October 14, 2009
3 things that made me smile today.
1) I spoke to a couple of kids on fb! Two were current students while another two were ex-pupils. It was interesting talking to them.
2) I finished marking the last compo I gave to my English class. There’s still other marking stacks to clear, but I’m glad I managed to deliver what I promised this week. There were a couple who did not hand in though. Quite tiring to chase after them. I’m just hoping that I’ll create a better system to process all these better next year.
3) One of my graduating pupils told me she loves English Club! How can I make it better? 
October 13, 2009
3 things that made me smile today:
1) my 5H! It’s just one more day of lesson before their exams start. It been a mad rush, but today it was particularly packed. Finally, I told them, I wouldn’t force them to do their compos if they didn’t want to. I would only mark those who handed their work in by the end of today. I asked them how many were keen to do this, and the majority of the class raised their hands. About ten of them handed it in by 3 today! They really didn’t have much time to do it actually, ao it’s really impressive!
2) I worked with a couple of pupils on their compo after school, and one girl who’s been really hardworking showed tremendous improvement! When she saw her marks, she was beaming! That really made my day!
3) my own form class also has shown a marked improvement. It’s really a great joy to see them apply what they have been taught. It’s really great.
October 13, 2009
3 things that made me smile today:
1) I GOT MY iPHONE!!! It was delivered to Ben’s office rather early in the day, then we met for dinner in the evening before going to singtel to activate it. We got the case from plaza Stereo after flying to funan after singtel and realizing it was closed. They nicely opened the shop for me after they had closed. Without the case, I wouldn’t have been able to use it!
2) we had the best beef hor fun! It’s near balestier, and it came really quick! It was really good!
3) When we reached bugis, singtel was under renovation! So we sped down to comcentre. After Ben barely stepped in, they were closed for the day. Phew!
Bonus!
4) we spotted this group line-dancing at funan after the shops were closed. There was this old guy in red polo t-shirt who caught my attention. Boy could he dance! Wow.
October 11, 2009
3 things that made me smile today:
1) we celebrated my granny’s 80th birthday! Even my aunt flew done from australia!
2) That aunt bought us funky chocolates! She said it’s only for married couples. Oh man!
3) We fitted a new FM Alarm clock! Heh, it’s quite odd how we ended up that way actually. We’ve always wanted a music player in the room, but due to space and financial constraint, we hadn’t got around to doing so. We went to audio house once, but we couldn’t decide nor bear to part with the money. So we left empty-handed. We seriously considered an iPhone dock, but when i woke up one morning feeling horrid coz i think it was due to sleeping beside to phones next to my head, i decided to have a PPO against handphones. So no phone means no alarm clock. As we were at the many maid agencies yesterday, we ended up looking at some FM Radio alarm clocks and picked one out. Settled!
October 10, 2009
3 things that made me snile today:
1) we got our helper! Can’t reveal too much at the moment. Not sure how it’ll all turn out. On paper, it doesn’t seem overly impressive, yet we think it just might work out. Still praying!
2) today’s devotional verse (from abby’s devotion): proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. in all your ways acknowledge him, and He will make your paths straight.
3) we drafted out the terms of agreement – performance review banding, list of major and minor offences, consequences and rewards for good behaviour, routines- daily, weekly, etc. I hope it’ll help draw some boundary lines clearly!
October 9, 2009
3 things that made me smile today:
1) it’s friday!!! I’m just so glad. Exams are cmg, so it’s been a terribly mad rush! Weekend is for chilling out and clearing backlog of compos!
2) ben and the kids came along for netball! There wasn’t cell tonight, so he didn’t mind joining us. Plus, he wasn’t meeting his cell guys. I’m glad he came along. Abby played badminton with him, and he managed to intervene a kiddy situation.
3) i took two naps today! I’ve been really tired, so while the kids were at their music class, i snuck off to the car and took a catnap. When we came home, i crashed for about an hour again. I almost didn’t make it to netball, but i’m glad i did. At first i didn’t play, but in the end i went in for a quarter despite the fatigue. Besides napping during their class, i bought my favourite red pens! Cheap thrill yah, but it makes marking the mountains slightly more delightful compared to dak-shiok pens.
October 8, 2009
3 things that made me smile today:
1) i finished quite a bit of marking! It’s a mad mad race against time. I reallt praying that the kids are actually learning sthg from these huge stacks of worksheets! I’ve been sharing my Group Study strategy with a few teachers, and they seem supportive of it. The kids enjoy it too, but i’m not sure if they’re really learning anything from one another. But then again, it doesn’t mean that if I go through the paper, they’ll learn either. So it’s a calculated risk i’m taking. I have a feedback form that tells me whether they have understood sthg, and only a few groups indicate unclear. That’s not too bad coz at least i get to go through the really difficult parts. Otherwise, i’ll be going through parts that they already know. It just spells B-O-R-I-N-G for them and me. Furthermore, i asked the kids which they prefer, and they indicated that they liked the group study arrangement. I’ll probably blog more about it when i’m not typing on my N97.
2) My iPhone IS COMING!!! Ben placed an order and it’ll be delivered on monday! Woohoo! Thanks Love!
3) i had Black Pepper Chicken for lunch. Mmm… It was great, with great company – my fantastic colleagues!
4) one more! I completed teaching the Writing Package today! I really hope the kids will know how to employ the methods. I think quite a number of them found it challenging. At first i wanted to do it for both classes, but my form class was the HA group, so that had to be done while my other class wasn’t involved in the study. This has been a one-year long AR project! I’m just afraid that my other class may end up more confused. 
i’ll still try, provided i can clear those horrendous haunting stacks.
October 7, 2009
3 things that made me smile today:
1) abby braved through her root canal treatment! She had an afternoon appt @ the NDC, and when i called home earlier to inform them of the appointment (i’d forgotten to remind them), abby later called back to say she didn’t want to go for it. Nevertheless, i picked her up early and reached there before we were due. We were unhurried and did some reading at the waiting area. When it was our turn, we entered the treatment zone. There were SO MANY kids crying and screaming! I almost clenched my hands tight (while holding hers but she was as relaxed as ever). She was all smiles when we greeted the doctor and even chuckled as i made funny faces while the dentist examined her. She got an inkection which lasted about more than a minute but she didn’t grab my hand or anything! She just held on loosely and was really steady throughout! When there was discomfort, she flinched abit but that was it. She survived it beautifully! The dentist was so impressed, especially in an environment where screams reguularly filled the air. (The treatment area is sort of an open concept with about 30 or so dental chairs separated by half-wall paritions.) she was awesome!
2) i played hopscotch with abby! She knows how to hop around, but today i taught her the rules of the game. It was so fun!
3) we swapped roles and she became the mummy! We were talking about wanting to revisit hong kong disneyland again but it was really expensive, so to drive home the message of expenditure, i gave her my pouch with some notes and coins inside. There was about $20 in various denominations.
I was the daughter, so i started asking for things a little girl would want, coupled with daily necessities. After a while, she ran out of money. Then she had to work for her salary. She chose to be a teacher so she had to perform a teacher’s duties, then, she got her paycheck.
She asked for the game again. The first time was quite challenging for me as we were doing this on the road on the way home, so i deciided to use the drink shelf instead. The money ‘disappeared’ into our makeshift cash register. She had to choose between feeding a family of 4 plus the maid vs buying a tube of toothpaste that was $10. At first the 5 members had to share 2 bowls of noodles coz she hadn’t any money left! Then we decided to downgrade the toothpaste. The paymistress finally had enough to feed a family for a meal.
She also had to decide between eating at a restaurant and eating at home. She had only 40c in the pouch but wanted to eat out. Finally she got the idea and said we had to eat at home instead as we had already bought the groceries.
It was an excellent time allowing her to manage real money and making decisions. She learnt to say ‘No’ to luxuries (yes!) plus being responsible for the family. It was a really great time with her. I’m so proud of her!
October 6, 2009
3 things that made me smile today:
1) i met up with 2 good friends for dinner together with ben. My friend is one of the most awesome and wonderful girls i’ve ever met. I’m thankful for this friendship!
2) I found Shalom practising piano by himself! When i got out of the bathroom, he was in the corner and said, “Look Mummy, I’m practising my music!” Wow.
3) i finished my part of our writing package. That’s part I down! It’s been uphill coz we’re all so busy. Nevertheless, there’s the motivation of the deadline. 
let’s hope we clear this last lap well and strong!
