Teachers in a Blog Spot
Sunday Times article this morning:
Teachers who blog face a minefield of ethical issues as students are bound to read their postings. They risk being seen as unprofessional if they gripe about work.
If you are a teacher and you want to blog about your life, you should be professional about it and not write specific things about your students or school, or post photos taken with students. If you put your stuff out there where students can access it, it's going to be a can of worms.
Got a lil worried when I read this coz I realised I haven't been very professional in my recent blogs - I used to take a lot more care putting up the contents of my blog.
Would like to be more professional in my blogs but increasingly, my blogs have become an avenue for me to vent my frustrations (a lot) and share my joy (not a lot). So why should I tamper with the things I really want to say? I dun think I have hurt anybody in my blogs and I can only hope that I will never hurt anybody in my future blogs...
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Alternative Assessment: 2nd Lesson
Yup. Supposed to be having 2nd lesson of my Alternative Assessment workshop. Instead, I'm finishing my backlog of Blog entries for the past month...
And doing this...
I am SUPERGIRL.
Lean, muscular and feminine.
Honest and a defender of the innocent.
Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz
Yup. Supposed to be having 2nd lesson of my Alternative Assessment workshop. Instead, I'm finishing my backlog of Blog entries for the past month...
And doing this...
I am SUPERGIRL.
Lean, muscular and feminine.
Honest and a defender of the innocent.
Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz
2nd Day of School
Sigh... What to do? I know I'm utterly boring in my lessons. How to change myself? Are my expectations of my students really so low? Or are they performing so low because my expectations of them are low?
Mrs Tan passed by my 3T1 class today. Last period of the day. Loads of students were sleeping. She stood outside and stared in for a very long time. I deliberated whether to wake the students up or to continue with my teaching. Hence the thoughts of my boring lessons...
Anyway, back to my boring Science lesson in which so many students were sleeping and Mrs Tan dropped by. I think she also cannot take in just staring in and not doing anything about the sleeping students. She finally came in after a long time of staring and got the kids to stand up and bow. Started talking about blood circulation, staying awake, relating and liking Physics, loads of things lah. Frankly, I wasn't paying attention to her... Starting to fall asleep even... A few of the students made eye contact with me and expressed their derision. I definitely could relate to it but well, got to show the kids an unapproving face instead.
Never mind... Too many things, too little time, too little energy and too little motivation.
Will have to make do with my usual boring lessons.
Argh! Why couldn't she have come like 10 minutes earlier when I was talking about submarines and diving and its relation to water pressure?
Sigh... What to do? I know I'm utterly boring in my lessons. How to change myself? Are my expectations of my students really so low? Or are they performing so low because my expectations of them are low?
Mrs Tan passed by my 3T1 class today. Last period of the day. Loads of students were sleeping. She stood outside and stared in for a very long time. I deliberated whether to wake the students up or to continue with my teaching. Hence the thoughts of my boring lessons...
Anyway, back to my boring Science lesson in which so many students were sleeping and Mrs Tan dropped by. I think she also cannot take in just staring in and not doing anything about the sleeping students. She finally came in after a long time of staring and got the kids to stand up and bow. Started talking about blood circulation, staying awake, relating and liking Physics, loads of things lah. Frankly, I wasn't paying attention to her... Starting to fall asleep even... A few of the students made eye contact with me and expressed their derision. I definitely could relate to it but well, got to show the kids an unapproving face instead.
Never mind... Too many things, too little time, too little energy and too little motivation.
Will have to make do with my usual boring lessons.
Argh! Why couldn't she have come like 10 minutes earlier when I was talking about submarines and diving and its relation to water pressure?
First Day of School
What a hectic day it was! Urgent briefing in the LT about attendance taking for Avian Flu. But I have FULL DAY of lessons! How to call up parents? Provided I can even get them. Phew! Managed to ask Liyah to help me call.
No time to eat, as usual. Left school at 7pm coz trying to clear up my backlog of 2E1 Maths handouts. Managed to clear 3T1 work, so about time I start clearing work from other classes.
Trying to avoid Ms Tham. Still haven't put up the Library Notice Board things. Keep dragging...
Feeling very blur about the things I have to do... Like Angela, so many things on the To-Do List, I don't even know where to start.
Anyway, finished planning work for my lessons tomorrow. Shall go watch the last episode of Charmed before I nuah...
What a hectic day it was! Urgent briefing in the LT about attendance taking for Avian Flu. But I have FULL DAY of lessons! How to call up parents? Provided I can even get them. Phew! Managed to ask Liyah to help me call.
No time to eat, as usual. Left school at 7pm coz trying to clear up my backlog of 2E1 Maths handouts. Managed to clear 3T1 work, so about time I start clearing work from other classes.
Trying to avoid Ms Tham. Still haven't put up the Library Notice Board things. Keep dragging...
Feeling very blur about the things I have to do... Like Angela, so many things on the To-Do List, I don't even know where to start.
Anyway, finished planning work for my lessons tomorrow. Shall go watch the last episode of Charmed before I nuah...
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Lesson 3 @ Hark Music
Wanted to go jogging this morning, but woke up at noon. Tried to get Alphonsus for lunch, but he had to study. Tried to get Angela, but she had tuition. In the end, only left my place at 3pm after watching CSI on cable. Meanwhile, stomach grumbling away...
Took '7' to town. Don't like taking the MRT - confirmed have to stand and have to fight for space with loads of people (especially young teenagers - to whom I now have an aversion to...). Cannot read in peace coz have to hold on to handles (provided I can find a decent amount of free space).
Okay, get back to my trip into town. Took '7' with the aim of getting off at Bugis, grabbing lunch and a trip to SLS for a 'cheap' (ok, affordable) external 2.5" hdd (of at least 100 GB) before the 3rd lesson at Hark Music.
Instead, got off at Scotts Isetan, walked around to take a look at the cosmetics and facial care products available on the market. Continued on to Tangs and took another look at the products there (yeah, not much difference). Then took bus to Prinsep Street and walked past Hark Music to get to SLS. The 2 buildings are actually quite near. Didn't find the cheap 200GB external hdd I saw at the IT Fair. Was tempted to buy the remote control for computer slides but decided to buy a wireless optical mouse instead.
Grabbed a quick 'lunch' at 5.30pm, just before my music lesson at Hark.
Good lesson today. Getting more difficult. The Projection and Open Throat Techniques were pretty challenging. Very difficult to conceptualise lah. Throwing your voice, keeping time, maintaining consistency...
MUST PRACTISE! Breath control, breath support, trilling, projection techniques...
Gotta choose a song to sing in class 3 weeks later (9th April). And then 2 songs to sing in the cafe in 2 months (28th May). Finally, 1 more song to sing as the exam piece (25th June).
Any suggestions?
Wanted to go jogging this morning, but woke up at noon. Tried to get Alphonsus for lunch, but he had to study. Tried to get Angela, but she had tuition. In the end, only left my place at 3pm after watching CSI on cable. Meanwhile, stomach grumbling away...
Took '7' to town. Don't like taking the MRT - confirmed have to stand and have to fight for space with loads of people (especially young teenagers - to whom I now have an aversion to...). Cannot read in peace coz have to hold on to handles (provided I can find a decent amount of free space).
Okay, get back to my trip into town. Took '7' with the aim of getting off at Bugis, grabbing lunch and a trip to SLS for a 'cheap' (ok, affordable) external 2.5" hdd (of at least 100 GB) before the 3rd lesson at Hark Music.
Instead, got off at Scotts Isetan, walked around to take a look at the cosmetics and facial care products available on the market. Continued on to Tangs and took another look at the products there (yeah, not much difference). Then took bus to Prinsep Street and walked past Hark Music to get to SLS. The 2 buildings are actually quite near. Didn't find the cheap 200GB external hdd I saw at the IT Fair. Was tempted to buy the remote control for computer slides but decided to buy a wireless optical mouse instead.
Grabbed a quick 'lunch' at 5.30pm, just before my music lesson at Hark.
Good lesson today. Getting more difficult. The Projection and Open Throat Techniques were pretty challenging. Very difficult to conceptualise lah. Throwing your voice, keeping time, maintaining consistency...
MUST PRACTISE! Breath control, breath support, trilling, projection techniques...
Gotta choose a song to sing in class 3 weeks later (9th April). And then 2 songs to sing in the cafe in 2 months (28th May). Finally, 1 more song to sing as the exam piece (25th June).
Any suggestions?
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Starbucks @ Holland Village (Part 2)
Had a good day at Starbucks yesterday. Finished lesson planning for both my 2T1 Maths and 3T1 Science. Yeah!
Decided to go Starbucks again today to finish up more work. After all, only 2 more days before school starts. And it's gonna be a helluva term - rushing to finish syllabus for Mid-Year Exams, all the trouble my class is throwing up, the few pests who still sleep in class and refuse to do any work...
Reached Starbucks at 11am and managed to grab 1 of the 2 available tables with adjoining power sockets. The nice seat we got yesterday was taken up by a guy using a laptop, so can't ask him to let me use.
But never mind. At least still got power socket. Didn't order anything. Felt a little bad at first, but told myself that I'd order later. And doesn't look like a lot of people around.
As I continued working, didn't realise that the place was filling up. Angela called at 1pm to say that she's nearby. I started to pack up and realised that there were 6 other laptop users in the cafe. While I was packing, saw another gal packing up and anticipating to take my place. Decided to call Angela to ask her to grab lunch on her own first. Kaisee lah. Dun wanna lose my strategic location...
In the end, Angela came upstairs and we had our lunch at Starbucks - muffins and ice-blended coffee.
I didn't lose my strategic table and I finished my lesson planning for ALL my classes for the rest of the term! Yippee!
Had a good day at Starbucks yesterday. Finished lesson planning for both my 2T1 Maths and 3T1 Science. Yeah!
Decided to go Starbucks again today to finish up more work. After all, only 2 more days before school starts. And it's gonna be a helluva term - rushing to finish syllabus for Mid-Year Exams, all the trouble my class is throwing up, the few pests who still sleep in class and refuse to do any work...
Reached Starbucks at 11am and managed to grab 1 of the 2 available tables with adjoining power sockets. The nice seat we got yesterday was taken up by a guy using a laptop, so can't ask him to let me use.
But never mind. At least still got power socket. Didn't order anything. Felt a little bad at first, but told myself that I'd order later. And doesn't look like a lot of people around.
As I continued working, didn't realise that the place was filling up. Angela called at 1pm to say that she's nearby. I started to pack up and realised that there were 6 other laptop users in the cafe. While I was packing, saw another gal packing up and anticipating to take my place. Decided to call Angela to ask her to grab lunch on her own first. Kaisee lah. Dun wanna lose my strategic location...
In the end, Angela came upstairs and we had our lunch at Starbucks - muffins and ice-blended coffee.
I didn't lose my strategic table and I finished my lesson planning for ALL my classes for the rest of the term! Yippee!
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