Preparing for LA EOYs

Time has passed so quickly and now, its time to gear up for this year's obstacle: The End of years exams. Right now, the only thing left for us to do is to revise constantly, to refresh our memory and to get our facts right. However, the revision for Language Arts is different from the other subjects like mathematics and science, as it involves not only memory, but skills that we should have developed over the past few months.

For paper 1(writing), I will be revising on the format for situational writing. I will have to remember to write with the correct tone and also how to request/reject/complain formally. For the free essay, I will be going reviewing my previous essays and also reading more newspapers to get ideas for different plots. I will also be trying out the past year papers to get an idea of how the actual day will be like. I will be timing myself and after finishing my essay, I will let my friends mark my paper and listen to their comments and opinions.

For paper 2(comprehension and summary), I will be going through my past assignments and redo the comprehension exercises so as to make sure I will not make the same mistakes again. Again I will be reading newspapers and short stories to expand my vocabulary so that I will be able to express my answer clearly and easily. I will incorporate everything which I had learn from micro fiction and apply it into summary writing. I will practice identifying the keywords in the passage so that I will be able to get the key ideas in the story.

For unseen prose and poetry, I will have to make sure that I am able to understand the text inside out, as it is important in analysis. Therefore, I will be analyzing different poems on the internet and compare it with its actual analysis, to get an idea of how accurate I am. Analyzing prose is more or less the same as poetry, so I will be using the same method to revise for unseen prose. I will be going through the load of notes again, to refresh my memory. Lastly, for animal farm, I will definitely need to reread the book a few more times. I will be analyzing the story once again, and also write a character sketch for each character in the story. Also, I will be memorizing some important quotes, which will be useful when I need to quote my points.

MBA - Who am I?

The song that I have chosen is Numb by Linkin Park
Click here to listen to the song

I'm tired of being what you want me to be
Feeling so faithless, lost under the surface
Don't know what you're expecting of me
Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes,
Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow,
Every step that I take is another mistake to you,
Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow

I've become so numb, I can't feel you there
I've become so tired, so much more aware
I'm becoming this all I wanted to do
Is be more like me and be less like you

Can't you see that you're smothering me?
Holding too tightly, afraid to lose control
'Cause everything that you thought I would be
Has fallen apart right in front of you,
Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow,
Every step that I take is another mistake to you,
Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow,
And every second I waste is more than I can take!

I've become so numb, I can't feel you there
I've become so tired, so much more aware
I'm becoming this all I wanted to do
Is be more like me and be less like you

And I know
I may end up failing too
But I know
You were just like me with someone disappointed in you

I've become so numb I can't feel you there
I've become so tired so much more aware
I'm becoming this all I wanted to do
Is be more like me and be less like you

I've become so numb I can't feel you there
I'm tired of being what you want me to be
I've become so numb I can't feel you there
I'm tired of being what you want me to be

Analysis

Overview

This song is most likely from the point of view of a teenager. He thinks that his parents expect too much from him and he could no longer feel their love. He feels that he has little freedom and did not want to follow them anymore. He could no longer bear any of this. He is numb to them and cannot feel their love anymore.

Stanza 1

The teenager is tired of his parents’ expectations of him. He has no faith in himself and he is lost in the world. He does not know what is expected of him. "Walking in your shoes" refers to the teenager following his parents' instructions and he is under pressure because of that. "Caught in the undertow" is repeated many times to emphasize on the teenager stuck in a situation which he has to follow his parents. He feels that whatever he does is another mistake to his parents.

Stanza 2 (Chorus)

He has become numb to them as a result - he could no longer feel their love. He is tired of them and is so much more aware of them. All he wants to do is to "be more like me and be less like you" proving that he really wants to be independent and not follow his parents

Stanza 3

The teenager wants to let the parents know that they are overprotective. They are holding on to him too tightly, restricting his freedom, his life, as they are afraid to lose control over him. Ironically, they wanted the best for their son, but instead, everything that they thought he would be, all his future, all has fallen apart, destroyed forever. Everything step that he takes alone is another mistake to them and he can no longer bear another second wasted because of his trapped life.

Stanza 4 (Chorus)

Repetition (refer to stanza 2)

Stanza 5

He knows that even if he makes his own decisions, he still may fail. But he knows that his parents were also once also like him, with someone also disappointed in them.

Stanza 6 (Chorus)

Repetition (refer to stanza 2)

Stanza 7

The teenager is so numb that he can no longer feel their existence. "I'm tired of being what you want me to be" from the first stanza is repeated, emphasizing the most important message sent to the parents and in fact, the listener.

---

My response

Leave me alone by Kuan Wei Heng

All these while
your cage which locked me in
and the locks that held me tight
left
me
like

this

All these stress
and pain

Do you really care?
Does this really matter?

Leave me alone
Do not follow me

Let
go
of





me.

---

Father's response

I realised that I have not been paying much attention to my son, neglecting our father and son relationship. I am glad that I realised this before it was too late. Hopefully, I will be able to understand my son more and be more sensitive to his feelings.

Extended Metaphor poem

Neglected and forgotten,
left aside for days.
Sitting in that corner,
slowy rusts and greys.

Its mouth opens wide,
waiting to be fed.
Whatever that's thrown inside,
nothing makes it sad.

Then after a month,
its that time again.
We rip its inner parts out,
change it with no pain.

Reflections on E - learning

Overall, I put in more hours per day with E-Learning than during a regular school day as apparently, there were more work to be done and less time for learning. On a regular school day, Most of the time spent in school was listening to the teacher teaching. However during E-learning, I feel that the lessons were insufficient and there were too much work to finish during that one hour each day, and sometimes the deadlines are unclear and so, it was quite difficult for me to distinguish between homework and classwork. Also, on a regular school week, we usually have enough time to finish our homework as they some are to be passed up at the teacher's next lesson, which might be the two days later, for some cases. While on the other hand, E-learning homework were to be passed up on the next day.

On average, I took more than one hour to complete each Language Arts Assignment as they require some IT tools like blogs.

I liked the lesson on figurative language the most as the video was interesting and I enjoyed the part on analyzing the poem.

My suggestions to make E-Learning better are...

• Clearer instructions
• later deadlines
• more lessons, lesser homework

Emergency IT Lesson 6: Compulsory Blog Entry

Lotteries have been called a tax on the poor. Ultimately at only a dollar or two a ticket, anyone can play the lotteries. However, many people become addicted to buying tickets and they can cause family/marital problems. Discuss this topic with a parent and get their view on lotteries and specifically lotteries in Singapore. Include at least one quote from an adult, one quote or reference from either an NPR presentation or YouTube video in your discussion. Your blog entry has to be at least 200 words in length and you must either support lotteries or condemn them.

I choose to condemn lottery. In my opinion, I feel that the lottery has ruined the lives of many people who were addicted to it. Spending a few dollars to buy some chances of winning big money might not seem like a big problem for most Singaporeans but does cause real problems when people get addicted to it. Most Singaporeans actually do know that buying lottery tickets is. A person who is addicted to the lottery will continue to buy more and more lottery tickets until he finally wins the big prize. If the addiction persists for a period of time, the person would have spent most of his savings on useless pieces of paper. Buying lottery tickets is a waste of money and you will get addicted the more you are involved in it. A person will be ruined by the lottery and family and marital problems will arise.

The impressive cash prize is never easy to ignore, especially if you have hopes on winning it, but what are the chances of winning any of the prizes? The answer is 1 in 10000. That means that every lottery ticket that you buy would only give you a pathetic chance of 0.01% to win. And if you want to give yourself a feeble 1% chance of winning the lottery, you have to spend $200, each ticket for $2. However, the impractical nature of all humans makes most people go for it even though the chances are not in their favour. If you manage to win once, consider yourself lucky, but not everybody will get to win the lottery once. Likewise, only a few will be able to win the lottery more than once, so the best thing is not to gamble with the chances and stay away from the lottery or even gambling.

Out of desperation, some people even resort into following superstitious beliefs to grasps as much luck as possible, or discover lucky numbers through others. They would offer joss-sticks to household gods and dead relatives to be blessed and try to interpret all "messages" returned which might reveal the winning numbers. These superstitious would increase the hopes of winning for them and they would buy even more tickets.

In conclusion, the obvious answer is to NEVER buy any lottery tickets as your first ticket will be the beginning of the end of your future and it is NEVER worth it.

Emergency IT lesson 5: Poetry on gambling

1. Show how the poem Tom Beatty could be compared to The Rocking Horse Winner. In studying the poem, note that the opera house is really life and when He makes the rules it’s either the Lord or perhaps the devil. Beatty suggests that everyone has about 70 years, but Paul in The Rocking Horse Winner had much less time. Explain what Paul’s weakness was, how the cards were stacked against him and do you think Paul was lucky not to live to be an old man fumbling the cards, leaden-eyed and whining about his losses?


Paul's weakness was that he was too naive to not have seen his addiction in gambling. His initial gamble for his mother's love turned into an obsession in gambling and winning money. Paul was lucky not to live to be an old man fumbling cards, leaden-eyed and whining about his losses. If he had survived that night, he would probably still be blindly winning for his ungrateful mother while he keep the burden to himself.

2. In The Green Clothes, green is the color of envy, greed and money! This poem is thematically similar to Paper. Even though the poem takes place at a roulette wheel the gamblers from the short story and the poem have similar experiences. Explain how tips, dry lips, and all that was spent in vain could apply to the short story Paper.

Tips would represent Tay Soon's initial earnings. Dry lips would represent stress, pressure and frustration which was consumed Tay Soon after the stock market crashed. All that was spent in vain refers to all off his life savings were lost and his dream was finished as he failed to sell his stock in the end. He eventually loses his life as well and the paper house made for him burnt down with him.

3. Ah Boh in Lottery has about one dollar, there’s a “blind man,” the number 13 and ultimately zero dollars to bet. These last examples are taken from One-Dollar Gambler. Show how they also relate to Ah Boh.

The "blind man" represents Ah Boh, who was blinded by the thought of winning the lottery and continued to gamble in thinking that "the day will come". The number 13 represents her being unlucky and never winning once. It also relates to her superstitions regarding gambling. Zero dollars to bet would mean that Ah Boh had gambled all her money in the end and lost everything that she have, including her old mother.

Emergency IT lesson 4:Theme: Gambling

1. In relation to Paper, you should explain exactly what the title refers to and why it is so significant to gambling, gains on the stock market and ultimately the conclusion of the story.

The title has 3 meanings, relating to gambling, gains on the stock market and ultimately the conclusion of the story. Firstly, the title 'Paper' in reference to gambling, is referring about money, the one of the main focus of the story. 'Paper' in reference to gains on the stock market, refers to stock certificates, documents which certify stocks. Lastly, in reference to the conclusion of the story, 'Paper' also refers to the paper house.

2. For Lottery, do an analysis of 100 words in which you look at Ah Boh’s superstitions regarding gambling.

Ah Boh's addiction in gambling has led her to believing anything that could help her win. She believed that anything from new-born babies to events of a tragic like an accident would hold numbers that would help her win like the date of a special event or the license plate of a wrecked vehicle. She even believed that her dreams convey winning numbers and that offering joss-sticks to gods or her dead husband.

3. For The Rocking Horse Winner, write a paragraph of 100 words in which you point out who was responsible for Paul’s death.

In the Rocking Horse Winner, the person who was responsible for Paul's death should be his mother. Paul only gambled because he thought that he was lucky and could help his mother by winning money for her. Even though Paul had given her enough money, for her to pay her debts, she also wasted it on other unnecessary uses instead of saving it like spending it on new furnishing and hiring Paul a tutor. This caused the whisperings that has been bothering Paul to go mad and Paul was frightened of it. Paul died at the end of the story as he was thinking too much about winning that he entered a state of coma and died eventually. His death was indirectly caused by his mother who he wanted to win for.

Image source: http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/12.09.99/gambling-9949.html

Emergency IT Lesson 3: Analyzing & Composing poem

The Son is in Secondary School by Affran Sa’at

My badge has a Latin motto
Hope for the future
The future is hope
Or something

At times black crows try to interrupt
When we sing the National Anthem

It is difficult to maintain
The whiteness of my shoes
Especially on Wednesdays

I must admit there is something quite special
About the bare thighs of hardworking scouts

The Malay chauffeurs
Who wait for my schoolmates
Sit on the car park kerb
Telling jokes to one another

Seven to the power of five is unreasonable

On Chinese New Year
Mrs Lee dressed up
In a sarong kebaya
And sang Bengawan Solo

The capital of Singapore is Singapore

My best friend did a heroic thing once
Shaded all A’s
For his Chinese Language
Multiple-choice paper

In our annual yearbook
There is a photograph of me
Pushing a wheelchair and smiling

They caught me
At the exact moment
When my eyes were actually closed


Analysis

The subject of the poem is Secondary School life.
This poem is a free verse as has no rhyme nor regular rhythm.
The title of the poem is an alliteration.

The writer reveals his secondary school life through this poem, telling the reader the good and bad times he had, the experiences that he had gone through and how he felt.


School of yesterday by Kuan Wei Heng

My old school days wasn't so bad,
It's full of twists and turn.
I could still remember some of this and that
but most of the time all I did was learn, learn, learn.

My schedule was tight, no time to spare
For I had CCA and tuition.
I had to rush my homework and projects
until I had no time for revision.

The class's always noisy
Its never easy to concentrate.
At home, after homework and stuff
I had to read up myself until it's late.

During recess, its still the same,
Doing homework alone, alas.
Sometimes I still have the time
But I would chose to stay in class.

Its never been easy during those days
but secondary school is much stressful
And so the irony unfolds
For my wish is to go back to my primary school.

Emergency IT Lesson 2: Favourite poet

"Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light."-Theodore Roethke

Theodore Huebner Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan. His father, Otto Roethke, was a German immigrant, who owned a large local greenhouse along with his brother. As a child, Roethke spent much time in the greenhouse observing nature. This was probably what caused him to use natural images in his poetry. And that is the reason I chose this poet. Theodore Roethke has a unique way of writing which is by expressing himself through nature. He uses animals and foliage, any bit of nature in almost all of his poems.

Here are some of his poems:

Root Cellar by Theodore Roethke

Nothing would sleep in that cellar, dank as a ditch,
Bulbs broke out of boxes hunting for chinks in the dark,
Shoots dangled and drooped,
Lolling obscenely from mildewed crates,
Hung down long yellow evil necks, like tropical snakes.
And what a congress of stinks!
Roots ripe as old bait,
Pulpy stems, rank, silo-rich,
Leaf-mold, manure, lime, piled against slippery planks.
Nothing would give up life:
Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath.

Cuttings by Theodore Roethke

This urge, wrestle, resurrection of dry sticks,
Cut stems struggling to put down feet,
What saint strained so much,
Rose on such lopped limbs to a new life?
I can hear, underground, that sucking and sobbing,
In my veins, in my bones I feel it --
The small waters seeping upward,
The tight grains parting at last.
When sprouts break out,
Slippery as fish,
I quail, lean to beginnings, sheath-wet.

and here's a really long one(it's well-known):

The Far Field by Theodore Roethke

I

I dream of journeys repeatedly:
Of flying like a bat deep into a narrowing tunnel
Of driving alone, without luggage, out a long peninsula,
The road lined with snow-laden second growth,
A fine dry snow ticking the windshield,
Alternate snow and sleet, no on-coming traffic,
And no lights behind, in the blurred side-mirror,
The road changing from glazed tarface to a rubble of stone,
Ending at last in a hopeless sand-rut,
Where the car stalls,
Churning in a snowdrift
Until the headlights darken.

II

At the field's end, in the corner missed by the mower,
Where the turf drops off into a grass-hidden culvert,
Haunt of the cat-bird, nesting-place of the field-mouse,
Not too far away from the ever-changing flower-dump,
Among the tin cans, tires, rusted pipes, broken machinery, --
One learned of the eternal;
And in the shrunken face of a dead rat, eaten by rain and ground-beetles
(I found in lying among the rubble of an old coal bin)
And the tom-cat, caught near the pheasant-run,
Its entrails strewn over the half-grown flowers,
Blasted to death by the night watchman.

I suffered for young birds, for young rabbits caught in the mower,
My grief was not excessive.
For to come upon warblers in early May
Was to forget time and death:
How they filled the oriole's elm, a twittering restless cloud, all one morning,
And I watched and watched till my eyes blurred from the bird shapes, --
Cape May, Blackburnian, Cerulean, --
Moving, elusive as fish, fearless,
Hanging, bunched like young fruit, bending the end branches,
Still for a moment,
Then pitching away in half-flight,
Lighter than finches,
While the wrens bickered and sang in the half-green hedgerows,
And the flicker drummed from his dead tree in the chicken-yard.

-- Or to lie naked in sand,
In the silted shallows of a slow river,
Fingering a shell,
Thinking:
Once I was something like this, mindless,
Or perhaps with another mind, less peculiar;
Or to sink down to the hips in a mossy quagmire;
Or, with skinny knees, to sit astride a wet log,
Believing:
I'll return again,
As a snake or a raucous bird,
Or, with luck, as a lion.

I learned not to fear infinity,
The far field, the windy cliffs of forever,
The dying of time in the white light of tomorrow,
The wheel turning away from itself,
The sprawl of the wave,
The on-coming water.


II
The river turns on itself,
The tree retreats into its own shadow.
I feel a weightless change, a moving forward
As of water quickening before a narrowing channel
When banks converge, and the wide river whitens;
Or when two rivers combine, the blue glacial torrent
And the yellowish-green from the mountainy upland, --
At first a swift rippling between rocks,
Then a long running over flat stones
Before descending to the alluvial plane,
To the clay banks, and the wild grapes hanging from the elmtrees.
The slightly trembling water
Dropping a fine yellow silt where the sun stays;
And the crabs bask near the edge,
The weedy edge, alive with small snakes and bloodsuckers, --
I have come to a still, but not a deep center,
A point outside the glittering current;
My eyes stare at the bottom of a river,
At the irregular stones, iridescent sandgrains,
My mind moves in more than one place,
In a country half-land, half-water.

I am renewed by death, thought of my death,
The dry scent of a dying garden in September,
The wind fanning the ash of a low fire.
What I love is near at hand,
Always, in earth and air.


IV

The lost self changes,
Turning toward the sea,
A sea-shape turning around, --
An old man with his feet before the fire,
In robes of green, in garments of adieu.
A man faced with his own immensity
Wakes all the waves, all their loose wandering fire.
The murmur of the absolute, the why
Of being born falls on his naked ears.
His spirit moves like monumental wind
That gentles on a sunny blue plateau.
He is the end of things, the final man.

All finite things reveal infinitude:
The mountain with its singular bright shade
Like the blue shine on freshly frozen snow,
The after-light upon ice-burdened pines;
Odor of basswood on a mountain-slope,
A scent beloved of bees;
Silence of water above a sunken tree :
The pure serene of memory in one man, --
A ripple widening from a single stone
Winding around the waters of the world.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roethke
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/theodore_roethke/biography
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/roethke/bio.htm

Emergency IT Lesson 1: Figurative Language

Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face by Jack Prelutsky

Be glad your nose is on your face,
not pasted on some other place,
for if it were where it is not,
you might dislike your nose a lot.

Imagine if your precious nose
were sandwiched in between your toes,
that clearly would not be a treat,
for you'd be forced to smell your feet.

Your nose would be a source of dread
were it attached atop your head,
it soon would drive you to despair,
forever tickled by your hair.

Within your ear, your nose would be
an absolute catastrophe,
for when you were obliged to sneeze,
your brain would rattle from the breeze.

Your nose, instead, through thick and thin,
remains between your eyes and chin,
not pasted on some other place--
be glad your nose is on your face!

Hyperbole
'be glad your nose is on your face' is used as the title, the first sentence and the last sentence of the poem, emphasizing the message that the poet is trying to pass throughout the poem.

Personification
The 'nose', an inanimate organ, is given the impression of importance and significance because the poem revolves around it.

Metaphor
-

Simile
-

Symbolism
The 'nose' represents determinism, every event, including human cognition and behavior, decision and action, is casually determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences, chain reactions or aviation. It represents all that because our nose are on our faces, and unless this formed by pure coincidence of a series of exact chemical reactions, it is caused by determinism.

Why I like this poem
This poem shows us that even little things like our noses which we had even as a baby should not be taken for granted as we are lucky that they are grown on our faces. This does not apply to only the nose, but everything else, even other neglected objects that each of us own, like our pens and pencils and many others, that they should not be taken for granted.

My serial Novel Contribution

Monochrome
by Kuan Wei Heng

The night was pitch black.
Wipe-out was incoming.
Inevitable.
If only it happened in the day,
But it would still be unstoppable.

Then it happened.
The event horizon breached the Ionosphere.
Foliage uprooted.
Infrastructures displayed no resistance.
The dark menace rampaged the surface camouflaged.
Screams were inaudible.
Existence imploded at tachyonic velocity.

Then, nothingness.

~55 words~

Image source: http://www.exitmundi.nl/black-hole-lab2.gif

Comment - This M/F took me more than 1 hour to write! The first draft was 100 words long! I'm putting it up in my blog to let you critics see...hopefully I can get some encouraging comments!

The Mercurial Tom

Upheaval by Kuan Wei Heng

"The earth's magnetic field has been degrading constantly due to destructive human activities." Someone voiced.

"We need to do something!" Another Emphasized

As if on cue, the planet was struck by a cosmo blaze.
Earth was scarred forever
The human race paid for their actions but they regretted.

At last, The Orbital Machine lives on

~55 words~

Image source: http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/158270main_solarflare.jpg

Term 2 blogging reflections

Thoughts in 55 words
by Kuan Wei Heng

Blogged for 2 terms
Lacking ideas
Only typical writing
Guess what? Writing improved
Guess what? Blog maintained
In the end, I benefited
No ideas, still
Great ideas weren't from me
Is Blogging helpful?
Said teacher, "definitely"
Fiction so short, 55 words. Too easy?
Underestimated
Nothing to say. Last comment? See for yourself. Last word - acrostic

~55 words~
Image source: http://blog.globalgiving.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/the-computer-demands-a-blog.gif

Micro fiction

My first try on Micro Fiction using the 'Bubble Diagram Method'. Here goes nothing:

The Fireman

The inferno continued on its path of destruction.
Pandemonium. Chaos.
Nightmare.
Someone died. Someone cried.
Courage took over my senses and I dashed in.
Inside the building, a child I see.
Helpless he is.
I carried him out of the reach of death.
I fell. He escaped.
A medal of courage went into the vault.

~55 words~
Image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Central_range_bravery.jpg

Parent's comments on electronic bookshelf

Here is a link to my electronic bookshelf on weread.com:
http://weread.com/profile/Kuan/3C31787E-C03C-410D-8182-A9BA6FACEF2D?con_sandbox=booksiread&container_type=booksiread&&sort=

This is what my father commented on it:

Wei Heng likes to read books, especially books related to maths, puzzles, IQ test, Logic and science. These books are good to expand his logic mind and knowledge. However to develop a more critical and sensible thinking, Wei Heng should also read more fiction and literature. These books will also help to improve his command of language.

Father's memorable read

This is what my father said:

One of the book that leaves a deep impression in me is the Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew : The Singapore Story and From Third World to First. It is the memoirs of Singapore's First Prime Minister who almost single-handedly build a progressive and modern nation from a small island deprive of natural resources. With a grand vision for Singapore and astute political judgement, Lee Kuan Yew managed to overcome all odds and made his vision a reality. This book reminds me that to achieve great things in life, we must first have a vision, works diligently towards it and eventuality will take care of itself.

Confessions of a terrible prankster

When I was still in my old school days, I was well-known to be a sneaky little prankster. Every moment was always held an opportunity for me to entertain myself around the school - seeing people making a fool of themselves. Yes, it's true. beneath the young innocent-looking me, hides a devious little rogue planning each prank of the day.

Each time a prank succeeds, the victim would be a laughing stock among the rest of the crowds, although the rest of them know that they would be the next few. Thus, leading to a whole recess of fear and uncertainty. As it may seem, that all my pranks are harmful both physically and emotionally, most are actually quite harmless and sparks off a good laugh. I cold still remember some of my best gags: The fake food wrappings used to fool a horizontally-challenged friend (you know what that means), the dangerous-looking-but-totally-harmless-exploding-erasers that I designed to scare some other people and my personal favourite...all the fake techniques I used to trick a friend into believing I hacked a computer. But that is another story, another confession.

So, anyone wants a free eraser?

Differentiated Assignment - Intrapersonal

Oral Diary/Soliloquy from Philip’s point of view. Spoken into his handphone at 3A.M. He can’t sleep and can’t stop thinking of everything that has happened to him. His only chance at redemption is to explain and apologize. He sends his finished diary to Miss Narwin.

Dear diary,

It is now 3 a.m. in the morning but I still cannot sleep. The scenes of the whole incident keep flashing in front of my eyes, haunting me endlessly. Right now I'm still on my bed, restlessly fidgeting about, trying to get some sleep. Right now, I realize that my only chance at redemption is to explain the situation and apologize to you, Miss Narwin. So I am going to confess to you right now.

The truth is, I hummed along 'the star spangled banner' during class not because I was being patriotic, but because I wanted to annoy you as I hated you. I hated you because you failed my English and that resulted in me not being able to enter the school track team. I also hated you as you are so old-fashioned and that I felt that you are not understanding enough. It was bad enough for you to have been my English teacher and when you turned out to be my new homeroom teacher, I was determined to get out of your homeroom class or even your English class. And so, I decided to annoy you to have my homeroom class switched. That was my only intention. I never had the intention to blow the whole matter up or even to get you fired. I was just being selfish.

I have realized my mistakes now. I am the only person to blame for all that has happened to me in the end. I hope that you will forgive me, Miss Narwin.

Reflections on blogging for term 1

How time flies...I could still remember the moment in the beginning of the year when I sat in front of my computer, wondering what to write on my first blog post. My mind was blank. I didn't know what to write. Even a simple blog prompt like 'My First Day as a Secondary 1 Student' was difficult for me to develop. But after several more times of blogging (four times is enough!), I finally got the hang of it. Right now, it takes me merely ten seconds to think of what to write in my blog. Well, maybe not...

But anyway, blogging has been a new and wonderful experience for me as through a blog, I am able to express my thoughts and feelings. Also, blogging helped me improve my writing as well as my typing skills. Not only does the blogger benefits from blogging, but the person who read the blog also benefits from it. From reading other people's blog, we can learn from how they write and from there, improve our writing skills. So for me, I enjoy blogging a lot but the only thing that I dislike about blogging is that the computer sometimes reformat the font or the size of the words, making it very hard for me to type naturally or focus on what I am writing.

Although this way of teaching English, through blogging, seems to be an excellent way, I feel that there are still rooms for improvements. I suggest we should be given more than one blog prompt every time and we are only required to write only one of them. This way, we will be able to choose write which blog prompt we are more familiar with and some of us might be able to write better. If we finished that, we might even write another blog post using the blog prompt.

And finally, to end this blog post...the tie-in of my reading habits and electronic bookshelf to my blog improved both my reading and literacy skills. Hopefully, more interesting ways of learning English will be introduced to us as time passes.

Narrative and Graphics - My connections

Different writers may have a different way of conveying ideas and meanings in stories to the readers. For example, a writer may tell a story to the reader through words, like in a novel, or maybe illustrate the whole story through pictures with little or without any words at all, like in a graphic novel. How the story is understood in the end, depends on how the reader interprets the story or maybe even how the story is told. As mentioned before, a novel or graphic novel.

Yes, both pictures and words tell a story but which would be a better way? Words or pictures? When asked to answer this question, most people would probably reply 'words'. Why? Most authors use words to tell their stories, but are words always better than pictures?

Words are easiest way for a writer to convey a story. The English language alone contains more than 900000 words, how hard can it be for a writer to find the right words to explain his story? A novel forces the reader to visualize the story with only the help of the descriptions through the words.
A graphic novel, on the other hand, helps the reader picture the story in his mind through illustrations and reveals more details than a novel although some other information, like the names of the characters in the story, might be more difficult for the writer to convey to the readers. Pictures assist the reader in remembering the story as they are colorful and also gives the reader a feeling that he is part of the story. Also, a long paragraph in a novel describing somebody in the story can be replaced by a graphical impression of the person instead.

However, sometimes it depends on the type of story that is referred to if one is to decide whether the story should be conveyed through words or pictures. For example, a writer might not want to add in pictures if the story is a ghost story as it disrupts the atmosphere of the story but the writer might want to add in some illustrations if the story is a detective story as the writer would be able to reveal some clues in the pictures for the readers to solve the mystery.

To sum it up, I feel that both words and pictures are important aspects of a story as they have their own major factor that can enhance a story.

My top three learning preferences are: Logical, intrapersonal and visual/spatial

Diary entry of Phillip Malloy

24 Feb 09, Tuesday

Why did I do it? Why did I make a fuss out of the situation? Why didn't I apologize to Narwin? Why did I even tried to annoy her in the first place? I mean, she deserved it, she wasn't supposed to be fit as a teacher but then anyway, people still liked her! Arghh! Why is it so unfair! First, she failed my English, then, she did not even let me do extra work so that I can get into the school track team, and now......I am transferred a school without track and I am requested to lead the class to sing "The Star-spangled banner"!. How am I supposed to do that if I don't even know the words!

How I wished that I was back in Harrison......things might have turned out better if I worked hard on my English. Narwin might have even praised me for being hardworking! That's it! That's what I'm going to do! I'm going to work hard on my English in my new school, Washington Academy. I will prove to her that I can pass English! Because I am Phillip Malloy! It's time for Malloy Magic!

I am sorry Narwin. I am sorry to have caused you so much trouble. I wish you can forgive me.

My reading habits

My reading habits has been constantly changing throughout my life. I am not very sure about what kind of material I prefer to read but I usually read anything that captures my attention, ranging from books and magazines to newspapers and other periodicals. Basically, I'm the type of people who reads almost anything whenever I have the time.

If you are wondering what type of books I like to read, well I like both fiction and non-fiction books. In my primary school days, I used to read only comic books, magazines and other things that "little" me liked to read. Now, as a secondary 1 student, I find reading short stories and novels interesting too thanks to my English teacher who recommended us books to read. Generally, I read books of almost all categories, including mystery, sci-fi, ghost stories anything, anything that I find interesting.

To sum it all up, I would like to end this post with a message to all who is reading this right now "Whenever you have the time, pick up a book and read. It doesn't matter whether it is a novel or a comic book, as long as it is a book and you like it, just read it. There is no harm doing so."

Check out some of the books I have read at weread.com!

http://weread.com/profile/Kuan/3C31787E-C03C-410D-8182-A9BA6FACEF2D?refuid=3C31787E-C03C-410D-8182-A9BA6FACEF2D&src=&auri=

My First Day as a Secondary 1 Student

Another year had just passed and a new 2009 begins. My six tiring years in primary school had finally show its results! My PSLE score was an amazing 266 and so, I got into a good secondary School.

Two weeks after the secondary one orientation, the first day of lessons started in school. The classroom was quite small and the desks and chairs were quite old too. Also, there were only 34 students in our class. Perhaps I am still new to the school. I don't know. I became friends with some of my classmates even though we were still new to the school. Our lessons were more or less introductions by the teachers, their expectations and stuff like that and our class also had our recess on the first day of school. To my surprise, we have 40 minutes of recess everyday! Although the food sold in the canteen are more expensive than those sold in my primary school canteen, there is a bigger variety of food and also some which are really worth it.

Even though there are some areas in the school that could still be improved, I still feel that I am going to enjoy my secondary school. Well, there's nothing else for me to say, so I hope you had enjoyed reading my first blog entry!