This is for you students
I know that the moment some of you find out that I have a blog, you’ll Google and you’ll try to find it…
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!! 
October 29, 2009
I just love, love, LOVE this shot!!!
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!
Chemistry Year-end Examinations Answers
Answers posted here > Click click
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.
August 14, 2009
Best Birthday Ever!
OKOK. I’d better write this down before I forget to, and the news becomes so old that it’s not interesting anymore. It’s just that I had no time, what with the class tests and the dance competition and falling sick.
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]](http://www.zyenhoo.com/blogger/2009/08/20090704_theship.jpg "Birthday fun at The Ship!")
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!
May 26, 2009
Chemistry’s Cool. I think. But Physics totally Rocks!!
Weng Yan made an observation today that is so true.
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.