Nov 09 Update: School holidays

It has been a while since I wrote something.

I have been cleared for NPC as the 2nd scope also did not find anything. The doctor decided to discharge me from the programme.

This has been the busiest year yet for me.

I also recently attended the International Science Education Conference. Very educational! Many schools sent more than the standard one teacher, but not us...

My holidays are also fully packed up to the end of this week. I hope next week I can slow things down and get a day or two off while doing the preparations for next year.

Parking summons near Petal Mac

I got a parking ticket today at the car park off Petal Mac. I teach my kids there quite often but this is the first time I got a ticket. I did put a coupon but you know tuition remedial -- you never know when it will end. So I usually exceed a bit.

Physics Course

I attended a Physics course today and I am happy to say that how I teach the topic of magnetism is correct! Same as what the lecturer said! I am glad my content and Physics Education is still solid.

As usual, some teachers are not so good but it is good that they came for a course to learn from us... I knew the answer to all of their questions.

Teen Abortion Rate

Apparently, the number of teenage abortions per year has increased! I remember a few years ago, the teenage abortion rate was 600+ a year. Now it is 1000+!

Blood Donation

I just realised I should not donate blood until I'm cleared for NPC. That's just too bad. I've always liked blood donation. I even donated platelets before to save a cancer patient...

National Day

Happy National Day!

Singapore is a great country.

Cycling Trip at ECP

I went cycling from East Coast Tennis Centre (near McDonald's) to Changi Village. It was extremely tiring -- I think she was coping better than me! We started before 9 am but only got back after 3 pm! That was inclusive of rest stops, but still...

At McDonald's, we were spotted by a group of 3 students -- including May and Elice from 2E3! Elice sent May to sit in front of us to take pictures. I realised that but was unable to recognize May due to her different hairstyle. In any case, SC did not notice at all!

Later I saw Elice and knew we had been photographed.

CEA Cleared

I passed the CEA test today! NAD for other tests and exam. No action needed! So effectively I'm cleared for CEA-related cancer!

So there's just the NPC screening once every three months -- because I still failed one specific marker (borderline). Oh well, I can't be that unlucky, right?

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I love kids! They're cute!

Annoying Week

Yesterday and today are very irritating. I had to rush errands yesterday afternoon. I left my Parker pen in Amoy Quee Camp! Either East District Office or Guard Room. It's the cheap Parker -- mine's dark red and silver, as the students will know. It was a Teachers' Day gift -- not expensive at all as you can get one at $6.90 before Teachers' Day. And I had just taken it out from cold storage before the holidays to use...

And I am rushing many things as usual, and more things are coming up, which is very irritating.

Oh, and on Monday, I passed one and failed-borderline the other specific cancer marker test for ENT NPC. This means there is a 1% chance that I currently have a malignancy. So I'll report in every 3 months to check. Effectively, I'm cleared for now!

But there is the other one, GE colorectal cancer...

Toilet Painting and Screening Tests

During the Happy Toilet painting, one of my class' girls mentioned about the boys toilet being dirtier because they boys do their minor business standing and thus cannot possibly keep the toilet clean.

These articles here shed some more light on the issue...

http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3373
http://www.twisstedswisster.com/2008/06/should-men-pee-sitting-down.html

The Japanese and Swiss keep their toilets clean.

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I went for my specialists' appointment today...

For ENT, the doctor thought it was unlikely to be cancer since I was asymptomatic. He did a nasopharyngeal endoscopy under LA which did not find anything. Blood was drawn for a repeat test using individual markers which would be more conclusive. I'll be seeing him again in two weeks.

For GE, the doctor thought that it was unlikely to be cancer because I was asymptomatic. No palpable masses and not even a FOB test. He himself would not trust the CEA test anyway, since it was only a borderline high. He ordered a repeat CEA and uric acid blood test (borderline high) as well as a chest x-ray to rule out chest infections. I'll be seeing him again in a month's time.

The Power of Facebook

Now I can see that Facebook is very powerful. I just signed up and I immediately learnt that a JC classmate just passed away on 8 June 09.

This is very interesting... Please cry.

June Holidays 09

I have no holiday this June!

Things to Do

Academic
Mark practical books. (started)
Prepare CME admin.
Mark workbooks.
Mark SPA Skill 3 (DONE)

Practical Coursework
Mark Practical Coursework. (DONE)
Prepare mark list. (DONE)
Prepare Comp Matrix. (DONE)
Prepare teacher's answers. (DONE)

Course
Balanced Scorecard Course (DONE)
Data Logger Course (DONE)

Admin
Call parents to check for Internet and PC availability. (DONE)
Update data on PC and Internet availability. (DONE)
Call 3 parents of failures. (DONE)
Call 2 parents for Physics. (1 done)
H1N1 admin (DONE)
Prepare Olympiad admin package. (DONE)
Send student leader nominations. (DONE)
Class committee final structure.
Supervise Happy Toilet drawing (DONE) and painting (DONE).
Work Review admin. (DONE)
Balanced Scorecard Dept Plan (DONE)
Finalize EL Dept ISPL (DONE)
Clear mailbox to 50%.

Teaching
Teach extended programme 4E1 and 4E6. (DONE)
Remedial groups for 4E6. (DONE)
Remedial groups for 1E2 (1st done) and 1E3.
Remedial groups for 4E1.
Remedial groups for 3E5. (1st done)
Teach 4E1 extra lessons. (DONE)
Teach Olympiad group. (OVER)

NCC
Follow Spec Course II (DONE) and Spec Course III last day. (DONE)
Finalize NCC admin. (started)
Finalize NCC Leaps points.
Finalize Camp admin. (DONE)
Attend Camp. (DONE)
NCC photos (DONE)
Supervise the NCC Room move. (DONE)
Create leadership form (DONE)

Resource Generation
Finalize Sec 3 online project rubric. (DONE)
Finalize Sec 2 video rubric. (DONE)
Finalize Sec 1 eLearning. (DONE)
Finalize Physics poster.
Do Physics eLearning (2 weeks) (DONE)
Do EL eLearning (writing) + HBL (2 weeks) (DONE)
Finalize Sec 1 EL SOW. (DONE)
Finalize Sec 1 EL Food unit. (DONE)
Finalize Sec 1 EL Supernatural unit.
Speech Day Programme Book (DONE)

Others
Tidy car.
Tidy table. (started)
Do serious dating that we cannot do during term time. (DONE)
See cancer specialists. (DONE)
Send car for servicing. (DONE)

I attended a Physics Sharing at TJC yesterday, conducted by a TJC senior teacher. And that's the difference between a JC teacher and a secondary school teacher. Almost all of the secondary school teachers there had weak Physics concepts and did not know most standard misconceptions or explanations. (But I'm a trained JC teacher...)

And he also mentioned that sometimes what teachers do in secondary schools is quite strange. For example, there was one school that took students out to experience an MRT ride to see inertia at work.

Yes, exactly. If you ask me, almost all students would have experienced that before. And experiencing it does not help you to understand or explain about it. The real reason why secondary schools do it is that it looks good. It is fashionable to have out-of-classroom lessons.

And he also mentioned that while Temasek Academy (IP) students do a lot of interesting lessons (THINK ©, PBL, Inquiry), the JC students actually don't because they are more focused on the A Level exam and preparation for university rigour. For bread and butter results, direct instruction of concepts is the way to go.

Over the weekend, there was a series of articles in the ST on MFA overseas offices. And there was an article on the embassy in Indonesia.

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Anyway, career teachers (not Ps, VPs, HODs and others) seem to have short lives. Many of my primary school teachers are dead. And apparently, a study in the UK proves that career civil servants (non-head) have short lives. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehall_Study

It has been most demoralizing this few weeks. Not only have my students not been studying, I've also been way too busy to coach them properly. And the usual stresses of being a teacher. And the unfairness.

It's really meaningless.

And I received some numbing news last week that not only am I a physical wreck, but I failed two cancer screening tests. My ENT cancer marker is astronomical while the GIT cancer marker is slightly high. This means that I most likely have a malignancy or am going to develop one in the near future. And that was why they called me by phone. The report will only be ready next week.

And I'm too busy to do anything about it until next week. Mid-Year exam marking as usual.

I'll start marking again at 9 pm after I take a shower and then read the papers.

Here is an excerpt of a speech...

Speech by: MRS YU-FOO YEE SHOON, MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, YOUTH AND SPORTS

MCYS SPEECH NO: 57/2007
DATE OF ISSUE: 11/11/2007

AT 2.30PM AT SINGAPORE EXPO

"While the Singapore family remains generally strong, like families in most developed countries, they are facing challenges. Today, we have higher divorce rates. The general divorce rate increased from 3.8 per 1,000 married resident females in 1980 to 8.0 in 2006. Although the duration of marriages for divorces in Singapore is on average 9.5 years, we are seeing more young marriages breaking up. Two decades ago, only 2.6 percent of civil marriages registered in 1987 lasted less than 5 years, now 3.8 percent of the 2002 marriage cohort divorced before the 5th year. We also have higher divorce rates for older couples. Twelve percent of civil marriages registered in 1992 ended in divorce before they hit the 15th year mark. This is an increase of 2 percentage point compared to the 1987 cohort."

"Notwithstanding this rate of increase, I note that Singapore continues to have one of the lowest divorce rates when compared to countries like Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom and United States. In Singapore, 2 per 1,000 of our residents were divorced or separated, as compared to 3 in Hong Kong, 4 in Japan and 8 in Britain."

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According to the Department of Statistics, in 2007, there were 23,088 resident marriages and 7,226 divorces and annulments.

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With high divorce rates, how to find someone to love you and marry you for who you are...?