Annual family outing

Our family outing involves three cats and a dog on a visit to the vet's. They are long overdue for their shots and today happened to be a clear day on all our busy calendars.

The cats are like kids. We have to grab each one and stuff them in their individual portable cages before we can load them in the car. That IS the standard procedure, right? But as always there's the howling, the screaming and tears -- mostly from me, as Kaiser (such a disagreeable boy!) gashed my finger with an ill-placed claw. I'll wear the scar for a few days, I'm sure. Otherwise, everyone arrived safely at the vet's eventually, singing lively choruses in the trunk all the way through the whole trip.

For routine cases like ours today, a trip to the vet is a laugh-a-minute. But while we were there, it happened that a couple of other pet owners had to make the decision to sign the dreaded pink form. Maybe that's why pets don't like seeing the vet. For us, we get sick, we consult a medical practitioner, we go home with bags of pills and stuff. But for pets, a trip to the vet could potentially mean taking one last ride in the car. :'(

System error

Starting to rethink the utility of content. Firstly, because I'm now on the committee producing the stuff in large, predigested quantities to be regurgitated for the benefit of our little fledglings. Secondly, because after today's in-class exercise I've come to the conclusion that for some pockets of children, they are truly lacking in intelligence.

Before you haul out the pitchforks and torches, I don't mean 'intelligence' in the sense of being able to process information (although that outcome has yet to be empirically tested). I mean that they are deficient in 'intel', knowledge. In other words, they're ignorant. There, I said it. Now you can pick up your riot gear again.

All the processing routines I've instructed them in to date is sound, but while my attention has been on designing the synthesis, analysis and application software, the kids do not already come equipped with even a basic hardware reality interface input module. Translation: today when I tried booting up, my system immediately crashed with a "No keyboard detected" message.

Prior knowledge processes new knowledge, but today's flood of new information from the prescribed data package was almost entirely new knowledge. It was neither accessible nor manipulable because there was little to no prior knowledge to contextualize the new knowledge in. Attempting to run a processing routine with no/minimal/garbled input results in a divide by zero error. Exactly what happened this morning: unintelligible printed text in, unintelligible scrawled text out. Brilliant.

Despite my disdain for 'airplane' games involving baby food, I have to accept that many of our kids haven't yet grown the requisite teeth to chew grown-up food on their own. True, we're working to rebuild them from the inside, but we can't let them starve in the meantime. Mashed carrots, anyone?

Communication let me down

I take back what I said about one of the non-majority parties needing an image consultant. It's the majority party that needs one more. Seriously, they're going with 'incentivize the vote' as their campaign platform? Instead of making us feel good about voting majority, this approach sounds like we're being made to feel bad about not voting majority.

Guilt is a poor marketing tool and though many mothers wield it with alarming efficacy, it simply isn't the best motivator of confidence for children who are growing up.

If netizens are turning unfriendly towards them, it's not because of what they're doing or even what they're saying, but rather how they've been presenting national agenda to the voting public. Good news or bad, delivery is the key to win support. They claim the best plans and the best interests of the nation at heart, and the most forward-looking mechanisms in place that work, but communication isn't their strongest asset right now.

They'll have to fix their message, or more and more people will want to change the messenger.

Getting stiffed

Francis thinks he's being discriminated against at Changi Airport. His flight to Perth got cancelled and...

"...after waiting for more than three and a half hours in the queue, we were told to go home and return the next day for a confirmed flight and to claim reimbursement for taxi fare.

As we were leaving the counter, a hotel representative approached us and asked us whether we were passengers of QF72 and if so, he would take us to his hotel for an overnight stay and the next morning, after breakfast, drop us back at the airport. As we were not told of this arrangement by the counter staff, we approached them; they quickly gave us an identity tag and asked the hotel representative to take us to the hotel.

We wanted to seek an explanation from the counter staff regarding the practice of asking local passengers to go home and foreigners to stay in a hotel..."

Wait, it makes sense for locals to go home because they have a home to go back to. And foreigners are likely to stay in a hotel because that's what hotels are for. This claim on grounds of discrimination is farcical!

And now Francis wants compensation from Qantas for his stay at this hotel.

Dude, how is this Qantas' problem? Some shady character offers you an night in his unnamed hotel. He doesn't claim to be a representative of Qantas, so he's likely to be a hotel tout whose pitch you fell for. In fact, as you say, the counter staff already said that you could claim for taxi fare, but you thought you could squeeze out a free night's stay in some cushy hotel at Qantas' expense too. Nice try.

I'd sympathize with you, being a fellow traveller getting fleeced everywhere I visit -- but trying to turn it around and trumping up a frivolous claim against someone else to compensate you for your own gullibility is a touch too desperate. I'm sorry for your loss, but the best comfort I can offer is, Kuah Kuah!

Teach less doesn't mean teach less

When we take the idea of "Teach Less, Learn More" too literally, we get the idea that there is some kind of reduction in the curriculum and that what schools were once meant to teach now becomes the burden of parents, and as a result, "slack" teaching staff.

Actually "Teach Less" doesn't mean teach less, in the sense of less content, less curriculum, i.e., less quantity. What it does mean is to stop being so full of ourselves and teaching the way teachers think they should teach, but instead look at the specific needs of our learners and teach the way our learners learn best.

The call is out for teachers to be less pedantic, less didactic and to put an end to filling our classroom time with inane teacher talk (a sin I'm quite guilty of, ha ha), and learn ourselves to be quiet, listen to what our students have to offer, give space for them to work. In other words, we teach not as authoritative, top-down "Teachers" but be fellow learners with our students, co-involved in constructing a community of learning.

This philosophy may be more difficult at some of the younger levels. It's hard to be a fellow learner if your fellow students are a bunch of 40 juvenile monkeys going stir-crazy in a crammed classroom eight hours a day. And with kids, it's important to show them who's Boss and instill in them a healthy respect (fear works too, apparently) for learning.

But at higher levels, it becomes necessary for the kids to start learning on their own. That's the time to let go and apply TLLM -- gradually.

Upgrade mania

The PM's taking flak from disgruntled e-authors over a shoot-from-the-hip response to a sensitive question posed by a young voter. What the PM said was tantamount to a bare-faced statement that wards represented by the majority party get priority when it comes to estate uprgading programmes. The implication that there is bias in assigning who gets to stand at the head of the line for the "good things" rankles an electorate that believes in the Democracy of its political system.

I wonder if I could spin a more politic reply to the question on why a non-majority ward looks rather shabbier than the majority ward next door...?

"Young man, I fully sympathize with your situation. Estate upgrading is a right of every constituency regardless of representation. Bright and shiny new covered walkways, bus stops and elevator upgrades are in high demand in all constituencies and everyone has the right to expect them.

But because they take time to complete, we can't upgrade everyone all at once. Thus, at least some estates can remain conveniently functional while others have to live with the inconvenience of dust, noise and odd detours as they undergo upgrading. Upgrades also cost a lot of money, so we have to even out the costs over time rather than spend everything in one lump sum.

As to why your estate seems to be lagging behind your neighbours', I assure you it isn't so. However, your constituency stood behind your representative's platform of less stress, slower pace of life and above all, lower cost of living. Thus it's logical that being the most frugal of voters, your constituency is the one most willing to put up with a slightly shabbier appearance for a little while longer than the others. Even if they don't look too glitzy and ultra-modern right now, it'll be a shame to replace your current facilities when they are still functional, still good, anyway.

There's no need to stress ourselves and rush things. See? Everything Singaporean voters want, no matter who represents you, your Government has already provided you with. I know you can be patient. When your facilities really need upgrading, the funds will definitely be there for you. :)"

Can I write the King's Speech, or what?

Irradiated

Japan is dumping radioactive water into the sea? I envision boatloads of comic-book fanboys crowding Japanese beaches, hoping to get bitten or stung by an irradiated sea-critter, thus gaining powers beyond the ken of mortal men.

Ooh, what's the number for the Japanese tourism agency?

It's dead, Jim

It's done. Officially killed NYeDC's IFD performance, which during last night's rehearsal started to take shape, but still not enough to be fully developed by Thursday. However, there's no stopping this show from proceeding at another special time of the year with a more compatible theme.

Edit 01:

If ever a political party needed an image consultant! What's with the NSP's uniform? The bright orange colour reminds me of US correctional facility inmates' coveralls:

Whoa, Nelly!

Once in a while, you have to rein back the kids' enthusiasm and give them a reality check. NYeDC jumped headlong into agreeing to stage an item for the upcoming IFD assembly programme while we're already neck deep in Drama Night rehearsals. If they'd let me look at the script they chose earlier, I would have said there's nothing in there remotely indicative of either "International" or "Friendship" without a serious reworking of its original intention. Not that we haven't done anything like that before, but this one especially would have taken time, certainly more than the two days remaining till curtain.

Now considering very carefully whether to do the unthinkable and pull the plug on this performance. Usually, my approach is that the show must go on, but this one...?

Among the cats

Two plush pups are what we brought back from our visit to Mdm Wong's Shelter for strays. Each plushie is worth a $10 donation towards the upkeep of the numerous dog and cat residents there.

We were supposed to partake in the open house tour this morning, but took a detour into the cattery before our group could even form up -- and spent our whole visit among the Purring Ones. The tour organizer must have wondered where his two prodigals had disappeared to.

I never knew cats could be so deprived of human affection. In every enclosure we entered, we were swarmed by cats rubbing up against our legs and meowing to be stroked and petted. No, they weren't after food or water 'cos they had that a-plenty in large plates already, just a friendly voice and a gentle hand to make them happy. And, boy, were our hands busy as cat after cat got its share of mussin' and fussin'.

A particular kitten in a cage was particularly memorable because it was so adorable. Bright-faced, striped on the back, and spotted on the belly, but sadly crippled in the hind legs. Such a feisty little monster, nonetheless, as it acted up for our attention, actually climbing the bars of his cage despite having back legs that wouldn't support it. Silly thing reached out and grabbed my finger when I wasn't looking. It sank a tiny, tiny claw beneath my skin, drawing a drop of blood. Is that cute, or what? With that kind of spirit, and Mdm Wong's care, I believe it'll regain the use of its legs again soon. Then the world better beware!

Thinking of swinging by again one of these weekends to drop off supplies and pay the inmates another visit. Any other animal-lovin' human being wanna make the trip to Pasir Ris with us?

Don't get your Hops up

I expected a lot more from 'Hop', coming from the same studio that gave us 'Despicable Me'. Maybe it's because Easter lacks the commercial mythos that Christmas has embodied so richly that there's little there to connect us with the characters in Hop. Neither the traditions nor the rituals associated with the Easter Bunny are familiar to us, so we don't really care if we don't get our Easter baskets this year. We never did, anyway.

What's left of the movie is the familiar theme of slacker sons disappointing their fathers. EB runs away from his *groan* Easter Island home to chase his rockstar dreams -- the heck with inheriting the mantle of Easter Bunny from his ageing predecessor. In Hollywood, Fred has no idea what he wants to do other than 'something great', but since nothing like that has approached him yet he remains in a perpetual state of employment limbo, which does not amuse his father [hmm... sounds familiar, heh].

When 'toon Bunny meets live-action human, we have an 'Odd Couple' pairing -- and the accompanying gags therein -- while they help sort each other out. But when Fred is mistaken for having killed EB by the no-nonsense Pink Berets, EB has to make the ultimate sacrifice to save his friend. At this point, the Prodigal Son becomes a badly (barely?)-disguised Messiah figure whose 'resurrection' facilitates reconciliation with their respective fathers.

'Hop' is mostly a series of cheap running gags (which isn't so bad in itself) but with little depth of character development. Without a serious antagonist (Carlos, the chick, is at best a distraction), both EB and Fred can only fight their fathers' aspirations for them and their own egos simultaneously, which for an animation is a bit too inward-looking. Mixing animation with live-action limits the potential for out-of-this world situational wackiness, which is what we're looking for in an animation in the first place. Lol moments there were, but they didn't really string together for me.

Too bad. The cartoon magic formula didn't happen here. Hop away, l'il bunny. No carrot for you.

Usurped!

It's a relief to get Rod finally back on board to direct Drama Night. We've never left it till so late before to begin preparations, but the kids have been matching their abilities to their ambitions and, in fact, have a plan meticulously crafted out and are determined to see it through.

In less than eight weeks, through thrice weekly evening rehearsals the show will go on. The kids have worked out exactly what they intend to accomplish at every session till curtain: recruitment, training, blocking, logistics, publicity, they've practically usurped the need for staff advisors and are running the theatre all on their own.

And we have Rod to ensure the QC and the professional experience. I like the way he works because he has a very keen eye for detail and nuance. He'll say if what the actors are offering is not working, but in a diplomatic way while suggesting other options to experiment with. Need I say, comedy is his forte? The kids are getting an education in how much hard work goes into getting laughs from the audience.

Now that I have the kids' assurance that they've taken full ownership of production, I can focus my attention on documenting their process with my trusty digicam. If I can get the publicity crew's assistance in this, so much the better. Expect more pix soon!

Like almost new

Nothing like having a freshly serviced M2 to drive around in. Fresh oil and filters, tyres rotated, wheels aligned, and a new layer of wax to make him look spiffy again. And floor mats vacuumed too -- a slight source of embarrassment for me because while I'm paying for his daily wash, that's only for the outside. Inside, I haven't bothered to maintain, so he was starting to get quite grungy where it matters most.

The main difference is that he's regained his responsiveness to the lightest touch. Have to remember to avoid my usual ham-fisted approach to gripping the wheel and stamping on the brakes. Not for the next 10,000 kliks, anyway.

Caution: contains content

It's a familiar problem: kids think all essay questions are actually the same question. Give them a set of 12 to choose from and whichever one they pick they will invariably interpret as, 'what can you recall about (topic x)?' Then they respond accordingly; with a spew of random facts about said topic and not much else.

Hence the danger of focusing too tightly on 'covering content' in our syllabus. Content is a drug we push and the kids are our willing dopeheads. Being able to memorize content gets them high because they can sense a tangible outcome from the effort expended in hoarding up this precious resource only we, the gurus on the mountain-top, can provide.

What gets them down-to-earth again is when they try to recall in an essay what we had indulgently doled out to them in class, but for their written effort we fail them for 'not answering the question'. Because they fail (at least to meet their own expectations) they crave more content, so we give them more content and it's a never ending cycle.

Conclusion: having as much content knowledge as a kid's brain can store never helped a kid answer an essay question satisfactorily. In GP (and I suspect in any other essay-based exam) the test isn't on what a kid can recall per se, but on how well the kid can use what he can recall in the most appropriate and succinct way. Therefore, by first learning the skill of addressing an essay question, the kid can make the best use of what little content knowledge he has and bring it all to bear on answering the question. Of course, the more content he has, the better substantiated his answer will be, but at least he knows how to answer the question regardless.

I'm saying this because our current kid demographic has to fulfill higher expectations than ever. In the not-too-distant-past, we were happy that they could even pass. Given enough content, most could scrape through get by. But today, our kids expect A/B 'quality grades' -- and they're capable of meeting those expectations with the right kind of training.

It's back to the old drawing board for us to design out methods that don't work for today's expectations even if they had worked well enough yesterday; and design in new methods that are needed for a new breed of kids with new expectations.

Cutting edge industry, we are!

They return with tribute

It was nice of a trio of graduated students to unexpectedly return and say 'Hi' to their former tutors early this morning. They brought a little tribute with them too, in the form of fruit, processed cocoa products and a handwritten thank-you note. Always nice to receive windfalls, but nicer to see that they've been able to take and use the skills and ideas we offer to move themselves ahead onto the next stage of their lives.

Ve haf plans...

Look what came in the mail: a 'Special Edition' of our Town Council's newsletter informing us of major upgrades to our neighbourhood yet to come. This arrived hot on the heels of news of the upcoming elections.

The campaign message is clear. The incumbents have long-term plans for our overall comfort, prosperity and property values. It's a statement of how our tax dollars are being responsibly spent and will be returned to us as a collective benefit... provided no change in the status quo.

It's hard to argue political abstractions when faced with practical, material issues put this way. Guess this marks the first salvo fired across the Opposition's bow in our constituency. I look forward to a lively debate over the next few weeks/months.

My spring break in lovely Kirkwall

Spent a few days in Kirkwall. Don't believe the vacation hype -- the place is a dump! The official leadership literally lost its head in the recent Qunari uprising, but the nobility are too weak and the people too frightened to elect a new Viscount. Meantime, the Templar military has filled in the gap and established martial law on the excuse that the local Mage Circle has lost control of its mages. Rumors fly about that mages are consorting with demons and are practicing Blood Magic, not that the two activities are mutually exclusive of each other.

Meantime, the city is overrun with Ferelden refugees fleeing their Blight. As if there weren't enough poor people on the streets as it is, these Fereldens just made the poverty index nosedive just by being here. Nowhere to go, the lucky ones will take on any kind of indentured servitude; the rest, who knows?

Accommodation is cheap, but you get what you pay for. The Hanged Man is a tavern with rooms and... that's it. The signage out front is a figure of a Templar suspended by his ankles and the whole thing swings freely in the breeze. Quite ominous, really: I never went close enough to find out if the figure was just a dummy or an actual Templar. In this part of town, I wouldn't be surprised one way or the other.

Where I stayed is also the favourite hangout of the Champion of Kirkwall and his cronies. The Champ got his title by single-handedly putting down the Qunaris I mentioned earlier. That's saying something, considering an ordinary Qunari is already huge, powerfully built and a religious fanatic to boot, but to defeat their Arishok in a duel must have been quite something to behold.

Actually, the Champ's beardless dwarf buddy tells me that the Champ ran around the arena screaming like a girl while taking occasional over-the-shoulder potshots with his magic staff until the Arishok keeled over and died. True story. Anyway, though they still get some respect around here, I think they're just another bunch of trouble makers looking for a fight. Get a job, you people!

Streets filled with marauding gangs; out-of-control militia; the occasional wave of creatures from the Stygian depths... the final straw for me was when Kirkwall experienced it's first -- and probably most spectacular -- act of terrorism that obliterated a rather important civic edifice, and presumably everyone inside at the time. With the Templars and the mages each blaming the other for abuses and atrocities of the past, this event was the excuse to openly tear into each other, engulfing their whole crappy city in the flames of civil war.

I get the feeling there are several neighbouring nations looking on very intently at all this trouble brewing in the Free Marches and are by now assessing threat, risk and opportunity...

Whatever. My bags are packed and I'm going home. Had a great time and all. kthxbye. Watch it, I'm just a tourist!!!

Project Crackdown

Ok, a delicate issue, so language will be a bit more circumspect than usual:

Head Office has identified certain unfair practices in the conduct of project appraisals. Some branch offices have been practicing unauthorized procedures to advantage themselves in the award of 'A' grade work, but in so doing have contravened the spirit of independent enterprise. Head Office has been clear in censuring such practices and hopes to level the playing field for all candidates once again.

I, for one, am appreciative of the stern action taken by Head Office. It proves to me that the higher ups really do have their heads screwed on straight. It's about time we put the emphasis back on quality rather than quantity.

The dragon's signature

Launch day for Dragon Age II! And look! I've got my paws on the Signature Edition. That's a fancy name for the Early Bird Special in which they pack into the game a few additional premiums at no cost, such as fancier armour, weapons and bonus other stuff as well.

... not that I'd necessarily find a use for every single tchotchke in the box, but it's the satisfaction of Having a bunch of additional toys to play with for free that thrills. Who knows? One or two may yet prove to be actually useful in aiding my hero's 'rise to power'. And even if I let them languish untouched in my inventory, that's my prerogative. So there.

But for now, said game lies pristine in its box. Currently too tired and too busy to start a new campaign in dragon-slaying. The pix is just for drooling over. Soon, soon...

Broadcasting 'live'

Sports Carny, and I'm stuck in the announcers' tent 'cos J2 NYeDC volunteered to be the announcers for the day. The job may sound like a cushy assignment compared to all the sweating, huffing and puffing of physical competition going on all around us, but in reality it's a frenzy of activity inside the tent too.

Apart from the many, varied and random announcements requested through the crackly walkie-talkie set; the odd staff in-charge or any other staff with some instruction or other; the students who have either found some item or lost one; and the 100 Plus vendor with the occasional reminder to keep hydrated and drink his *FREE* isotonic beverage; there had to be entertaining banter and interviews with random participants who happened to be passing within microphone range; and the lucky draw to run. Sometimes all at the same time. :p

Thankfully, the J2s this year are a strong bunch, ever hyper and willing to give their all. They took every demand in their stride, stayed cool and soldiered on through the day with unflagging spirits. Great job!

Results driven

What exactly constitutes a good result?  At today's release of 2010 'A' results, I had students bawling their eyes out. Gracie had achieved grades many others would have killed for, yet she felt she hadn't done well enough. Chiam exploded in tears 'cos (I found out later from an objective source) she did better than she'd expected.

What's 'good', I suppose, boils down to our results meeting and exceeding our own expectations in relation to what society sets up as standards of achievement. The latter being constant, the higher our expectations of ourselves the harder it becomes to be satisfied with our performance.

Was I happy, then, with my results? Because I felt my methods seriously needed vindication after last year's debacle, my expectations may have been higher than realistic... Ok, it is anomalous that I can be so concerned about results. After all, I keep espousing that the process is more important than the product, don't I? But this time I strongly believe in the process I'm developing, and so I expect to see the results.

Impartially speaking, what I got was a clear improvement from last year. But I don't exactly feel wildly ecstatic about that. I'd rate 2010 as a meh.

Teacher's remarks: Can still do better.

No happy ending

These days, I can be so tired that when I take a supine position on the floor for a shut-eye, I may not even stir for a couple of hours. Not even if Maui's taken it upon himself to give me a massage with the additional claw-extension-and-grip technique. That's a feline specialty. I know what he's been doing 'cos when I wake up, there are tiny, little holes on the skin of my stomach. Fortunately, I heal quickly.

Nepalese dining

And just like that, Jen K is flying off again in the morning. Bade her farewell with a Nepalese dinner at Shish Mahal (Albert Court). It was quite an economical meal comprising naan, tandoori chix, mutton kurma, vegetable pakoras and a spinach dish. Conclusion: Nepalese food isn't much different from regular Indian fare.

Must commend the with-a-smile service. Very warm and obliging, prompt too.

Long-overdue reunion

These past few weekends, we've been taking Q-tip to the Botanic Gardens for fresh air and exercise. Good that every time we go, she's able to walk a little further without getting tired.

Today, this water monitor decided to go for a little stroll too.

The reunion at this table was literally between old friends who haven't seen each other in years! With Jen K flying in for a rare visit, it was the one opportunity for us all to drop everything and catch up.

Quite possibly the last lo hei of the year for us. It's no longer CNY, after all.

Signage at the kopitiam: No Food, No Drinks, No Cross-Species Hanky-Panky. Wait, what...?

The write stuff

I'm linking Martin Jaques' TED Talk on the rise of China not so much because of the content of his presentation, but rather to observe that the audience isn't busy scribbling notes trying to take it all down. At TED, we can listen to so many great minds speak about our times but we don't bother writing down what we're hearing?

What does that say about us and our egos when we insist that our kids write down everything we say in our piddly little lectures and tutorials, like as if we were spinning pure gold from our mouths?

Oh, if you want to listen to Jaques, go ahead. Interesting guy. Don't mind my ranting.

Noise to signal

The kids have completed something of an in-house survey regarding how they view themselves, and their personal goals and traits. Interestingly, the majority of them claim that they study best alone, isolated from external distractions. This I believe. When we set our minds to study, we don't like any unnecessary noise that would disrupt the signal we're trying so hard to focus on.

But the kids are now on the threshold of having to distill more knowledge from more information that they have ever encountered before. Alone, they're going to have a terrible time coping with such a deluge of material. That's why we put them in classes -- so they can work together, and help each other in the distillation process.

From this level onwards, study becomes an increasingly social process. We're looking at big concepts that have to do with life, human behaviour, and power relationships, for example, and are considering the many facets making up the big questions that we as a species have currently no answer to. What can a class of 16 year-olds do to make any headway in a task this huge? Same thing as the rest of humanity is doing: share our observations with one another and hope the pooling, sifting and combining of our collective thoughts and ideas will eventually help us make sense of it all.

So the class is like an old-time distillery, with lots of processes to break down the raw materials and lots of hands to make the machinery work. The finished product is a fine cognac to look forward to. This is the knowledge that the kids will take away from their cooperative labours. The best thing about a good liquor is that it can be further shared and enjoyed in a social environment, or taken into a private study to be savoured at one's leisure. That's when studying alone really comes into its own.

Three little words make all the difference

Which are the three most important words in any human language? 'I don't know'.

Which are the next three most important words in any human language? 'Let's* find out'.

At this point of human intellectual development, we've encapsulated the total cognitive objectives of primary and secondary school. If the kiddies can prove that they can recall all the facts they've been told about the world, they get a pat on the head and can move on to JC.

At JC, they learn the next three most important words in any human language: 'I don't believe'.

The shock for the kiddies when they arrive at our doorstep is that everything they'd learnt before may be a lie. Or at least, as far as GP is concerned, that they should treat everything that purports to be non-fiction (including their own textbooks) with a dose of healthy skepticism.

This step is key to significant intellectual development for JC kids because it unlocks new brain capacities, helping them to approach their studies as inquirers and testers of knowledge seeking understanding, rather than as mindless information sponges nearing saturation.

To understand leads us to the next three most important words, 'I got it!' After which the next level would then be, 'Let's work together'. If they can get to this stage of mental preparation, they're ready to benefit from uni education.

Sadly, many of our undergrads enter uni still thinking like secondary school students, their two years spent in GP notwithstanding. I wonder why?

*I'll accept concatenations as a single word

A little taste of dragon

Dragon Age II is nearing release. But before the main course arrives, Bioware has deigned to present us with a little appetizer of a demo in which we play through the opening sequences of the actual game, and have a taste of a key mission scenario. It's just an introduction, really, to the new game mechanics and to some of the NPCs that will be tagging along in our hero's party.

No spoilers: it's exactly the same scenario that the developers used in an earlier webcast though this time we, the players, finally get hands on and play it our way, our style. Although gameplay is familiar, the tweaks still need some getting used to. Enemy characters now attack in multiple waves which means a lot more hacking-and-slashing than before. While that's great for scoring level-up points, it requires a bit of stamina to grind through every fight before moving on to the next checkpoint -- which could be yet another fight or plot-advancing cut-scene. Loser gamers like me who have short attention-spans may occasionally have difficulty keeping track of the battle and end up dead. Oops. Retry...

I found the opening to be quite a hand-holding experience, like I was being guided on rails from one plot element to the next. Hopefully when I get my hands on the real thing, the game world will feel a lot more open-ended with more places to explore and more NPCs to chat with.

The graphics have had a major upgrade. The character movements are more fluid, varied and energetic, with special attacks landing with visible power. Bodies fly when hit, occasionally disintegrating in fountains of gore when they succumb to particularly nasty hits. Every visual element stands out in sharp relief against the background, nice, but this kind of effect also looks cartoony, lacking a focal depth of field that would give a better illusion of reality.

Since the party in this demo offer a limited mix of ranged, melee and magic abilities there's also a chance to test out party tactics in battle. As usual, this will take a few more plays through to figure out -- yes, I'm slow -- but I believe I'll get it by DA2 release day, March 8. Bring it on!

Fighting obsolescence

Edit 01:
Oops, perhaps there's a little misunderstanding. This post is not about me quitting blogging. I'm just commenting about the changing nature of the blogging audience. There are many different online apps to target specific audiences with specific material. For example, if I need to address the student population, I use the campus online forum. To contact my immediate group of students I'm experimenting with other apps such as FB, which is a different account from the one I use to keep in touch with my social circle. This blog will be less targeted, more random in content, but it's still functioning. Thanks for reading! :)
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I think NYT says it all in its article about blogs losing their appeal. Doesn't mean I'm giving up on blogging, but considering the frequency and quality (or rather, lack thereof) of my recent activity here, it's obvious that I'm no longer as anxious as I once might have been in getting my daily spiel out into the ether.

I think blogging still has its uses, and I'll keep returning to make self-indulgent posts because I'm odd like that. This space will continue to be a dumping ground of random thoughts and ideas, perhaps as a focal point or aggregator of the various bits of information I encounter that cause a synaptic spark to ignite somewhere in the ol' grey matter, though like everyone else I'll be keeping in touch with my audience -- that has recently become very fragmented -- through alternative online apps as appropriate to their disparate needs and interests.

You have five minutes... start talking!

With the new J1 oral defence assessment component, I'm using the Pecha-Kucha movement to inspire the kids. The general PK rule is 20x20, that is, 20 PowerPoint slides set to auto-advance at every 20 second interval which amounts to a presentation slightly less than 7 minutes long. Each slide contains minimal text to avoid distracting the audience from the speaker, while the speaker learns to make a sharply focussed presentation with no time for kerfuffle.

I think it's a fun and creative means of getting the kids to develop their communication skills, and it should certainly help them prepare for their oral component during their end-of-year Project Work assessment as well. Might as well start them off early, I say.

But for the purposes of our J1 newbies, their first oral exercise will only last three minutes. If you're doing the math, that's 9x20. That's fine by me. Who knows? We just might be reviving the movement here in S'pore with our little experiment -- it seems to have died out a couple of years ago. Wouldn't that be a hoot?

The King's microphone

I suppose the human interest part of 'The King's Speech' was the contrast in the relationships of the two royals and the foreign-born commoners they have come to depend upon. Edward VIII, Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne, abdicates for the love of American divorcee, Mrs Simpson; while George VI, Duke of York and second in line reluctantly takes up the crown in duty to his country, coached by Australian speech therapist (unqualified), Lionel Logue.

But what interested me more was how the introduction of wireless broadcast media changed Everything. The media brought down and magnified the most human frailties of both royals, Edward and George. In going public, Edward's improprieties rendered him unworthy as a king, whereas George's stutter made him unable to speak with confidence in public, and if not for Logue's unconventional methods would have made England lose confidence in itself.

While the media were making traditional royalty most frightfully human, on the other side of the Channel they were deifying the most common of commoners, Adolph Hitler, who knew exactly how to use them to amass the nearly blind loyalty and adoration of a nation. The Brits were still struggling to deal with radio, but Hitler had already mastered both the audio and visual imagery of film to awe his audience and intimidate his opposition.

The rise of the mass media heralded the end of the power of royalty over the people. Edward and George both recognized this sweeping new change, and perhaps for the first time in history the crown princes of an empire were so loath to follow in their father's footsteps. Edward practically disqualifies himself from the crown, leaving George to make the best of it. Thanks to Logue, George does well enough to galvanize a shaken Britain to prevail over the German war machine.

And now I'm mulling over historical events not covered in the movie (although I expected them to be). Perhaps what won the war for the Brits was the calm resolve that resonated from the voice on the radio. It sought not to whip the masses up into a frothing, mindless rabble but rather reminded them to stay human despite the hardship they were facing in the dark days to come. What lost the war for Herr Hitler was possibly what started the war in the first place: his need to fill airtime with an ever-escalating choreography of excitement, culminating in the orgy of violence that was WWII with himself taking full credit as producer, director and star in order to keep the people mesmerized and pliant under his leadership. Hitler lost it because he ran out of ideas on how to keep the A Hitler Show on prime time TV without eventually grossing out his audience and making them tune him out.

Too bad they don't give Best Actor Oscars to inanimate objects. The nominee representing 'The King's Speech' should have been the shiny BBC microphone and its supporting infrastructure. They were what the movie was about in the first place.

Congrats to the piano ppl

Hi Shaun
Please convey my congratulations to the Piano Ensemble for a magical, memorable evening at "PS I Love You".

From the opening scene, you had the audience hooked and rooting for your Romeo and Juliet. For me, the magic was in how much you all grew over the course of our journey together. How far you have come as stage performers, ready to shine in all aspects of the performance whether it was behind a musical instrument or putting it all on the line with the risky business of "acting".

I hope you all believe now that the audience appreciates the actor's clarity of intention far more than intensity of emotion. You have proven that there is no such thing as a "natural" talent for acting, but that acting is merely a trained skill honed by practice and perseverance. often beyond one's comfort zone.

The Piano Ensemble owned the stage tonight with a smooth, inspired interweaving of a varied selection of music with a simple but utterly engaging storyline, brought to life by the energy of a cast that truly believed in the value of what it was doing. In other words, I thoroughly enjoyed tonight's show!

To the Piano Ensemble, thank you for allowing me the experience of working with you. Your dedication, your work ethic, your willingness to learn and your eagerness to experiment (the stuff many of you threw in that we didn't rehearse took me by surprise and delight) have showed NYJC that you guys don't just rock at piano, you guys DO THEATRE!

And thank you for the unexpected plaque that is now decorating my desk in the staff room. It'll make a great souvenir of all the work we went through together for the sake of an evening we can be proud of... and I'm sure the SPCA greatly appreciates.

May you all continue to seek success in your future endeavours! 

Regards
Xmac

All the world's a stage

The year's barely begun and already I sense it will be unlike any other. As it is, it's been one nearly non-stop slog albeit with a CNY break in between. But most days are long and draggy, many evenings filled with one rehearsal or another, and I'm tired.

It's a self-inflicted pain, however. The NYeDC kids are running full tilt, volunteering at any opportunity they hear about, and when they volunteer, we staff volunteer right along with them. And they're not done yet. I'm looking at the list of upcoming events culminating in Drama Night with dread anticipation. So many things they have planned, so much energy and ambition, so organized and presenting better thought-out proposals than I've ever seen before, and for once my first instinct isn't 'no, we can't do that...'. Rather, it's the opposite: 'Yes! Go! Do!' even though their plans will take me through activities that require more work than this lazybone slacker is used to.

With all this going on, my attention today was on the piano kids and their Full Dress Rehearsal of this Friday's piano concert. This is me volunteering as drama coach for the simple reason that they could really use one. It's also this group that's been filling up my evenings so far. This group has been terrific to work with. They know they can't act their way out of a paper bag, being convinced their talent is only in music, but they've put in so much time and effort into preparing for this concert they were desperate enough to accept my direction without question.

It was an interesting experience to take these kids out of their comfort zone and watch them develop the show to the level I was watching today. There were lots of compromises between what they were comfortable doing and what I could get them to do. Given time I believe I could have pushed them further, but they've done well, nevertheless, to present 'P.S. I love you', a piano concert packaged within an adaptation of Romeo & Juliet.

The important thing is that they now agree with me that acting isn't so much a natural-born talent but a trained skill. They surprised me today with some voiceover improvisations during the rehearsal, so yes, I do believe the piano kids are becoming quite comfortable as actors too. It's a step forward for them as a performing group. For me, it was an opportunity to provide another bunch of kids with a form of theatrical experience to broaden market interest and the talent pool in campus aesthetics. In other words, just doin' my job, ma'am.

As the next few weeks progress, that job scope is looking to increase significantly as other deadlines approach. Yes, it's going to be an interesting year.

Swansong

I like ballet. In short snippets at a time anyway. 'The Black Swan' presented enough to show how beautiful ballet is as a form of movement art. But it's also an art that demands pain as a sacrifice. Broken cuticles and ligament damage are par for the course. So is keeping weight off by avoiding food. For Nina Sayer (Natalie Portman), she also has to rely on constant social-life-killing practice to get her moves right, while struggling to grow up from an obsessive and overbearing parent, and maintaining her top billing for opening night.

Not surprisingly, the stress does eventually catch up with her, particularly over her understudy, Lily (Mila Kunis) who is more free-spirited and everything else she is not, traits she observes are more valued by the show's director than just her unwavering dedication to her craft.

Nina's paranoid delusions become increasingly disturbing. And because the camera tends to follow her around from a third-person over-the-shoulder perspective, the audience appears to be a silent, helpless observer dragged through her waking nightmares. We can only watch as her perfectly controlled life and the achievement of her much desired success actually becomes the point where it all spirals downward, and Nina, pretty ballerina, crashes and burns.

It's good to be single-minded, and strive to achieve our goals in life. But 'The Black Swan' is a warning that there is a fine line between dedication and obsession. By sacrificing the development of every other aspect of one's humanity for the sake of perfecting one desired aspect, we lose more than we stand to gain. Or, in other words, work too hard, go crazy. Nothing new there.

Decentralized gathering

The long-planned and anticipated evening of feasting and gaming took an unexpected detour when our gracious hostess succumbed to the flu bug that's been going around. Not wishing to interrupt her convalescence with our usual brand of social mayhem, and since the cake had already been bought, and since we'd already invited our old friends to meet and eat, the party split into two main groups for dinner in separate locations.

The newbies, being newbies, went to paint the town red... that is, red with the blood of "roast scallops, swordfish, fatty salmon, flounder, conch, octopus, binchou tuna, striped jack, sea bass, and zaru shell.... As well as roast egg with curry lobster, piping hot green tea, eye-watering horseradish" (qtd from Liz).

The more sedentary folks had a more sedate supper in the heartlands of AMK Hub where we also dined on some version of Japanese cuisine. Old friends we were glad to encounter once again were Mel (she in whose honour the cake was sacrificed), and NBS looking rather harried from her day at Head Office but none the worse for wear.

And, surprise, surprise, as I was on my way back to the parking lot, I bumped into Vays and family. The vibe through the Force must have been strong indeed to bring dNYel and our prodigals together today.

No free lunches

Officially been tasked as a Project Work supervisor for my civics group. Six project teams in all.

The Idea Factory dropped in to give us some ideas for in-class activities to stimulate collaborative and innovative thinking among the group members. A key point of this afternoon's workshop was that although we allow the initial creative process to flourish without the prejudice of both internal and external censor, all that creativity has to be eventually focused upon addressing a particular stakeholder's needs, wants or inconveniences. The better innovations deal with problems the client couldn't articulate or even didn't even know it had.

It was good for me to confirm an angle I was going for with my groups this year. The kids tend to think of their projects as philanthropic exercises. They usually want to help the disabled or the disadvantaged and hence would never consider charging for their eventual product or service. Noble, but ultimately pointless. Instead, I'd like them to think about providing a product or service they would pay hard cash for. The money factor is a practical reality check. It also reminds them that if no one would pay for their project, then no one would accept it for free either.

First foot forward

NYeDC was off to a shaky start to the year as far as our budget went. We suffered big cuts and a temporary withholding of funds pending approval from some (much) higher authority. Nevertheless, the show has to go on.

As of today, we have decided on a script. It looks ambitious -- we haven't done a feature-length presentation in years -- and we only have 12 weeks to put it together. We have no full-time professional coach as yet, but Tina has at least agreed to help us with whatever time she can spare commensurate with whatever we can reasonably afford to pay her.

But what gives me hope for this year's production is the gung-ho spirit of the J2 exco coupled with a willingness to get things done. It's a group with ideas and is quite happy to run on its own. It's good when the staff (us) only need to provide moral support and encouragement rather than have to dictate and micromanage every step.

Other CCA groups are also keen to pitch in and help despite their own SYF commitments, so it's up to us to coordinate our schedules well and find the most efficient way to incorporate so many offers into a coherent production.

The journey to Drama Night 2011 begins with the first step. We have just placed our left foot forward, 'splat!'

Oh, and check out our official webbie (http://nyedc.tumblr.com) for updates from the kids' pov.

Chinese New Year 2011, Day 4

A rather large gathering of the in-law clan including relatives visiting from Hainan. I look enormous in this pix, but it's really only an optical illusion. Really.

Chinese New Year 2011, Day 3

Family portrait with the in-laws. This shot follows an annual ritual of dressing in our new year finery and descending to a dimsum restaurant for morning 'tea'. Taking a similar shot every year is like a record of how much we've grown over the past year. And with the amount of food consumed during this period, the annual rate of mass increase has to be pretty significant.

The lucky dimsum restaurant selected to host our carnage this year is Mandarin Court. Enjoyed the spread here because above all, there was no trace of the oily flavour that tends to taint the deep-fried dishes and makes me feel sick after. It may have been pricey here, but the food went down easy. Good choice. 

Hornet buzz

Being a superhero is easy. You either need a lot of money and a media empire or technical wizardry and kung-fu. Or preferably, both. So, Britt Reid (a.k.a. The Green Hornet) provides the resources and big-picture inspiration while Kato (a.k.a., Kato) builds the toys and brings the kung-fu smackdown. Egro, outlaw crime-fighting duo with 'normal' powers fighting for justice.

The comedy isn't in fighting the bad guys, but in the background bickering between Reid and Kato over the nature of the partnership, who has the better plan, who gets the credit and of course, who gets Cameron Diaz. Just another day in the office.

NYeDC needs you!

Proud of NYeDC for taking the initiative to volunteer an item for today's campus CNY celebration concert.

Serendipitously, it was a tactically wise move because it coincided with our one-and-only CCA bazaar (a.k.a., recruitment drive) for the newly-arrived J1s. Due to time constraints, the few aesthetic CCAs allowed to perform at the bazaar were those participating in the SYF, so we wouldn't have been allocated a slot. Besides, performing a theatrical piece would have been pointless in a noisy atrium space with a free-flowing itinerant audience.

But playing on the hall stage, we had the entire J1 cohort as a captive sit-down audience. Being miked, we were totally audible -- right down to the disparaging remarks against a popular EPL club that we engineered into our script for shock value. Kids did well to keep the energy consistently high, hitting their marks and getting the appropriate responses from the audience as expected. I will always say a couple more rehearsals on-site would have covered a few more sins. But given our prep time, I believe we did the best we could.

With the full attention of our target market, hopefully that'll translate to a better impression of us and our capabilities, and a stronger recruitment for the club. Funding's down this year, so we really need the numbers for a more advantageous bargaining position during next year's budget review.

My poor, starving child!

Kindergarten food concern
STI, Feb 1, 2011

I AM a parent of a child (congratulations on your contribution to our local population. You're still short of 1.1 children to reach the ideal replacement rate, however) studying at Radin Mas PAP Community Foundation kindergarten (can the activities at kindergarten actually be considered 'studying'? I remember the plasticine molding, the messing around with finger paints, the running around and terrorizing my fellow kindermates as my primary function in life back then. Can times really have changed so much?).

I thought schools in Singapore are trying to promote healthy eating (Ooh, a Bandwagon+Appeal to Authority combo attack! Nice one!), but my child's school serves mostly biscuits during snack time (aren't biscuits a legitimate form of snack food?). And each child is given about six pieces each time (Q-tip gets five every morning. Sounds fair to me).

Given the duration of four hours in school, how filling can the six biscuits be (spoiling his appetite for lunch is not a good idea, according to the Surgeon General)? If it is not biscuits, it would be a hotdog bun (but no hotdog? That's a violation of human rights!). Occasionally, they are given cake (Marie Antoinette would approve!).

A few parents checked with the teachers and the answer they were given (wait, what was the question?) was that the general election (GE) was coming (well, it is rather early in the year to expect Santa Claus). The room with a pantry and a stove has been locked up for some time because of the GE (we're a corruption-free society. We don't want our election officials helping themselves to kindergarten food while on duty, do we?), so they have not been able to cook macaroni, which is what the pupils got to eat at least once a week before (first, you complain that six biccies a day aren't enough; but you'd rather feed the kids macaroni once a week? Hmm... I suppose that would save some washing-up time).

I hope the relevant authorities will look into the healthy eating habits of pupils (or maybe they could improve campus security, what with all these parents trying to break into the kitchen looking for macaroni, and all).

Cecilia Teo (Ms)

Pigeonholing people

Crash course in DISC profiling. Was quite resistant to it 'cos I don't like pigeonholing people. Trainer did say, however, that depending on context people's behaviour will change. For example, if the situation is competitive, my compliant 'C' side pops up cos I tend to follow the rules. Whereas if there is no competition, my inspirational 'I' side takes over as I enjoy the silly fun of the activity. So now, supposedly, I should be able to identify similar traits in the kids I 'mentor' within the narrow contexts within which I interact with them, and respond to them according to their DISC needs.

But what's interesting about the DISC workshops the kids will be attending is the training they will undergo in decision-making and conflict-resolution skills. Think I can ride on this initial groundwork and incorporate them in GP since these skill sets coincide quite nicely. The cognitive domains (Yikes! I should wash my mouth out with soap and water for using such language!) may be different, but the processes and the results are pretty much the same.

2 balls to start the year with

What have I got myself into? By day a denizen of the classroom, by night and weekends a production advisor to campus theatrical performances. Self-inflicted, too, so this isn't a complaint about increasing workload or anything. It's wonderful to work with such obedient and appreciative kids, and the improvements they're making is visible, almost instantaneous. All they need is a little specific direction and lots of encouragement, and little else.

Currently looking after NYeDC's CNY performance -- Elim and 3L have been terrific co-workers, staying evenings with me working with the kids -- and I'm also helping Mengs with her piano kids' upcoming R+J adaptation.

It's only the beginning of the year, and we're barely getting warmed up. It'll be really interesting to juggle everything else when the J1 timetable kicks into full gear real soon.

Chocolate blocked

The J1 crowd got bussed to Sentosa for a day of fun and games. Me, I wanted to use this opportunity to try out the Megazip Adventure Park. Sadly, the rain washed out my ambitions of flying through the air with the greatest of ease, so I went to join these guys instead for a caffeine fix at the Hard Rock Cafe... and a quick snapshot with this rather animated Hershey's bar. As for the title of today's post: sorry, Chris -- didn't notice you back there!

Error not in banker's favour

Ooh, look! A guy gets beaten up because some people think he's a loan shark when he's actually a bank manager. Wait... there's a difference?

Why Cookie Monster is blue

Beware of 'bust-boosting' cookies

'B' is for 'boobies'
Dat's big enuff for me...! ¯

East meets West

In the recent flurry to compare "Eastern" and "Western (i.e., American) teaching models, there is no perfect system. Eastern students yearn for a more creative, independent-thinking, even fun approach, while the West wants more school discipline and a stronger emphasis on hard science and math.

Here, we're pulled in both directions. We're building an educational superstructure of Western cool on a foundation of Eastern geek. No wonder we're all running confused; kids, teachers, management, all. But maybe we've been doing something right all along without knowing it...? CNN seems to think so. :P

Shaolin: philosophy that packs a punch

As I was watching Shaolin, I couldn't help thinking of the villagers constantly running back and forth towards one tragedy or another. Their lives are seriously wretched, consuming all the mantou buns the Shaolin temple can provide them from an ever-dwindling rice store, yet not really contributing anything useful in return. Every time the villagers raise a lament (which is quite often) the monks risk life and limb to make them happy again (which isn't for long).

That Shaolin stars Andy Lau, Nicholas Tse and Jackie Chan, but I'm thinking more about the plights of the nameless extras makes this movie quite extraordinary. Lau, Tse and Chan do play very strong and compelling characters, however as this movie is an ensemble piece, they and their supporting cast play very integral roles and no one star pulls attention away from another -- not even Tse with his whimsical pseudo-European military garb and manga-inspired hairdo.

If not for the villagers, there would be no point to the wars fought over them, no opportunity for the monks to display compassion and heroism towards their fellow human beings. The Generals fight each other for the power to exploit the seemingly inexhaustible human resource before them, the monks are bound to protect the flock and feed its insatiable hunger gathered outside its gates.

Lau's character, General Huo, experiences both sides. His reversal of fortunes brings him down from a warlord with everything to an outcast with a price on his head. But this reduction to zero is also the beginning of his redemption as a person when he learns to stop thinking of himself and instead start placing others's needs before his own -- even if they are the unending needs of the hopeless, hapless and practically useless villagers.

There is also wisdom in discerning what can be helped and what can not. Times may call for first aid, others for last rites, and sometimes no action at all can help a situation. Fortunately for the cinema audience there are lots of opportunities where kung fu fighting is the order of the day for the monks to show off their close-up hand-to-hand skills against gun wielding enemies.

But kicks, punches and chops cannot save the day. Though destruction and sacrifice are inevitable and constant, they are also a necessary starting point for reconstruction and transformation. The other constant is the people and their continued suffering but, as Huo learns, compassion and charity are the key to transcending the common mass, thus finding peace.

So much philosophy resonating ideas from Eastern religion, Socratic thought and the Sith-Jedi conflict neatly packaged in great cinematography; each shot lovingly, occasionally indulgently crafted, rich with an emotionally powerful aesthetic. My first movie viewing of 2011 was quite a mind-blowing experience. Hope it's a sign of more movie greatness to come.

A study of study

When we talk about 'learning', do we mean the ability to recall prior input on demand or do we mean the ability to recall prior input that is contextually appropriate to the need at the time of the recall? Either way, the ability to recall is what's important, whether on an academic test or in a real problem-solving situation. So there is no doubt that retrieving information from our memories is a skill worth honing. But which method trains our memories to function best?

A recent study of studying practices looked at techniques of rote memorization (ancient and boring), concept mapping (modern, colourful and hip) and 'retrieval practice', a.k.a., essay writing (generally thought to be painful and boring) and concluded that essay writing yielded the best results in terms of recall and logical application of the retrieved material compared to the other two. However, the essay-writing method didn't give its practitioners as much confidence in what they had learned compared to the practitioners of rote or mapping techniques who reported that they felt they had learned more, even though their test results fell behind the essayists.

Proves Socrates right, doesn't it? "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing".

I believe why essay writing works best is because the writer is actively connecting prior knowledge with new incoming knowledge through logical processes, aided by the application of language -- the glue that binds thoughts together. Learning by rote or mapping only requires a retrieval system comprehensible by the person memorizing the material. It may work for him or her, but no one else is likely to make sense of it, not immediately anyway. Whereas essays are written to share thought with an audience, and the need to communicate coherently with another person means that filing, referencing, retrieving information has to be done by a system that offers common access to everyone. Hence sharing the knowledge adds a second layer of learning to the learning process. How's that for reinforcement?

The challenge for GP is convincing our kids that essay writing is actually a shared learning experience and not simply a selfish process aimed at amassing a paltry handful of individual success scores. And maybe it's also an encouragement for me to keep posting here when so often these days I succumb to writer's block. But that's probably another story for another day.

Back to normal

We're beginning to wonder if we'd overreacted to Q-tip's malady of a couple of weeks ago. It was good to learn early that our dog was facing potential health problems due to ageing, and that we've started giving her preventive medications as a result. But it's even better to see that she's back to her normal behaviour, and back to looking almost-cute again.

Looks like we can start taking her out again! And here are some places that she will be welcome at. Click here.

Chilli reception

Entertaining foreign visitors is always a good excuse to pig out on local specialities, c.f., chilli crab. 'Foreign visitors' usually means friends of June's dropping in from all corners of the world for one reason or another. Funny, I always thought I was the more internationally cosmopolitan one.

Child-proof

Mankies = Married, no kids. That's us and a rising number of our compatriots who will not contribute to the gene pool, barring 'accident'. If you have to question why, just look at the people who ARE parents to see what parenting is like these days. Such people are absolute saints, taking pains to patiently wait in line all night to register their bawling newborn on a waiting list to enroll in a 'good' kindergarten.

People like me can only gape in disbelief at such melodramatic displays of parental self-sacrifice for their offspring. But if that is what it takes to be a parent these days, it is painfully apparent that I am patently not fit to be a parent; and neither are my more rational fellow Mankies. Good luck with that, people who are parents!

Stick it in your ear!

I could have passed Chinese Oral had I the technology to do so. Now we have Google Translate. Trans-late? Yeah, by a few decades in my timeline.

Psycho mom, successful kids?

Here's another article about motivation, except this time it's about the extreme extrinsic motivation that apparently underpins Asian academic success. No doubt this method can bring an amazing level of success, but what worries me is that the range of activities considered success-worthy is terribly restrictive; and that parental approval is conditional to success within this limited field.

Whether the philosophy tends towards applying intrinsic or extrinsic motivation, the objective is the same: to kick-start the success-self-esteem cycle. The former seeks to build self-esteem which drives success, the latter mandates success to build self-esteem. Don't we just love our kids?

Studies in Chaos -- 1st grade

I believe there is a certain level of chaos in education. However, this first grade school experiment -- in going to the extremes with intrinsic motivation while eschewing extrinsic motivation -- takes a lot more guts to attempt than I have. (Ha! I don't even have the guts to teach first graders under normal circumstances, anyway)!

Overdue reconciliation

Haven't seen Yee in a while, but because a lot of misunderstanding was developing between his private teaching methods and ours, which seems to be confusing our mutual kids, my bosses and I gladly accepted his invitation to a sharing he was conducting about how he runs his after-school programme.

Based on the feedback (intentional or otherwise) from our students, we were worried that all he was teaching were exam-smart study shortcuts that helped kids achieve high grades, but shortchanged them on actual learning. We're glad to know after today's session that the methods he uses make sense, and are geared towards teaching GP as a lifeskill and not just as a gradeable subject taken by desperate kids willing to pay any amount to score a pass in an important national exam.

Why the problems have arisen is mainly because our kids go and seek help only at the tail-end of his programme. Having missed out on all the foundational work and practice from earlier in the year, they have little frame of reference to grasp what the less tardy kids are learning. Grasping at straws, they return to us confused, with enough little knowledge to be dangerous.

What I've learned today satisfies me that Yee and I are on very a similar path in the way we break down our teaching of paper 1 and 2 skills. We are both highly sensitive to contextual shifts and share a strong belief in the moral (or at least socially responsible) basis of decision-making that must be communicated as key to our subject mastery.

Above all, we both are acutely aware that GP is the one subject at JC that actually helps children grow into thinking, mature, responsible, learning adults with the necessary skills for surviving the huge intellectual leap required of them when they reach their next port-of-call, the Uni. And even if they don't make it there immediately, the same skills will carry them through life anyway.

Since we're on the same side, perhaps we could streamline our classroom jargon so that the kids know we are essentially teaching the same things, and not get confused by differences in our vocabulary. That way, we could complement rather than work against one another. It's in both our interests, after all, to have our kids do well and grow up equally well.

The carrot is the stick

In the matter of using grades as incentives for students to work, Psychology Today provides some insight. While grades do encourage good students to work harder, they discourage students that do not make the grade who then see no further point working. Also, "working" does not necessarily mean "learning". We know of lots of short-cuts and poor study methods or techniques that can help students "score" but are not particularly helpful for long-term learning and lifeskill development.

A lot of my kids observe that what they learn in school has no application in their future lives. That's true because though they can achieve their As and Bs, they have no further utility for what they've learned. Mere stepping stones, that's all they are, not connecting that what they are about to learn next may well necessitate what they've learned before as a foundational prerequisite. So every time they have to learn something new, it's always from scratch. Painful, and ultimately pointless.

Grades are most useful as feedback; an indicator of what went right and what went wrong in order to adjust the student's path on the learning curve. When we grade students' submissions, our comments in the margins (more constructive and less vitriolic, preferably) are of more value than the digits we assign at the top of their papers. Grades are not meant to compare one student against another. Turn school into a win-lose proposition, and everybody loses.

Back on her feet

It's good to see Q-tip walking normally again. A couple of weeks ago, she developed a limp which deteriorated such that she could barely support her own weight on all four paws. But she's been responding well to her treatments and has regained almost full mobility and her appetite. While she can walk just fine, she is having difficulty with two particularly dog-specific activities: scratching behind her ear with her hind foot and shaking herself dry after a bath.

We will be maintaining her diet of Hill's Prescription Diet l/d while keeping her topped up with ursofalk (for liver support) and SAM-e (for arthritic pain and liver health). She's learned to lap up her daily dose of Ultimate Joint Care from a spoon, though sometimes we use it as a pretend "gravy" to complement her dinner. Now to taper off her dosage of prednisolone (a painkilling steroid) and hope that she hasn't grown dependent on it.

The influence of disfluence

I learned a new word: "disfluency". Applied to classroom teaching, it means that the lesson is not structured in such a way that facilitates the easy absorption of content by the student. It's quite the opposite of what we're encouraged to do, which is to make the learning as smooth and painless as possible because we think that the kids learn better when learning is easy.

But new studies at Princeton suggest that disfluent lessons are actually more effective forms of delivery for "long-term learning and retention". The simple reason is probably that in order to learn, the brain must actively engage (i.e., work) to make the necessary connections in order to come to a useful understanding of the presented material. If everything's nicely handed over on a silver platter there's little work for the student's brain to do. Usually, the one who learns most from such a lesson is the teacher who's connected all the dots already then presented the finished picture. Where's the fun in that?

So, maybe we should stop beating ourselves up over lessons that didn't go according to plan. The harder the kids have to work for meaning, the better they'll appreciate it. Hopefully, they'll remember you and come visit you in your retirement home when that "ah-ha!" moment finally arrives.

Touchy subject

Maybe people in S'pore are stressed out because we don't touch each other in a healthy way? We get amazing reports of rather over-exuberant S'poreans who go overboard to the point of unwholesome physical contact: see Exhibit A and Exhibit B (just in today's papers, mind you); and frown on those who engage in more or less normal PDA, some reported in a more sensational way than others (perennial kaypohness from Stomp). Worst of all, few of us have much regard for the well-being of the non-human animals living among us.

Norine Dworkin-McDaniel (whose name sounds like a Ferelden Dwarf's) writing for CNN tells us that touching is a healthy way to de-stress and boost our immune systems. I agree, though I reserve the right to keep random strangers at least at arm's length. But for some reason, I do not have this reservation for random non-human animals. Needless to say, my own pets are slowly growing bald due to endless stroking behind the ears, under the chin and over the back. See how chirpy and smiley I am? D:

Dances with bunnies

If ever there was a happy ending to animal abandonment, chemical weapons, PoW atrocity and WWII, somehow I'm not surprised that it can be found in Japan. See "Bunnies frolic on Japan's old chem weapons site" (Wired), plus vid.

Big fish, small fish

While Swift wrote "Gulliver's Travels" to comment on the society of his day, the movie starring Jack Black tends to focus more on the character of Gulliver himself.

Black's Gulliver has everything he could possibly want, being the king of his own empire of... one. He has his own apartment in trendy Manhattan, his own steaming cup of Java every morning, and has risen through the ranks in his publishing company to be the Head of the mail room. The biggest fish in the tiniest pond is Man Mountain Gulliver.

True, success is not easy to attain and we want to maintain that sense of accomplishment as long as we can. But holding on to small successes could mean sacrificing bigger dreams. Gulliver hopes for a much grander abode and pines for his crush of five years, but the cliff-side mansion is beyond his salary to afford and he can only  admire his crush from afar, believing that there is an impassable barrier between his station in life and hers.

Gulliver's successes as the literal giant in Lilliput are likewise impressive, rising to the rank and commensurate privileges of General of the Lilliputian army in record time by leveraging on his one advantage, his size. Oh, and another advantage: shameless plagiarism. So Lilliput is really a parallel of his life in the real world.

But his inadvertent trip to Brobdingnag, the land of giants, opens his eyes to the truth of his insignificance and powerlessness as a person. By being contented with easy successes, he simply crumbles under a real challenge and loses everything -- autonomy, dignity, identity -- everything.

Human life is nothing but a series of challenges. When we're at the top of our game, when we seem invincible, when we can manage any problem that comes along with a dismissive wave of a hand, what we have is not the enjoyment of our success but the settling in of stagnation, ennui and stasis. We're always looking for the next big thing to overcome, even if it means risking our stability and current state of equanimity.

Athletes savour their success but leave their trophies on the shelf to risk failure by testing themselves again in the new season. Career people seek promotion and greater responsibilities, though the work becomes more difficult and there's always the chance that they'll be stretched beyond their abilities. The risk of failure is what drives us on to the next stage of growth. Being fixated on a past success is like admiring a trophy without moving on. That's why they call it "atrophy".

Gulliver, of course, learns this life-lesson, bouncing back from his setback with a help from his little friends. As far as OUR little friends go, the PM says, despite doing well so far they "must continue trying to do better". Some people will see this as putting more pressure on our students. The reality is that although seeking out new challenges to overcome may be a risky proposition to our fragile egos, it's the only way to grow.

A visitation

Aunt "Victoria" is back from the UK for a family visit. Her favourite nephew and niece-in-law are treating her to dinner at PS Cafe, Dempsey Hill.

On the menu tonight... fish chowder, packed with lots of veggie stuff including corn kernels, and chunks of potato and sweet potato. One tureen is practically a light meal in itself, and here we've ordered one each.

And my main, NZ lamb with sweet potato mash, charred asparagus, red peppers, on a bed of spinach, in red wine sauce. Our order-taker assured me that the mutton "smell" would be appropriately dealt with in the kitchen. Dear girl, don't you know? The smell is the best part!

The time is now about two hours to midnight. So, see you again next year! :)

Gifts of love

It was nice of the Sisters at Gift of Love to invite all their volunteers for a year-end thanksgiving mass and dinner. There were a lot of us gathered in one small compound (meaning their dining hall and driveway), but I suppose there must be a sizable number of us in order for each team to provide one meal a month to the aged residents there. That is, not counting breakfast, 60 meals per month based on a 30-day month average.

As always with the Sisters, the evening was a simple, no fuss event. Mass involved carol singing and communion from which I accepted the Celebrant's exhortation that "God loves you," in place of the host, since I'm not a baptized Catholic.

And for once, it was the Sisters who fed the volunteers. There were two stations of high-carb, high-protein, low veg dishes (I noticed) catered from Elsie's Kitchen. I wasn't in the mood for deep conversation with my fellow volunteers over dinner, and fortunately they didn't offer any, apart from a couple of seasonal complimentary greetings.

We ate while the residents slept. And among the beds, June went about distributing small Christmas gifts to each zoned-out elderly sleepy-head. We managed to scrape together a little something for the old folks, after all.

It's a plan, anyway

Casey is, of course, concerned with the results from Q-tip's scan. But neither he nor we are anxious to get anything extreme like a biopsy done on her while she can't even walk or stand properly. We'll be proceeding with her pain-relief treatment while simultaneously putting her on a diet and course of supplements designed to strengthen her liver.

At least Q-tip is getting more used to taking her meds, and she's not struggling so much now. She seems to be showing some improvement this evening. Her tail is finally up and wagging a bit. That's an encouraging sign.

Scanned

On Casey's referral, we took Q-tip to the Mt Pleasant Animal Hospital for her ultrasound scan. Yes, the kind pregnant women undergo to look at their unborn babies. Q-tip hates to be on her back, but we had to hold her in place anyway while the tech applied the gel and manipulated the scope around her (newly shaved) belly area.

The pictures from the scan were quite incomprehensible to us, so the tech pointed out the "masses" in the liver and the sedimentation in the kidneys, not uncommon in older dogs. However, the nature of the masses was still unclear. Only a biopsy could tell us for sure if they were benign or... otherwise.

Scan results have gone to Casey. Let's see what he can tell us.

Wobbly-legged dog

Dr Casey saw Q-tip at last. Poor girl is tottering even more, her back hunched and every step seems to take quite an effort. Even the bathroom door curb is giving her pause as she gingerly steps over it, occasionally stumbling as her hind legs fail to find traction on the other side.

Casey's review of the x-rays confirm Dr Koh's diagnoses, though he is especially worried about the state of Q-tip's liver and kidneys. He recommends us to take her for an ultrasound scan for a better picture of her internal workings. In the meantime, he's given her a steroid shot for the arthritic pain that is probably causing the weakness in her legs.