NEW YEAR!

=DD ELLO dudes! =D how has life been so far WITHOUT ME? *strains ears and hears pathetic weeping** aww, not too good i see? it's ok don't cry, u have the cls pic! =) can always stare at the sk inside thr!! osh, n stop thinking about me pls =) i've been sneezing my lungs out. =)

new year's eve was spent at edwin's house countdowning! to those who couldn't make it: i hate u ppl, =) but i still wish u a fantastic new year ahead !! =) we spent that night eating, watching movies, PLAYING MAPLE (wth...=.= LOL =DD), and playing truth or dare, AKA, the LET'S-JUST-MAKE-UP-A-REASON-TO-KISS-EACH-OTHER game. (azu kissed me on the ELBOW ok omg!) i think i'll be slaughtered if i be explicit about the game here. but oh well~ it makes good black mail content =) so ya, if anyone's interested in knowing who did what, just email me! ;) there's always room for negotiations! WOOTS, so in all, that was a pretty fun celebration right? ( of cus the main factor lies in the author of this post la~)

now now, the blog's meant as a medium for us to kp in touch right? so let's help this blog fulfil it's holy mission bah. i wanna what u guys are doing!! ( yes, i mean everything!! u can talk about how u slaughtered ur enemy on maple, or how u pretended u had a gun and went around shooting in ur house ;) =D *wriggle eyebrows**

i'll start the ball rolling!

as some of u might know, i am now working (sort of) as a teacher. will be spending a month as a teaching intern at swiss cottage before heading off to pj for bio remedial lessons. just completed my 3 days training at nie: the 1st day wasn't very enjoyable as i had to endure a - (deleted lol, =D i just realised there might be teachers reading this! plus i dun wana be sued =DD)-> [modified] a not very stimulating course of lessons for a V LONG day... but the 2nd and 3rd days were pretty enlightening. i'll just talk about the 3rd day (today):

for today's finale, we had 3 guest speakers sharing with u the meaning of being a teacher. there was the usual ___ (cldn't find a word) to attract us to be teachers. (they had FANTASTIC FOOD as well!! so shiok!- i get 2 teabreaks and a lunch of good food evday, which i suspect was to this purpose HAHA joking) lol, that's being a bit unfair la. the speakers were actually very enlightening and convincing. the most enriching component was a sharing by the principal of the northlight school. here's abit of bg info: northlight school (NLS) is a school that was officially started in jan 2007. it caters specifically to students with weak academic abilities and have failed the psle for a few times. it has a modified curriculum focusing on ict skills rather than the academics. well, the principal was one of those lady whom you might pass off as, experienced, probably quite wise, but probably not fantastically interesting enough for us to absorb that wisdom off her.

-- i was wrong. she started the speech by telling us, "i didn't prepare any ppt slides unlike the others. i'm just here to talk." then she commanded us to stand up and stretch to wake us up lol... cus i think she saw some of us nodding off. so my first impression of her was: internal groann. but after that, she went on to describe the setting up of northlight and how she was the culprit responsible for the implementation of spa. lol. despite the fact that she wasn't a very fluent public speaker, she was incredibly interesting. this was probably because of the stories of her pupils. her stories were of an inspiring nature, they highlighted that there was good in humanity. she was telling us about how as a new principal, she boldly refused to have people posted to her school (the usual mtd) and announced that she wanted ppl to apply instead. the large response was heartening. she then went on to explain the northlight crest. it has a midnight blue background with a rising star. she said (to her students): "there are stars whether it's night or day, just that stars shine more brightly at night. just like the stars, you must fight through ur difficulties. the harder it gets for u, the brighter u will shine- just like how the star shines its brightest when the night is darkest." northlight was meant to represent how the school will be the guiding light for her students. cool eh?

then she recounted the story of this little boy who failed psle multiple times and was labelled somewhat as a troublemaker in school. the boy's brother (breadwinner) used to beat him up everytime he received a complaint, or a failure in a test/ exam. he transferred to northlight, and at their parent teacher meeting, the little boy, for the first time in his life, passed his exams. his brother hugged him! he then went up to the principal and said "thank you! today's the first day i felt what it was like to receive a hug!" so sweet isn't it? it got me thinking.. i have always led a pretty sheltered life. while i was aware that in every race there were winners and losers, it never really occurred to me what happens to the recurrent "losers" of the academic race- esp in s'pore. she took us through this pic slideshow of the school's activities: the school looked like any other school. they had speech day and academic awards. i then realised how especially sweet it must've felt for them, to taste success for the first time. to be able to go through school without being inevitably discriminated against as the "repeat" (quite rare in pri sch). inspiring isn't it? lol... now i sound like i'm preaching n trying to lure more ppl to teach. =D haaa, i'm just reflecting la, so pls pardon my grandmother story. i suffer from the "blogger's endless rant syndrome" u see. yea, so that's that. there was a few more interesting stories but i won't go on. (i hear you eileen (if u're reading)=DD haha, yea i know, i should shut up =DD )

i'll be posting my thoughts about my short stint as a teacher, so i'm hoping to see some of your stuff!! EVERYTHING! like when u go out n see a nice xmas tree n take a pic or sth. (i know thr're no more xmas tree la! stop laughing! cldn't find anythg else to quote ma! =DDD) please keep the blog alive!! and the spirit of s05 even more alive!! (CORNNNAAYYY!!) OHOHOHO

call me ms koh! =D (joking! i'll whack u if u do call me that lor, so paiseh!)
sk

p/s: that was looong~