something about my GIVE program

 Though my GIVE program has just begun and I have taught only one class, but I do have something to write about this program.

Do not always believe in Google

I had learnt a lesson about Google. It was my first visit to my GIVE school. I searched information to get there on Google the day before I went there. In fact, after I got the information about how to get there, I found it different from what MOE teacher roughly told me, but I chose to trust Google. And the result was terrible-- the school I should go was CHIJ St. Theresa convent, but I went to its old campus.The school had moved to other place! I tried really hard but I still could not get to the new campus on time, I was late for my first visit. So, what I learned from this case was that do not always believe in Google and always check carefully if there is something you do not understand.

The lovely school Guard

  In fact, the lovely school Guard was not “lovely” at all the first time I met her. It was my first visit as I mentioned above, I was late and I had run out of the money in my phone.So I had to go the office on my own rather than called my teacher for direction-- as I went into the campus and walked on a road , a lady shouted at me like a tiger! I was shocked and later I knew that she was the school Guard, but I did not notice her when I walked in, I was so embarrassed! But after I explained to her, she became very friendly and showed me the way to the office. After a while I got to know why she “overreacted” for my behavior (I thought she overreacted at that time), CHIJ St. Theresa convert is a girls’ school.Why did not anyone tell me about that before? She was surely not allowing me a stranger to come in! She was a good Entrance Guard. In fact she was very friendly because at the next couple of times I went there, she kindly helped me a lot. Well, being strict in her job and being kind to people like me, I think she is lovely.

First GIVE class

 If you do not teach a class, you will never know how hard it is to teach students. After my first GIVE class, I had this kind of feeling. In fact, my class was short; though the class was 35 minutes, I only got 20 minutes to teach. All the students got together in 15 minutes after the class began because they had to change classroom. And in my 20 minutes of teaching time, they did not seem to listen to me… All in all, my first class was totally out of my expectation. After that, I knew that my teachers were so great because I could not do as well as they did! Anyway, it was my first class and I would cherish it for the rest of my life. And I also had some good memory; the students’ desire of knowledge through their eyes made me know that what I was doing was meaningful.

  Many of SM3 students joined GIVE program too and I hope they will have a good experience through this program!

Science fans,Copernicus or jokers

Do you know people called science fans? Science fans are referred to people doing science research in free time. Bold and creative, they always suspect the authority and bring up their innovative theories in terms of science. However, their fancy ideas are seldom accepted by the public, the same as Copernicus's unwelcomed idea in the old days. Science fans always assert their correctness and hope to be the next Copernicus.

In fact, there are some successful science fans who finally become well-known scientists, such as Nikola Tesla, who even not finished an undergraduate course, and the most famous one, Albert Einstein. Take Einstein for example, during the time he worked in government, he came up with the special theory of relativity, shocking the entire scientific community. At that time, he is merely a science fan. He did his research in his house instead of the laboratory and discuss with his friends instead of other scientists. Even though he came up with his his creative idea, he was not admitted as a formal scientist for a while because of his poor science background. Nowadays, science fans honor Einstein and regard him as their model.

In contrast, nowadays science fans can no longer do what Einstein did. Lack of basic knowledge and scrupulously calculation, they always bring us much joy. There was a case in China where a science fan announced gravity law was wrong. Although, from his announcement, you may find he indeed studied this issue with great effort and passion, yet his thoughts were all based on his personal imagination and he could not give a systematic explanation. Immersed in his own opinion, he actually did not know how much work Newton did to calculate for gravity law. The more he convinced the public, the more he amused people as a ridiculous joker.

In conclusion, if those science fans use their efforts in the science study rather than crazily advocate pseudo science, they may bring some fresh ideas to the scientific community, benefiting the researches. On the other hand, if their purpose is just for stealing the show, they will still do stupid things such as inventing a perpetual machine.

5 Days Memory

When they waved farewell to me in Changi airport, tears misted my eyes. I seldom cry since I learnt to speak. However, at that moment, I found it hard to control my emotions. With the rolling tears, I knew how much I love them.

They came to Singapore in the first day of my recess week. After we met in Changi airport, we took the MRT towards River Valley High School, where I settled. Having a good sleep, we headed towards National University of Singapore in which I will further my study in the next four years. Their first impression towards NUS was clean, advanced and beautiful, which was also the approximate reflection of today’s Singapore. One problem was that, they cannot endure the heat when they walked along the road. However, after they came into CELC, where I studied English during my bridging courses, they totally changed their attitude towards the temperature. Then I took them to University town (so-called Utown), the part in NUS which has the most advanced facilities and most comfortable halls. I treated them several bottles of fresh juice before we left NUS.

In the second day, we chose Sentosa—one of the best beaches in the world—as our destination. Firstly, I guided them to see the largest Merlion in the island. We took photos, climbed the Merlion, and then went to the amazing beaches. My mother took a wonderful sunbath with my grandmother on the soft sands, my father enjoyed Singapore Tiger beers in one of the bars, while my grandfather and I chose to swim. Actually, my grandfather is 82 years old, and he is still healthy enough to swim or even to play basketball. We all had great fun in Sentosa. After we came back to RV, my parents and I went to Jurong Point, the nearest shopping mall in this region, and I led them to Fairprice to let them know the price is not fair at all. After comparing the price of goods in Fairprice and in China, they finally decided to leave more money to me, which was what I wanted.

The third day was the busiest day. We headed towards Singapore’s CBD. We took several photos standing before the symbolic Merlion status in Marina bay and subsequently, we boarded the largest Ferris wheel—Singapore flyer—and standing in it, we got chances to overlook the whole island. After we alighted from it, we boarded a touring bus under the Singapore flyer and thanks for the cooling breeze, we really enjoyed the journey on the terrace of the touring bus. Then we alight at Orchard road and after a enjoyable shopping, we took the MRT to Chinatown, where we walked along the road and bought many beautiful souvenirs for my parents’ friends. After this extremely busy day, we all fell asleep very quickly that night.

Today, we went to Jurong Bird Park. This so-called Asian largest bird park is quite near from our hostel. It just cost us 15 mines to go there. My parents and grandparents felt happy to see the different kinds of birds while they suffered from the unbearable smell. Anyway, they enjoyed that journey with me. Then we had a wonderful barbecue buffet outside the bird park before we went to Sentosa the second time, as I reminded that we had not seen the famous show—songs of the sea in Sentosa. After a beautiful firework, we ended the journey.

In the last day, we did not go out for sightseeing. We just sat together, sharing my experiences and views towards my new life in this new city. At 6p.m., I accompanied them to Changi airport and at 9p.m., we waved farewell.

That is all my 5 days memory.
I feel happy to write it out.

Give myself a fresh morning

I always love cooking myself breakfast every day.

Girls who live in Labrador hostel all know that food in Labrador is always the same kind, especially in the morning. Every day our breakfasts are toast and jam, some lucky dogs of us may get packs of sweet coffee (I always doubt that 50% of the coffee is sugar).

I know it very clear that I will live in LL for another 4 months, and I cannot imagine that I will eat the same breakfast for almost 120 days!

As you can see, the main reason I cook breakfast myself is that I prefer various kinds of food and I love cooking. Sometimes I cook noodles, sometimes I prepare steamed eggs and mashed potato, and sometimes I eat a sandwich with a cup of black coffee.

Another important reason for my self-cooking is that every morning when I am enjoying my breakfast, I become very happy and get much more energy to welcome a new day. I always believe that having an enjoyable breakfast will give a wonderful start of the day, and an excellent fresh morning will certainly make me study better in the whole day.

Thus, if some of you want to change your diet, but don’t know how to use microwave oven to cook food, I’m very willing to share some practical skills with you.

Teaching Calligraphy

  Last Friday, I went to River Valley Primary School to teach ten girls who are all Chinese Singaporeans calligraphy and they chose calligraphy as their extracurricular activities. It is the first time for me to teach a class, while in the past, I just taught my classmates how to solve some math questions. So, I feel so nervous that I prepared a lot and got up very early on Friday morning.

  It took me nearly one hour to go there, taking MRT then exchanging to buses. When I got there, the students were washing eggshells; maybe they would use those eggshells to paste a painting. The in-charge teacher told me to lead them to the classroom and start my lesson at once. I had considered about which language I should use before the class, English or mandarin. Actually I wanted to use English at first, but when I stood on the teaching stage, I felt if I used English I could not say any words. Thus I had to give up my original idea and say mandarin, the only language I can speak smoothly on the stage. I introduced some knowledge about calligraphy to them and showed them some calligraphy written by some famous calligraphers. The little girls all looked confused by what I was saying and I feel very disappointed when I asked a question and nobody wanted to answer it. Now I understood our tutors’ feelings when we all felt sleepy and no one responded them. After a lot of introductions, I asked them to start writing. Since their hands were small, it was hard for them to hold the brushes tightly. When they were writing, their hands were shaking. I assigned them to write a point in Chinese character, but it seemed a little difficult for them. They wrote quickly and impatiently. I told them when they wrote calligraphy they should calm down and be patient. But since they are children and the nature of children is playing, none of them listen to my advice and still wrote quickly. After a while, they all drew some patterns on paper and I had to require them to write the calligraphy tenderly. Because all my students were girls, they were willing to do as I ordered and nobody was so naughty that she would do something against me. So I felt lucky to teach a class with ten girls. At the end of the class, they all felt bored in writing calligraphy and want to do something else, so next time I would prepare some games to make them feel interesting.

  From that day on, every Friday I will go there and teach them until May. Though the task is quite tiring, I feel very happy when I am with those children. And I believe from this teaching experience I will learn a lot and be more confident.

Chang Qizhong- Zuo Mingxue-April Fool’s Day

Today is April Fool’s Day, and it is celebrated in different countries on April 1st every day. April 1st is not a national holiday, but is widely recognized and celebrated as a day when many people play all kinds of jokes and foolishness.
Therefore, I want to introduce three practical jokes to fool others in such a special day.
The first prank is the most common one, and I used it several times. You should buy some sandwich biscuits and a bit of toothpaste. Then you dig out the centre of the filling and make the hole be filled with toothpaste. I recommend you to use Oreo biscuits and Darlie toothpaste, because we know the filing of Oreo is white and the color of Darlie toothpaste is white, so maybe they will be fooled by white color.
The second prank is also about toothpaste. You need to squeeze a tube of toothpaste and you cannot save your effort. Then you use another tube of mustard to link up with that toothpaste and squeeze the mustard into the tube of toothpaste. Of course, the color of toothpaste must be green because of green mustard. Next time, when your friends or relatives brush their teeth, you can see a play~
The third prank is ….
…..
……
The third prank is ….You are fooled~~

Enjoy Today

I've just read an essay written by a German student who was studying in HK University. The essay talked about his impression of living in Hong Kong. He said that what surprised him was that he could hardly find any cafe in HK. Even though he found one, it must be Starbucks or Pacific café --- there’s not local café. He also said, in Germany, café is as common as grocery’s. Every day after work, people would spend a few hours in cafes, doing nothing but enjoying coffee and chatting. Because of this, he thought HK is a place where there is no fun of living--- everyone was living a high-pace life, busy working, but no one ever stops their pace just to enjoy living a simple and peaceful life.This is what really sets me thinking. Even though I’m not one of those who always spend pleasant afternoons in cafés, I do agree that café was not, is not and never will be just a place for beverage. In fact, I believe many people would agree that cafe itself has long been an important part of history. What really matters is just to sit there and do nothing. Cafés, especially local cafes, should be where one can see the other side of a city--- the peaceful and cozy side. Cafes should be the places for all citizens to escape from pressure of their work and just to enjoy a few minutes of relax.In spite of knowing all this, how many of us have ever tried to slow down our paces and spend a single peaceful Sunday afternoon in cafes? I guess this is one of the reasons why, in a prosperous city like HK, one could not find a local café. One is blind when busy fighting for money and states. He cannot see all the beautiful views around him.What would happen if we have earned a lot, or won high states? What is the point of money and states? We are all just passers-by in this world. No one is immortal. All materials make no sense after death.You may say:” I try to earn a lot today, because I want to enjoy my life someday.”  Yet, you can just choose to enjoy your life now. Don’t wait for the SOMEDAY that may never come.Life is too short. Just enjoy today.