Friday, August 6, 2010

Backstage

Today, the 6th of August, was the day Hwa Chong Institution had its National day celebration. For most, the day would have consisted of attending flag-raising, attending the concert, leaving for home. For me, it was not so straightforward. Gymnastics, my cca, was selected, or had volunteered, to perform for the YOG torch relay on the 11th. So, we had to attend the rehearsal. Everything there went smoothly, and we were confident of not failing on the actual day. After our rehearsal, we had to rush to the hall, where we made it just in time for our NDP performance, Although i wasn't performing, and instead was one of the helpers that helped to move the mat and such, It was still an enthralling experience to stand there, out of view of the audience, but able to hear the sounds they made.
I fell that the backstage people are the unsung heroes of each performance. Usually, the performance relies on these people to get the props in the correct place and order, without which the performance would drown like the titanic when struck by an iceberg. Without us, the performers would have no safe landing mat to land on after soaring high into the air from the mini-trampoline and performing their gravity-defying stunts. They would have to place the mats themselves, and then perform their stunt, which would have tired them out.
Thus, i feel it not right that only the performers get the credit for a successful performance, for we are every bit as vital to the live of a performance as the performers are.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

YOG Singapore 2010

They said we couldn't do it. wrote us off even before we tried. Well, we have done it, the perceived as impossible, that is, hosting the Youth Olympic Games in our very own Lion City.
This is the time to see if we can host a high profile international competition. Much fanfare has been created, with the most recent being the arrival of the youth olympics flame, direct from Greece. However, many Singaporeans still do not show much enthusiasm about the fact that we are going to play host to many of the best young athletes in the whole world. The situation has not been helped by the fact that the promotional video for the YOG is rather disliked by the majority of the Singapore public, who have criticised it as cheesy.
This attitude shown is sad, as the YOG is a once-in-the-lifetime opportunity for most of us, and we are able to watch it right in our own backyard. Furthermore, being the very first YOG in history, it at least deserves some cheer and enthusiasm, no?

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Rivals-good? or bad?

This is something that has come across to me as quite shocking; that in Singapore there appears to be rivalry among the top schools. For example, Raffles Institution is seen as the adversary of Hwa Chong Institution, and perhaps Raffles' Girls is the enemy of Nanyang Girls'. It appears that the elite schools in Singapore cannot co-exist in peace.

Furthermore, this is worsened by the propaganda spread by the seniors in the school. I remember during my Secondary One Orientation, one of the cheers was that "Raffles Sucks!" and this was worsened when the Secondary Four seniors decided to create a skit which involved the top schools in Singapore. Basically, the representative of each school entered a race which left Hwa Chong as the ultimate winner, and displayed the participants from other schools as weak, especially the on from raffles, as he didnt't finish the race. Thought this is somewhat true, as Raffles hasn;t been able to beat us at the National Schools Track and Field chanpionships for quite some time, I feel that this was an unnecessary exaggeration of the situation.

I agree that in many sports and academics competitions there are bound to be clashes between Hwa Chong and Raffles Institution. However this does not mean that we must treat one another with great hostility simply because of our desires to win. Each school has their differences and we should accept the fact that we cannot be the best in everything.

I believe that we should treat students from different schools with respect. One must always remember that what makes us improve is the presence of opponents and without them we will stand still as a block of wood. After all, if we cannot get the satisfaction of saying to our old classmates when we meet:" I have better grades than you!" and we cannot enjoy rubbing that fact in, then what motivation is there for us to study hard and do well?

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Controversy

Not too long ago, a controversy was created when a Hwa Chong student decided to air his grievances on the internet. The article can be found here:http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/stomp/sgseen/what_bugs_me/418626/teacher_takes_students_belongings_to_teach_them_a_lesson.html

In short, the student was unhappy about the way a teacher handled the situation where his classroom door was left unlocked and empty, which provided a chance for thieves to make a tidy profit. As a result, the teacher decided to teach the guilty students a lesson by removing unattended laptops and other belongings.

In my opinion, it is wrong for someone to take your belongings without permission, which is what the teacher did. However, if we looked at things from his viewpoint, he probably thought it was a harmless way to teach the students a lesson about protecting their belongings, and surely would not have expected such a strong reaction from one of the students.

I have experienced a similar incident before. At the start of the year, our class returned from flag-raising to find 4 laptops missing from our class. Later in the day, we were informed that the laptops were taken so as to teach us a lesson for leaving our classroom door open when we left for flag-raising. Although mine wasn't taken, I could empathize with those who had theirs' taken. It would surely be a traumatic experience for one to find that his beloved and expensive laptop was gone. They would dread telling their parents about it, as they were the ones who had forked out their hard-earned money to pay for the laptop. then, if the parents were willing, they would have to spend more money on another laptop.

I feel that instead of taking the belongings of the students, the teacher could have given them a warning, and introduced a punishment for future offenders. This would have caused far less controversy, and would not have resulted in a student posting his outburst on a public forum.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Bittersweet...

Today was competition day. I did badly. 3 other people in my team did badly. Yet, we still managed to get that team gold, and even better, sweep all of the individual C' div medals!
The B' div lived up to their expectations, securing the team gold along with all 3 individual medals. The same thing for the A' girls. The A' boys managed to get the team gold, but did not sweep the individual medals.
After the competition, the whole gym went for our gym dinner at Everything with Fries. Food was expensive, though. Then, me and 3 other friends somehow manage to take a wrong turn while walking to the bus-stop. This led to a long and tedious walk to the correct stop, where we could take our buses home.
So, its not so much bitter as it is sweet.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The day before

Competition's tomorrow.Hope I do well.
Today, we went to the CCAB to jump on the competition trampoline. I could not do my routine properly as I was not used to jumping on the new trampoline after jumping on the Hwa Chong one for the past year. Hopefully, it'll be different tomorrow.
We also caught a glimpse of our fellow competitors, the rivals that will challenge us for that gold medal. They were RI, SJI and Whitley. From what I saw and heard, the team that we have to fear most would be SJI.
Tomorrow is the day when we will find out if all our efforts the past year, all the blood and sweat shed during training sessions, will come to fruition.
Wish me luck.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

A level results

On Friday, our principal, Dr Hon announced Hwa Chong's A level results to the entire high school section. Everyone was excited, as if HCJC did well, the whole school would get a half-day.
Thus, everyone was hoping for excellent results. And, they got what they were wishing for. In fact, Hwa Chong did even better than last year! Furthermore, we emerged as the best in the nation in the areas of math and science!

These are our results:

Our students attained a record-breaking performance in General Paper, with 4 out of 10 scoring a Distinction. This is double the national average for the third year running. Also, virtually all students attained at least a pass.

9 out of 10 students scored Distinction in H2 Biology, up from 8 last year. This is double the National Average.

8 out of 10 scored Distinction for H2 Physics, double the National Average.

8 out of 10 students scored a Distinction in H2 Mathematics, for the third year running.

7 out of 10 students scored a Distinction in H2 Geography, more than double the National Average.

8 out of 10 scored a Distinction for H2 Art.

7 out of 10 scored a Distinction for H2 Chemistry, for the second year running. This is double the National Average.

7 out of 10 scored a Distinction for Knowledge and Inquiry and H2 Literature in English.

We attained a 100% Distinction rate for H1 and H2 German and H1 French, We also attained 100% Distinction rate for H1 Geography, 3 times the National average.

Pressure

Pressure. I am sure many of you out there are familiar with this word, especially those in Singapore. In Singapore, it is very competitive. So the pressure that you face to achieve, to do well, is immense.
It all starts in school. If you do not do well in school, it will be very hard to get a good job during your adult life. Your parents know this, and they place pressure on you to get these good grades, and to get into the prestigious schools, and to eventually get that P.H.D, which will almost certainly guarantee you a high-paying job. Just think, how many times have your parents told you to study hard and do well so that you can get a good job in the future?
I myself face this kind of pressure. Furthermore, I study in one of the best schools in Singapore, so the pressure on my to do well is magnified. And this is not only pressure to do well in tests or exams, it is also pressure to do well in my Co-Curricular Activity.
My CCA is Gymnastics. My event is trampolining. In Hwa Chong, Gym is one of the elite CCAs, which means that we have been one of the better-achieving CCAs. In trampolining, we have been the champions for 2 straight years already. These year, it is up to me and my teammates to make sure that we continue to wear that mantle of champions for the third straight year. Since we are the favorites to win again, more pressure is naturally placed on us to live up to that expectation. And that fact has been showing in our training sessions. Ever since the November-December holidays, we have been required to report to training five days a week, four weeks a month. We are constantly reminded to work hard and to crush this year's competition. And in the March holidays, we will have training from 9 in the morning to 6 in the evening.
The pressure on our shoulders is huge. And I can see some of my teammates cracking under the strain of that pressure. For example, whenever we are tested by our coach, where we have to treat this like the competition and he will give us our points based on how well or otherwise we did, some of my teammates, and sometimes me, will not do as well as when they train normally. This is due to the pressure placed on us by our coach to treat it like a competition and to do as we would in a competition.
From these tests, I am able to get an insight into how I respond to pressure. Sometimes, I do exceptionally well, and sometimes, I fail horribly. This tells me that I can either thrive under pressure, or get squashed by its weight. Hopefully when I compete, the former is the one that happens.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Task 2-Linguistic:An interview with Jem Finch

Q: Jem, How do you feel about the Jury's verdict?

A: I was shocked that they chose to convict Tom, when all the evidence pointed to the fact that he was innocent.

Q: Why do you think the jury would convict Tom in spite of overwhelming evidence that he didn't do it?

A: Probably because the people on the jury are a bunch of cowards who are too afraid to do the right thing, even if it means going against social norms like putting a negro over a white.

Q: Has this event changed your perception of the law in any way?

A: Of course it has! I now know that when it comes to black vs white, white will always triumph.

Q: Do you think that verdicts should still be decided by juries?

A: I think that we ought to do away with juries. Only the judge should be able to decide the verdict of the accused.

Q: Why do you feel that way?

A: Well, the jury was supposed to be impartial, but they did not acquit Tom just because he was a negro. Throughout the trial, I got the feeling that Judge Taylor wasn't really prejudiced against Tom. In fact, I got the feeling that he disliked the Ewells more. So, if Judge Taylor had the final say, I am sure that Tom would be a free man right now.

Task 1-Intrapersonal:Diary entry of Scout Finch

Dear Diary,

Today, the way I view Atticus has changed. Before today, I had always thought of him as feeble. Atticus never did any of the usual things that fathers do , like going hunting and playing poker.Atticus sat in the living room and read. That is why I feel that Atticus is boring.
Today, however, Atticus did something so amazing that I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. At first, I was worried that Atticus would drop the gun or something, but nothing of the sort happened. Instead, Atticus let fly like a seasoned pro, and with just one shot, managed to hit Tim Johnson.
My view of Atticus has changed completely now. I was ver proud of my father being the deadest shot in Maycomb County. After all, ain't everybody's daddy the deadest shot in Maycomg!

Scout

Multiple Intelligences


This here is my multiple intelligences profile. As you can see from the results, I am mainly people and myself smart. It is also obvious that I will never turn out to be a great mathematician or musician. However, I do not feel that a few questions would be enough for you to truly find out your learning profile. Furthermore, you are answering questions about yourself, and you might subconsciously give inaccurate answers, or you might not even know yourself well. It would take an outsider who spends a lot of time with you to be able to give accurate answers to the questions. Thus, I feel that if you want a quick analysis, the multiple intelligences test is suitable.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

My Chinese New Year

Yesterday, the 12th of February 2010, was the day Hwa Chong Institution had its Chinese New Year celebration. Before the celebration, we were all encouraged to go back to our alma maters to visit our teachers and thank them for guiding us through six hard years of education, which culminated with the primary school leaving examination.
So, each and every pupil reported to school as usual on Friday. Then, after the usual morning stuff like singing the national anthem, all of us headed over to Kah Kee Hall for the start of the Chinese New Year concert. It was quite enjoyable, with performances from the teachers, chinese orchestra, wushu team and many others. I particularly enjoyed the performance by the wushu team, with all the whirling and twirling of their weapons, it truly was a sight to behold! Then after the performances, there was prize-giving for the best lantern competition and the best-decorated class for Chinese New Year. I wasn't expecting my class to win anything, but there was still a feeling of disappointment that we didn't win anything.
We were released at 9.30 am, when the concert ended. I met up with my primary school friends outside the hall, and we made our way together to the bus-stop. And since we were now in secondary 2, we naturally would have juniors from our old school in Hwa Chong. So, we also went back together with them. There, we boarded the bus which would take us back to our school. Along the way, we caught up with each others' lives and discussed about what we were going to do later in the day.
In the blink of an eye, we arrived at the school compound. Seeing as the side-gate was not locked, we made our way in. Then, we realised that classes were still ongoing, so we went to the soccer court and had a game of football to while away the time.
At around 11 am, we stopped playing and headed over to the canteen. Ther, I met my primary 6 math teacher. She had taught most, if not all, of us in the group, and we talked about the good old times. Suddenly, a security guard came over and told us we had to leave.
We had to leave?! Why did we have to leave when we were in our old school and we had come back for Chinese New Year? I saw absolutely no sense in his request, and I believe that most of the people with me felt the same way. Then, I began to think that we were actually not supposed to be inside when they were still having lessons, and that we could come back in after school had ended. So, I consented to leave the school. However, as we were making our way out, we were dropped another bombshell by the security guard. He said that we could not come back in, and the only time the school would allow us to do so was during teachers day.
What was this madness?! We could not even thank our teachers for everything they have done for us? We were all unhappy with the school's stand, but we could do nothing.So we just had to call our teachers out and meet with them outside the school.
So, all in all, Friday the twelfth wasn't the best return to my alma mater for me. Thank you all for reading this and I hope that you enjoyed it!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The long awaited second post

Today, something weird and interesting happened. A bird fell out of the sky. It happened during gym training. At around 5.30 pm, I suddenly heard a loud "thud" from behind me. I turned around, and there it was, lying spread-eagled on the ground. It looked so pitiful lying on the ground. It was flapping its wings feebly, and was squirming in apparent discomfort of the number of people that had surrounded it. I bent down and looked at the bird, and from this closer distance, I could see that its wing was hurt. The whole thing was bent at an awkward angle and some feathers were missing.
Then, a coach came over and picked it. A lot of people commented that it looked very cute when they could see it upright, probably because it was a baby bird. I, however, was indifferent to how it looked. A few of us went to get their handphones or cameras and began snapping away. Some even took the bird into their hands and struk poses for the camera. Being camera-shy, I naturally shied away from all the flashing lights.
After everyone had seen enough, another coach took it out of the gymnasium and released it back into the wild.
Well, that was that. This is the first time such a thing has happened to me, and I haope that you have enjoyed this post!