Yes, my practicum from last week June 08 - first week Sept 08 is out. It is at Beatty Secondary School, next to SPH in Toa Payoh area. It's a mixed, neighbourhood school so there goes my dreams of all boys and 5 mins walk to school everyday to St Andrews... I'm quite sure God has a reason and somehow I feel quite happy about it know that it will be fine, somehow?
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Heb 11:1.
my little corner of the world
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Against Fur Trade!!!
I'm disgusted by what the fur farms in China are doing. I'm not a fan of fur itself in the first place so i've never worn fur or bought things that are related to it. This feeling is heightened further after I watched a video from Peta that really, really makes me sick. Just a warning that what you are about to see can be thoroughly disturbing with animals skinned ALIVE so don't watch it if you can't stomach the sight. If you're a person that likes fur, perhaps its time you change your mind. For good.
For the fun of it today, and so that you know what I've been toiling over, I present to you my Educational Psychology Essay. I have no idea what I was writing about though, ahahahahaha! You would be after sweating over it till the wee hours of the morning.... i hate writing essays!!! grrr....
Q3. Should rewards and punishments be used to motivate students’ learning?
In this paper, I shall take the position of supporting the statement that rewards and punishments should be used to motivate students learning. Before I begin, I shall discuss what motivation is about, the theories surrounding it, and finally what we can learn from it to facilitate student learning.
Motivation is a tendency or disposition to act in a particular way, and a motive is a particular need or want that causes such a tendency. It arouses or energizes that individual, directs him or her towards some sort of goal, and sustains the movement towards that goal over a period of time (Ames and Ames, 1984). In our case, we shall reference it to studies for students. There are a few theories related to motivation namely through, behavioral theory and intrinsic & extrinsic motivation.
In behavioral theory, we learn that it was Burrhus Frederic Skinner that was a pioneer in this field. Behavioral theories generally regard our actions to be instinctive, and are governed by a stimulus-response. All motivation is believed to arise from our emotions, instincts and basic drives. Skinner in that regard developed operant conditioning whereby it examines the relationships between deliberate behavior and the conditions that precede and follow it (Wikipedia Radical Behaviorism, 2008). These preceding conditions are called Antecedents while the ones following it are called Consequences. In this theory, we learn that both Antecedents or Consequences can increase, decrease or modify specific behaviors of humans.
This idea is developed from the fact that any action taken by a person has consequences that will occur naturally in the environment. For example, a disruptive student may always be telling silly jokes in class and the laughter of the student’s classmates may serve to reinforce this form of behavior as the disruptive student is ‘encouraged’ by the positive reinforcement that the classmates give. However, should the teacher discipline the student immediately for the disruption, the student may not repeat such behavior again. It must be said, however, that the consequence does not guarantee a definite positive change in the disruptive students behavior, rather it just increases the chances of it happening in the future. Therefore we can call operant conditioning a process whereby deliberate behavior influences the consequences of that particular behavior (good or bad) being repeated.
Moving on from operant condition theory leads us to negative and positive reinforcement. As cited in the example above, we can tell that the example of a disruptive student might work well through negative reinforcement whereby the negative aspect of the student disrupting the class is removed through the teachers response of discipline. In positive reinforcement, a reward or praise from the teacher is given to a student to encourage and strengthen them to repeat a certain behavior but it must be noted that this must be done in an appropriate timing for full effect. For example, if a teacher does not praise a student consistently and gives him credit for improving his work after a test, it will be effective. However, should the teacher give him praise for every single thing he does, this would have little effect on him then.
In negative reinforcement, the behavior of the student is strengthened because of the removal of an unpleasant event or something is prevented from occurring. For example, if a student hands in his work after much nagging and scolding from his teacher, he is being negatively reinforced. In both positive and negative reinforcements, the chance of the desired behavior from the student repeats itself because of the end consequences and can be said to cause improvement in the student’s behavior.
Moving on from positive and negative reinforcement behavior, Skinner continues to discuss about the differences between the concepts of Reinforcements versus Punishment. We now know that both positive and negative reinforcement strengthen behavior. Compared to this however, punishments are said to weaken behavior as it makes it less likely to happen in the future. Simply put, punishment suppresses behavior instead of encouraging it (Brophy, 1987). For example, if a student refuses to hand in assignments on time, the immediate punishment given from the teacher will make sure that the student will be less likely to repeat his indifferent behavior again. It must be said here that we must be careful that in order to determine what punishments are, teachers need to understand the effects of its consequences on the particular student. This is important as for some students, the teachers rebuke might not stop the defiant behavior from happening again as the student does not care what they do. Based on what was discussed before on operant condition theory, these results would therefore not be considered as punishments
Punishments can be said to cause continual problems to teachers because sometimes it can happen unintentionally when a teacher’s behavior itself may be interpreted as punishment even though it might be necessary so or when the situation in the classrooms demand it. For example, when a reserved student struggles to do his homework and finally hands it in to his teacher, the teacher enthusiastically praises him in front of the class. Based on what we have learnt through operant conditioning, we could say that that the student might not have been rewarded, but rather punished. Consider classroom situations whereby students have major issues like throwing tables and chair around the class with the potential of causing harm to fellow classmates, this might not happen in usual circumstance but teachers are supposed to react immediately through punishment of that particular student although the idea is not to punish the student in the disciplinary sense but more to make sure the unacceptable behavior is not repeated again. As such, punishment can be said to be less effective compared to reinforcement.
The theory of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is different from behavioral theory as behavioral examines the external environment that influences student’s motivation (Ames, 1984). Intrinsic motivation is focused on the students internal desire to engage in an activity, be it studying or learning something new. It is where their energy and direction comes from. Intrinsically motivated students find their sense of reward from the activity itself. A student can read a story book from cover to cover for his English Reading program because he finds it a joy to do so. In regards to extrinsic motivation, it is the rewards or incentives that a student receives or direction that is given from the outside to impress others that moves the student to participate in any given activity. A student can be extrinsically motivated to read his book because the teacher praises him in front of all his classmates but it must be noted that extrinsic motivation means little if the student is already intrinsically motivated. For both theories, it can be summed up as the energy or direction from within versus from without.
It must be said that external incentives, like rewards, can interfere with intrinsic motivation (Brophy, 1987). We are able to test this out through a research conducted on three groups of students that were told to solve a simple problem like building a block tower. One group was told that they would be paid for this task, another was told nothing, and the last group was only told about the monetary rewards at a later stage after completing their task and unannounced. Each group was allowed to work further on building more blocks after the exercise and doing so would portray the kind of intrinsic motivation they had. The paid group behaved as expected as once payment was stopped, they didn’t feel motivated to continue with the blocks anymore. However, when it came to the group that was not paid or not expected to be paid, they were more inclined to continue with the project as they felt they were more in control of what they wanted to do and therefore saw the task more enjoyable than just another job they had to complete. Another explanation is that there was no obvious reason (monetary rewards) for students to continue building the blocks but because they realize that it was they themselves who had already determined that it was meaningful to do it, they would voluntarily continue to do so in order to be consistent throughout. (Ames, 1984)
From this experiment, extrinsic rewards seem to reduce intrinsic motivation but there is another perspective whereby they do serve other useful purposes for teachers like providing information on how the students are coping, like in their assignments when they hand it in as teachers can use their grades as in indication of how well they understand their work and not because they are the top in class. Done to a relatively poor student, it might actually help him to also improve as we are using external rewards to stimulate and reinforce such behaviors. We do need to point out that teachers need to be flexible and observant in trying to determine when it is appropriate for them to give them out to maximize it’s use.
Motivation is also said to be “the drive to take part in the process of learning and the later driver to perform the skills and knowledge acquired in that learning”. (Brophy, 1987). As teachers, it is not only our job to teach and discipline students, but also to assist our students in gaining the desire to learn and participate in the learning process. In order to gain this desire to learn, the teacher has to play a central role in motivating students by modeling appropriate learning behaviors. The following discussion will be to briefly summarize on top of what has been mentioned on the strategies that we need to put in place or remove to facilitate students motivation to learn in regards to rewards and punishments.
The proper use of both rewards and punishment is important in classroom management, both as a means to maintain discipline as well as to enhance learning. There is however, from personal experience, the problem that teachers tend to focus too much on punishment and negative reinforcement. This attitude does not help to motivate student behavior or learning effectively as it merely suppresses the unwanted behavior temporarily without fully addressing its source (Nicholas, 1960). The unwanted behavior will simply return when the punishment disappears.
I believe that the manner we can increase motivation is not to rely on one method, either punishment or rewards alone. It must be balanced out by both in order to strengthen the desired behavior and motivate the student in working towards what is expected of them. Punishment alone does not treat the cause as mentioned above and the danger as teachers is that we tend to be ‘reactive’ and address the student’s symptoms instead of the deeper root of the problem. Rewards itself, in the form of bribery, is also not effective alone. When punishments fail to elicit any change in the students behavior, teachers often resort to bribery to regain control over them but this method is hardly useful for a long period of time.
Application of punishments and rewards by the teachers in class must be in view of understanding the theories and techniques being mentioned in behavioral theories and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. For example, when a student continues to misbehave after being repeatedly punished by the teacher in class calls for deeper analysis into the reason. One idea is that while the teacher has punished him, his disruptive behavior might be actually reinforced or ‘rewarded’ with laughter or admiration by his fellow classmates. Thus he feels accepted by everyone for providing comic relief, challenging the authority of the teacher, and will continue to persist in what he does unless the significance of his punishment from his teacher exceeds the ‘rewards’ from his peers.
It can be said that student’s respond to the various stimuli of positive or negative feedback conditions certain desired behaviors. Understanding the educational aspect of behaviorisms is key in developing the proper skills in building motivation through the use of punishments and rewards in our classrooms.
REFERENCES
Books Brophy, J. (1987). Synthesis of research on strategies for motivating students to learn, Educational Leadership, 45, 40-8
Ruch, Floyd L. (1953). Psychology and Life. (4th ed,) Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Co.
Ames, R. and Ames, C. (1984). Research on motivation in education. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
Journal Nicholas M. P. Vincent & Helen L. Merrill. (1960). Effective Classroom Motivation. Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 38, No. 1. pp. 10-13.
Internet Reference Wikipedia (2008). Motivation Theory [On-line] Available http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation_theory#Reward_and_reinforcement
Wikipedia (2008). Radical Behaviorism [On-line] Available http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Behaviorism
my little corner of the world
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Congrats to YC!
This post is dedicated to YC, for finally throwing off her 'chains of oppression' and taking the courage to move on from where she is to some place unknown. You've done it gal and I can't be more happy for you! Woohoooo!!! =)p
Time to celebrate! We'll meet up soon yeah?
my little corner of the world
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
I Am a Lazy Blogger
It's official. I am a LAZY Blogger. I'm sorry. It has been an interesting few months for me. Life has been going thru a LOT of changes so much so that i've neglected my blog. In fact, I actually find it hard to write something nowadays. I actually did a couple of draft entries that I never got to put up, so here I am finally after a hiatus of a very long time, I am putting up an entry. (Do I hear some peeps finally cheering???? =0p )
For a start, I'm finally in NIE now doing my teacher training and life has been fantastic, although the number of assignments coming in on a DAILY basis is killing me. I will say, however, that it cannot be compared to checking emails every minute or having the phone ring off the hook or having unreasonable and nasty people talk to me demanding silly stuff so despite it all, I give thanks to God that I am actually enjoying being an almost carefree student again. The big difference is that I'm being paid to do this so no skipping of classes unfortunately, heh. 'Cher must set a role model for his students. =)
It's March and I am practically going nuts on my assignments. In fact, at this VERY MOMENT, I am writing and finishing on one and am taking a break from it all to write more non-academic stuff that won't kill too much of my brain cells (whatever that is left anyway) and de-stress me-self at the same time. I have found that there are always teachers that you love, those that you hate, and some that you love to hate or hate to love.... I shan't be naming names but I can assure you that sometimes I wonder how teacher trainers get picked to be in NIE and all. I personally think I can do a better job cause, honestly, they do get lost in their academia. Now, they are smart, there is NO DOUBT about it, PHD's and all, I'm probably an idiot compared to them but when teaching in the classroom context, and especially teaching cynical (heh!) tertiary students, I think you need to be a little bit more.... "creative".
Case in pt: Particular teacher sits down for 2 whole bloody hours in chair and talks NON-STOP (no toilet breaks, if you want to go, just...go) and ends lesson. I see 24 young minds BORED BRAINLESS OUT OF THEIR SOCKETS.... What have we learnt? NOTHING. NOT A SINGLE DARN THING. I get more out of the lesson by reading and teaching myself than attending class but I can't skip it cause i'm paid so that REALLY, REALLY sucks. I've voiced my 'concerns' abt this teacher to my fellow colleagues and it seems that I'm not the only one. In fact, after talking to said teacher's colleague in her own office as well, it only serves to confirm what everyone feels; the delivery is sorely lacking. An example: we came upon the point where "Learning is supposed to be fun!". I nearly died trying to control my laughter from spilling out of my lungs. "Fun! FUN! Fun?!? And you just sit there for 2 WHOLE HOURS TALKING NON-STOP LIKE A MACHINE GUN and it's supposed to be FUN!?!?". Man, I am venting too much, ok, shall be a good boy and stop.
On a very positive side of things, E and I are getting on fabulously well and I am planning to hit the altar (running if possible! heh!) by next year, if not earlier. I just feel that if two people know what they want, plus we're not getting younger either, then we should just move on to the next phase of life. Practical considerations of the financial kind is rather tough though, so I'm praying for His guidance throughout it all. So yes, people out there, please be nice and donate more during the BIG DAY, much appreciated! It might be small but it goes a long way for peeps like us, that's for sure. =)
Talking about weddings, I just realized that I’ve got at least 3 weddings thus far to attend. 2 personally involved in and the other one being a pure guest. It’s that time of the season I guess, heh. Oh yeah, YC, if you’re reading this, when’s your coming gal? I’m looking forward to YOUR BIG DAY! Hee! ;) Don't forget to invite me!!!
Hmmm.... I need to get back to work now, 1am and gotta wake up at 0830am later today so here's hoping i get to come back online to update soon and not lag so much! ha!
my little corner of the world
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Kukup Seafood Trip!
The "Forever Young" peeps went on a foodie excursion to Kukup, Malaysia today. Had some a fantastic time stuffing ourselves silly on seafood, playing fireworks like six year olds and peruing 6 Crabs (2 Chilli Crab, 2 Black Pepper & 2 Dried Curry thingy), 1 dish of tofu, 1 dish of fish, 2 dishes of veggies, 2 dishes of calamari (cooked differently) for nine people + 6 bottles of Heineken and each person paid M$37 ~ S$19, where on earth can you get this in Singapore?!? Shoik! Our adventures chronicled below....
Not a good start for some people. 4D anyone?
Sometimes it's quite difficult to do a self-potrait nowadays and thanks to the highly sensitive nature of my camera, guess who it focused on? I think my Nikon is bias...
Lovely blue skies over the Straits as we go over Tuas Link
On Malaysian rds with FJ's car right behind Emma
Malaysia!
If you didn't know, would you think this looks like sub-urban Ozzieland or even USA perhaps?
On to Kukup we go!
The happy owner of Emma
Lovely seaview from our semi-kelong seafood restaurant
Neighbourhood Kelongs
Crazy neon lighting
Forever Young Team!
The starting of the feast!
A walk down sleepy Kukup town
Fireworks!
Nice!
my little corner of the world
Friday, October 05, 2007
How the Beijing 2008 Olympic Logo came about.
Coming from a design company, I cannot resist this...heh... now we all know the 'truth'...... =0p
my little corner of the world
Saturday, September 29, 2007
In Memory Of Clare Oliver
Today's post is in memory of my friend, Clare Oliver, who passed away from Melanoma (Skin) Cancer recently. She was only 26 years old. I had the privilege & honour of getting to know this amazing girl as she was my coursemate at Melbourne University - Media and Communications. She was this intelligent and lovely girl who was always full of life and never failed to have a smile on her face. In the greatest irony of life ever, she fitted the perfect example of being a Media and Communications student all the way even to her deathbed. Knowing she was about to die and wanting everyone else to avoid her fate, she managed to get a country involved by using the Media to broadcast her story and in 2 weeks, she changed the laws in regards to solarium issues what 2 years was not able to do in Parliament. She got the attention of Australia's PM John Howard and the attention of the country. Lives were touched and changed because of her story. You will be missed Clare but your legacy will live on, the memories cherished in our hearts until we meet again in our Father's house where there is now no more pain nor sorrow for you. Thank you for being my friend & once again reminding me how precious and short our lives are on this earth. You will be missed.
Links: http://www.clareolivermelanomafund.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_Oliver (You have your own personal Wikipedia entry Clare!)
You can also do a Google Search "Clare Oliver" to get the news reports from the various Australian Newspapers for more information. In true journalism spirit, here is the last letter from her written to the press:
"I AM at peace. But if I could go back and talk to myself when I was 19 I would tell that girl not to use a solarium -- that melanoma is not a small cancer that you just have cut out and you will be fine.
I may pass in another week or it could be two. If I really fight it out, I may even have six weeks left. It's scary, because I feel myself getting more tired, and each time I feel sleepy it worries me that I might not wake up.
So far I have lived 25 years. If I am lucky I will reach 26 because my birthday is on Saturday. It is a short life, but I have lived it.
Subconsciously I did know that cancer was involved with solariums because I was aware of UV A and UV B rays.
But when I was 19, I saw a cheap offer of ``buy 10 sessions and get 20''.
The girl working at the tanning salon told me the fastest way to get a tan was to come in every second day and use speed cream.
My mum told me it was abnormal to get in a box and fry myself, but I told her it was cool and everyone was doing it.
After the 10th session I was starting to burn and it hurt, so I stopped. But I guess I stopped too late. It would be irresponsible of me to blame it just on solariums, because I grew up in St Kilda and went to the beach a lot.
But you can't tell me the Government doesn't realise the dangers of solariums.
Young girls need to go out and educate themselves about solariums before they make any decisions.
Obviously my decision has been made, and I think they should be banned. But now that you know my story and the resulting risks involved, hopefully you will realise it is not worth having a golden tan.
I am angry at myself mostly, but I can't believe how much the industry is booming.
A lot of friends tell me I still have a lot of life left in me, but I just live every day as though it is my last.
I was 22 when diagnosed. I had just finished a Bachelor of Media and Communication and a Master of Cinema at the University of Melbourne and started work as a sports journalist at SBS. I was on top of the world.
But I only got to work for three weeks and then I found out about my cancer.
I will never get to climb the so-called ladder, and even now I complain about not being able to run the rat race with everyone else.
I know I would be good at it -- I think I would be great at it.
I wanted to go to the top, but now feel I have so much potential that will be unused.
It was 2004 when they found a tumour under my left armpit, which they treated with immunotherapy.
In July 2005, it came back and this time they treated me with radiotherapy.
I was cancer-free for a year and seven months, and then in April I found a lump in my neck. I thought they could just cut it out, but it turns out there were seven tumours in my chest and one in my lung.
Now they have stopped counting how many there are.
I had all these ideas and in the end I was ready to accept that two years would be more than enough time left.
But I have accepted it, especially now that I am nearing the end and I am at peace.
When you are someone like me you realise that life is everything and you grab it with both hands and embrace it.
If there is something that you feel needs to be done, go and do it, and do it wholeheartedly because life is short.
People ask me how I can still be so happy with all this on my plate. But I have lived my life as a spark. I don't want to live a life where I am living until I am 100 and just flat boring.
I have always lived my life with compassion and passion. I have never been one to keep my silence about anything I have felt passionate about. ''
Melanoma is no joke. And I will keep championing this cause till the day I take my last breath."
It was quick but I did find my brown shoes that I wanted for work and play. Pic attached. And at 15% off! But downside was that Ernie mentioned that they had a 50% sale recently. Hiaz...timing, timing...
Mellow basal firm grip leather loafer
Kudos to the trio for helping me decide as well. What would I do without you all? You're such a blessing in my life!
=0)
my little corner of the world
Friday, September 07, 2007
Accused
I don't even know why you bothered to sms me if all you wanted was to make me feel like crap. You assumed things without clarification on my end and you weren't very interested to find out the truth. We agreed that we would be friends, but to me, if that's the kind of 'friendship' that you're giving to me, I would rather not have it.
Think about that. Word travels around indeed.
my little corner of the world
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Running with the best!
I can proudly say that I am now training with some of the best runners in Singapore. Who you might ask? Well, our Singapore Gurhka Unit of course! A lot of them actually run at the former Bidadari Cemetery near my place and I’ve decided to do terrain running there as opposed to the sedate Serangoon Stadium that I've been using to do my training. It’s quite motivating to run with them and I do try my darnest to overtake whoever is in front of me at that point in time. They are very good runners I must say, very good. The day that I keep pace with anyone of them is the day that I’ve made it.
Today is the 2nd week of my entire 15th Week Preparatory week for the marathon. I ran approx 14km in 1hour and 16mins. That averages to 5.4mins for each KM. One round of the cemetery is approx 1.8km and I did 8 rounds today making each round to average around 9.5mins per round. Not too bad considering that there are quite a fair bit of uphills that I had to literally force myself to move my legs in order to get over it. It’s tough, but the tough people get going. ☺
I want to clear my 42km. I know I can do it despite it all. God be my strength!
my little corner of the world
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Happy Teachers Day!
Yes indeed! My VERY FIRST TEACHERS DAYS! How exciting! Not only that, I received my VERY FIRST Teacher's Day present as well. Got this cute COW stapler stationary from one of my Sec 2 boys that I teach English at. Guess who's going to be "well-looked" after from now on, ey? :-p I'm trying to get the picture up soon so that you all can see, it's rather cute this cow stapler.
We didn't teach on Friday as it was celebration time! The school had this (insert school name here) of the Year competition, where each class from Sec 1 - 4 sent a representative up to do a Hip-Hop dance. After the contestants were shortlisted down to 10 (by our esteemed judges who included Ed & Jo! Way to go peeps!), the boys basically dressed up in their smart school blazers and underwent the ‘Ms Universe’ treatment of answering questions, i.e. “What would you do with a million dollars?” kinda thing. All very fun! There was a rock band thingy happening as well in the middle of the competition and while the boys could play well, I assure you, they really needed work on their vocals. Let’s just say that I went back (ran away) to the staff room to get some ‘work’ done. :-p Some parents from the support group of our boys organized a lovely buffet lunch for all teachers so that had a pretty good meal I must say.
The highlight of the day was not Teachers Day celebration however; it was AFTER that when Jo, Van and I went out. We caught Evan’s Almighty and it was terribly funny! ‘Terribly’ because being a Bible believing Christian, one had to cast aside all theological understanding and rational in order to enjoy the show. It was pretty darn funny in my books! Heh! That done, we moved on to the enjoyable pastime of almost every Singaporean, SHOPPING! I think I must have withdrawal symptoms because I bought me-self a very nice pair of Levis’ 523 Jeans and Gap Khaki’s for work/play. Attached pictures below.
My new Levi's Jeans
New Khaki pants, just what I need!
Author's note: The person wearing the pants in the picture is not me, duh!
On my shopping list: 1. Brown Dress Shoes 2. Belt for Khaki Pants 3. Recce for more working pants 4. Recces for more working shirts.
When is payday again?
my little corner of the world
Monday, August 27, 2007
Marking - A Bugbear
I've met some serious bug bears in teaching. It's called Marking. The thought of marking gives me shivers down my spine. It's not exactly the worlds most exciting event. Time is 2:30am on a Monday morning and I'm still struggling to finish marking my 3 classes of papers. I've decided to split them up into two sections, Comprehension and Summary. The technique seems to be working as I can mark 2 scripts of Compre together at once, hence saving a little time. Summary will be a challenge I reckon. :-p
How bad is this? Bad enough for me to have thoughts of giving up, of just not doing this at all. "Surely there is a better way for me to change a person's life? Surely it would be more effective elsewhere? Surely...." How easy it would be for me to quit. 1 Month notice. No bond, nothing to lose. I've gotten a taste of teaching life and it might not be suitable for me. So easy, don't you think?
And yet, as I feel so low, stressed & downcast, the tiny voice within strikes out, "Have you committed this to the Lord? Have you surrendered in your times of trials and committed this issue before Him?" And by the grace of God, I have been gently reminded that in all I do, I must surrender it to Him, yes, even marking.
He will be the one that guides my hand in marking the scripts. He will be the one that gives me additional wisdom in deciding on what is right and what is wrong.
I thank You Lord, for your love, grace and mercy you have showered upon me. I need nothing else except You in my life.
This song has encouraged me as I do my marking, I hope it will do the same for you. =)
If You Want Me To - by Ginny Owens
The pathway is broken And the signs are unclear And I don't know the reason why You brought me here But just because You love me the way that You do I'm gonna walk through the valley If You want me to
'Cause I'm not who I was When I took my first step And I'm clinging to the promise You're not through with me yet So if all of these trials bring me closer to You Then I will go through the fire If You want me to
It may not be the way I would have chosen When You lead me through a world that's not my home But You never said it would be easy You only said I'll never go alone
So when the whole world turns against me And I'm all by myself And I can't hear You answer my cries for help I'll remember the suffering Your love put You through And I will go through the valley If You want me to
my little corner of the world
Friday, August 24, 2007
Running!
I'm going for the full marathon at the end of this year in December. I've had my training 10km run at Serangoon Stadium on Wednesday clocking 54mins 19secs. Not too bad I must say. =) Gotta keep this up!
On a side note, I had a great time with the trio this evening before cell today. We went to eat a lovely dinner at this supposedly Choccy place but served a-la-carte meals as well followed by a nice dessert nearby at Martin Road called the Bookroom. We now have another place to do our marking...heh! Such are the career hazards of a teacher, always looking for a new place to do our marking...heh!
As I had cell at 8pm, I took a cab down from Bookroom to church. I grabbed a receipt and it read $7.10 for a short 12mins ride. Quite expensive as there was the $2 peak surcharge but the most irritating part was that according to the meter, the distance travelled was 2.1km. I'm thinking that I can cover that in less than 12mins if I ran and save the money altogether but obviously not possible without my running gear. Such is the mindset of a runner, heh.
Tomorrow I celebrate my nephews bday! Will post up photos if I can. :-)
my little corner of the world
Friday, August 10, 2007
Happy National Day!
Happy National Day S'pore! May you always be the little red dot of an island that I call home! =)
Had a great time yesterday with the little ones, brought them to Science Centre with mum to let them go nuts for 4 hours so was fun! Science Centre has gone through major upgrades in my opinion and was interesting to see the new exhibits and other stuff they were doing there. So much has changed since my time I must say. Was exhuasted by the time I got home but the day was only starting! Went for a 6km jog with Ed after I got back at Serangoon Stadium and that nearly killed me. Well, not so much as killed, killed but rather Ed was too fast for me to handle. He is Flash Incarnate I say. I need to really buck up to match his level I say.
After that we picked up Van and Jo for a lovely Teochew Porridge dinner. It HAS been a while and certainly very enjoyable I say! And inexpensive at $5 only! Luuuurvved it! This was followed by our wonderful alco' session at Ed's place, where we binged on Pear Vodka, Coke, Strawberries, Grapes and Tiger Beer Ice-Cream from Island Creamery!!!!! I'm lovving ittt! Thanks for the hanging out time guys, had such a great time! =0) We must do this on a constant basis, else I might go crazy with marking! =0p
Anyway, moi spending time just trying to clear marking, think it will take a while plus so much to do for Church stuff. Looks like I really need to cut down or else I won't manage at all.
Hiaz...enjoy your post-National Day Friday peeps!
Blessings!
my little corner of the world
Vital Stats
Name: Eugene
DOB: Ask if you want to send me pressies. Else you don't really need to know now, do you? =0p
Email: eugene_ang@hotmail.com (MSN) You can try sending stuff, but it would probably end up in the junk mail folder.
Not a good start for some people. 4D anyone?
Sometimes it's quite difficult to do a self-potrait nowadays and thanks to the highly sensitive nature of my camera, guess who it focused on? I think my Nikon is bias...
Lovely blue skies over the Straits as we go over Tuas Link
On Malaysian rds with FJ's car right behind Emma
Malaysia!
If you didn't know, would you think this looks like sub-urban Ozzieland or even USA perhaps?
On to Kukup we go!
The happy owner of Emma
Lovely seaview from our semi-kelong seafood restaurant
Neighbourhood Kelongs
Crazy neon lighting
Forever Young Team!
The starting of the feast!
A walk down sleepy Kukup town
Fireworks!
Nice!
