Saturday, September 23, 2006

Generation X

I'm always trying to find evidence to prove that I belong to the same generation as all of you, haha. Here's a fun email I received recently, titled 'For the 70s & 80s babies'. Since most of you were born in the late 80s, let's see how many of the following are familiar to you. If you know more than 30 of them...I think you're in the same generation as me! Brace yourself, it's pretty long :)

1. You grew up watching He-man, MASK, Transformers, Silver Hawk and Mickey Mouse. Not to forget, Ninja turtles, My Little Pony and Smurfs too.
2. You grew up brushing your teeth with a mug in Primary school during recess time. You will squat by a drain with all your classmates beside you, and brush your teeth with a coloured mug.The teachers said you must brush each side 10 times too.
3. You know what SBC stands for.
4. You pay 40 cents for Chocolate or Strawberry MILK every week in class.
5. You watch a very popular Malay dubbed Japanese drama on RTM1 about schoolgirls who possess powerful skills in volleyball called Meoro Attack.
6. You find your friends with pagers handphone cool in Secondary school.
7. SBS buses used to be non-airconditioned. The bus seats are made of wood and the cushion is red. The big red bell gives a loud BEEP! when pressed. There are colourful tickets forTIBS buses.The conductor will check for tickets by using a machine which punches a hole in the ticket.

8. Envelopes given to us to donate to Sharity Elephant every Children's Day.
9. You've probably read Young Generation magazine.You know who's Vinny the little vampire and Acai the constable.
10. You were there when they first introduced MRT here. You went for the first ride with your parents and you would kneel on the seat to see the scenery.
11. Movie tickets used to cost only $3.50.
12. Gals are fascinated by Strawberry Short Cake and Barbie Dolls.
13. You learn to laugh like The Count in Sesame Street.
14. You longed to buy tibits called Kaka (20 cents per pack), and Ding Dang (50 cents per box), that had a toy in it and it changes every week not forgetting the 15 cents animal crackers and the ring pop, where the lollipop is the diamond on the ring.
15. You watched TV2 (also known as Channel 10) cartoons because Channel 5 never had enough cartoons for you
16. Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Three Investigators, Famous Five and Secret Seven are probably the thickest story books you ever thought you have read. Even Sweet Valley High and Malory Towers.
17. KFC used to be a high class restaurant that serve food in plates and let you use metal forks and knives.
18. Catching was the IN thing and twist as the magic word.
19. Your English workbooks was made of some poor quality paper that was smooth and yellow.
20. CDIS were your bestfriend.
21. The only computer lessons in school involved funny pixellised characters in 16 colours walking about trying to teach you maths.
22. Waterbottles were slinged around your neck and a must everywhere you go.
23. Boys loved to play soccer with small plastic balls in the basketball court.
24. Teng-teng, five stones, chapteh, hentam bola and zero point were all the rage with the girls and boys too...
25. Science was fun with the balsam and the angsana being the most important plants of our lives, guppies and swordtail being the most important fish.
26. Who can forget Ahmad, Bala, Sumei and John, eternalized in our minds from the textbooks. Even Mr Wally & Mr. Yakki. What abt Miss Lala??? And Zaki and Tini in Malay Textbooks?
27. We carry out experiments of our own to get ourself badges for being a Young Zoologist/Botanist etc.
28. Every Children's day and National day you either get pins or pens with 'Happy Children's Day 1993' or dumb with 'Happy National Day 1994'.
29. In Primary six you had to play buddy for the younger kids like big sister and brother.
30. We wear BM2000, BATA, or Pallas shoes.
31. Your form teacher taught you Maths, Science and English.
32. The worksheets were made of brown rough paper of poor quality.
33. You went to school in slippers and a raincoat when it rained, and you find a dry spot in the school to sit down, dry your feet, and wear your dry and warm socks and shoes.
34. School dismissal time was normally around 1 pm.
35. There would be spelling tests and mental sums to do almost everyday.
36. Your friends considered you lucky and rich if your parents gave you $3 or more for pocket money everyday.
37. You see Wee Kim Wee's face in the school hall.
38. You freak out when the teacher tells you to line up according to height and hold hands with the corresponding boy or girl.
39. Boys like to catch fighting spiders.
40. Collecting and battling erasers was a pastime for boys.
41. Autograph books were loaded with "Best Wishes", "Forget Me Not", and small poems like "Bird fly high, hard to catch.Friend like you, hard to forget".
42. Class monitors and prefects loved to say "You talk somemore, I write your name ah!"
43. There were at least 40 people in one class.
44. Large, colourful schoolbags were carried.
45. You brought every single book to school, even though there was one thing called the timetable.

The dreaded Promos... (Part 2)

I must say I haven't been in the best of moods this week (I'm more worried than you!) so many of you have seen the 'evil' side of me. Hope I haven't discouraged any of you...'cos I know most of you have studied real hard and tried your best. I'm trying to bridle my tongue and be encouraging...*aargh* obviously didn't work.
It's been fun teaching you all :) and here's the last of my nagging:

1) SLEEP EARLY!!!
2) Don't PANIC
3) Drink lots of WATER (throughout the exam period, not during the paper....don't want you leaving during the paper for toilet breaks)
4) RELAX when you need to
5) YOU CAN DO IT! (what a cliche, but this is my most encouraging phrase)

All the best for all the exams!

*Will be checking this page these 2 nights so can still post questions here if you need. Will be good to sms me when you do though*

The dreaded Promos.....(Part 1)

It's exciting, it's nail-biting....and it's finally here! What we've all been waiting for! *Groan*
Hey, but maybe the dreaded 'P ' is not as bad as you think....here's what you've learnt in the past year...not much, really...

Compre:
1) Use Your Own Words As Far As Possible = Use Your Own Words EVERYWHERE
2) Explain what the writer means by "..." = Paraphrase all the words in "..."
3) Summary = Read the question, highlight points, count number of points, paraphrase,
paraphrase...have I mentioned PARAPHRASE??
4) Clues = these little people are helping you everywhere...the : and ; and -- and (..) , as well as
terms with positive or negative connotations
5) Metaphor = Introduce the lovely 'Just as....' and explain the literal and metaphorical
meaning
6) Irony = How can you explain a contradiction without the help of 'yet', 'but' or 'however'???
7) Tone & Attitude = Remember that page in 'Just do it'? Tear it out, burn it and drink it!
8) 3 mark question = 3 or 6 points. Duh?! Why give only 3 when there are 6 in the passage?
9) Vocab = if 'essential is 'very important', why throw away half a mark and write 'important'
just to save some ink?
10) Inference Questions = erm...are there any rules? Hopefully they will be simple!

Essay:
1) Question types = Absolute questions (no extent pls), appeal & drawbacks questions....all
these are simple types as long as you know the topic.
2) PRESM, Level Analysis = these are your best friends especially for 'appeal/drawback' or
'significance' questions
3) Para development = every para should have topic sentence, elaboration, example,
concluding statement...this is the 101th time, I'm getting naggy! Give general trends
(increase/decrease) if you really can't think of specific e.g.
4) Balance = most questions need a balance. If you can, tackle the general public's assumption
or the view that is different from yours first and attack that view. OR choose whatever
method to balance that makes the most sense. There is no hard and fast rule. Most
importantly, remember your stand and don't contradict yourself. Don't say "However, I
agree to a small extent that technology is always good"
5) Intro & Conclusion = Don't give one line intro or conclusion! Revise the worksheet (and
every other worksheet I've given you!)
6) A higher level = think of different groups of people who may have different experiences,
think of the impact of globalisation/media/science, think of words that may have more than
its superficial meanings (e.g. is image only about a person's appearance? Is travelling only
about the usual tourism?)
7) How, Why, So = always think of reasons and impacts
8) Lecture notes & Sample essays = READ them! Read for inspiration, examples and likely
points
10) PLAN (max 1/2 hour) & check Spelling, Punctuation, Expression & Grammar

Huh??? That's all you've learnt for the past year? Sheesh....Should have shown you more movies and played more games...

Answers to Intro & Conclusion worksheet

Here are the answers for the worksheet on Intro and Conclusion for those who didn't have time to copy them down

Answers to Worksheet

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Notes for holiday lesson + answer for summary (CT2)

Here are the slides and handouts that Mrs Lim and I went through for the holiday lesson, as well as the summary answers

Essays
Comprehension
Summary

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Holiday Lesson

Holiday lesson will be on Thursday, 10am, LT1. Please bring your Common Test 2 essay questions and comprehension passages. See ya!

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Answers for 2003 Promo Paper

Here are the answers for the 2003 NYJC Promo Paper. Note how to answer the contradiction question and the paraphrasing for the summary question

NYJC Promo 03 Ans