taking a breather

Hello everyone!

I'm taking a break from marking the compos. Looks like it's going to be a long night ahead!

Anyway, Nathan, you can check out the foxtrot comics online at this website: www.gocomics.com/foxtrotclassics. I'm glad you like it. I like reading Chew On It too! 

I went to Gramophone over the weekend and spotted this movie which Ms Azean lent me during the holidays last year. I've mentioned it to you in class before and I'm really excited about showing it to you after the exams! I was really inspired by it after I watched it. Please don't hurry to the nearest video store to rent it! I'm going to keep you in suspense about the title for now. :P 

Meanwhile, there was one unexpected surprise that made me very happy today. I saw Cheah Yan reading 'The Graveyard Book' in the courtyard! I hope you'd enjoy reading it! :) 

Also, did anyone read the news on Sunday Lifestyle? There was an article on the ukulele and how the music makes one feel as though he's in Hawaii. I can't wait to learn how to play it! 

Today some of you have asked some important questions about the scientific concepts of Matter. I'm glad you wrote it down because it lets me know whether you understand what I've been trying to teach. I'm going to post some of the questions in the Science forum for our class and I hope you'd try and provide some answers to help your classmates. 

One very important question in particular was about the difference between mass and volume. 

Mass

Mass is the amount of substance in an object. Mass tells us how heavy or light something is. 

Volume

Volume is the amount of space an object occupies. 

Fibonacci Numbers

I was reading the Sunday papers and made a beeline for the comics section. 

My favourite comic strip is Foxtrot (Baby Blues comes a very very close second) and today's Foxtrot comic was sooo funny!

Let me upload it here ..

We've done trying to figure out why a riddle is funny.... so let me know why this comic strip is funny. (Yes it IS funny :p) In order to understand it better though, you'd need to know Fibonacci numbers.... and that's the only clue I'm giving you! 

Good luck fellow Math geeks! 

Third Week of School

I can't believe it's already Week 3. Time really flies. 

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! :) I'm too excited about the holidays to sleep early so I thought I'd post some thoughts about this week. 

I fell sick on Tuesday and by Thursday, I had almost lost my voice. Poor 4G had to listen to my raspy voice, which broke at several points in almost every sentence I uttered. That's laryngitis for you. I caught a virus that caused my throat to become inflamed and it affected my voice box... leaving me croaking away. 

Anyway, it turned out to be not as bad because I had Joshua for my broadcaster and he did an excellent job converting everything I said into indirect speech. Here's an example:

Ms Toh (croaking pathetically): Tell the class they don't need to mark this portion and that divisible by 3 is important. If they don't have divisible by 3, it's wrong.

Joshua (confidently and clearly) : Ms Toh says we don't need to mark this portion.... etc etc. 

Imagine having to remember the long chain of stuff I say PLUS convert it to indirect speech. I shall never look at indirect speech the same way again. :p 

We also had the Use Your Hands campaign and thanks to Edwin's brainwave (bringing newspapers to school), we've now got sparkling window panes! Thanks again to everyone, for your very enthusiastic spring-cleaning and packing of cupboards and fervent wiping of tables. 

Just a few pics of that day.... :)

You can almost see their reflections off the whiteboard!

saying hello to a new beginning

Hello everyone!

Hope the first day of school went well for all of you.

Primary 5 is going to be a fun and challenging year for you, so do enjoy learning. I miss all of you already but I'm very sure you're going to have fun in your new classes. Just think, you get to go and watch the NE show! Maybe you aren't too used to the classmates in your new classes, but give it some time. You started off as strangers in the class too and look how close some of you have become.

I'm going to be teaching 4G this year, so I'd probably not be able to see you much anymore. Take care all of you.... and hope I'd see you around in school!

:)

ms toh

Happy Holidays!

Hello everyone!!

It's been a week of holidays for you so far.. hope you're all having fun and relaxing. :) The hard work can come next week heehee..

I've been hard at work too and have just finished packing my table. Jiamin, you'd be proud of what I've done! (this probably doesn't reflect very well on me huh..:p) But yes... I've got a neat-looking table that's pretty organised now. It's a good start to the holidays. 

Regina, the nose-picking sounds awful! Haha... I guess you just have to make sure you stay healthy. Hope you are doing fine. Wish you could have come for the musical though. It was quite lovely. I was happily bobbing along to the songs backstage so much so a fellow teacher told me the director should be informed that I want to join the musical next year. :p 

I was surfing the net yesterday and came across this game online. 

http://www.quia.com/cb/96929.html?AP_rand=744924617

I hope the link works because I can't seem to use the ctrl-copy and paste function on my computer. 

Anyway, Zijian, I didn't see you at Lot 1. I don't see why anyone would like to impersonate me and post a reply... but that wasn't me. 

Hi Lydia, sorry I'd have to keep you in suspense on that... Hope your holidays are coming along fine though! Have you been to the zoo yet? I keep hearing about the Rainforest exhibit but have yet to go. 

Happy holidays everyone! Happy reading too! Go to the library and borrow as many books as you can. Holidays are perfect for lazing around with a good book and picking up some cool phrases to use in your compositions in P5! :) 

Good Job!

Just wanted to say how proud I felt of you guys today after I saw what you'd come up with in such a short time. 

The typing of the scripts, the enthusiastic acting, the reminders to 'face the audience!!', the focused way you were doing the props, overcoming your shyness to act in front of the class, remembering to look at the audience when you speak. 

It was all good. :) 

Just to list some things that made me really impressed... 

- the way Kishore took charge and did the script for the group

- how Zi Jian read so enthusiastically and expressively

- how Elroy was willing to take the group's ideas and incorporate them into his lines

- how the group made props with Daniel, Navin and David leading the way. I am really impressed with your 'shelter' for Wilbur! Not to mention your teamwork when doing the fence. that was really great. 

- how Chee Wee and Alvin switched roles and ended up doing better

- how well Boon How and Jonathan did as narrators

- the ideas that Clemence came up with...

- the way the group progressed from squabbling to being more focused and trying to remember to face the audience

- the way group 1 & 2 girls worked as a team and rehearsing so well together. I really enjoyed watching you guys esp Nadine bringing to life the idio-idio-idiosyncrasy of the goose! :p 

- it was really entertaining to watch you strut about pretending to be farm animals and seeing Delvine going 'so do it, do it, do it!', Lisa going 'Hmmm how about Pig Supreme?', Beatrice going 'But Charlotte... I'm not terrific!'. Kudos to Wei Li and Jia Min for memorising their very very very long lines and while I'm at it, kudos to Nadine for remembering that Double T double E etc etc CCCC line. I could see the rest mouthing the words along with you haha. Jing Yi's Templeton was cute too! "What's up!!" 

- the props made by group 3 & 4 girls were really impressive. You managed to finish the painting, the fence made by Yee Ann and the spider made by Priya were fantastic! I thought Hui Wen did a really good job as Lurvy with the 'Holy Moley Macaroni!' and your funny introduction by Wei Jia and Lydia (today) "I can show you my fist...." You worked as a team and managed to overcome your initial disagreements. I thought that was really great. Sandrina's cover page for the script was really nicely done too. 

So yep. That was a pretty long list. I think given the short time you had, what you've done is really quite awesome. 

think before you write

Sometimes it's easy to simply write an angry comment and not think about the consequences. You may think you are being very clever because no one knows who you are when you post a nasty comment in the chatbox, especially if you use a nickname. Or worse, if you use someone else's name.

Think before you write.

It's just cowardly behaviour when you post a nasty comment using another person's name. If you really have something you feel unhappy about, just tell the person straight. Hiding behind the computer writing petty remarks isn't going to solve any problems. In fact, the person you are angry with wouldn't even know what is wrong.

You need to tell the person what is wrong. Politely.

It is not nice to swear and write 'fish' because we all know it's meant to be a vulgarity. It's just plain rude and extremely cowardly behaviour. So please don't think you are going to get away with such bad behaviour because I will have my ways of finding out who you are. And I'd like to clarify, I don't mean writing nasty comments on this class blog only but also writing on your fellow friends' blogs. It hurts their feelings and the innocent person whose name you're using gets implicated.

Think before you write.

You need to have integrity in your words.