review of school life for 2013

yes!!! o levels is finally over! no more waking up at 5 am in the morning to go to tiong bahru to collect exam papers. and i have clocked my Chief Presiding Examiner tour at the age of 30. some of my invigilators were a bit surprised that i became a CPE with only 3.5 years of teaching experience, and even the principal of the school was surprised at how young i am.

ok now let's recap year 2013. :)

JANUARY

Singapore Book Of Records 2013 - Highest number of people doing cup stacking. This project is anchored by the PE Dept. GOH is mr baey yam keng.


FEBRUARY

CNY performance with the students from wushu and modern chinese dance. i got the feeling that this will be my last time choreographing a CNY item.

Commemorating Total Defence Day, by wearing our SAF/HTA uniforms.


MARCH

Mass Run, another big event organised by the PE Dept. beside me is one of my favourite dance students, audrey yong! she got 13th position in the B Girls category!


APRIL

my show choir performing for Speech Day. i was still having reservist and i obtained permission to "sneak" out of camp to watch them perform!


MAY

Sec 3 Overseas Camp @ kota tinggi. organised by the PE Dept again. i am the 2IC for this camp, as well as the kayaking expedition leader. next year's sec 3 camp i am "promoted" to become the Overall In-Charge. sian...


JUNE

hosting 'Show Choir Experience' at my workplace, in collaboration with Singapore Show Choir Academy (SSCA). SSCA invited 2 instructors from Los Angeles to conduct the show choir workshops. we have about 10 schools coming down for the 3 days of 'Show Choir Experience'. quite overwhelming, but is a great experience.


JULY

organising and coordinating PASSION 2013, the arts assembly for the whole school.


AUGUST

b-dazzled 2013, the biggest event that i am most looking forward to. the show choir trained really hard for this, and we bonded alot through all the practises.

and we achieved good results too! we got 'diamond' award (equivalent to syf certificate of distinction), as well as the 'most popular show choir' award.

show choir performed for geylang serai constituency national day dinner, and the GOH is mr goh chok tong.


SEPTEMBER

conducting mass dance for ACES Day.

thank you students and ex students for the teachers' day wishes and gifts! 

show choir chalet @ aloha loyang!

another important milestone for the workplace, because we are featured on the front page of straits times! as well as featured on 联合早报，and on the news on channel 5, channel 8, channel u, channel newsasia, channel suria. 


OCTOBER

Grad Nite, for the graduating students.

the flash mob on last day of school, choreographed by xuehong.


NOVEMBER

staff retreat held at serangoon gardens country club. i presented 'Niche for Creative Expressions' to the the staff. and at the end of the staff retreat, it was announced that robin #1 is leaving. actually i knew it 2 weeks ago, when robin #1 told me personally. a few days before the staff retreat, robin #2 called me, and said she want to tell me a secret, and i must not tell anybody. turned out that she wanted to tell me that robin #1 is leaving, and she thought of doing a special farewell performance for robin #1, and asked me for ideas. so we created a whatsapp group, invited all the KPs in, and discussed the details of the special performance in the whatsapp group. i even went to learn sign language from my ex-student for this special performance!

and to conclude this review, here are the comments from my hod. :)

It has been a successful year for Y_ _ _ y_ _. In the areas of teaching and co-curricular activities, he has shown great enthusiasm and commitment. Do continue with the high spirit in the creative expressions niche to promote it amongst both the students and the staff. Keep it up. 

Caring Teacher Award 2014

The Caring Teacher Award aims to pay tribute to teachers who show care and concern for the holistic development of their students, and go the extra mile to ensure their charges grow up to be confident and independent learners.

birthday celebration with 10.11.12 gang

photo overdose!

the theme for the birthday celebration is 'Japan', hence you can see the japanese paper dolls in almost every photo. :)

the welcome drink to cleanse our mouth. 

cheers!!!

the breadsticks everybody loves! i think we ate 12 bottles? haha. it is free flow! 


the cold dish: 

seasonal air flown sashimi

some beef thingy that grace says is very very very very nice.


the appetiser:

foie gras chawamushi

escargot


the soup:

 pumpkin soup

mushroom soup with a small piece of truffle

my all time favourite cappucino crab bisque


the main course:

lamb shank

beef on hot stone

risotto

poached salmon


dessert:

warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. my all time favourite dessert. 


the drinks:

the birthday surprise (for me) and 1st year anniversary surprise (for me and darling getting engaged):

the birthday present #1. very nice red bag! to pair up with the very nice red adidas watch that i received for last year's birthday. :)

the birthday present #2. featured on 8 days again! hahahahaha. 


and of course, how can we forget the very important date, 10 November, whereby i proposed to darling, with the help of all my good friends. :)

thank you everyone, for being part of my life! 

POTD

SUPER UNGLAM. hahahahahahaha.

saturday post

saturday started with a 22 km run, that was flagged off at 7 am in the morning. the name of the run is Trail Seeker, and it is a challenging route that consist of river crossing, jungle bashing and obstacle clearing. halfway through the route i was cursing and swearing at myself for signing up for the run. hahaha. 

signed up for the run with my pe colleagues. it was them who psycho-ed me to sign up. hahahaha. they finished the run much earlier than me and still waited for me patiently at the finishing point. *touched*

after the run we went to the hawker centre opposite tjc for breakfast, and i quickly rush home to sleep because i am meeting darling in the afternoon for an excursion to Sea Aquarium!

the fishes together with the corals are too artistically pleasing to the eye. we really enjoyed ourselves at Sea Aquarium. :)

dinner was at Feast@East restaurant at Grand Mecure Roxy Singapore! we had a early birthday dinner because my little sis have rehearsals until 1 am on 11 november. 

the 3 siblings of the Tan family! dun you think the 3 of us are so good looking? hahahahaha. kudos to my dad and mum for the good genes!

goodbye mrs chan

robin #1 is leaving the workplace, after 17 years here, starting from a teacher, to the HOD of Art & Craft Department, and to the VP. 

she has been a wonderful mentor to me, and always one of the first few to acknowledge my hard work and contributions. 

she told me to be thankful that she will not be around to nag me anymore, but honestly speaking i never thought that she was naggy. LOL. 

all the best for your next VP tour in a particular school in woodlands, and hopefully i can join you in 2016! 

sunday post

right now i can only afford the time to update yytellmewhy once per week, because of my commitments as the o levels chief presiding examiner at a sec sch in the east. let's call the school juliet yankee. 

the experience has been great so far, and the students there are very well behaved. 

for example, to compare these students with the students from my workplace:

1) last year, after my students' papers were collected, and the invigilators were tallying their scripts, the students start to whisper among themselves. whereas the students from juliet yankee will keep quiet, and stare blankly in front, until all the scripts are being tallied and until i release them from the hall. 

2) last year, if my students forgot to bring their calculator/stationery/entry proof/nric into the hall, they will bua long long walk slowly out of the hall, and bua long long walk slowly back into the hall, like the whole world owes them a living. whereas the students from juliet yankee will speed out of the hall, and speed back into the hall with their stuff. 

and now, let's talk about the teachers at juliet yankee. 

firstly, on every exam day, one of the teachers will prepare hot milo and biscuits for the students. because some of the students will skip breakfast. 

and before the paper, the subject teachers will be with the students at the canteen, giving them last min revision and motivation. ok the teachers at my workplace also do that. 

but this is what impresses me. the teachers will go up with the students to the hall. and they will remain standing at the back of the hall for fifteen minutes. because the students have to be seated 15 min before the start of the paper. and once i announce the start of paper to the candidates, the teachers will then leave. that. is. really. IMPRESSIVE. 

two more weeks of o levels to go! the last paper is on 15 nov 2013. :)