"Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendour in the grass, or glory in the flower, we will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind."
- William Wordsworth
Credit: picture from yahoo images.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Today's Project Excellence session was one of the best so far.
Perhaps it was due to the presence of an external audience (the cameraman who is doing the filming), the kids were extremely well-behaved throughout the session. This is quite miraculous, considering that these kids are usually noisy at times. Or was it the presence of Mr Tan? A possible confound.
This is such an interesting phenomenon. I remembered reading from somewhere that when an individual is under scrutiny by a camera, he/she will display a nontypical positive behaviour. Apparently this applies to kids as well.
But anyway, the activities were the same as previous week. A game of Headcount, followed by Poker Cards Mental Sum and finally a heuristic activity called "Act It Out". The kids were exposed to this special way of solving maths problems which I felt was very effective. We had an outdoor session of "Inventing Games" before the session ended.
It's 2 more session then we are done for the year. I can't imagine we are 1 year old faciliators now (or 2 year volunteers). Like what jeffrey says, we are going to hit the "3 year itch" pretty soon. haha
And Simon told us news that the programme is expanding, so next year is going to be a tough one. But like the rest of the volunteers, I believe we will be ready for this new challenge =)
Perhaps it was due to the presence of an external audience (the cameraman who is doing the filming), the kids were extremely well-behaved throughout the session. This is quite miraculous, considering that these kids are usually noisy at times. Or was it the presence of Mr Tan? A possible confound.
This is such an interesting phenomenon. I remembered reading from somewhere that when an individual is under scrutiny by a camera, he/she will display a nontypical positive behaviour. Apparently this applies to kids as well.
But anyway, the activities were the same as previous week. A game of Headcount, followed by Poker Cards Mental Sum and finally a heuristic activity called "Act It Out". The kids were exposed to this special way of solving maths problems which I felt was very effective. We had an outdoor session of "Inventing Games" before the session ended.
It's 2 more session then we are done for the year. I can't imagine we are 1 year old faciliators now (or 2 year volunteers). Like what jeffrey says, we are going to hit the "3 year itch" pretty soon. haha
And Simon told us news that the programme is expanding, so next year is going to be a tough one. But like the rest of the volunteers, I believe we will be ready for this new challenge =)
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Every semester there will be a point in time when I start questioning why I decided to torture myself by taking psychology. There is so many readings to do every week, numerous essays to submit, and super difficult mid-terms and final examinations (which never fails to cause my low self-esteem to drop further).
And somehow that period will pass and I will begin to like psychology again.
Unfortunately, its that time of the semester again =(
And somehow that period will pass and I will begin to like psychology again.
Unfortunately, its that time of the semester again =(
Saturday, October 17, 2009
"Life often surprises you when you least expect it. Of course whether it's pleasant or not depend very well on your own perspective" (CP, 2009)
In life, there are so many things that are beyond anyone's control. What happens when expectations don't meet reality? One can either change their expectations to reflect reality, or continue treating reality as a nightmare that one will wake up from eventually.
As much as I like to dream about that wonderful future, sometimes its better to be realistic. Expectations usually yield disappointments. And I don't want to feel that often in life.
My life is too short for sad things.
In life, there are so many things that are beyond anyone's control. What happens when expectations don't meet reality? One can either change their expectations to reflect reality, or continue treating reality as a nightmare that one will wake up from eventually.
As much as I like to dream about that wonderful future, sometimes its better to be realistic. Expectations usually yield disappointments. And I don't want to feel that often in life.
My life is too short for sad things.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
I decided to post up the activities that the volunteers have done for Project Excellence, in case we forgot about them next time in our lives.
On Saturday, we were supposed to have a filming session for publicity during the cdac award ceremony but the filming crew didn't appear. So end up some of the activities got postponed to another session.
Anyway, we started off with a game of Headcount, a DS game that shows people walking in, walking out of a house and we have to guess the final numbers of people in the house at the end. This is an interesting game that demonstrates the need for accuracy and concentration given time pressure.
The next game we played uses poker cards. Each kid got a stack of cards and they are supposed to open them up and either multiply, add or subtract the numbers and tell us the answer in the shortest time.
After that, the kids got a chance to go out and they were given the task of inventing a game for the other kids to play using the allocated equipment. These includes 1 blindfold, 1 inflatable ball and 6 hula-hoops.
Enjoyed this session tremendously =)
On Saturday, we were supposed to have a filming session for publicity during the cdac award ceremony but the filming crew didn't appear. So end up some of the activities got postponed to another session.
Anyway, we started off with a game of Headcount, a DS game that shows people walking in, walking out of a house and we have to guess the final numbers of people in the house at the end. This is an interesting game that demonstrates the need for accuracy and concentration given time pressure.
The next game we played uses poker cards. Each kid got a stack of cards and they are supposed to open them up and either multiply, add or subtract the numbers and tell us the answer in the shortest time.
After that, the kids got a chance to go out and they were given the task of inventing a game for the other kids to play using the allocated equipment. These includes 1 blindfold, 1 inflatable ball and 6 hula-hoops.
Enjoyed this session tremendously =)
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Haven't visited the thingsweforget blog for sometime and I was greeted with this very relevant post-it note. I will always remember this by heart. It's useless to lead just by using authority and power, for you will only have their obedience but never their hearts.
One day, I hope to be a true leader who can inspire and motivate people to chase for their own dreams =)
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Saturday, October 03, 2009
We had a very special guest lecturer for our forensic class yesterday. And he is the famous Dr. Henry C. Lee 李昌鈺.
At first I didn't know how famous he was, after all our lecturer's (Dr Stella) email said "one of the world foremost forensic scientist". I thought that must be nothing compared to those Nobel laureates, but apparently I was wrong. Dr Stella said it cost something like US$10,000 for an hour of his lecture so he must be some really big shot (which is in fact through).
NUS is really honored by his presence. His lecture was extremely interesting and he kept throwing free badges to students who answered his questions (raising your hands is counted as well sometimes). Those badges were like $29.90 each. Wow. His fascination for spinning powerpoints words entertained us well for that 3 hours too.
Somewhere in the middle of the lecture, he also showed us a picture of his plastic ruler he used for his investigation work. Someone actually took it and sold it on ebay for like US$495. That ruler probably cost like 50 cents?? haha. He was going to give out 2 during the lecture and one of those rulers ended up with some lucky student in the lecture hall (The other went to the Vice Dean I think).
Some of his famous cases includes the OJ Simpson case, reinvestigation of JFK assassination, 3-19 Chen Sui Ban shooting (then taiwan president), Vincent Foster case, Phil Spector case. Check out wikipedia to find out more. These are BIG cases.
One of the best forensic lecture so far =)
At first I didn't know how famous he was, after all our lecturer's (Dr Stella) email said "one of the world foremost forensic scientist". I thought that must be nothing compared to those Nobel laureates, but apparently I was wrong. Dr Stella said it cost something like US$10,000 for an hour of his lecture so he must be some really big shot (which is in fact through).
NUS is really honored by his presence. His lecture was extremely interesting and he kept throwing free badges to students who answered his questions (raising your hands is counted as well sometimes). Those badges were like $29.90 each. Wow. His fascination for spinning powerpoints words entertained us well for that 3 hours too.
Somewhere in the middle of the lecture, he also showed us a picture of his plastic ruler he used for his investigation work. Someone actually took it and sold it on ebay for like US$495. That ruler probably cost like 50 cents?? haha. He was going to give out 2 during the lecture and one of those rulers ended up with some lucky student in the lecture hall (The other went to the Vice Dean I think).
Some of his famous cases includes the OJ Simpson case, reinvestigation of JFK assassination, 3-19 Chen Sui Ban shooting (then taiwan president), Vincent Foster case, Phil Spector case. Check out wikipedia to find out more. These are BIG cases.
One of the best forensic lecture so far =)
Friday, October 02, 2009
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Oops but sorry for the lack of updates. I was too busy trying to rush through 2 mid terms test and 1 forensic report this week. But I'm done with it now (like finally). So that is the end of hell week I supposed.
Recess Week was a super fruitful one. Other than monday and tuesday when I was busy mugging alone in RP library for social cog test, wednesday was spent with CPG at JB, followed by NEXUS camp from thursday till sunday.
JB was a great time to nua. We basically slacked around Jusco for lunch at A&W. Out of our randomness, we decided to do a carousal from the wooden structure (or whatever you call it). Cool way to slack while waiting for dinner at Taman garden (literal translation). After that its secret recipe for takeaway back home.
NEXUS camp is one fun camp. We get to do whitewater rafting, waterfall abseiling and caving all for FREE. haha. Of course we learnt about leadership stuff as well. And tons of games, especially polar bear.
Alright I shall stop for now. Need to rush my forensic report first.
Recess Week was a super fruitful one. Other than monday and tuesday when I was busy mugging alone in RP library for social cog test, wednesday was spent with CPG at JB, followed by NEXUS camp from thursday till sunday.
JB was a great time to nua. We basically slacked around Jusco for lunch at A&W. Out of our randomness, we decided to do a carousal from the wooden structure (or whatever you call it). Cool way to slack while waiting for dinner at Taman garden (literal translation). After that its secret recipe for takeaway back home.
NEXUS camp is one fun camp. We get to do whitewater rafting, waterfall abseiling and caving all for FREE. haha. Of course we learnt about leadership stuff as well. And tons of games, especially polar bear.
Alright I shall stop for now. Need to rush my forensic report first.
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