Topic: Students and their awareness of world matters

Topic: Students and their awareness of world matters

Hi descendants of heaven,

This post will be a short one.

Students do not really know what is happening in the world or has no feelings towards it as they feel that it does not concern them. As the Hwa Chong values say," Global Perspective". Students should start to get themselves into the matters the world is experiencing. A good example would be the Haiti earthquake. Students only know that there was such a tragic event. If to write their thoughts they can do it. However if we ask them what are you going to do about it, I am sure that in their hearts, they would not doing anything or change anything about themselves. This can also be seen from the credit crisis. Parents are suffering as their income decreases, but the children spend it like always. Students just take things for granted and they do not know how people around the world is suffering.

I feel that children should get themselves more involved in world matters. This will allow students can plan for their own future and have a clearer sight on what they really want. Students will also be more sensible in controlling what they buy during the downturn. Another familiar sight would be students not eating cleanly their plate, having leftovers or just wasting food. They would also know what their parents are going through and can understand their parents better and change their own lifestyle according to the situation.

Question: What do you think students should do? How to attract them to world matters? Are you involved? Please enter your comments in the comment box. Thanks!!!

Topic: Students and their tuition

Topic: Students and their tuition

Dear the people whom are destined to overcome hell,

My question is do students really need tuition? O is it they are scared of doing well for the exams, somewhat like not being confident in yourself. So the question lies on whether tuition is that important or that your parents are just wasting money?

Students in Singapore are known to have their lives full of activities and packed with tuition, due to rivalry between students. Now a days, the world has became more competitive as parents wants their children to be the best or at least better than his or her mother's friend? This can be said as bragging or showing off. I am sure to say that at least 85% of the students in Singapore have at least a tuition lesson per week.

For some students, the tuition is really necessary to them as they really need external help from outside sources, to guide them in the right path. Parents are willing to pay about $60 easily for a lesson as they dream that their child is the best the world has ever seen. They want to groom the child and hope that he or she could fulfill the dream that their parents were unable to do so, pinning their hopes on you and to continue the family line.

However I feel that most students are having the second scenario: The students feel that the tuition is redundant as the students feel that it is boring and studying in school i already sufficient. Them going to tuition is mainly forced by parents or the parents feel a need to. They feel that revising at home is more effective than compared to going to tuition. Tuition is also time consuming and gives extra pressure to the student as they have extra homework for tuition and less time to do school work, resulting in burning the midnight oil. Studying at home, the student feels more relaxed and comfortable, compare to tuition. The general opinion is that the tuition is boring and have no need for it and currently going due to parents.

Questions for my dear readers: Which do you think is more effective, studying at home or in tuition? If you were a parent, what would you do if you had children? Please share with me your interesting views. Thanks!!!

Topic today: The mindset of students now a days and their attitudes

Topic today: The mindset of students now a days and their attitudes

Hi fellow crusaders of the sky,

Today my topic would be on the mindset of secondary 1 and 2 students through my observations. I have seen nowadays that most teenagers only get serious when near the date line of whatever they were doing. For example the test is on a Wednesday. Students would tend to have a carefree days before the exam and only really studying hard (by bringing their files and notes and studying at every time possible) the night before the test or worst, on the actual day itself.

This may be helpful to a certain extent where you remember fresh information from what you studied right before the test. This also shows the concept of revising as for the human mind, there would be a peak where you remember all the information clearly, like as they were at the back of you hand. However after some time, you start to forget some information and will come a time when you forget almost everything. The goal which we want to achieve is to have the tests or exams at the peak time or nearest to the point where we remember almost all the information. This is when revision comes in. Revision allows us to have another peak point, hence will have a higher chance of taking the test near the peak. (Can be imagined in a graph).

This leads me to my point of view. revision is definitely a must, however I feel revision at the Last Minute is bad as by doing that, you are stressing yourself out more. For example, the test is in one hours time. I am last minute revising and you suddenly realise that you did not remember this particular point, thus stressing up, trying to remember that point and in the process forget other important points for the test. There is also a chance where you may experience a mental block if the pressure is great enough. This is a time where the person totally forgets everything and remain "blank" during the test. Also, there is no use in revising everything over one night as the human can only stay focused for roughly 40 minutes. Hence instead of all in one day, the student should spread it over 40 minute intervals spread over a few days. Students will feel that it is very difficult to study the notes in one day and hence give up remembering some data. This will result in not desirable results. On the other hand, the student may actually revise the work over a few days and not find it overkill and at least revising it once.

Questions for the young at heart: How do you prepare for your tests? Is there a good solution as to how students should revise for their work? Please give me your great feedback in the comment box. Thanks!!

Maids in Singapore

Hi people of the above,

Recently, My maid was arrested for stealing jewelry worth of $5000 and after interrogating her she admitted her crime. The police came and soon after I never heard a word about that event.

Before the event took place, she started to have bad attitudes and laziness was observed. For example, When told her to complete a simple task, she would say that she was tired and when called for her, she would be either sleeping or in the toilet. Last time, she would do everything almost perfectly and very hardworking. But then I think that everything changed when she got hold of a phone and started making phone calls back to her brothers in her home town of Java. I am not sure why but after that call, she called again and again day by day and that was when her attitude towards work changed. My parents tolerated for a long time, her bad attitude that is and it caused my parents to be easily angry.

I feel that it is very difficult to have the courage to become a maid to earn money for your family. Imagine that you would not be able to see your family for a minimum of three years, it would feel like forcefully separating mother and daughter. Also, you would be in a place you have never been before and living under a roof of people you have never seen before. There had been cases where the owners abuse their maid by resulting in physically hitting her. The maids have to overcome the fear of that happening to her. There are some cases where maids undergo too much pressure, stress and sadness that they just commit suicide.

In my case, only my grandparents really understand them. During times when my parents attack her by scolding her, if my grandparents are there, they would definitely come to the defence of her. Sometimes, my grandparents even reward her for cleaning the car.

I feel that we as employees should really understand maids more. After all, they are humans instead of machines or robots. They have fatigue and feelings. Even the prime minister sees this as a problem and issued a law where by the maid must have at least one day off and proper accommodations. When maids get out of hand and have a change in mind, we should maybe have a proper talk of her, instead of immediately scolding her and this will only promote more hatred between the two. This would not solve anything.

When we have maids, we should take time to understand them more and befriend them, making them feel more at home. This will not only foster a greater relationship between the employee and the maid, this may make the maid feel more at home and work harder. When a person feels happy, he or she would feel more happy to work. Everything is well when a person feels no pressure.

Humble questions for the young mind: What suggestions do you have to have the maids feel more welcomed in Singapore? Or what would you do if you were the employee? Please post your thoughts in the comment box. Thanks!!!

E-Learning assignment (Intrapersonal)

Intrapersonal part a)

I would like to be friends with Arthur Radley.(aka Boo Radley)

Arthur Radley is known to stay in hiding in his house and not show himself unless in the night. Rumors about Arthur Radley have been spreading around Maycomb town saying he is a monster, evil spirit possessed etc. He is being depicted as an outsider and everyone is afraid of being near them, isolating them, considering them as not even part of their town. He is a colored men and that the whole town is prejudice against them, hence isolating him. Arthur wants to interact with the town. However he cannot do that as he is afraid of doing something wrong and be sentenced to death, the same case as Tom Robinson.

I pity Tom Robinson as I think that he is being treated unfairly and I want to comfort him and tell the world," Why is he so special, he is too a human being". I feel that I want to befriend him to brighten up his life and make him feel that there is someone in the world who cares about him and acknowledge his existence. He has no friends I wish to be his first friend.

I also want to understand more about him. As in why he is always in hiding and what are his thoughts. In addition to being his friend, I want to be a lying shoulder to Arthur to tell me his pain and share his sufferings. And maybe I would bring him out of his house and defend him, allowing him to feel safe going out of his house.

I know that Arthur Radley is a kind and good person and hence he will be a good friend. I wish to help him in any way I can and hopefully through time, the people maycomb would start to accept him. Everything has a beginning and I would be that beginning.

E-Learning assignment (Interpersonal)

Q:What is your defination of prejudice?

A:In my opinion, prejudice is a unfavorable opinion towards a person or a group of people with no evidence to support their generalized opinion. This results in being unfair to that specific group of people or person. It is a thought rather than an action

Q:Then what is your defination of discrimination?

A:Discrimination is the act of being unfair and/or unjust towards a group of people or a person due to prejudice thoughts.

Q:Is there a real life example of discrimination and prejudice around you?

A:In my opinion, discrimination and prejudice is still imminent in our society. Take for example, I am sure many of us still have the opinion that Indians and people from Bangladeshi are lesser than us, that they are dumb, stupid and are only capable of doing manual labour and are unable to jobs which require a certain amount of intelligence. People still tell racist jokes about how Indians are poor and that they are black. Prejudice and discrimination can be seen from the examples that I have stated.

Q:Do you consider yourself prejudice?

A:I find that yes I am prejudice, I share the opinion that many of us share which is the common thought of Indians and Bangladeshi workers, that they are dumb and incapable.

Q:If you see someone near you discriminating another person, what would you do?

A:The politically right answer is to go up and stop the one discriminating. However, it would be very awkward to go confront someone in the middle of a street, it would make the people around find you like a weird person and in Singapore, our “mian zi” is very important and most of us would choose to turn a blind eye and pretend that we didn’t see it. But we should try to summon the courage and help the one being discriminated.

BGFL Multi Intelligence Test

I feel that this test is quite accurate as it gave me the same results as the MIDAS personality test. However, there is no such thing as an accurate 100% test. I feel that people should know themselves well and not rely on some test to let you know yourself. The test gives vague options like there are six options ranging from yes to no. I feel that an accurate test should only have to options, yes and no. There will come a question where you are on the fence. This I feel that you must decide and put an answer based on your first instinct. I believe that people's first instinct is always the most accurate answer.

E-Learning

The topic for the day: E-Learning

Hi the people and guardians of heaven.

Is E-Learning useful and effective? Today I will be sharing my views about E-Learning and maybe touch on the pros and cons.

E-Learning is used as an emergency lesson online as teachers have courses or there is an event at school. This is used in hope that even though students are not able to go to school or the teachers are not free, the students can still study and will not waste a day without doing anything. This of course is not the same as school as we learn through videos, readings and online discussions. This can also promote and cultivate independent learners as the students are expected to gather the information by themselves and learn the topic with little help from the teacher.

Now I shall touch on the cons of having E-Learning. As almost the whole school is having E-Learning at home, everyone would be accessing the EMB portal and hence may cause jams, resulting in many students not able to access it to know the instructions for the E-Learning. This will cause delay in the students and in worst case scenario the EMB will crash and messages will be lost. The school may have created the learning-board EMB. However, students will be directed there and will similarly cause a jam there.

Another con is that students may be multi-tasking. For example when doing an assignment, students may on and off go to facebook and this will deter their attention away, having them not pay attention and hence not studying the topic well. This will result in the student not learning anything. The computer by itself is a distraction to some "computer game addiction-ers". Imagine this: You are doing your homework when you have a computer game right in front of you. The computer game is like begging you to play it. I believe in most scenarios, students would tell themselves that it is just a while to relax my brain and this is when addiction kicks in. At the end, nothing is done or accomplished and most likely have to do double the work on the next day.

Now I shall say about the pros of E-Learning. The obvious would be that students can wake up later and save travelling time. This also applies to the teachers as well. Also, students feel more relaxed and comfortable in their homes and it is more cooling compared to the classroom and maybe listen to some music while doing their work. This I am sure that most students like. Unlike in class, students can talk to each other freely. This lets the students feel as they have more freedom.

Another main good point about E-Learning is that it gives teachers more ways to teach and hence being more creative. It allows teachers to use different materials such as videos to teach the syllabus. This may help greatly in teaching the subject.

I feel that E-Learning is good but after the students have collected the information, they should get together in person to talk about it, along with the teacher. Hence I am tryig to say is that we cannot replace school lessons with E-Learning lessons.

Questions for the young mind: Would you want to have E-Learning every day, if so will you be able to learn the topics well? What can be improved about the current system for E-Learning? Please write your comments in the comments tab and I am excited to see your replies! Thanks!!!