Blog and blogskins
I've been thinking of changing my blogskins for ages but can't seem to find a perfect layout for my blog. I've browsed blogskins.com for two whole nights till my eyes are popping out now but nothing appealed to me. The designs of blogskins are just getting so tacky, customising for secondary or primary kids starting out a new blog, perhaps. Maybe its something to do with aging, I've seemed to outgrown all the layouts that I've seen; many of them are having flowers, stars or some cutesy graphics occupying most of the screen. And it's not reader-friendly at all as you have to keep scrolling down just to read a few lines of the blog. That's so tiring! Sigh... I've got to admit that before this (when I was younger), I was using this layout that was baby blue and full of sweet cartoons, but now I can't imagine me having my blog looking that way anymore. Horror of horrors..
After 1.5 years of using my current skin, I've grown so used to it that I can hardly find something that's refreshingly different. I guess its just like people getting used to their home after years, and they tend to refurnished it the same way even if they moved. Or, maybe I really need an overhaul or something? What do you guys think? I was experimenting tonight and came out with the following two templates, but I guess I don't really like my blog being divided into small parts, it look quite cluttered. Will try something else when I have the time again.
Friday, January 28, 2005
Sunday, January 23, 2005
This is my happy blog. It's long weekend!! And I had spent it "meaningfully", meaning: slacking, sleeping and catching up with friends and family. =)
On Thurs, I went for an impromptu shopping trip with Huiyi and Peiling (my NIE good friends). Initially, the suggestion was to go Jurong Point to 'jalan jalan' after lessons as long weekend was coming. But we ended up in Orchard, with me totally un-mentally prepared and looking unglam. =P
It was fun, as all of us got something for ourselves (new clothes!!) None of us brought our camera since it was a impromptu trip, but anyway here's a pic to represent us.
Happy girls...hehee
Posted by Hello
From that trip, I've added 3 more pieces of clothes to my collection of new clothing bought this year. I can hardly use the excuse of buying them for CNY as two of those were black (my favourite colour for clothes) and the other was white (bought for Casey's wedding next month). But who cares? I'm getting so good that I can come up with good reasons to shop all year round, for e.g, there's pre-CNY and post-CNY shopping, practicum shopping, wedding shopping, birthday shopping, friends' birthday shopping, happy day shopping, sad day shopping and so on...
Last count of new things bought this year:
2 thumbdrive ( one lost somewhere just hours after I bought it)
2 pair of shoes
5 pieces of clothing
1 new HP all-in-one printer
1 book
Woah..that's quite a good start for the year, which doesnt seem like only 3 weeks had past. How could I ever have bought so many things??! I'm also renovating my room right now, building a new row of cupboard to replace my old one so that I have more space to put my books, papers and clothes after moving back from hall. Pocket burning big hole!!
Anyway, let me abruptly jump to another topic. On Hari Raya Haji, one of my classmates had kindly invited us to his 'humble abode' for a gathering, which is a rare chance other than our usual gatherings inside the LTs. It was a nice outing, chatting with people that I usually don't get to talk to amidst our busy school life. Like many of my friends' blogs, I must put up pictures, and this is my favourite of all, since it has my face inside. Hahahaa..
Femme of my class..
Posted by Hello
On Thurs, I went for an impromptu shopping trip with Huiyi and Peiling (my NIE good friends). Initially, the suggestion was to go Jurong Point to 'jalan jalan' after lessons as long weekend was coming. But we ended up in Orchard, with me totally un-mentally prepared and looking unglam. =P
It was fun, as all of us got something for ourselves (new clothes!!) None of us brought our camera since it was a impromptu trip, but anyway here's a pic to represent us.
Happy girls...hehee
Posted by Hello
From that trip, I've added 3 more pieces of clothes to my collection of new clothing bought this year. I can hardly use the excuse of buying them for CNY as two of those were black (my favourite colour for clothes) and the other was white (bought for Casey's wedding next month). But who cares? I'm getting so good that I can come up with good reasons to shop all year round, for e.g, there's pre-CNY and post-CNY shopping, practicum shopping, wedding shopping, birthday shopping, friends' birthday shopping, happy day shopping, sad day shopping and so on...
Last count of new things bought this year:
2 thumbdrive ( one lost somewhere just hours after I bought it)
2 pair of shoes
5 pieces of clothing
1 new HP all-in-one printer
1 book
Woah..that's quite a good start for the year, which doesnt seem like only 3 weeks had past. How could I ever have bought so many things??! I'm also renovating my room right now, building a new row of cupboard to replace my old one so that I have more space to put my books, papers and clothes after moving back from hall. Pocket burning big hole!!
Anyway, let me abruptly jump to another topic. On Hari Raya Haji, one of my classmates had kindly invited us to his 'humble abode' for a gathering, which is a rare chance other than our usual gatherings inside the LTs. It was a nice outing, chatting with people that I usually don't get to talk to amidst our busy school life. Like many of my friends' blogs, I must put up pictures, and this is my favourite of all, since it has my face inside. Hahahaa..
Femme of my class..
Posted by Hello
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
I know my blog is looking different.
Guess what? For the second time this year, I've messed up my blog template, and I've spent the past two hours trying my best to restore it to what you are seeing now. All my links are gone again! I'm so frustrated now but I don't have time to fix it tonight, will take days for me to link up everyone again. If you do not see your blog link on my page later on, do leave me a tag.
It occurs to me that Blogger is the source of this problem. I have the habit of updating my template every now and then, and on a 'suay' day (Let's make it a VERY SUAY day), the template is not saved properly. The html will be cut off somewhere and there's nowhere to get back your old template again, it's a horror when I click on "View Blog" expecting to see the updated blog but it turned out in a disheval. I really regretted having 'itchy' hand to go and meddle with it, should have learnt my lesson long ago. Bad bad BLOGGER... argghh..
This is a lesson for me and everyone to BACK UP EVERYTHING that you are doing, including your template and your blogs, as the "Save" button down there is not safe at all. All your work will be gone in a click.. *shake head*
Guess what? For the second time this year, I've messed up my blog template, and I've spent the past two hours trying my best to restore it to what you are seeing now. All my links are gone again! I'm so frustrated now but I don't have time to fix it tonight, will take days for me to link up everyone again. If you do not see your blog link on my page later on, do leave me a tag.
It occurs to me that Blogger is the source of this problem. I have the habit of updating my template every now and then, and on a 'suay' day (Let's make it a VERY SUAY day), the template is not saved properly. The html will be cut off somewhere and there's nowhere to get back your old template again, it's a horror when I click on "View Blog" expecting to see the updated blog but it turned out in a disheval. I really regretted having 'itchy' hand to go and meddle with it, should have learnt my lesson long ago. Bad bad BLOGGER... argghh..
This is a lesson for me and everyone to BACK UP EVERYTHING that you are doing, including your template and your blogs, as the "Save" button down there is not safe at all. All your work will be gone in a click.. *shake head*
Friday, January 14, 2005
This blog is about a book. (Ahh.. I can hear you saying the word "boring!") It's not a book review as I'm talking about a international best-seller here, and literature textbook used in schools. Who am I kidding to write a review about it? It's just some personal after-thoughts from reading it..
The book
I chanced upon this book under really special circumstances.
I was tutoring my student (currently Sec 2) last week and he was telling me that he has homework to complete. Next, he pressed a piece of paper in front of me and tossed me a book. It was his English literature assignment. The funny thing about students is the fact that they regards teachers (or for my case, tutor) as super-beings and expect us to provide solutions to anything that they should have problems with. I had been tutoring him for the past few years, and the subjects that I had to deal with had grossly expanded ever since he went up to secondary school. Mind you, that was English Lit and I haven’t even read the book before!
“English Literature?”
He nodded and proceeds to look at me expectantly, waiting for answers. In a mood to do some kind of charity that day, I quickly skimmed through the first few chapters of the book while he got busy with other tasks. I managed to provide the answers to the questions that he had, quite easily. That was how I chanced upon the book. Surprisingly, it was unlike other E.lit books that I had encountered, quite entertaining and easy to read. I got my hands on another copy of the book soon after that and I finished it in barely two days.
It’s an autobiography of a little Japanese girl, her life as a student in an elementary school which was run in an unorthodox manner. What was interesting is the fact that her school actually existed and all her encounters were real. The real charms of the book were the sincere and simple descriptions of her curriculum and interactions with the headmaster. Personally, I feel that it's a good read for educators, and for understanding the point of view of a child.
It also reminds me of GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka), it originated from a series of Japanese anime but more popularly known as a drama acted by the very dashing Takashi (反町!) It was a popular hit in Singapore a few years ago, with the gangsterish teacher solving students’ life problems in a very dramatic way. It’s mostly entertaining but there’s also a subtler meaning of teaching behind the scene.
Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO)
I can’t help but admire the unique methods used by these teachers (although Onizuka is too far exaggerated). To them, education is clearly teaching about life more than books. What is known as the real useful stuff. Somehow, it also dawned upon me that teaching about life is easier said that done. We will well need to ditch all the textbooks, worksheets and assessment books that we have, forget about exams and PSLE. Can we really do that? Most of us started out with idealistic views about what we wanted to do, but there's too many distractions down the path and we face the great danger of falling into the same pits that drowned the passion of many others.
Many years later (or even sooner!), perhaps I will also fall into the stream of teachers who sit about lamenting about their work life in the staffroom. That’s a fairly common scene to be seen, and its also my greatest fear at present. Argghh.. nightmare!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, enough about that. Look at the timestamp! I need to get some sleep to appear full of zest for my first jia-qiang-ban of the year.. Hahaa.. that's the real nightmare. =P
The book
I chanced upon this book under really special circumstances.
I was tutoring my student (currently Sec 2) last week and he was telling me that he has homework to complete. Next, he pressed a piece of paper in front of me and tossed me a book. It was his English literature assignment. The funny thing about students is the fact that they regards teachers (or for my case, tutor) as super-beings and expect us to provide solutions to anything that they should have problems with. I had been tutoring him for the past few years, and the subjects that I had to deal with had grossly expanded ever since he went up to secondary school. Mind you, that was English Lit and I haven’t even read the book before!
“English Literature?”
He nodded and proceeds to look at me expectantly, waiting for answers. In a mood to do some kind of charity that day, I quickly skimmed through the first few chapters of the book while he got busy with other tasks. I managed to provide the answers to the questions that he had, quite easily. That was how I chanced upon the book. Surprisingly, it was unlike other E.lit books that I had encountered, quite entertaining and easy to read. I got my hands on another copy of the book soon after that and I finished it in barely two days.
It’s an autobiography of a little Japanese girl, her life as a student in an elementary school which was run in an unorthodox manner. What was interesting is the fact that her school actually existed and all her encounters were real. The real charms of the book were the sincere and simple descriptions of her curriculum and interactions with the headmaster. Personally, I feel that it's a good read for educators, and for understanding the point of view of a child.
It also reminds me of GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka), it originated from a series of Japanese anime but more popularly known as a drama acted by the very dashing Takashi (反町!) It was a popular hit in Singapore a few years ago, with the gangsterish teacher solving students’ life problems in a very dramatic way. It’s mostly entertaining but there’s also a subtler meaning of teaching behind the scene.
Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO)
I can’t help but admire the unique methods used by these teachers (although Onizuka is too far exaggerated). To them, education is clearly teaching about life more than books. What is known as the real useful stuff. Somehow, it also dawned upon me that teaching about life is easier said that done. We will well need to ditch all the textbooks, worksheets and assessment books that we have, forget about exams and PSLE. Can we really do that? Most of us started out with idealistic views about what we wanted to do, but there's too many distractions down the path and we face the great danger of falling into the same pits that drowned the passion of many others.
Many years later (or even sooner!), perhaps I will also fall into the stream of teachers who sit about lamenting about their work life in the staffroom. That’s a fairly common scene to be seen, and its also my greatest fear at present. Argghh.. nightmare!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, enough about that. Look at the timestamp! I need to get some sleep to appear full of zest for my first jia-qiang-ban of the year.. Hahaa.. that's the real nightmare. =P
Friday, January 07, 2005
Argghh.. look at this email that I've just received:
Dear classmates,
Just received the confirmed sessions for PAC 506. Pls note the updated changes.
The confirmed sessions and LTs for PAC506 are as follow:
January 14 ( Fri 9.30am-12.30pm &1.30pm-4.30pm) LT10
January 28 ( Fri 9.30am-12.30pm &1.30pm-4.30pm) LT10
February 4 ( Fri 9.30am-12.30pm &1.30pm-4.30pm) LT10
March 14 ( Mon 9.30am-12.30pm &1.30pm-4.30pm) LT7
March 15 ( Tue 9.30am-12.30pm &1.30pm-4.30pm) LT7
March 17 ( Thur 9.30am-12.30pm &1.30pm-4.30pm) LT7 ( LTs are fully booked on 16 Mar)
March 18 ( Fri 2pm-5pm) LT7 for Examination
I want to cry.. it's atrocious, it's absurb!! Not only my hopes of having long weekends (initially we negotiated to have this particular module during our practicum) are dashed, my March hols (14th-18th) had just went down the drain. Bad bad system.. =(
It's a really bad start for the term, I felt like I've already sold my soul away to MOE and people do not consider us as human anymore. I was hoping to get my hols even though it is just going to be a mere one week. Last Sept we actually had our hols taken away from us, and it resulted into a nightmarish semester (it was THAT bad), but apparantly NIE still decided that we don't deserve a break afterall. Sigh.. the sea have to wait again. I'm quite sure taking this extra module won't turn me into a wonderful Chinese teacher overnight, and not taking this module doesn't make me any less capable either. So, I don't need top-up modules!!
Is taking hols away from people against human rights? I bet it is.. then we'll have a case to sue.
Dear classmates,
Just received the confirmed sessions for PAC 506. Pls note the updated changes.
The confirmed sessions and LTs for PAC506 are as follow:
January 14 ( Fri 9.30am-12.30pm &1.30pm-4.30pm) LT10
January 28 ( Fri 9.30am-12.30pm &1.30pm-4.30pm) LT10
February 4 ( Fri 9.30am-12.30pm &1.30pm-4.30pm) LT10
March 14 ( Mon 9.30am-12.30pm &1.30pm-4.30pm) LT7
March 15 ( Tue 9.30am-12.30pm &1.30pm-4.30pm) LT7
March 17 ( Thur 9.30am-12.30pm &1.30pm-4.30pm) LT7 ( LTs are fully booked on 16 Mar)
March 18 ( Fri 2pm-5pm) LT7 for Examination
I want to cry.. it's atrocious, it's absurb!! Not only my hopes of having long weekends (initially we negotiated to have this particular module during our practicum) are dashed, my March hols (14th-18th) had just went down the drain. Bad bad system.. =(
It's a really bad start for the term, I felt like I've already sold my soul away to MOE and people do not consider us as human anymore. I was hoping to get my hols even though it is just going to be a mere one week. Last Sept we actually had our hols taken away from us, and it resulted into a nightmarish semester (it was THAT bad), but apparantly NIE still decided that we don't deserve a break afterall. Sigh.. the sea have to wait again. I'm quite sure taking this extra module won't turn me into a wonderful Chinese teacher overnight, and not taking this module doesn't make me any less capable either. So, I don't need top-up modules!!
Is taking hols away from people against human rights? I bet it is.. then we'll have a case to sue.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
I'm finally back!! Cough cough.. my blog is full of cobwebs after one whole month of not attending to it. =P
I was away for such a long time, some of you might be thinking that I was kidnapped in China! I was back safely on 26th December 2004 after 3 weeks away from Singapore. It was purely a coincidence that we arrived on the very day that the Asia's tsunami catastrophe took place, I remembered sitting at the window of the plane and looking down at the peaceful lands below, feeling so excited about heading back home finally. Hmm.. it felt quite weird getting adjusted back to life here when the rest of the world was going through a major crisis. Then 2005 came, very quietly and in a most solemn ambience. The reasons for not blogging during the past 10 days was mainly due to the fact that I was recuperating from the trip, busy adjusting to the life back here, getting used to the idea that it's 2005 now and accepting the fact that I was coming back to school. =P
Okay..whatever it is, I'm back and attended 3 days of school so far. Sigh.. the truth is that I'm quite busy picking up the pace of school work right now, so there'll be no worries about me making a full report about my 3 weeks in China. There'll be too much to tell and too many photos to upload, it'll be 2006 by the time I'm done!
Don't be too disappointed though, I can't resist showing off my wonderful holidays, can I? Heehee.. therefore here's some random shots of my trip, in no significant order.. Enjoy! =)
I was away for such a long time, some of you might be thinking that I was kidnapped in China! I was back safely on 26th December 2004 after 3 weeks away from Singapore. It was purely a coincidence that we arrived on the very day that the Asia's tsunami catastrophe took place, I remembered sitting at the window of the plane and looking down at the peaceful lands below, feeling so excited about heading back home finally. Hmm.. it felt quite weird getting adjusted back to life here when the rest of the world was going through a major crisis. Then 2005 came, very quietly and in a most solemn ambience. The reasons for not blogging during the past 10 days was mainly due to the fact that I was recuperating from the trip, busy adjusting to the life back here, getting used to the idea that it's 2005 now and accepting the fact that I was coming back to school. =P
Okay..whatever it is, I'm back and attended 3 days of school so far. Sigh.. the truth is that I'm quite busy picking up the pace of school work right now, so there'll be no worries about me making a full report about my 3 weeks in China. There'll be too much to tell and too many photos to upload, it'll be 2006 by the time I'm done!
Don't be too disappointed though, I can't resist showing off my wonderful holidays, can I? Heehee.. therefore here's some random shots of my trip, in no significant order.. Enjoy! =)
