Term 3 Week 10

Monday: Its the last week of the term. We're gonna start revising for the last exam of the year. We did not have any lecture lessons today as it was a full dress rehearsal for our Shakespeare performance. Speaking of full dress... No one brought any costumes and props. I guess that everyone have not prepared all their costumes and props yet. Mr Chua told us to take our Lit files and we proceed to the music room. After getting into our groups, Mr Chua looked around and found that no one brought costumes and props today. 

He

and          

  Mr Chua then began scolding us. We made him reaaaally angry. It was one of the fiercest lecture he gave us this year.

  

Mr Chua highlighted that we were the first class he had ever seen that has brought nothing to the full dress rehearsal during the past 4 years. After the scolding, we became more efficient in fulfilling Mr Chua's instruction. When my group went out to practice, the other group went in to start recording down their performance. Unfortunately, when we came out, a teacher came out and scolded us for being noisy. I guess the previous group was the one who was making a ruckus. When it was our turn, we went in. Everyone was nervous though, but they went on with their performance. Our director recorded our play. I was quite satisfied with my group for not forgetting their lines, only to refer to the lit files at little times. Though, we have to practice more on expressing ourselves and getting into character. The set decorator have to create the atmosphere to allow the actors to sink into the atmosphere. I realised that it was really difficult to get into character, as I was playing a male character which was much more difficult for me to play as. So, I think that I still have to improve on my acting skills. 

Thursday: Mr Chua came in and scolded the same students that went out the class again. They never learn their lessons do they? It's pretty tiring for teachers to scold students repeatedly. So, I think the students should spare a thought for the teachers. We had lesson this time, and Mr Chua gave out pur Literature test. I was really nervous about it. And whenI received the paper, I got 17. 

I was quite disappointed as many people did better than me. Mr Chua did not waste anytime and went through the test paper. In no time, he finished going through the paper. He showed us the Romeo And Juliet movie. 

Everyone focused intently on the movie itself, observing how the actors act and the costumes and props they used. So, this lesson was really essential for us. Mr Chua went through the movie, explaining the details. He told the set decorators, costume designers and actors to stand as he explained the details to each of them. When it was my turn to stand, I realised that I was the only one playing a male character. I think that it is going to be a real challenge for me. Noting how the way Tybalt acts, I will try my best to get into that kind of character during the play. I think that each of everyone of us need to have perseverance in what we do. I think that everyone did persevere in their lives. Without it, we can achieve nothing.

All pictures by deviantart.

When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."
~Author Unknown


Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.  ~Newt Gingrich

Term 3 Week 9

Monday: Mr Chua and Ms Chala came in to conduct our Literature test. Ms Chala came in to take over and Mr Chua went out. Everyone took the exam seriously except for a few students who have to be told to keep quiet for a few times by Ms Chala. The test was not very difficult, and I hope that I could score better this time. 




  I think that some of the students have to be more disciplined in their studies. They should not create such a ruckus to the teachers. It wastes everybody's time. 


  Thursday:  It was Literature lesson. Many students went out of the classroom to check if Mr Chua was coming. When Mr Chua came, everyone rushed back to their seats. Mr Chua then scolded the class for being so ridiculous. He then told us to hand up our work. Mr Chua had to waste another 15 minutes to scold the same students for not handing up their work. I wonder why they don't they cooperate and stop making teachers to lecture them? It doesn't benefit both of them. Mr Chua moved on. He gave us a worksheet. A picture was printed out on the first page. There was some questions on the back page. The picture shows a vulture and a African child lying on the ground. 




Pulitzer Prize in 1994 by Kevin Carter


Mr Chua then told us to write down what we see in the picture. I wrote two inscriptions: "Vulture waiting for the child to die, so that it could eat him/her." and "People in Africa suffering from famine as the grass around dried up" .
Mr Chua then explained the picture and talk about famine. 



He said that the picture was taken by a photographer called Kevin Carter. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1994, where a famine took place in Africa. One student asked, "Did Kevin died later on?" Mr Chua told him that he would answer his question later. Mr Chua told us that the UN (United Nations) provided food aid stations. The female child was crawling to the food aid station more than 1km away. The child was too weak to walk, and was dying. the vulture at the back was waiting for its prey to die. Kevin couldn't do anything, so he took a picture and walked off. He was criticized for not helping the little girl. 3 months later, he committed suicide. Some students were laughing at the picture. Mr Chua told us that he understood the reason why they found it so funny as they have not experienced famine before. Kevin's suicide note: "I am depressed ... without phone ... money for rent ... money for child support ... money for debts ... money!!! ... I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain ... of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners...."  I think that he was suffering from depression due to the things that he experienced. I feel sad for him. I think that famine is really has a big impact to describe something really devastating. Victims can really do something extreme that we can't imagine. Such things causes much sorrow, and I think that all of us should feel grateful. The students who laughed are so immature. I think that they did not suffered from things before. They should learn more about the world and get send to less developed countries to experience the people's misery. More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Carter

Term 3 Week 8

Monday:   Mr Chua came in along with Mr Narz. I was wondering why was he in our class since he did not teach Literature. My mind went wild and I thought that he is going to replace Mr Chua! Mr Chua then quickly distributed a worksheet on the Mighty Mandarin and explained to us the meaning of some words in the worksheet. He then reminded us to study for out test on Monday. He rushed out to somewhere after that. I thought that it was something more important to attend than our Literature lesson. I bid farewell to him. Thank god that Mr Narz only came in as our relieve teacher. Mr Narz told us to do our work quietly and to hand up our work by the end of the lesson. I did what I was told. I quietly completed the worksheet. I was expecting our class to be noisy and rowdy, but to my surprise, our class seemed to be very focused on completing the assignment on time. Mr Narz only had to remind us to keep quiet for about 2 times. When the bell rang, we handed up the worksheet and went home. I realised that our class can be focused at times, only when we want to. But we do not have enough discipline. I guess that our class have the potential to, only that we have problems  regarding the attitude that we give to studies. That's why we could not score well for our exams. Still, I support our class to keep improving and I'm really happy to be in this class.

Thursday:

  Mr Chua came in and rushed to proceed to prevent wasting time, as usual. He distributed back Are You Lonesome Tonight worksheet 2 to us. I was a little disappointed that I did not really score well for my past work that I had done. But, I stood strong in what I believed in. I think that the results didn't really matter. What matters most is the effort that we put in. Without effort, we can't score well. So, I told myself that I have to put in more effort in what I do in my everyday life. 

  -deviantart

Like this picture, although you have failed, there is still effort put in things that we do.

William James:
Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. Give your dreams all you've got and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.

Mr Chua then told us to submit our illustration. He started scolding us for being dishonest as many people were caught copying each other work. It was wasting alot of time, of course. Mr Chua then continued the lesson by going through the Mighty Mandarin poem. He called many students to stand up and read out loud, but failed to, as many were still soft spoken. He was still disappointed. He gave us a homework on the article and told us about essay writing. Mr Chua told us to get into our Bravo formation, but the bell rang. So he told us to complete the work by next Thursday. I think that we still have problems at the attitude in our studies. The students that cheated did not have integrity. That's one value that they lacked.

We had been taught how to be honest from young to now. I hope that they had realised their mistakes and improve on being a good person with values.

Term 3 Week 7

Monday: There was no Literature lesson on Monday, as it was National Day. I felt that our school really participated actively in the National day, especially those who participated in the National Day Parade. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2Wn6qhAm00 

During these few days including the weekend, I have been memorising my lines for the Romeo and Juliet play as I am one of the actors. I have also been discussing about the props and stuffs with the director and other group members. I also finished my Literature assignments, but I focused more on the play. However, I think that i had put in my best efforts in my homework.

Thursday: We went to the Civil Defense corner straight after the morning assembly. We placed our bags down and settled down. We wasted alot of time settling down as alot of my classmates went up to our class as they did not know that we had our lessons there. After settling down, Mr Chua briefed us on what to do during this lesson. He told us to split into our groups for the rehearsal of the Literature play. I was in the group Bravo. The location of my group's rehearsal was huge, and we have alot of space to rehearse around. I wanted to thank those who made the effort to memorise the lines, especially the main actors. I was impressed that could memorise their lines in a short time, especially the actors who were taking the role as Romeo and Juliet. They have alot of lines to memorise. Mr Chua then walked around to observe our performance. The director the rest of the members seated at the side to write constructive comments bout the actors performance. They then shared their comments about the actors. I was told that I should be more loud and to have more emotions in my lines, as I was playing Tybalt. However, some members did not construct a very good comment about it. They said that I was not very evil. Tybalt does not have to sound evil in that scene. He should only sound angry. After a few rounds of rehearsing and discussion, Mr Chua told us to assemble back into the middle. He picked out a few members to share their comments about their views on the actors. Mr Chua said that we were not being thoughtful enough, as many of us did not construct a very specific comment but made very brief comments. After that, he told us about the kissing method for the Romeo and Juliet scene. He demonstrated the method without really kissing at some angles by creating an illusion. It was hilarious, as he picked out one of my male classmate to demonstrate. We laughed alot. It was fun, and I hope that we would continue to have these type of fun lessons in the future. 

Tybalt from Romeo X Juliet

Term 3 Week 6

Monday: Mr Chua distributed 3 sets of worksheets after we settled down. He gave us a worksheet about Anti drug abuse message that we had gone through in the previous CCD lesson. Mr Chua told us to read through the text, and he would call out a few people to read out loud, as he wanted to train our oral communication for our Shakespeare play. Mr Chua gave us an assignment on  replying to Lonesome Boy's problems like a counselor. Mr Chua went through the last worksheet after that. After much explanation about the corrections we had to do, he showed us our learning log results.  He tracked who had not been doing their their assignment. Disappointed to say, I'm one of them. I did not completed Week 5 assignment on time. Mr Chua was much more disappointed than me, for the second time. It was embarrassing for me, of course. Mr Chua made us stand afterwards. He scolded us for being irresponsible and told us to update our blog latest by Friday. I was thankful that he gave us a much longer time to update our blogs, but updating the blog is the first thing I did when I went home. Mr Chua deducted our marks, and I promised that I would try my best to update my blog. I think that I should be more responsible in the future. To be frank, I think that doing our assignment online is very distracting due to other uses on source of entertainment such as social networking sites like Facebook. I tend to get distracting by all these, but it all takes self discipline. Also, it has more advantages than disadvantages. It can help save paper, and allow us to find more information online and placing it in our blogs. I guess that it all takes self discipline, and it shows that I'm not well-discipline enough. I should learn how to discipline myself more. 

 

 

"The one quality which sets one man apart from another - the key which lifts one to every aspiration while others are caught up in the mire of mediocrity - is not talent, formal education, nor intellectual brightness - its is self discipline. With self discipline, all things are possible.Without it, a simple goal can seem like the impossible dream." - Theodore Roosevelt

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.  ~John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

When you blame others, you give up your power to change.  ~Author Unknown

Thursday: Mr Chua continued our lesson of The Mighty Mandarin after we settled down. He instructed us to read the play by giving each of us a role. My row got the role of Fu. We have to stand and read when our lines were being spoken. Since Mr Chua was hurrying us to quicken our lines, we were like standing and sitting and standing and sitting again. It was tiring of course, but it was fun and humorous. Mr Chua took the role of Min, Shang and Sung. We laughed till we were crying our eyes out when Mr Chua switch his pitch for different characters, especially Min. Literature lessons were never as funny as this one. And I really enjoyed it alot. Literature lesson was ending soon, and Mr Chua gave us some assignments, to illustrate the scene of the Mighty Mandarin's room, to complete the worksheet, and to update our blogs! Mr Chua then reminded us to memorise our lines for the actors. I think that Literature lessons are getting more and more fun especially this lesson and the upcoming Literature play. In my opinion, laughing and enjoying myself while learning is an important factor of learning too. It gives us interest in learning. Its very heart warming to see people enjoying themselves and it gives them happiness. 

  

Term 3 Week 5

Monday: Mr Chua came in again, as usual, and settled down. But we had wasted a lot of time as he had to scream and chase after the assignment assigned to us last week. There were many students who did not submit their homework - the usual ones. I would start stoning away whenever Mr Chua starts screaming and shouting for the assignments. After spending around 15 minutes of scolding, we finally settled down. Mr Chua gave out the theatric production  worksheet that we did and went through. I'm not going to announce my results here. Honestly I don't have very good thinking skills but it just take effort. Then, Mr Chua continued by showing us last year 2 Dynamic Literature play on Romeo and Juliet. The members were soft spoken though, but Mr Chua expected more from us as we attended the Debate oral program while the last year Sec 2s have not. I watched the play and noted some points on their performance. They have little expressions and tone in their speech and actions. They are very soft spoken. But overall, I think they did pretty well. Literature lesson ended after much discussion. 






Thursday:  Surprisingly, Mr Chua did not scold any of us today. It's not like I expected him to scold us, but it's like a weekly basis. He gave us another short quiz and moved on to scene 3 of "Are You Lonesome tonight?" he ran through the scene thoroughly and i noted some notes and definitions in the text: Cape Canaveral: HQ of National Anatomic Space Association of USA (ASA). The sentence," An' the Cadillac blew up a week later, doin' a hundred and five - Cape Canaveral sent out an alert! The meaning of blew up means that the engine was spoiled.
Doing a hundred and five represents the speed in miles/hr. In this sentence, Elvis is exaggerating his words by using a metaphor, comparing the speed of his Cadillac to a Space shuttle. Cold Turkey - Loses control and suffer from symptoms when one did not touch a drug that he/she was addicted to for a long period of time. Elvis then talked about his death of his mother. He act as though she had just passed away recently on her death anniversary. He recalled that he was performing in the US army on the day of her death. I can understand how this feels like, as I have personal experience. So, the word,"FAMILY" also has a great impact on me. If I had a him, I would rather abandon the concert and rush to accompany Gladys during her last moments. I believe that this would allow Gladys to pass away with no regrets. Elvis would also not feel guilty for not being at her side. After all, family support has greater impact rather than fan's support isn't it?
I was bored, so I was doing some research on the Presley family background. I found out that Elvis Grandfather, Jessie D Presley wad an actor in the late 1950s. He was almost as famous as Elvis was at that time. There are many more information to share, but i'm just going to put the link here. Do look up for it! http://www.elvisinfonet.com/spotlight_JesseDPresley.html

Again, the pictures here belong to Deviantart individual artists. *Sigh

I really admire their works. (:

Term 3 Week 4

Monday: It's time for Literature again. Mr Chua gave us a quiz every Literature lesson. It takes about 10 to 15 mins to recap on everything we learnt. But, many classmates still do not know or understand the play. This is very crucial, as we need thinking skills to think during the exams. I think that many of us do not think much, that's why we need more thinking practice. He quickly ran through scene 1 after that, and went on to scene 2. In this scene, we will see two characters, younger Presley and his mother. There we will imagine younger Presley staring out the window at his new Cadillac, as said in the script. His mother would then enter and laugh at his silliness. Younger Presley would then promise to get a mansion in Memphis and make her life happy. They had a good laugh after that. His mother, Gladys requested him to buy a chandelier for her. Elvis was willing to get chandeliers for her, in every part of the mansion. The scene twisted into a very dramatic moment after that. Gladys then talks about her dead child, Elvis's dead brother, Jesse. This moment tells us that they were poor, as Jesse was buried by the Welfare in the cheapest baby box that they could find. They didn't live in a Cadillac country either, which means that they were poor. Literature lesson ended just in time when we've finished going through the text. 

                                                                            Thinking

To see what you is not in front of you
To be blind to what you are suppose to see
To challenge yourself to what you don't understand
To hold on to what you never knew you had

Not Going where everybody else leads you to
Not searching where you know it will be found
Not accepting the fact that you know all the answers
Never limit yourself to ideas you already had before

Here is one for thinking outside the box  - Deviantart artist

            Thursday: Since Mr Chua did not came today, here's my reflection for the week - filial piety. Filial piety means being obedient, respectful to their elders, like how younger Presley treats her mother. Filial piety has a huge impact on me. Ever since i went through Adam Khoo's workshop during my Primary six PSLE year, they finally made me understand what it meant. Everything was planned of course, and many people cried on the last day of the course. The trainer off all the lights and told us to close our eyes and imagine if we were in a situation when it was your birthday, your parents came home late to give you a surprise celebration, but you did not know and shouted at them. They got into an accident because they rushed home. I would not continue the story, as it is going to be very twisted. But after imagining the situation, most of the people cried, including the guys. The instructor made us feel that our parents are very heroic. It makes us feel guilty. After that, some people went up to make a speech to their parents to say that their sorry, and so on. Here's a better explanation to it: http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/filial-sutra.htm

All pictures and quotes here belong to individual artists on Deviantart.