It is the most sleep-inducing, but at the same time it is the time where it is of utmost important that we are alert and awake.

I don’t know about other teachers, but personally I’d try anything to keep myself awake and alert. What I usually end up doing is counting the number of left-handers in the class. Interestingly, I’ve found that if the number of students per class is the same, the number of left-handers are higher in a Science class than in an Arts class. I’ve found this to be true every year. However, I can’t say that this is conclusive because my statistics pool is only in the upper secondary classes of Sri KDU.

Unfortunately, counting the number of left-handers takes less than one minute, but a solo invigilation session can take up to 1 1/4 hours.

Anyway, today during one of my invigilation slots, I started thinking about the past few years that I’ve been teaching here, and my mind starting trying to form logical relationships.

Now, I like anagrams. I’m not great at them like in Da Vinci Code, but I like playing the Word Jumble in the Sunday Star and I always score high in games like Boggle. Anyway, there isn’t much to work with here, but here goes:

In 2005, I was teaching 5 classes: 4 Aristotle, 4 Mozart, 4 Dickens, 5 Aristotle, 5 Mozart.
Taking the first letter of each class and rearranging them, I get:

MADAM

In 2006, I was teaching 4 classes: 4 Aristotle, 5 Aristotle, 5 Mozart, 5 Dickens.
Taking the first letter of each class and rearranging them, I get:

ADAM

In 2007, I was back to 5 classes, and the names still haven’t changed: 4 Aristotle, 4 Mozart, 5 Aristotle, 5 Mozart, 5 Dickens. I get the same old:

MADAM

In 2008, I was teaching 4 classes: 4 Aristotle, 4 Dickens, 5 Aristotle, 5 Mozart.
And I’d get:

ADAM

Can you see a pattern forming here? Had I stayed on, I’d have gotten MADAM ADAM MADAM ADAM and I’d probably go MAD. But I left in 2008. That must have turned out to be a good thing for this pattern, because when I came back in 2009, I had a slightly different set of letters to work with.

In 2009, I was teaching 4 classes: 4 Aristotle, 4 Mozart, 4 Dickens, 4 Newton.
I’d still get three letters that are the same as the earlier sets, but this time with the introduction of a brand new letter, I’d get:

DAMN

Finally! Something different!

This year, with a change of subject from Chemistry back to my fav ol’ Physics, I didn’t follow up with any of last year’s classes.

So, in 2010, I have: 4 Aristotle, 4 Mozart, 5 Columbus, 5 Edison.
With two pretty new letters, I get:

CAME or MACE or ACME

Nice!

However, I’m supposed to give up one of my Form 4 classes (Aristotle? Mozart?) and take over another Form 5 class (Mozart? Dickens?). I don’t know which class I’ll have to give up and which class I’ll have to take over. But regardless of whichever class I have to give up or take, I can’t form proper words with any of the new set of letters. The only one that will still work is if I have to give up 4 Mozart and take on 5 Mozart because that gives me the exact same set of words; but I can’t give up 4 Mozart because they’re my homeroom and I DON’T want to give up 4 Aristotle because it will spoil my anagram.

OKOK, it’s not just the anagram. I like ALL my classes, I don’t want to give any class up. It took me long enough to remember everyone’s names.

Remember kids: It’s not my choice. It’s an executive choice the school administration has to make for the benefit of all students.

Well, Sri KDU never celebrates Teacher’s Day on the day itself anyway… they usually celebrate it after. I heard an unconfirmed news that it would be celebrated on June 4th (last day of the semester) this year, where there will be micro-performances to entertain the teachers. However, since that day is after all the examinations, my guess is most of the students will have already left for an early vacation and all we’d have are crickets to entertain us. (chirp chirp chirp…)

Anyway,  I wasn’t expecting anything this year from anyone, and it was an extremely pleasant surprise to receive a card from Pearlyn who was in my homeroom (4D 2009) last year, and she gave it to me on Monday May 17th. I’m not teaching her class this year, and I think most of them have already forgotten my name by now (Miss Who?), so it was really nice to know that she remembered me. Thanks, Pearlyn! You made my day! Pearlyn’s always been very sweet anyway. At the end of last year, she gave me a box of dark chocolates, knowing that I love dark chocolates. It’s hard for any of my students not to know I love dark chocolates, because I keep reminding them throughout the year. But still, she was thoughtful enough to get me a box, and they were really good chocs, too.

Oh no! I forgot to take a photo of Pearlyn’s card! I’ll upload it when I have.

That wasn’t all. At the end of the day on Monday May 17th, I saw a couple of my present homeroom (4M 2010) students coming into the staffroom with a giant cardboard folded in half. I thought they were handing up their Chemistry project to Ms Jasmine Leong, because earlier in the day I saw various projects done on hard boards about Chlorine Gas which were works-in-progress to be submitted. Yi Hong said, “No, teacher, this is for you.” I thought he was joking until he and Bryan opened the card. PLUS, they also gave me a lovely handbag!!!

I feel so blessed to get a good homeroom every year. Last year my homeroom got me TWO birthday cakes for my birthday. This year my homeroom gave me the big card and a handbag for Teacher’s Day… and I’m only the assistant homeroom teacher.

Thank you, 4 Mozart! You made my year! Love you all!

Happy Teacher's Day from 4 Mozart!

The lovely handbag that my students gave to me

Every year I make a new year’s resolution to update my blog more often. Every year I fail to keep that resolution…

Anyway, here are a few quick updates I’d like to share:

KDU CQ Teo Debate Challenge 2010 (12-14th March 2010)

Lydia who is the “official” school debate coach could not accompany the students this year to the tournament so I, as the “assistant” stepped in to help out. We sent in two teams this year; Team A consisting of Shane Low, Daniel Khoo and Kristina Teow, and Team B consisting of Celine Thai, Tiffany Khoo and Chia Chien Teng. Of these six kids, Shane and Daniel are the newest as this was their first tournament. I must say that they did very well; out of 60+ teams, Team A broke into octo-finals at #12 and Team B broke at #4, both on 4-1 out of 5 prelim rounds. Unfortunately both teams lost at Octos, but regardless, I’m very proud of them. If you’re on my Facebook friends list, you’d have seen the constant updates I kept posting throughout the tournament.

Sri KDU's reps for the CQ Teo Debate Challenge 2010

CONGRATULATIONS TO CALVIN AND MELISSA!

Congrats to Calvin and Melissa! Such a lovely couple. Here’s wishing them the very best for the future.

Congratulations to Calvin and Melissa!

Their wedding dinner was a perfect time to catch up with friends from uni days whom I haven’t seen for a long time. After we graduated, everyone got busy with work/family… I met some friends whom I haven’t seen since graduation.

Oh, and I took loads of photos but haven’t had time to edit before uploading to FB.

Happy Easter from KL Swing!!!

KL Swing always organises a party in conjunction with a festival, and I always try to make it for their social parties as I can’t make it for their social dances. Well, not anymore, at least, since I have other duties that clash with their regular socials.

Anyway their most recent event was in conjunction with Easter, and they had it at this cosy little place in Bangsar called “For Fresh People”.

+1000 points for a hat!

Photos to be uploaded on FB soon!!

More regular updates soon. I swear! <cross fingers>

So this is for you who found my blog: STUDY PHYSICS!!!

In other news, I also know that many of you will try to add me on Facebook. Feel free to do so, but please introduce yourself (which class are you from?)… because I haven’t put your names and faces together yet.

If you’ve added me before but it’s pending confirmation, please send me a message identifying yourself.

The reason I’m being quite strict about my FB friends is because I only add people that I really know. This is more for safety purposes; I don’t add complete strangers becaues they will have access to my details, plus access to my list of friends, many of whom are my students. So yes, I’m being protective about my students.

Physics Rocks!!

With 4 Mozart for the last time. Click on image for bigger view

Thanks to Kristina for sending me this photo.

I am really going to miss you kids!

And here are some random shots.

Pile of exam papers I had to mark. This was only Paper 2. Mind you, I was so driven to insanity that I had to take a photo.

Shen Deng & Geoffrey. Click on photo to view more photos.

Why do I have a photo of Shen Deng & Geoffrey on my blog? Because I took the photo. Hahaha.

Actually today was my last day with my four Form 4 classes. I am personally very sad because I really like all four of my classes, but I won’t be teaching them next year. I’m going to miss them very, very much; some, more than others. A bit disappointed that not everyone was in school today, but that couldn’t be helped because a lot of students wanted a break from the exams and didn’t know that headstart which starts next week would be taught by different teachers (even the teachers ourselves only found out yesterday).

I had an opportunity to take photos with 4 Mozart today; unfortunately I only brought my Olympus instead of my Nikon DSLR, so my photos didn’t turn out so well. Dang! Something’s wrong with my Olympus, and I had just sent it to Olympus to get it checked, but for some reason it’s still not fixed. Sigh.

There’s a really nice shot of me with 4M in Kristina’s camera; will just have to wait until she sends it to me.

My birthday was last month, on the 8th of July. I had shamelessly been announcing my impending birthday in vain hopes that I would, for once, be able to get something from my birthday wishlist, and I mean my birthday wishlist. Nothing of the sort happened, of course. Except for the dark chocolates. Oh, but at least I didn’t get any plumbing accessories this time

Anyway my birthday was off to a good start with dinner with close friends at The Ship.  It was fun and enjoyable, but if I thought I could escape the “Happy Birthday” singing, there was no such luck. While other places like TGIF merely get all their staff to sing very loudly, The Ship blasts the birthday song over their speakers so that everyone in the restaurant knows it’s someone’s birthday.

Birthday fun at The Ship! (Kodie not in the photo because he's taking the pic)

We took a lot of photos… Take a look!!!

Sunday saw a brief celebratory lunch with some of my dance teammates. Tracy made me beautiful cupcakes, every single one personally handpiped by herself. The cupcakes were absolutely delicious! She bought us lunch at Starbucks before making everyone embarrass me with a “Happy Birthday”  song…

Tracy's beautiful cupcake. She says her sifu told her it takes 600 tries before she'd get a perfect rose, but it already looks beautiful to me

Me with Tracy and her cupcakes

More photos of the beautiful cupcakes here!! Must-see!!!

My family then took me out fo a nice quiet dinner at Sri Siam. Erm, there’s no photo because it was a really simple dinner.

Tuesday night, on my birthday eve, I went for dance class which is usually followed by dance practice. One of the ladies who attends the social dance class, Eloise, usually brings her 6-year-old daughter Jye Yi to the class, but because the little girl usually can’t cope with the adult-level class, I spend time with the little girl, teaching her the basics and dancing with her so that she doesn’t lose interest in the dance. Because I spend so much time with her, she became quite attached to me; and she found out my birthdate… through the expedient method of asking me.

She made her father take her out to buy a cake, and insisted on coming to class to give me the cake. Fortunately it wasn’t a class celebration, because everyone left quite quickly when the class was over (phew!) but for the little girl’s sake, her mother and her aunt (both of them attend the social dance class) sang a quick round of Happy Birthday, and I cut the cake to give the little one a slice. She had bought a delicious coffee cake… yummm :)

Jye Yi and I

Wednesday… my actual birthday. I have to say that it was simply the best birthday I’ve celebrated at Sri KDU, ever. The day got progressively better

I had ordered mini-cupcakes from a friend, with the intention of giving each of my students one, and some of my colleagues (can’t give EVERYONE… there’s too many). I ordered the cupcakes because I knew that I couldn’t expect people to celebrate my birthday with me, so the only way to make sure I’m not alone in my celebration is to MAKE THEM CELEBRATE IT WITH ME.

The mini-cupcakes I distributed to my students and friends

The first class of the day was 4 Newton who, instead of the customary “Good morning, Miss Hoo” sang “Happy Birthday”. That was a nice greeting

"Everyone do the Japanese pose!!"

And… surprise, surprise. Some of my tuition students actually got me a cake!!! I was quite touched; it was the first time I ever received a cake from students not in my class. Muaxes to all of you With Lydia’s help, they got me a very pretty chocolate cake.

With the 5A kids who bought me the cake

Shaun attempting to stab Kareem with the superlong knife

The second class was 4 Aristotle, who used to drive me nuts the whole year by always singing “Happy Birthday”. But when I walked into class, they refused to sing it to me, and gave me the customary “Good morning” greeting instead. And when they did sing, they sang it to one of their classmates Gary instead. After a bit of hemming and hawing, Juno finally came forward with a papercard which everyone signed. And they said they didn’t know how old I was, so they wrote every number they could think of – “Happy 16th birthday”… “Happy 32nd birthday”… “Happy 48th birthday”… But of all the numbers everyone wrote, no one got the right number.

Me with 4 Aristotle

The class immediately after that was 4 Mozart, and they sent people outside to stop me from going in. I guess it would have been obvious to anyone as to what they were planning, especially since the lights were off and so many of them were holding cameras, but I had long taught myself not to expect anything. And… so when I went in, they had a cake with candles lit and everyone burst into song, I actually started crying. And unfortunately, a few of them caught my tears on camera. =.=”

But I don’t mind admitting it. I was truly overwhelmed, especially since this class isn’t even my homeroom, yet they were thoughtful enough to throw me a surprise party. If I could, I’d take them in as my homeroom, too.

"Everyone look at Miss Hoo!"

I don’t have photos of the cake 4M prepared for me though. I didn’t have my camera ready, I was too busy wiping the tears away.

The best surprise was yet to come though. 4M had done something great, and it would be right to expect my homeroom to do something better, but like I said, I had taught myself not to expect anything. But during lunchtime, it was obvious that they were planning something, because from my seat in the staffroom, I saw quite a few of my students walking by the doors, and the moment they spotted me through the glass, they quickly doubled back. Then Darryl was sent in to ask me to step out. He pretended to want to ask me a Chemistry question, but it was so obviously a lie, that I handed him my camera. What was waiting outside for me was beyond anything I had expected…

I GOT A HUMAN GREETING CARD!!! IT’S THE BEST CARD I’VE EVER RECEIVED!!!

My human greeting card is so big, I get to stand inside it!

And on top of that, they got me a cake! And embarrassed me in front of everyone by singing “Happy Birthday” very loudly at the cafeteria.

The cake 4 Dickens bought. I'm at the cafeteria where they embarrassed me by singing "Happy Birthday" very loudly.

I had no more tears left, but I was still very touched. It trumps 4M’s surprise party, hehe.

I was surprised at how quickly everyone disappeared back to class when the bell rang, leaving me and a few others to clean up the mess. And when we got back to class, someone kept saying, “The party isn’t over yet” but it didn’t register until Johann walked in with a second cake…

My second cake from 4 Dickens!!

The day ended with my receiving a beautiful bouquet from Bronya, which she had sent to the school. They were late; it was supposed to be sent in the morning. But nevertheless, it was a great end to a great day.

The lovely bouquet Bronya sent to me at school

Thank you everyone for your wishes, presents, and cakes! I love you all!

Photos of my birthday at school can be viewed here.

Ms Yee Weng Yan is one of the Biology teachers in school. I was chatting with her today, and I took a look at the Biology Paper 3 (mid-year examinations are going on right now. I’m sitting in front of the laptop with a huge stack of Chem papers to mark – I’ve gotten as far as Question 2 on Paper 2; I mark everyone’s paper at the same time, one question at a time) and compared it to the Chemistry Paper 3.

Honestly, I am so not familiar with the Biology paper format or answering style, but that’s because I’ve never taught Biology, and I never continued learning Biology after my SPM years and years ago (Gosh, I sound so old!). And Biology has never really been my favourite or strong Science subject (though I still got an A).

Well, anyway, so I took a look at the Bio Paper 3 and compared it to Chemistry Paper 3, and found the format to be almost identical. Even the answering scheme was the same (3 marks for writing just one hypothesis! And you can still get 1 mark if you got it wrong, as long as you write SOMETHING! …. provided it’s a visible attempt at answering the question, not some random “Miss Hoo you’re so pretty” kind of answer). The marks allocated per question are the same, and the total for the paper is the same (50). But Physics Paper 3 is so different. There’s no pity mark for a wrong answer, and the total for Physics Paper 3 is 40.

And when I started explaining to Weng Yan about the answering scheme for Physics Paper 3, she interrupted with an observation. “You really love Physics!”

Err, yes. I didn’t realise how obvious it was. Apparently my entire face and demeanour changes and I become quite animated when I start talking Physics.

Lydia totally agreed.

Gosh, I miss Physics already. I mean, Chem’s cool and all… really. The experiments for Chemistry are quite exciting compared to Physics (how fun can it be to roll a trolley down a plane?…. dohhhh). But gosh, with Physics… I can come up with near-impossible questions for tests, which can be answered based on the principles you learn in Form 4 and 5. You know, the type you can’t do during the exams but when you see the answer you go, “OH MY GOD!!! THAT’S IT?!!?!?!”

Did I say that loud? Oops.

I had also initially planned to have a birthday celebration for my homeroom 4 Dickens for the March, April, and May babies, but with the lack of anything special going on, we decided to postpone it to next month.

I didn’t want to go to school today (I don’t work on Thursdays and Fridays), but Lydia asked me to accompany her for the lunch, so I went. I got there about noon – in time to catch the last 5 minutes of the “surprise performances” the students put up for the teachers. Not that it mattered much to me I wasn’t there to celebrate Teacher’s Day.

But even though the students knew I hadn’t planned to be at school today, I still got some gifts!! I GOT MY DARK CHOCS!!! Check that out… Lindt 85% COCOA!!!! YUMMMMM!!!!! And a box of Black Bitter Chocolate with 100% chocolate!!!!

My Teacher's Day gifts! Not all are from students - the food flask and the folded storage box are from the school, the small flask from the PTA, and the bottle of lotion from Mrs Chan.

Thank you to Nadirah, Ee Wen, Florence, Nee Shuang and Ee Ping (my former shadow!!!).

It’s so sad that I can actually name the students who gave me pressies.

Oh! And thank you 4 Mozart for the papercard!!!!

Card from 4 Mozart

Even my own homeroom didn’t give me anything :’( But anyway, thanks, you Chickens :-*

Oh. And I still owe you kids the Chemistry answers.

1. I love dark chocolate. The darker the better. I prefer those with AT LEAST 70% dark chocolate. Anything less doesn’t qualify as dark. But, NO FERRERRO ROCHER, PLEASE!! That’s my least favourite chocolate brand. Seriously!
2. If you think I deserve something more intellectual, book vouchers would be great!
3. Have I mentioned how I like photography? I could do with some new lenses to go with my Nikon D60. Or one of those LED flashes.
4. My videocamera is dying on me. It’s been having problems for a while, and now the lens holder at the camera is getting loose (as in, it seems like it’s going to fall off my videocamera). I actually sent it in to fix a while back, and obviously it wasn’t a good job. Sigh… what to do, it’s a Sony. I really could do with one of those new HDD HD videocameras.
5. I’ve never been to Club Med before, would love to go there…

*Hint hint*