My exploration in life… (diary for baby!)

This week has been a extremely busy one - Dance written test + submission of the 3rd Instructional Methods lesson plan (I did not have to submit one since I did not teach the previous week due to inclement weather, luckily in this sense) on Monday, half of the practical on Volleyball test on Wednesday, Dance practical assessment and our third micro-teaching at Keming Primary School on Thursday and part two of Volleyball practical assessment + submission of Instructional Methods unit plan on Friday.  Tuesday was the only day there wasn’t any assessment /assignment due.  And throughout the week, my classmates and I were meeting for discussion of the dance and unit plan assignments as they were group ones.  We need the holidays, soonest!  ("_)

Looking back, like most times, I think haven’t done myself justice during assessments for the game modules.  I already fail to perform at the game of volleyball (this being the first time in my 28 years playing the game!), and this was made further worse by my failure to perform during assessment times.  Oh no - I think I will be very lucky to get a B grade for the module…

I am equally unapt at dance.  We - me, CHRISTOPHER, ANU, ANDRE and LAP YIN - had some practice (think we had more than all other groups?).  All that could go wrong, well, went wrong during practise.  I felt disheartened and could only hope for the best for the assessment…  think my prayers were answered when we did not forget the rehearsed steps, got the timing correct, and we would do okay during the dance…  =)  Lucky, think I should be able to get at least a C for this module…

ALFIAH did not think that she did well, though…  she blamed that the music skipped tracks and that put their group at a loss.  She was very disappointed.  I hope she gets over it easily, letting bygones be bygones…

The next week will be a little better, with modules like Instructional Methods, Badminton, Volleyball and Dance having ended.  But there’s still two English language tests to worry about next week, along with the need to submit the file for micro-teaching…  Hope that time flies ’cause YEN’s and my baby will be born in about 2 month’s time…  exciting!  =)

I went to NIE this afternoon and stay there for a couple of hours with JIANWEN to plan for our assignment due next Friday.  Interestingly, he was wearing the LIVERPOOL jersey and I was in a NEWCASTLE one.  We had a little laugh over that.  SHIREN was there as well as he was discussing their dance assignment with ROZALI and JIANWEN.  After JIANWEN and I were done discussing, I sent SHIREN to JURONG POINT before sending JIANWEN home.  That was when…

I drove us to JURONG POINT via the JALAN BAHAR exit and was making a right turn to our destination.  At that same junction, JIANWEN and SHIREN alerted me to this black sedan car (we later saw that it had a JB carplate) coming onto the same road via the filter lane of the opposite road seemingly swerving into the same lane!  Had they not told me, we would have been hit on our left (where they sat on) by this stupid driver and car that attempted to come into our middle lane (of the three lane road) immediately after exiting the filter lane.  Another near accident, and I am thankful that we had not been hit, especially that I was driving them…

I was talking to JIANWEN a little in the past week and I realised how close we could be to each other without ever knowing each other!  JIANWEN told me that he was staying in CLEMENTI AVE 1 earlier in block 402, just my next block (he moved away when he was 4 and I was 7, though)!  He was studying in SWISS COTTAGE SECONDARY SCHOOL, the same as EDDIE (JIANWEN is a year younger than him, though) but they seem not to have known each other too.  My secondary school classmate, ESTHER, had actually stayed at the same block where he stays now.  And he actually were childhood playmates (sort of!) with ESTHER’s younger brother!  Ha, fate brought us together, only now!  We could really do a lot of catching up if we had known each other…

Our Diploma cohort played a friendly match organised by ROZALI against a patched-up team involving some LTA  players.  Another secondary school classmate, SHUNTIAN, is working in LTA and I reckon he will be there at the match.  I found out later that SHUNTIAN got another classmate, JUNYI, to play as well.  Caught up with them.  Though we eventually won the game 6 - 0 with our boys converting only 1 of 3 penalties awarded, I think the result wasn’t important.  What is important is that other than the 17 odd guys who participated in the match at Farrer Park, at least 2 other guys who wasn’t involved in the game by choice (LAP YIN and I), at least another 7 girls from our 2 classes, some friends (at least SHIREN, JIANWEN, CHRISTOPHER brought their girlfriends) and ROZALI’s wife and 2 of 3 kids attended the game.  That’s what I call cohesion!  But it still goes some way from our cohort of 40 attending all together.  Or perhaps that will not happen at all??

I did not have a chance to teach my second lesson at KEMING last Thursday as it was raining the night before, and it drizzled a little that morning.  The whole school had a health talk for their first period of lesson and unfortunately, that meant I couldn’t teach.  Hopefully, that will not happen this coming Thursday when we go down for our final micro-teaching lesson!

We have assignments plenty this coming week due and two tests falling on the week after, the heat is definitely on now.  Luckily, the service-learning project has been wrapped up, meaning we have one less module to worry about later…

I am picking up my mum tonight from the airport. She is returning from her 6-days’ trip to CHINA with EDDIE’s in-laws.  She says she had better made this trip as it will probably be her last in a long while as she will be busy helping YEN and I to bring up and look after our baby.  =P

YEN is into her seventh month of pregnancy this week.  =)  This means that our baby can be welcomed into this world anytime from now.  But I’d rather our baby not rush things and be born in June.  That way, she can have the proper nutrition, and my examinations will be over then!  =)

YONG SHENG pointed out to me that he saw YEN on the SGH homepage (http://www.sgh.com.sg/), and she didn’t tell me about it!  =P  Naughty girl!

I called my former Signal Officer cadet-mate PEH GEE over the past weekend.  You see, I have been using this blue waist pouch that PEH GEE had given me as a birthday present on an earlier year, and it struck me that I hadn’t made enough effort to talk to good friends like her.  We are normally too preoccupied with our own lives to talk to our friends, especially that we are no longer working / schooling together, and good friends like her matter to me.  Sigh, I must make this effort to catch up with my valued friends, or risk losing them…

I spoke to HARESH earlier this week too after our English tutorial to address something that had bothered me.  I don’t want my mates to hear about things from others, especially if they are part of the issue at hand.  Let me tell you about this problem of mine: we have been working together for some assignments in the module as a group (there are only 6 of us from the P.E. side in that tutorial class - HARESH, JONATHAN, EDMUND, THOMAS, YONG SHENG and I; naturally, we will work as a group for assignments in for that tutorial class).  I let him know that I felt that most of my contributions during discussions have been snubbed or brushed aside.

Even the latest incident - I was asked to take down some points for a classroom assignment for presentation later, and when we translated the points to a bigger piece of paper later, my wordings have been rephrased.  That made me feel like I have misunderstood what they had said, or if there had been some major problem with the English language.  Or I am plain stupid.  He heard me out and he assured me that everyone (at least the 6 in our group) can see that I am putting in effort to contribute in projects / assignments, but perhaps I had been too sensitive with things that had gone on.  Well, I sure hope I was…

On a lighter note, I think most of us have changed our perception about the dance module we have undertaken.  This module was on creative dance, for us to later go to primary schools to teach children on spatial / own body awareness, different locomotion and movements we can make with our body.  I can see that most of us are enjoying the things we are asked to do during time in class.  An example was when we where told to move as machine parts (in either wheel or piston-like motions) as individuals, and coming together as a group of 8 to form different machines and see how it would turn out to be.  This group I want in thought of us being parts of a massage chair, with one of us (ZUL) sitting on it (I was the seat!) and the others massaging him.

A little later, we were asked to form a computer using our bodies.  We formed a monitor, mouse, CPU (complete with the CD tray!) and printer.  The fun part was ZUL being the "image" in the monitor screen, and later acting as the image on the printout!  Fun, eh?

YEN’s craze for durians is super high - it must have something to do with pregnancy and food cravings!  We just bought and ate (in record time too, with the help of EDDIE and HUIJUN!) 3-D24 durians for $20 early this week, and she wanted to buy durians again before dinner last night.  I objected as I was afraid it’ll get too heat-y for her, but melted and relented when I saw her sulk (with pouting lips too…).  This time, we saw a number of small durians (seems like not good enough to fetch a higher price) in a plastic basket, at least 10 in all, sold at $5.  YEN decided to buy them, and would be happy even if they turned out to be mostly bad.

So this morning after waking, I was brushing my teeth as I smelt durian smells around.  I thought I had too much of them and the odor came from me; it turned out that YEN was already eating durians we put away from last night in the room!  Insatiable, or what?

I found that I was able to perform better on my volleyball lesson on Wednesday, and the good form carried forward to Friday.  Gosh, I just hope I’d be able to do at least as well every time I play!  Every time I play, I keep reminding myself to keep to the basics - getting my body to the midline of the ball before hitting it, hitting it high up in the air so that my teammates have more time to react to it, getting into the correct positions to help out the front court trio when they go up for the block, moving backwards when the opponent fails to set up a spike for their third touch, etc. etc.  I think everyone is improving as we play.  As usual, ADRIAN, EDMUND, CLEMENT, THOMAS, JIANWEN, YONG SHENG, SHIREN, YAO HUI, JEAN (both from the degree group), LAP YIN, VANESSA, etc. are doing well as always.  Special mention has to be given to ZHIWEN (who seems to be constantly improving), MICHELLE and LEE CHING (both from degree group; they are very enthusiastic during practice and are improving by leaps and bounds!) too.

My lecturer, DR CLARA TAN, asked me to go to her office for a chat on the past Monday.  She too, seems concerned that I may be treating my classmates too well (like an officer taking care of his charges and wanting to give easy ways out) by doing too much for the class.  She wants to see them work for things themselves, and not to be spoon-fed by the class rep.  Let me see that it was better if it was that way as she wants future teachers to be able to do their own work and fend for themselves when they are called upon.  Wants me to think about what she told me…

My first ever teaching experience was given to a P6 class of 29 (6 Onyx - apparently, Onyx is some precious stone…) last Thursday.  I took the same class as JIANWEN who taught them a day before me.  Having experience in contract teaching already, he did a great job in teaching, I suppose.  Seeing that the class was not as badly behaved as other classes handled by my classmates, I naturally had a higher expectation on my own teaching on Thursday morning; but boy was I wrong…

I learnt that whatever planned remains a plan when it comes to teaching children.  You must expect the unexpected, and for most of them not to be able to achieve your intended goals for them.  Hence, the plan has to be altered there and then.  That wasn’t the difficult part, I feel.  The difficult part for me is to be able to talk to the point they understand what is to go on, and send them off before I bore them.  I did poorly at this, often trying to explain things clearly (a little too clearly??) before I sent them out to practice (to them, it’s play, fullstop).  OK, we take a two week break from microteaching for now (the school has some involvement and P.E. will take a backseat for two weeks) and go back for another two lessons later.  I must improve then.  I must!

Back at NIE, I find it a little too stifling to have everything come at use at once - needing to submit lesson plans for English (or Maths for most of my mates), P.E. (Microteaching at Keming Primary School) and having to study for the few tests coming up (Communication Skills tomorrow and Anatomy next Monday!).  It was calm before and suddenly, everything comes at you at once.  Gosh, when will work be relaxing for us??

Oh - I found out from my friend and ex-colleague (former unit chief clerk), DORA, that my S1’s younger brother has just passed away in Australia and S1 is there now.  S1’s younger brother had migrated there, and passed away in a freak driving accident.  Oh no…  must find a chance to talk to S1 when he is back in Singapore to offer my condolences.  Hope he won’t be affected by this too much…

YEN’s tummy is growing bigger and bigger.  She is unable to fit into most jeans and casual / formal wear she wore earlier.  Thankfully, we have bought enough maternity wear for her (for now at least!) so that she can don comfortable and nice clothes when we go out in the weekends.  =)  Will lookout for more shops that sells nice maternity dresses for us to visit…