live it to the fullest.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Spent a whole lot of time searching for a new blogskin.

There were so many really nice ones but had love forlorn headings..bleah..

So decided on this one about life..Take a look at the pictures above..find it meaningful and realistic..with life comes death..natural order of life..what's important is what we do in between..

The look is also very neat and the words can be seen very clearly..haha..

Still thinking of what to add at the side..Cant think of anything creative/funny to say..Will keep it like that till Newton's apple hit me on my head..

life
12:29 AM

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Here's my list of things to do before I start work on the 26th of June..

Buy clothes for work
Buy stuff for my work space. We're looking at colours and more colours here!
Do all the stuff I've been wanting to do: kayak and rock-climb (There's more of course but the list changes as often as my mood changes; which is often!)
Karaoke!
Buy educational materials to use for teaching
Prepare my own Math topical tests for my Mendaki kids
Go have fun at Langkawi!
Share lesson plans/ideas with fellow teacher-friends
Read books!

Think that's enough for a month. As Jeffrey Goh says, must have vision! Wahaha...

life
8:20 AM

Monday, May 21, 2007

I'm interested, not committed.

life
1:58 AM

Woke up early today for my nature discovery at Changi Beach this morning. Was early as I waited for my two friends so had my breakfast at Macs.

We got there a bit late but managed to capture this image as we arrived.

I guess me and Haliah were like 'suaku' down there so excited looking at the creatures.
'Wah so cool!' --- our common phrase

Will just be showing the pics and adding some information as I remembered.

Saw some people collecting bags of these, perhaps for selling them off.

Note: This is similar to poaching. This act deserve no less attention from us, just because the 'poached' are seemingly useless creatures. They all have a part to play in the eco-system. Respect nature.

Creatures seen above are;

1. Snail and the trail it leaves behind on the sand. It moves rather fast amazingly.

2. Fireworm

3. Sea-hare (the one that looks like a stingray when it opens up), is a mollusk.

4. Hermit crabs of 4 different sizes changing homes. How amazing!

5. Elbow-crab

5. Jelly-fish

6. Mantis-shrimp (this chap moves and flips very quickly. It also stings!)

Hermit-crab

The underside of the sea star. It has tube feet that I saw moving rapidly in the air. Cool!

The sand dollar is of the same family as the sea star.

The molted shell of the moon crab. Crabs, like snakes, 'shed' their shell as they grow.

Note: Qi yue, do correct me if there's any errors in the facts ya. Thanks!

All in all, I got home very groggy and sleepy.

But going on such nature walks is really relaxing and you won't feel like you're in Singapore. Away from the concrete buildings, and seeing greenery everywhere makes you appreciate God's creations, however 'insignificant' they may seem at face-value. We all have our roles to play in this world. However small, don't forget Frodo in LOTR! Wahahaha...

So facing the crowd in Tampines Mall gave me and Haliah such a headache. Back to civilisation.

Can't wait for my next walk to Sentosa!

life
12:26 AM

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Presenting the people I've sat with, worked with, gotten to know and grown to love during my Prac.

life
12:49 AM

Moulding these young minds, this responsibility and commitment I've made.
I'm special because I'm a teacher.

life
12:22 AM

Monday, May 14, 2007

Friday came and it was my last day in my Prac school.

My CT was on MC so I had the whole day with 5E, had to teach some Math, brought them to the com lab and reminded them I was leaving. One even had the cheek and asked, 'Teacher, you told us this to remind us to give your present issit?'.
Hah..not as if that was not a good thing, to get a present, but shows how cynical these buggers are..Imagine them saying going for a school dinner with drama performance for 20 bucks expensive. Anyway that's side-tracking.
So my 'beloved', 'well-behaved' and 'smart' 5E didn't quite care I was leaving. WTH. So not the reaction I was expecting from this class. Maybe Pri 5 ego big liao..shy to express themselves. Dunno..not about to reason out their bad behaviour.

What really melted my heart was my last period with 3F. Mind you this was the class, I was always rushing syllabus with, scolding for being noisy and sloppy. This was the class that I was constantly complaining about. Yet, this was the class that the moment I stepped into class, someone asked, 'Miss Hafizah, why are you leaving us? Where are you going?' 'Miss Hafizah, don't leave us!'
Many of them came up to give me their presents, their hand-made cards (made of foolscap paper even!). They queued for a hug from me even! My goodness...even my Pri 2D during contract teaching days didn't appreciate me this much! I was really amazed, as I hugged them, I began to tear..So this is what it feels, to be appreciated as a teacher, its all for this. For gratitude from our students. Ironically I only taught them for what, 7 weeks. Amazing..

Took pictures with them..all within a span of 20 minutes, passed them my gifts for them; self-made bookmark, some stationery..They were so excited..Brought them down for flag-lowering and the naughtiest boy in class asked me,' Miss Hafizah are you coming tomorrow?' ' Tomorrow is Saturday, dear.' How about Monday? Will we see you?' 'Miss Hafizah, come teach at Christchurch Sec, my sister is schooling there. So I can see you everyday,'
Childish as the comments may seem..these students appreciate me unlike the 'beloved', 5E.

I certainly did not expect to get emotional as I was waving and hugging them goodbye. This was the first class to make me feel very warm and re-affirm this path of life I've chose, this vocation.

I attended this talk by Jeffrey Goh in NIE just now, he said, 'Love the unloved, don't love the beloved'. Which I find very true because 5E was loved for being smart, adorable. But that was the mistake I made. Sure, these kids had the brains and sure can talk. But its the students that are dying for your attention, love and care, those unappreciated, that need our love. These are the ones, he said, that you can see change with your love. I totally agree with him.

There is a reason why I didn't get into Uni. God has plans for me as a teacher. I truly get this now. It used to be all talk and no conviction. Now, I'm affirmed. My adventure begins this July.

life
11:58 PM

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Townsville Primary?

Oh darn! Bishan!

The school that houses PowerPuff!

life
6:20 PM

Monday, May 07, 2007

Been quite a while since my last post!

Was sick last week since the day i went to catch Phantom of the Opera. The set was really good. World class performance! But I heard in London where they did another show, the chandelier was even more dramatic in that it will make noise as it 'swoops' down audience's heads. Real cool eh?
Sent my parents off at the airport on Monday. On MC all that..caught the flu actually and i wasn't fully recovered until last Thursday..Was real bad..had loads of marking to do and there i was coughing away..

Anyway, went to my 'first-i-think' nature walk at Pulau Semakau yesterday. Was there at Marina South Pier at 6.35 am. Just nice to catch the boat when i reached. My uncle was driving at 120km/h wooohoo...cuz we were getting late.
The walk was real good. I learnt a lot about inter-tidal creatures. Will post the pics i managed to capture. I just feel the need to beef up my Science knowledge now that I'm gonna be full time soon. Must constantly upgrade ourselves. Like the hermit crab, upgrading houses when it gets too big for the current house.Haha..4-room to 5-room.

Looking forward to my next nature walk! I've added my friend who is a volunteer guide from an organisation (cant remember which)'s blog. He has more facts on the creatures we spotted on the walk.

(top left): The spider conch. Remember seeing them off the shelves when you holiday in some beach places? Yeah, thats the same one!
I actually have a video of it moving! Oh yeah, this naughty lil thing actually came out from its shell giving all of us a scare. It didnt like being overturned for too long a time and wanted to be on its way!

(top right): Soaked feet, smiling faces, blue sky and blue sea! I so wanted to swim!!

We had to walk across the seagrass meadow. (below):

Haliah is posing with her Taktse team
shirt. I respect her loyalty! Haha..

(below): The scallop

The upside down jellyfish as seen above. Also have a video of it moving as well.

(left): The sea anemoniemonie (as said by Nemo)

(below): Haliah again posing against the backdrop of blue sky and blue sea! Is this Singapore you say?

Highlite of the walk!: The Knobbly sea star below is as heavy as a 500g of sugar according to what Haliah said. Darn huge!
My team and I below.

The underside of the sea star. See how huge it is!

The rare heart-shaped cockle.

Let's play spot the crab!

Qiyue holding the sea slug that left behind a trail of poop. Too stressed!

Haliah and sea cucumber. This cute sea cucumber actually sprouts out water when stressed, through one of its 'holes' . When super stressed, it'll vomit its guts out. And they'll die from this.

The seagrass that we had to walk across.

Walking to the forest trail that leads to the place where we were going for our inter-tidal walk.

Country road, take me home!

Before the sunrise. Missed it cause i needed to go to the loo...Darn!!

Cotton candy anyone?

More facts and pictures on the creatures in my friend's (Qi Yue aka July) blog. Check it out if you're interested. Real beneficial!

life
7:58 AM