Gifts for all

Not Forgotten

2007-05-22T19:37:00.000+08:00

Its been a long time!
Felt like posting something.
Strangely, miss teaching many of you.
We had some good and interesting times.
I learned alot.
Maybe memory colours things positively?

Here's to my crazy ones of 2005!

Something I agree with in many ways. Also a very good orator!

Childrens Day

2006-10-02T08:01:00.000+08:00

“There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.”
Elizabeth Lawrence

“There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.
Marcel Proust

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.”
Deepak Chopra

"If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.”
Tom Stoppard

"For most of us, dreams come true only after they do not matter, Only in childhood do we ever have the chance of making dreams come true when they mean everything.”
Anonymous

“The childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day”
John Milton

Childhood is the sleep of reason.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows.”
John Betjeman

Childhood is frequently a solemn business for those inside it.”
George F Will

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today
Stacia Tauscher

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.
~Franklin P. Jones

A characteristic of the normal child is he doesn't act that way very often.
~Author Unknown

We've had bad luck with our kids - they've all grown up.
~Christopher Morley

A child can ask questions that a wise man cannot answer.
~Author Unknown

Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it.
~Harold Hulbert

A three year old child is a being who gets almost as much fun out of a fifty-six dollar set of swings as it does out of finding a small green worm. ~Bill Vaughan

Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music.
~William Stafford

Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.
~John W. Whitehead, The Stealing of America, 1983

Children are one third of our population and all of our future.
~Select Panel for the Promotion of Child Health, 1981

If our American way of life fails the child, it fails us all.
~Pearl S. Buck

Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.
~Rabindranath Tagore

You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again.
~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762

Children make you want to start life over.
~Muhammad Ali

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Children seldom misquote. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.
~Author Unknown

A child is a curly dimpled lunatic.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The prime purpose of being four is to enjoy being four - of secondary importance is to prepare for being five.
~Jim Trelease, The Read-Aloud Handbook, 1985

What is a home without children? Quiet.
~Henny Youngman

There are only two things a child will share willingly - communicable diseases and his mother's age.
~Benjamin Spock, Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care, 1945

Children find everything in nothing; men find nothing in everything.
~Giacomo Leopardi, Zibaldone Scelto

Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.
~Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969

Women gather together to wear silly hats, eat dainty food, and forget how unresponsive their husbands are. Men gather to talk sports, eat heavy food, and forget how demanding their wives are. Only where children gather is there any real chance of fun.
~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

Anyone who thinks the art of conversation is dead ought to tell a child to go to bed.
~Robert Gallagher

The only thing worth stealing is a kiss from a sleeping child.
~Joe Houldsworth

There's nothing that can help you understand your beliefs more than trying to explain them to an inquisitive child.
~Frank A. Clark

There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million. ~Walt Streightiff

To all my pupils and children from P6 GE Rosyth 2005, Happy Childrens Day. You will always be children to me.

Here's to the crazy ones and Teachers Day

2006-09-06T11:04:00.000+08:00

Here's to the crazy ones

Here's to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.

They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world,
are the ones who do.

From Apple Computer

When I was in the Institute of Education as a trainee teacher, i was on the committee for freshmen orientation. we came up with the theme for that year (1982) whihc was "You don't have to be crazy to teach but it helps!".

When I saw the article on the advert for Apple computers, I began to think about what it means to be 'crazy'.

I did a one hour one man play in 1986 for Theatreworks called "Diary of a Madman" by a Russain writer called Gogol. I was right smack in the middle of the P6 camp (It ws for P6ers for many years until sometime in the 1990s) but my principal (Ms Ada Ponnapa) let me leave the camp (at Chestnut Drive off Upper Bukit Timah Road) at 6 pm (I was riding a motorcycle then so transportation was not a problem) and come back after the show, whihc was about 11 pm. (bless her!) Did some research on insanity and came to understand it better (or so I hoped) and began to have more respect and empathy for people who had psychological problems.

I read a quote somewhere about the difference between a genius and a madman; both go to unchartered territories but a genuis knows his/her way back!

This led me to a piece of writing or 'advice' from one of my favourtie poets, ee cummings. I'd like to share it with all of you:

A poet is somebody who feels, and who expresses his feelings through words.
This may sound easy, but it isn't.
A lot of people think or believe or know they feel —
but that's thinking or believing or knowing; not feeling.
And poetry is feeling —
not knowing or believing or thinking.
Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know,
but not a single human being can be taught to feel.
Why?
Because whenever you think or you believe or you know,
you're a lot of other people:
but the moment you feel, you're nobody-but-yourself.
To be nobody-but-yourself —
in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight;
and never stop fighting.
As for expressing nobody-but-yourself in words,
that means working just a little harder than anybody who isn't a poet can possibly imagine.
Why?
Because nothing is quite as easy as using words like somebody else.
We all of us do exactly this nearly all of the time -
and whenever we do it, we are not poets.
If, at the end of your first ten or fifteen years of fighting and working and feeling,
you find you've written one line of one poem,
you'll be very lucky indeed.
And so my advice to all young people who wish to become poets is:
do something easy, like learning how to blow up the world —
unless you're not only willing, but glad, to feel and work and fight till you die.
Does this sound dismal?
It isn't.
It's the most wonderful life on earth.
Or so I feel.

I just came across a really wonderful site about a marvellous and inspiring teacher named Albert Cullum. It reminded me about what is important about teaching and learning, when I felt really alive in my classes in the past and also showed me how I have fallen short so many times in my own classes with pupils like you. I hope I can have more days in my classes like what Albert Cullum does.

The post must seem very disjointed, incomplete and rushed. i started on something but left it hanging and went on to something else, or did I?

It was really good to see you all in Rosyth on the 30th August. I was really happy to see you. Thanks for making the effort to come. Its very much appreciated.

Good to hear from more voices

2006-08-13T10:55:00.000+08:00

Every time one of you posts a comment, I am immediately notified in my e-mail (as if you didn't know that by now!). I still get a kick out of reading the comments you post as to the things that are happening in your teenage lives.

Hello to Chew Lin and Karen!

I am glad that the lyrics of the songs resonated with events (mental, emotional, school) in your busy school lives and that you found the lyrics meaningful and even poetic. For me songs have always been life affirming and provided many questions for me to pursue intellectually and like great literature reflect the times we live in as well as pose pertinent questions or issues for us to explore and reflect on.

I am even happier to note that many of you are pursuing your interests and passions (Go for it Karen!) and are realising the talents that all of you have, despite the hectic schedules, consternations, questions and daily interruptions that teenager life is full of.
Yes, Karen, I was and am still very interested in plays.
I was very involved with a local theatre company called Theatreworks in the 1980s (from 1985 to 1991). I acted in their first production called "Be my sushi tonight" and acted in a number of productions each year until my last in 1991. I had to make a choice between taking drama/acting more seriously and perhaps pursuing it full time and my other passion, teaching. Well you all know how that worked out. I still keep in touch with plays because of my friendship with many of my fellow theatre practioners who are still involved in theatre and who also do TV work now like Lim Kay Tong, Lim Yu Beng and tan Kheng Hua (Aiyahh name dropping is so gauche!) I still love acting and drama.

I bought Mary j Blige's debut album many many years ago II think it was before you were born!!) Chew Lin.
(I thought her duet with Bono [who is in my favourite band of all time U2, nest to the Beatles of course] was rather forced and OTT [over the top] I liked her earlier stuff better)

Here are a couple more of my favourite song lyrics and some personal comments.

Eleanor Rigby (Lennon/McCartney)

Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from ?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong ?

Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near.
Look at him working.
Darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there
What does he care?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name
Nobody came
Father McKenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

This song was written in the 1960s and looked at plight of old people (an often ignored and invisible group of people). It was amazing that pop musicians at that time even recognised them, let alone write a beautiful song that explored the despair and lonleliness that pervaded morst of their lives. It shows how importnat it is to be obeservant as a writer (song or literary) and to be sensitive to the environment around us whihc we often take for granted. As Picasso said "A truly educated person can never find life boring".
( I will be 50 in 3 years time and the song means much more to me now then when I first listened to it in the 1970s. Thats what good wriitng is supposed to do, its meanings and connections change as we grow and change)

Running to Stand Still - U2

And so she woke up
Woke up from where she was lyin' still.
Said I gotta do something
About where we're goin'.
Step on a fast train
Step out of the driving rain, maybe
Run from the darkness in the night.

Singing ah, ah la la la de day
Ah la la la de day.

Sweet the sin, bitter the taste in my mouth.
I see seven towers, but I only see one way out.
You gotta cry without weeping, talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice.
You know I took the poison, from the poison stream
Then I floated out of here, singing

Ah la la la de dayAh la la la de day.

She walks through the streets
With her eyes painted red
Under black belly of cloud in the rain.
In through a doorway
She brings me white golden pearls
Stolen from the sea.
She is ragin'
She is ragin'
And the storm blows up in her eyes.
She will suffer the needle chill
She's running to stand still.

I used this song to teach poetry and writing to my P6 class in 1989. Its about a drug addict or drug addiction. I loved the irony in the title and the lyrics..... oh boy!Bono for me is a consumate wordsmith, the way he writes his lyrics in a quasi stream of consciousness wash still blows me away.

Nowhere Man (Lennon/McCartney)

He's a real nowhere Man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plansfor nobody.

Doesn't have a point of view,
Knows not where he's going to,
Isn't he a bit like you and me?

Nowhere Man, please listen,
You don't know what you're missing,
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command.

He's as blind as he can be,
Just sees what he wants to see,
Nowhere Man can you see me at all?
Nowhere Man, don't worry,
Take your time, don't hurry,
Leave it all till somebody elselends you a hand.

Doesn't have a point of view,
Knows not where he's going to,
Isn't he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere Man, please listen,
You don't know what you're missing,
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command.

He's a real Nowhere Man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody.
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody.
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody.

Sounds like an awfully negative song or is it a timely reminder or cautionary tale about the nowhere man within each of us? (these were my thoughts when i first heard the song as a teenager. I spent alot of my teenage years pondering about the lyrics of songs! And playing football. And studying! And socialising. We actually bought our vinyl record and went to each others houses to listen to the records over and over; sometimes signing along or trying out best to copy the lyrics by listening to the song over and over again [i.e. if the album did not have lyrics enclosed])

Hope you enjoy them.

Long time no post

2006-07-15T10:14:00.000+08:00

Just got a posting from Serene who mentioned its been a long time since I posted anything and maybe it was time the blog got a new look.
Well, what do you think?
I have been busy with many projects in school.
I just finished being involved in the Excel Fest last weekend and today i am going with the P5s to the NE show at the National Stadium; the last one at the 'grand old lady'. (it will be demolished and replaced by a state of the art sporting arena)
So,will I be swept by a sense of nostalgia and wistfulness?
Anyway, the fireworks will be nice!

Wanted to share with you the lyrics to a few of my favourite songs. Sing along if you want to!

Both Sides Now - Jon Mitchell

Bows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere, i've looked at cloud that way.
But now they only block the sun, they rain and snow on everyone.
So many things i would have done but clouds got in my way.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now,
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions i recall.I really don't know clouds at all.
Moons and junes and ferris wheels, the dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real; i've looked at love that way.
But now it's just another show. you leave 'em laughing when you go
And if you care, don't let them know, don't give yourself away.

I've looked at love from both sides now,
From give and take, and still somehow
It's love's illusions i recall.
I really don't know love at all.

Tears and fears and feeling proud to say "i love you" right out loud,
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds, i've looked at life that way.
But now old friends are acting strange, they shake their heads, they sayI've changed.
Something's lost but something's gained in living every day.

I've looked at life from both sides now,
From win and lose, and still somehowIt's life's illusions i recall.
I really don't know life at all.

OLF FRIENDS - Simon & Garfunkle

Old friends, old friends,
Sat on their parkbench like bookends
A newspaper blown through the grass
Falls on the round toes of the high shoes of the old friends
Old friends, winter companions, the old men
Lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sunset
The sounds of the city sifting through trees
Settle like dust on the shoulders of the old friends

Can you imagine us years from today,
Sharing a parkbench quietly
How terribly strange to be seventy
Old friends, memory brushes the same years,
Silently sharing the same fears

BLACKBIRD - The Beatles

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arive

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.

Blackbird fly,
Blackbird flyInto the light of a dark black night.
Blackbird fly,
Blackbird fly
Into the light of a dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

If you are reading this Karen, how do they compare to Jay Chou's? :}

Quotes again!

2006-04-29T11:07:00.001+08:00

Some more words to the wise for pondering, wondering and reflecting.

From Calvin and Hobbes (one of my favourite comics of all time!)

"I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul."-Calvin"

I go to school, but I never learn what I want to know."-Calvin

"To make a bad day worse, spend it wishing for the impossible."
-Calvin

"If you couldn't find any weirdness, maybe we'll just have to make some!"
-Hobbes

"Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless."
-Calvin

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
-Calvin

"I hate to think that all my current experiences will someday become stories with no point."
-Calvin

"In my opinion, we don't devote nearly enough scientific research to finding a cure for jerks."
-Calvin

"Why waste time learning, when ignorance is instantaneous?"-
Calvin

"There's an inverse relationship between how good something is for you, and how much fun it is."
-Calvin

"There's no problem so awful that you can't add some guilt to it and make it even worse!"
-Calvin

"So the secret to good self-esteem is to lower your expectations to the point where they're already met?"-Calvin

"I used to hate writing assignments, but now I enjoy them. I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog!"
-Calvin

"You know how people are. They only recognize greatness when some authority confirms it."
-Calvin

"History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices."
-Calvin

"It's not the pace of life I mind. It's the sudden stop at the end."
-Calvin

"The best presents don't come in boxes."
-Hobbes

"As far as I'm concerned, if something is so complicated that you can't explain it in 10 seconds, then it's probably not worth knowing anyway."
-Calvin

"Things are never quite as scary when you've got a best friend."
-Calvin

"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."
-Calvin

"It's only work if somebody makes you do it."
-Calvin

"In my opinion, television validates existence."
-Calvin

"Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success... ...Flat stretches of boring routine... ...And valleys of frustration and failure."-Calvin

"Reading goes faster if you don't sweat comprehension."
-Calvin

"What I like is when you're looking and thinking and looking and thinking... And suddenly you wake up."-Calvin

"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want."
-Calvin

"You know, there are times when it's a source of personal pride to not be human."
-Hobbes

"I had resolved to be less offended by human nature, but I think I blew it already."
-Hobbes

"You know how Einstein got bad grades as a kid? Well, mine are even worse!"
-Calvin

"A day can really slip by when you're deliberately avoiding what you're supposed to do."
-Calvin

"I'M SIGNIFICANT!...screamed the dust speck."-Calvin

"The worst part is that I don't even have the fun of doing the things I'm getting blamed for."-Calvin

Quotes again!

2006-04-29T11:07:00.000+08:00

Some more words to the wise for pondering, wondering and reflecting.

From Calvin and Hobbes (one of my favourite comics of all time!)

"I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul."-Calvin"

I go to school, but I never learn what I want to know."-Calvin

"To make a bad day worse, spend it wishing for the impossible."
-Calvin

"If you couldn't find any weirdness, maybe we'll just have to make some!"
-Hobbes

"Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless."-Calvin

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
-Calvin

"I hate to think that all my current experiences will someday become stories with no point."
-Calvin

"In my opinion, we don't devote nearly enough scientific research to finding a cure for jerks."-Calvin

"Why waste time learning, when ignorance is instantaneous?"-
Calvin

"There's an inverse relationship between how good something is for you, and how much fun it is."-Calvin

"There's no problem so awful that you can't add some guilt to it and make it even worse!"
-Calvin

"So the secret to good self-esteem is to lower your expectations to the point where they're already met?"-Calvin

"I used to hate writing assignments, but now I enjoy them. I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog!"
-Calvin

"You know how people are. They only recognize greatness when some authority confirms it."-Calvin

"History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices."
-Calvin

"It's not the pace of life I mind. It's the sudden stop at the end."
-Calvin

"The best presents don't come in boxes."
-Hobbes

"As far as I'm concerned, if something is so complicated that you can't explain it in 10 seconds, then it's probably not worth knowing anyway."
-Calvin

"Things are never quite as scary when you've got a best friend."
-Calvin

"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."
-Calvin

"It's only work if somebody makes you do it."
-Calvin

"In my opinion, television validates existence."-Calvin

"Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success... ...Flat stretches of boring routine... ...And valleys of frustration and failure."-Calvin

"Reading goes faster if you don't sweat comprehension."
-Calvin

"What I like is when you're looking and thinking and looking and thinking... And suddenly you wake up."-Calvin

"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want."
-Calvin

"You know, there are times when it's a source of personal pride to not be human."
-Hobbes

"I had resolved to be less offended by human nature, but I think I blew it already."
-Hobbes

"You know how Einstein got bad grades as a kid? Well, mine are even worse!"
-Calvin

"A day can really slip by when you're deliberately avoiding what you're supposed to do."
-Calvin

"I'M SIGNIFICANT!...screamed the dust speck."-Calvin

"The worst part is that I don't even have the fun of doing the things I'm getting blamed for."-Calvin

More Quotes

2006-04-07T06:45:00.000+08:00

I read your comments these past few days and decided to let all of you out have more mental nourishment!

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."
- Buddha

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.
- Chinese proverb

It is not by accident that the happiest people are those who make a conscious effort to live useful lives. Their happiness, of course, is not a shallow exhilaration where life is one continuous intoxicating party. Rather, their happiness is a deep sense of inner peace that comes when they believe their lives have meaning and that they are making a difference for good in the world.
- Ernest Fitzgerald

"We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems."
- John W. Gardner

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.
- George Washington Carver"

Far away in the sunshine are my highest inspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead."
-- Louisa May Alcott

"In art the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars."
--- Rabindranath Tagore

"No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an unchartered land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit."
-- Helen Keller

"To understand is to forgive, even oneself."
Alexander Chase

"Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."
-- Henry David Thoreau

Argue for your limitations and sure enough they're yours.
Richard Bach

Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A life without cause is a life without effect.

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good." -Vaclav Havel

"To dream anything that you want to dream, that is the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do, that is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself, to test your limits, that is the courage to succeed." -- Bernard Edmonds

When the solution is simple, God is answering. Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where we face it as free beings admiring, asking and observing, there we enter the realm of Art and Science.
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
John Muir

"We see the brightness of a new page where everything yet can happen."
- Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in an ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.- Mother Teresa

We never reflect how pleasant it is to ask for nothing.
- Seneca (3 B.C. - 65 A.D.)

We think caged birds sing, when indeed they cry.
- John Webster

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. - Winston Churchill, Sir (1874-1965)

We love because it's the only true adventure.
- Nikki Giovanni

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

We can do not great things - only small things with great love. - Mother Teresa

"The real questions are the ones that obtrude upon your consciousness whether you like it or not, the ones that make your mind start vibrating like a jackhammer, the ones that you 'come to terms with"" only to discover that they are still there. The real questions refuse to be placated. They barge into your life at the times when it seems most important for them to stay away. They are the questions asked most frequently and answered most inadequately, the ones that reveal their true natures slowly, reluctantly, most often against your will.
-- Ingrid Bengis"

Quotes

2006-04-03T20:09:00.000+08:00

Read Shi Ying's comments about wanting some more quotes. So, here they are!

A day without laughter is a day wasted."
Charlie Chaplin

If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.
Sir Isaac Newton

Quarrels would not last long if the fault were only on one side.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

"The roots of knowledge are bitter, but its fruit are sweet."
Cicero

"Be careful of reading health books; you may die of a misprint."
Mark Twain

t's kind of fun to do the impossible.
Walt Disney

The confidence of ignorance will always overcome indecision of knowledge.

"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others."
Cicero

As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
Oscar Wilde

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
Oscar Wilde

We learn of the history that we haven't learned anything of the history.
George Bernard Shaw

Tell me what you're laughing at and I shall tell you who you are.
Goethe

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it - and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again -- and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.
Mark Twain

I was strongest when I laughed at my weakness.
Elmer Diktonius

In a Poetic Mood

2006-04-03T20:02:00.000+08:00

Am teaching poetry to my P5s this term and I decided to post these poems for your perusal, enjoyment and thinking.
Hope everybody is well.

Introduction to Poetry
Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.

from The Apple that Astonished Paris, 1996
University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, Ark.
Permissions information.
Copyright 1988 by Billy Collins. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with permission.

How to Change a Frog Into a Prince
Anna Denise
Start with the underwear.
Sit him down.
Hopping on one leg may stir unpleasant memories.
If he gets his tights on, even backwards, praise him.
Fingers, formerly webbed, struggle over buttons.
Arms and legs, lengthened out of proportion, wait,as you do, for the rest of him to catch up.
This body, so recently reformed, reclaimed,still carries the marks of its time as a frog.
Be gentle.
Avoid the words awkward and gawky.
Do not use tadpole as a term of endearment.
His body, like his clothing, may seem one size too big.
Relax.
There's time enough for crowns.
He'll grow into it.

from The Poets' Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm's Fairy Tales, 2003Story Line Press, Ashland, OR
Copyright 2002 by Anna Denise.All rights reserved.
Reproduced with permission

In this short poem, a poet regrets not acknowledging a teacher he once had. This poem should be read twice.

Mentor
Timothy Murphy
For Robert Francis

Had I known, only known when I lived so near,
I'd have gone, gladly gone foregoing my fear of the wholly grown and the nearly great.
But I learned alone, so I learned too late.

from The Formalist, A Journal of Metrical Poetry, Volume 12, Issue 1, 2001University of Evansville, Evansville, IN
Copyright 2001 by Timothy Murphy.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced with permission

Before the World Intruded
Michele Rosenthal

Return me to those infant years,
before I woke from sleep,
when ideas were oceans crashing,
my dreams blank shores of sand.
Transport me fast to who I was when breath was fresh as sight,
my new parts — unfragmented —shielded faith from unkind light.
Draw for me a figure whole, so different from who I am.
Show me now
this picture: who I waswhen I began.

Copyright 2003 by Michele Rosenthal.All rights reserved.Reproduced with permission

The Student Theme
Ronald Wallace
The adjectives all ganged up on the nouns,
insistent, loud,
demanding, inexact,
their Latinate constructions flashing.
The pronouns lost their referents:
They were dangling,
lacked the stamina to follow the prepositions' leadin,
on, into, to, toward, for, or from.
They were beset by passive voices and dead metaphors, conjunctions shouting But! or And!
The active verbs were all routinely modified by adverbs, that endlessly and colorlessly raninto trouble with the participles sittingon the margins knitting their brows like gerunds
(dangling was their problem, too).
The author was nowhere to be seen; was off somewhere.

from The Uses of Adversity, 1998University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA
Copyright 1998 by Ronald Wallace.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced with permission

God Says Yes To Me
Kaylin Haught
I asked God if it was okay to be melodramaticand she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactlywhat you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don't paragraph my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is Yes Yes Yes

from The Palm of your Hand, 1995Tilbury House Publishers
Copyright 1995 by Kaylin Haught.
All rights reserved.Reproduced with permission

The Grammar Lesson
Steve Kowit
A noun's a thing.
A verb's the thing it does.
An adjective is what describes the noun.
In "The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz"
of and with are prepositions.
The's an article, a can's a noun,a noun's a thing.
A verb's the thing it does.
A can can roll - or not.
What isn't was or might be, might meaning not yet known.
"Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz"
is present tense.
While words like our and us are pronouns - i.e. it is moldy, they are icky brown.

A noun's a thing; a verb's the thing it does.
Is is a helping verb.
It helps because filled isn't a full verb.
Can's what our owns in "Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz."
See?
There's almost nothing to it. Justmemorize these rules...or write them down!

A noun's a thing, a verb's the thing it does.
The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz.

from In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poet's Portable Workshop, 1995Tilbury House, Publishers, Gardiner, Maine
Copyright 1995 by Steve Kowit.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced with permission

A New Poet
Linda Pastan

Finding a new poet is like finding a new wildflower out in the woods.
You don't see its name in the flower books, and nobody you tell believes in its odd color or the way
its leaves grow in splayed rows down the whole length of the page.
In fact the very page smells of spilled
red wine and the mustiness of the seaon a foggy day
- the odor of truth and of lying.
And the words are so familiar,so strangely new, words you almost wrote yourself, if only
in your dreams there had been a pencilor a pen or even a paintbrush,if only there had been a flower.

from Heroes In Disguise, 1991W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, NY
Copyright 1991 by Linda Pastan.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced with permission

Gratitude to Old Teachers
Robert Bly

When we stride or stroll across the frozen lake,
We place our feet where they have never been.
We walk upon the unwalked.
But we are uneasy.
Who is down there but our old teachers?
Water that once could take no human weight
-We were students then-holds up our feet,
And goes on ahead of us for a mile.
Beneath us the teachers, and around us the stillness.

from Eating the Honey of Words, 1999HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY
Copyright 1999 by Robert Bly.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced with permission

Every poet has an image of the ideal reader,and the not-so-ideal reader.

Selecting a Reader
Ted Kooser

First, I would have her be beautiful,and walking carefully up on my poetry at the loneliest moment of an afternoon,her hair still damp at the neck from washing it.
She should be wearing a raincoat, an old one, dirty from not having money enough for the cleaners.
She will take out her glasses, and there in the bookstore, she will thumb over my poems, then put the book backup on its shelf.
She will say to herself,"For that kind of money, I can get my raincoat cleaned."
And she will.

from Sure Signs, 1980University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Copyright 1980 by Ted Kooser.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced with permission

How are things?

2006-02-16T14:15:00.000+08:00

I was thinking of how you people are copng with secondary school life.
What were or are the major adjustments you faced or are still facing?
Anything you found interesting or perplexing?
How are the El and Lit lessons ?
I was glad I got the opportunity to teach all of you last year.
There were problems aplenty, but they helped me learn about myself and teaching and learning and especially about you all.

Create your own wiki site

2006-02-15T14:28:00.000+08:00

If you are fascinated by te idea of a wiki check out Get a free wiki at PBwiki.com.
Its an interesting way to work with ideas and content.
Hope all of you are enjoying the learning in your new schools.

Miss You Guys!!!!

2006-01-22T20:55:00.000+08:00

Just read Ryan Chung's (Kashing) and Shiyings comments.
Happy to know you people value this blog.
Hope all of you are fine and happy.
Miss teaching you !(Believe it or not!)
Shi Ying, what you are finding out is reading is a complex activity and understanding changes because of the way you interact with the ideas(YEAAAA, you ahve learnt something vey valuable)
Take care all of you.
BTW, I receive an email notice anytime anyone comments n the blog.

Quotes for Term 4 with my Sincerest Apologies

2005-10-26T20:19:00.000+08:00

"A lot of people think or believe or know they feel (experience) -- but that's thinking or believing or knowing; not feeling (experiencing). Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel (experience). Why? Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you're a lot of other people: but the moment you feel (experience), you're nobody-but-yourself. To be nobody-but-yourself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting."
--From Critical Path

Buckminister Fuller

Where all men think alike, no one thinks very much.
--Walter Lippmann--

Beware how you take away hope from another human being.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes--

Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.
--George Bernard Shaw--

I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong.
--Leo Rosten --

You get the best out of others when you give the best of yourself.
--Harry Firestone--

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
--Helen Keller--

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson--

"The time is always right to do what is right."
--Martin Luther King--

"It matters if you just don't give up."
--Stephen Hawking--

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
--Kahlil Gibran

You must be careful how you walk, and where you go, for there are those following you who will set their feet where yours are set.
--Robert E. Lee--

You have never really lived until you've done something for someone who can never repay you.
--Unknown--

Children are true believers, and some of us are lucky enough to make the transition to adulthood without losing the ability to see through young eyes.
--Anne Geddes--

Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.
--Lady Bird Johnson--

Every child is born a potential genius.
--R. Buckminister Fuller--

"There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving... and that's your own self.
-- Aldous Huxley--

"Knowing others and knowing oneself, in one hundred battles no danger. Not knowing the other and knowing oneself, one victory for one loss. Not knowing the other and not knowing oneself, in every battle certain defeat."
--Sun Tzu, The Art of War--

"There are certain emotions that will kill your drive; frustration and confusion. You can change these to a positive force. Frustration means you are on the verge of a breakthrough. Confusion can mean you are about to learn something. Expect the breakthrough and expect to learn."
--Kathleen Spike, Master Certified Coach--

"Reading and weeping opens the door to one's heart, but writing and weeping opens the window to one's soul."
--M.K. Simmons--

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind."
--William James--

"Be not disturbed at being misunderstood; be disturbed rather at not being understanding."
--Chinese proverb--

"The greatest ability in business is to get along with others and influence their actions."
--John Hancock--

You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.
--Malcolm Forbes--

The point of wisdom is not simply to do well ... it is to do good.
--Patricia Monaghan--

People rise to the challenge when it is their challenge.
--Belasco & Stayer--

Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them, you reach your destiny.
--Carl Schurz--

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.
--Abraham Lincoln--

Nature does not bestow virtue; to be good is an art.
--Seneca--

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
--Robert F. Kennedy--

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
--Martin Luther King Jr.--

There are countless ways of achieving greatness, but any road to achieving one's maximum potential must be built on a bedrock of respect for the individual, a commitment to excellence, and a rejection of mediocrity.
--Buck Rodgers--

Every child comes with a message that God is yet not discouraged by man.
--Unknown--

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.
--Albert Einstein--

It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.
--Tom Brokaw--

Bear in mind that the wonderful things you learn in your schools are the work of many generations. All this is put in your hands as your inheritance in order that you may receive it, honor it, add to it, and one day faithfully hand it on to your children.
--Albert Einstein--

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
--Robert Frost--

The understanding of atomic physics is child's play, compared with the understanding of child's play.
-- David Kresh--

And there is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it is going to be a butterfly.

_ Buckminister Fuller –

“For every problem there’s a solution that is simple, straightforward, and easy to understand. And it’s wrong.”

Charles Darwin

Innovators learn that it is better to ask for forgiveness than for permission.

Art Fry

In the fields of observation, chance favours only the prepared mind

- Louis Pasteur-

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them

- Albert Einstein-

It almost seems that those who have yet to discover the known are particularly equipped for dealing with the unknown.

-Eric Hoffer-

Hope you read, reflect and act on these quotes. It was good to teach you and learn from you. take care all of you.

Poetry

2005-10-25T17:42:00.000+08:00

If you are interested in exploring the world of poetry, explore the reaources here to get a taste of the various manifestations poetry can take and how poets not anly say more with less but are also exploring saying more differently.

Shel Silverstein was one of my favourite poets to teach to my pupils and he still is. These are some of his poems below.

How Many, How Much
`
How many slams in an old screen door?
Depends how loud you shut it.
How many slices in a bread?
Depends how thin you cut it.
How much good inside a day?
Depends how good you live 'em.
How much love inside a friend?
Depends how much you give 'em.
`

Put Something In
`
Draw a crazy picture,
Write a nutty poem,
Sing a mumble-grumble song,
Whistle through your comb.
Do a loony-goony dance
'Cross the kitchen floor,
Put something silly in the world
That ain't been there before.
`

Reflection
`
Each time I see the Upside-Down Man
Standing in the water,
I look at him and start to laugh,
Although I shouldn't oughtter.
For maybe in another world
Another time
Another town,
Maybe HE is right side up
And I am upside down.
`

The Little Boy and the Old Man
`
Said the little boy, "Sometimes I drop my spoon."
Said the little old man, "I do that too."
The little boy whispered, "I wet my pants."
"I do that too," laughed the little old man.
Said the little boy, "I often cry."
The old man nodded, "So do I."
"But worst of all," said the boy,"it seems
Grownups don't pay attention to me."
And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand.
"I know what you mean," said the little old man.
`

The Oak and the Rose
`
An oak tree and a rosebush grew,
Young and green together,
Talking the talk of growing things-
Wind and water and weather.
And while the rosebush sweetly bloomed
The oak tree grew so high
That now it spoke of newer things-
Eagles, mountain peaks and sky.
"I guess you think you're pretty great,"
The rose was heard to cry,
Screaming as loud as it possibly could
To the treetop in the sky.
"And now you have no time for flower talk,
Now that you've grown so tall."
"It's not so much that I've grown," said the tree,
"It's just that you've stayed so small."
`

The Bridge
`
This bridge will only take you halfway there
To those mysterious lands you long to see:
Through gypsy camps and swirling Arab fairs
And moonlit woods where unicorns run free.
So come and walk awhile with me and share
The twisting trails and wondrous worlds I've known.
But this bridge will only take you halfway there-
The last few steps you'll have to take alone.

Another of my favourtie poets is e e cummings. This is a quote from him which I cherish to this day.

"to be nobody-but-myself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make me everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting" -- ee cummings

These are some of his poems for your reading and thinking pleasure.

maggie and milly and molly and may by

maggie and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach(to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and



milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and


may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.


For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)

it's always ourselves we find in the sea

my father moved through dooms of love

my father moved through dooms of love
through sames of am through haves of give,
singing each morning out of each night
my father moved through depths of height

this motionless forgetful where
turned at his glance to shining here;
that if(so timid air is firm)
under his eyes would stir and squirm

newly as from unburied which
floats the first who,his april touch
drove sleeping selves to swarm their fates
woke dreamers to their ghostly roots

and should some why completely weep
my father's fingers brought her sleep:
vainly no smallest voice might cry
for he could feel the mountains grow.

Lifting the valleys of the sea
my father moved through griefs of joy;
praising a forehead called the moon
singing desire into begin

joy was his song and joy so pure
a heart of star by him could steer
and pure so now and now so yes
the wrists of twilight would rejoice

keen as midsummer's keen beyond
conceiving mind of sun will stand,
so strictly(over utmost him
so hugely) stood my father's dream

his flesh was flesh his blood was blood:
no hungry man but wished him food;
no cripple wouldn't creep one mile
uphill to only see him smile.

Scorning the Pomp of must and shall
my father moved through dooms of feel;
his anger was as right as rain
his pity was as green as grain

septembering arms of year extend
yes humbly wealth to foe and friend
than he to foolish and to wise
offered immeasurable is

proudly and(by octobering flame
beckoned)as earth will downward climb,
so naked for immortal work
his shoulders marched against the dark

his sorrow was as true as bread:
no liar looked him in the head;
if every friend became his foe
he'd laugh and build a world with snow.

My father moved through theys of we,
singing each new leaf out of each tree
(and every child was sure that spring
danced when she heard my father sing)

then let men kill which cannot share,
let blood and flesh be mud and mire,
scheming imagine,passion willed,
freedom a drug that's bought and sold

giving to steal and cruel kind,
a heart to fear,to doubt a mind,
to differ a disease of same,
conform the pinnacle of am

though dull were all we taste as bright,
bitter all utterly things sweet,
maggoty minus and dumb death
all we inherit,all bequeath

and nothing quite so least as truth
--i say though hate were why men breathe--
because my Father lived his soul
love is the whole and more than all

If freckles were lovely, and day was night,
And measles were nice and a lie warn't a lie,
Life would be delight,--
But things couldn't go right
For in such a sad plight
I wouldn't be I.

If earth was heaven and now was hence,
And past was present, and false was true,
There might be some sense
But I'd be in suspense
For on such a pretense
You wouldn't be you.

If fear was plucky, and globes were square,
And dirt was cleanly and tears were glee
Things would seem fair,--
Yet they'd all despair,
For if here was there
We wouldn't be we.

What do you think of the pets and their poems?

Why not try this activity out.

Reply to the Question: "How can You Become a Poet?"

take the leaf of a tree

trace its exact shape

the outside edges

and inner lines

memorize the way it is fastened to the twig

(and how the twig arches from the branch)

how it springs forth in April

how it is panoplied in July

by late August

crumple it in your hand

so that you smell its end-of-summer sadness

chew its woody stem

listen to its autumn rattle

watch it as it atomizes in the November air

then in winter

when there is no leaf left

invent one

Eve Merriam

1) Modify the poem above by changing the major idea of a tree/nature. Retain the rhythm and ideas expressed by Eve Mirriam.

2) Write your own way of “How to become a poet”.

Try this activties below.
a) Make a frame out of cardboard or vanguard. Go to any part of Rosyth through that frame. Find one thing with poetry in it and write a poem about what you see. Choose a piece of music to accmpany the poem. take pictures from different angles of what you see for a digital poem.

b) Word Awareness Centre
Using these generic sentences, expand on them.

E.g. "It was a nice day" becomes, "The day smelled of freshly cut grass, as the newborn sun poked its head over the horizon, spreading its life-giving rays over the landscape."

- He/She was a nice person.

- we had alot of fun.

- I like __________ very much.

etcetcetcetcetcetcetcetcetcetcetcetc

TIME for writing

2005-10-17T08:51:00.000+08:00

Go the link below and click on the link "Time: Improving your writing" to get a better idea how the writers of TIME magazine go about their job, with explanation of the processes involved.

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/course/course4/index.html

Short Stories

2005-10-17T08:36:00.000+08:00

For those pupils interested in the 'short story' strand, these are online resources that will refresh, reinforce and reinvigorate your understanding and appreciation for fiction and the short story in particular. If you are interested in pursuing a novel, many of the elements you will come across here will also apply.
Please write your comments , questions and queries.
I am still trying to figure out where you can write your drafts for peer review etc and where we will eventually publish your works.
Any suggestions?

Elements of a short story
http://staff.fcps.net/tcarr/shortstory/plot1.htm

Go to the link above and complete all the activities before you proceed to the next lesson. You may choose any order in which to go through th elements, but it would be prefereable if theme was done last.

Short Story by Issac Asimov

2005-07-21T06:29:00.000+08:00

This is a short story by the famous Science Fiction writer Issac Asimov entitled "The fun they had". Hope you like it.

Hans Christian Anderson's 200th Anniversary

2005-07-19T19:18:00.000+08:00

For those of you whom I have approached to take part in the competition organised by NIE, here are some sites to gelp in your 'research' or pre-writing. It is also a wonderful opportunity for the rest to be mesmerised and enthralled by Anderson's imagination.

http://hca.gilead.org.il/

http://www.andersenfairytales.com/en/main

http://www.pacificnet.net/~johnr/aesop/aesophca.html

http://www.hca2005.com/

http://www.hca2005.com.sg/

A reminder of hte competition rules.

1) Your story should "reflect the spirit of HAC's stories with their captivating storylines, worlds that come alive and and unforgettable characters" (read his stories and examine the fantasy elements..we can talk about it!!)

2) It should be a "fairy tale for our times that is set in Singapore:. It should not be a retelling of any of HCA's stories. (widely interpretable... does it necessarilly mean present day??)

3) It should not exceed 1500 words. It should be typed in Times New Roman (font size 12) and printed on one side of an A4 size paper. (I will do the printing for you)

4) You may have accompanying artwork

5) Do not write your name or any other particulars on your work. All these will be written on an accompanying entry form which I will provide.

6) Submit to me by 29/7/05.

Holiday Online work

2005-06-10T16:13:00.000+08:00

To the pupils in 6-12 andf 6-13,

Sorry for the delay.
Week 1 - seminar and meetings
Week 2 - renovation of house

Go to these sites and do the work.
Let me know if you have any queries or comments.

http://www.learnenglish.de/Games/Tenses/SimplePres.htm

http://english-zone.com/verbs/modals5.html

http://a4esl.org/q/h/0101/es-prepositions.html

http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/johnslife.html

http://a4esl.org/q/h/9901/gc-connectives.html

http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/m-sco01.html

http://a4esl.org/q/j/dt/mc-unnecessary.html

http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/agreement_quiz.htm

http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/svagr.html

http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/quiz/vtr.html

http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/combining_quiz2.htm

http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/combining_quiz1.htm

http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/primer_quiz.htm

http://webster.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/blanks1.htm

http://webster.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/blanks2.htm

http://webster.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/par2_quiz.pl/irregular_quiz.htm

http://webster.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/consistency_quiz.htm

http://webster.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/sv_agr_quiz.htm

http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/svagr2.htm

take your time and enjoy yourselves!

Furhter or Farther up the road to understanding

2005-05-24T18:36:00.000+08:00

Farther or Further?

In reality, based on actual usage in normal speech, there is no real difference between further and farther for most Americans. Traditionally, however, farther is considered to apply to physical distances while further applies to metaphorical and figurative distances.

Farther refers to length or distance. It is the comparative form of the word far when referring to distance.

Further means "to a greater degree," "additional," or "additionally." It refers to time or amount. It is the comparative form of the word far when meaning "much."

Correct: Kuala Lumpur is farther north than Malacca.
(Refers to distance)

Correct: This plan requires further study.
(Meaning "additional study," refers to amount)

Correct: According to my timetable, we should be further along.
(Refers to time)

Reading Practice

2005-03-28T10:39:00.000+08:00

Harrison Bergeron
by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

The full story is in the comments column. Please read and respond thoughtfully to the questions or ptompts.

Phrasal Verbs

2005-03-11T15:33:00.000+08:00

For those of you whi requested more notes on Phrasal Verbs.

Go to these websites.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/esl/eslphrasal.html

http://www.englishpage.com/prepositions/phrasaldictionary.html

http://cctc2.commnet.edu/grammar/phrasals.htm

Here are 2 online quizzes for you.

http://cctc2.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/phrasal/phrasal_frame.html

http://cctc2.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/phrasal/phrasal_frame2.html

Revision - CLOZE

2005-03-10T11:18:00.000+08:00

Go to the 3 sites below for online cloze passages.
More to come!!!

http://rice.rosyth.moe.edu.sg/teacher/home/williamg/jamesnaismathcloze.htm

http://rice.rosyth.moe.edu.sg/teacher/home/williamg/rosaparkscloze.htm

http://rice.rosyth.moe.edu.sg/teacher/home/williamg/wombatscloze.htm

Enjoy and Learn.

Revision Blog 1 - Sentence Work

2005-02-11T08:07:00.000+08:00

Sentences
Sentences are the basic building blocks of fiction. They carry the meaning of a text but in the hands of a skilled writer they can do a great deal more. In this Revision Blog we are going to look at:
Varying the length of sentences, and Building up rhythms within sentences

If all sentences were of a uniform length and uniform composition reading would be a very boring and monotonous activity. Good authors use different techniques to give variety to their writing. The craft of a writer is to employ these different techniques to produce the most appropriate and satisfying effects.

Varying sentence length
Sentences can be short. Each one with one piece of information. This makes them easy to read. Too many short sentences make writing seem abrupt. Or babyish, like in primary school text books. Longer and more complicated sentences tend to flow better but, because they contain so much more information, can sometimes be more difficult to understand.
The paragraph below consists of four sentences. Read it and think about why the sentences are of such radically different lengths.

Dusk settled and still Stacey had not come home. People returned from their appointed search routes, read the emptiness of the faces around them, and stayed, crowding the rooms and talking in low voices, waiting for the good news which could send them home. The Turners arrived, but they had no news either and by the time the wagon rolled into the yard, with only Mama and Mr Morrison in it, we all recognised that there was to be no good news. Not this night.

Let the Circle Be Unbroken p. 230 - Mildred D Taylor

The paragraph describes a group of people searching for a lost boy. They are in a state of anxiety and suspense for his safety and this is reflected in the construction of the sentences. The first sentence uses alliteration to slow the reader down; the 's' sounds in Dusk settled still and Stacey would turn it into a tongue twister if it was read too rapidly. This short first sentence also introduces the topic of the rest of the paragraph.
The second and third sentences are very long and complex. We can see how they work more easily if we put each section on a separate line.

People returned from their appointed search routes,
read the emptiness of the faces around them,
and stayed,
crowding the rooms
and talking in low voices,
waiting for the good news
which could send them home.

The Turners arrived,
but they had no news either
and by the time the wagon rolled into the yard,
with only Mama and Mr Morrison in it,
we all recognised that there was to be no good news.

Each new piece of information is added to the last, so that the sentences, like the search itself, go on for a long time and end with no good news. The reader has to wait, like the people on the search, to find out if Stacey has been found. So the way the sentences have been written helps to communicate their meaning alongside the words.
The fourth 'sentence' isn't actually a sentence. Not this night lacks a verb or action word. The lack of a verb is appropriate because it tells the reader that the search is over for the night and there is to be no more action. The three short words form a striking contrast to the long and complicated sentences that go before them.
Many different effects can be achieved simply by varying sentence lengths. Try some out in your own writing, for instance a whole series of short action-packed sentences to describe a fight, or a few long rambling sentences to describe how you might feel on a lazy sunny afternoon.

Building up rhythms within a sentence

As we saw in the last passage, writers can use different sentence lengths to up a rhythm within a paragraph.
It is also possible to build up a rhythm within a sentence. A sentence can move quickly, with lots of different action words - or more slowly and lazily. And either kind of sentence rhythm can help the description by matching what is being described.
The sentences below describe Ged, who has fallen into the sea after his boat has run aground in a storm.

He had lost sight of rocks and beach alike, and did not know what way he faced. There was only a tumult of water around him, under him, over him, blinding him, strangling him, drowning him. A wave swelling in under the ragged fog took him and rolled him over and flung him up like a stick of driftwood on the sand.

The Earthsea Quartet p.129 - Ursula Le Guin

The first sentence sets the scene and has no particular rhythm.
The second sentence uses a series of phrases, each consisting of a preposition (around, under, over, etc) and the word him to give an impression of the confusion that Ged feels as he is tossed about by the sea. The repetition of the same form of words gives an impression of the repetitious backwards and forwards movement of the waves.
The third sentence contains a similar use of the word him but in each case it is preceded by a verb.

took him
and rolled him over
and flung him up

Notice there is no punctuation in the sentence. This means there is a strong emphasis on the three verbs which give a vivid impression of the force that expelled Ged from the sea. The double use of and shows that the actions were virtually continuous - one strong
movement

Types of Sentences

2005-02-03T10:07:00.000+08:00

A simple sentence consists of one single main clause:
The dog was chasing the cat.

A compound sentence consists of two or more co-ordinated main clauses: Martha sang, and Johann played the piano.
Joon Hui likes Japanese food, but Mila can't stand it.

A complex sentence contains at least one main clause and one subordinate clause:
Jia Hui went home because she was tired.

One More Time!

simple (consisting of one clause)
compound (consisting of two co-ordinated main clauses)
complex (containing at least one subordinate clause)
Examples:
Simple: I was reading the newspaper.

Compound: I read the newspaper, but nothing caught my interest.

Complex: I was reading the newspaper that I subscribe to.
I was reading the newspaper while I was having breakfast.
I was reading the newspaper while having breakfast.

Order of Adjectives

2005-02-03T10:02:00.000+08:00

ORDER
Where a number of adjectives are used together, the order depends on the function of the adjective. The usual order is:
Value/opinion, Size, Age/Temperature, Shape, Colour, Origin, Material

Value/opinion
delicious, lovely, charming

Size
small, humongous, tiny

Age/Temperature
old, hot, young

Shape
round, square, rectangular

Colour
red, brunette, black

Origin
Singaporean, Pre-War, Chinese

Material
plastic, wooden, golden

Examples:
a lovely old red letter box
some small round plastic trays
some charming small golden goblets

Concord Workout

2005-01-10T15:26:00.000+08:00

All pupils.
Please look at the posting "Concord. Not the plane!" and try out the online quizzes. Post your comments, understandings and questions etc on your blogs. Title your postings "concord -".
Thanks.

2005-01-10T14:34:00.000+08:00

Which page are we at now in our lives?

REMINDER

2005-01-10T13:54:00.000+08:00

All blogs from pupils of 6-12 and 6-13 must not contain language or remarks that are offensive or disparaging (hurtful or negative remarks/commenst about other people).
Please refer to the main blog -"Gifts for All" which will contain resources, instructions and assignments for both classes.
Sometimes you may only have to respond by "commenting; on the resource/posting on this blog.
Other times you might be given a url to go to and post your comments again on the posting here or in your own blog.
Much of the time, you will respond in your own blogs.
You should not write about topics, ideas etc not related to classwork on these blogs. If you wish to set up your own blogs for your own personal use, you are free to do so. If you would like me to respond or comment on these postings , please let me know and I will contribute to these blogs.
Happy Blogging.

Nouns - Part 3 (Plural Nouns)

2005-01-10T10:50:00.000+08:00

Plural Nouns

I have decided to post the notes under the comments for this posting because it took up too much space! Please go to my comments to see the notes.
Thanks.

Nouns - Part 2 (Count & Non-Count)

2005-01-10T10:46:00.000+08:00

Go to the url below.
You may try out the online quizzes indicated on the page.
You may also make comments on this posting.

http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/noncount.htm

Nouns - Part 1

2005-01-10T10:36:00.000+08:00

This is a song on nouns which I have also decided to repost as a comment for this posting in order to save space!
I hope it helps you understand the concept better. You may comment using the 'comment' button in the posting itself.

Your class blogs and postings

2005-01-10T09:29:00.000+08:00

Please go to the relevant urls and follow the instructions.

http://6-13.blogspot.com/

http://6-12.blogspot.com/

Concord (Not the plane!)

2005-01-10T07:43:00.000+08:00

These are sites to help you grapple with subject-verb agreement
http://webster.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/sv_agr_quiz.htm

http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/svagr2.htm

http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/svagr3.html

Once you have completed each site. Write in your blogs your understanding of this grammar topic/idea called 'concord'.(you may include comments, questions, musings etc)

Salutations

2005-01-06T10:07:00.000+08:00

To my pupils in 6-12 and 6-13, this will be the 'command post' for our blogging experience. I hope the journeys we all take will be enriching and fruitful.
I will be creating 2 class blogs where you will post the urls of the blogs you created. Please use your actual names without any nicknames etc. These blogs will be evaluated (i will poat the rubric soon).
Enjoy yourselves.