (e.g. Arts and Sports school) is a wonderful way to give students a head start in their specializations. What might be lacking is an IT school for students strong in IT skills. Students in our school are generally streamed into becoming a Science student. This puts a lot of students who are stronger in languages and Arts/Humanities in a struggle as they still have to take science subjects while taking on additional language or Arts courses. They are not allowed to have the chance to NOT learn science subjects or A maths, which become burdens for them, rather than learning out of genuine interests. This matter should be seriously considered.

Leveling up our society is a noble but challenging goal that can be achieved through education. Providing financial help, guidance and special school for less motivated and poorer families is encouraging and rewarding eventually. This will hopefully raise the general standard of education in the families. Although our school’s students are generally better-behaved and did well for their PSLE, they manifest a lack of motivation and purpose in life as they are generally not sure about themselves (about their interests, strengths and weaknesses) and they are always procrastinating in working consistently in their academic studies. I think students in good schools should be leveled up even more (though it may create a gap once again) to enable them to live to their fullest potential by doing personal profiling and learning to work in teams effectively!

Stronger emotional ties for Singapore can only be achieved if the students are constantly reminded of the sound infrastructures and education system provided by the Government. They can develop a sense of ownership and belonging here if they are given opportunities along their education journey to provide feedback and have their suggestions implemented. Their feelings for Singapore will be a lot better if they can sense that the education system here is to help them to develop and not to stress them to cram stuff for exams.

To become a first class teaching force, the benefits for teachers are important but it is not the deciding factor. More stringent interviews and other form of assessments should be given to ensure that the people coming in is sincere and passionate about teaching and not just simply because they are attracted by the good pay or because they are highly qualified or experienced in certain skills. I am glad that this is now shifting as less qualified people are allowed to enter into teaching because of their passion! I fully agree that teachers these days need to be able to blend in with the new generation and be always willing to learn the latest things (not just in their subject matters but also in the trends among teenagers) so that they are able to creatively use them to make what they are teaching as relevant and interesting as possible for the students! They would love to have teachers who are not squares! don't you!? :)

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Drifting refers to a driving technique utilizing a difference in slip angle between the front and rear tires of a car. When the rear wheels are slipping at a greater angle than the front wheels, the car is drifting, or "power-sliding". The rear end of the car appears to chase the front end around a turn; the driver utilizes both front tires and the rear tires to control the actual direction of the car. More throttle induces more rear wheel slip angle and the rear of the car wants to overtake the front. The goal is for the driver to achieve opposite lock and use the throttle to fine tune the car's angle and direction.

I wish that all my students will drift effortlessly through this coming final year exams! PIAO YI! :)

Comment! (1) | Recommend! | Categories: piao yi [t], initial d [t]