threeAclassblog's Xanga

4A08 Chalet '09

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:24:24 GMT

Hello 4A08 peeps!

Let's have a chalet during this coming long hols!!! :D
We need to book now if we want decent place to stay in so we need to start planning now.

Our school holidays start October 17th. So if we go before peak period its cheaper.

F.Y.I We went to Costa Sands Pasir Ris single storey for our previous chalet. Please help to notify other 4A-ians to respond to polls. Thanks! Good luck to physics and geog peeps tomorrow!

P.S Who can book?

eiLeen <><

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 12:24:20 GMT

HALLO!

How have you been? It's amazing I can remember the user name and password to this place; apparently they've always been at the back of my head, somewhere.
Have you done the PGI on ecareers.sg yet? I am suited to be a kindergarten teacher! Art teacher is number one. If I ever set up my personal kindergarten, ALL OF YOU will have to send your kids to me!!! Wahahaha, rest assure they'll be in safe hands!
Okay- snaps fingers and drops back on earth- I need to do my homework now. I am so not sleeping tonight. If you cannot sleep, give me a call(: I'll appreciate the company.

'll be seeing you at school,
zinc

1st day of school" 2009

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 01:08:46 GMT

HEY PEOPLE! =)

Please do go check out updates on the YR5 CAMP REVOLUTION! at http://5camp09.blogspot.com/ or else you won't know what you are supposed to do and what you are supposed to bring on that day. there are really very exciting games ahead for all of you, so please do go there to take a look! =)

And i seriously miss all of you, don't want this year to end ~

Cheers,
hest

Removed

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:48:47 GMT

I will not post my personal idosyncrasies on the class blog from now onwards, they will go onto my personal blog instead.

http://in-the-prose-of-life.blogspot.com/

Or if you want some entertainment please click:

http://in-the-prose-of-life.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html

And have a great 2009!

4A never ends! (Rmb to look at the post after this)

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:22:49 GMT

Four years, you'd think for sure
That's all you've got to endure
All the total dicks,
All the stuck-up chicks
So superficial,
So immature
And then when you graduate
You take a look around and you say
HEY WAIT
This is the same as where I just came from
I thought it was over
Oh that's just great!

The whole damn world
Is just as obsessed
With who's the best dressed
And who's having sex
Who's got the money
Who gets the honeys
Who's kinda cute
And who's just a mess

And you still don't have the right look
And you don't have the right friends
Nothing changes, but the faces, the names and the trends
High School Never Ends!

Check out the popular kids
You'll never guess what Jessica did
How did Mary Kate lose all that weight
And Katie had a baby so I guess Tom's straight
And the only thing that matters
Is climbing up that social ladder
Still care about your hair and the car you drive
Doesn't matter if you're sixteen or thirty-five

Reese Witherspoon
She's the prom queen
Bill Gates
Captain of the Chess team
Jack Black
The Clown
Brad Pitt
The quarterback
I've seen it all before
I want my money back!

The whole damn world is just as obsessed
With who's the best dressed and who's having sex
Who's in the club
And who's on the drugs
Who's throwing up, before they digest
And you still don't have the right look
And you don't have the right friends
And you still listen to the same shit you did back then
High School Never Ends!

High school never ends

The whole damn world is just as obsessed
With who's the best dressed
And who's having sex
Who's got the money
Who gets the honeys
Who's kinda cute
And who's just a mess
And I still don't have the right look
And I still have the same three friends
And I'm pretty much the same as I was back then
High School Never Ends!

High School Never Ends!

High School Never Ends!

Here we go again

class outing!

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:46:14 GMT

*edit*

heyy people!

a number of you still havent replied me whether you can go for the class chalet. hurry reply!

anyway our class outing will be on this coming sunday 14 dec. we will be going to sentosa first followed by a movie at vivo. please go if you can! meet at harbourfront control station on that day at 10am. don't be late and seeya guys!

#24

think again?

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:03:54 GMT

As a Humanities teacher, I am undeniably appalled at how a Science teacher would blatantly disregard the prowess of the Arts and Humanities. In fact, I can’t help but flash a look of disdain at the previous essay as it is all sound and fury, signifying nothing in substance. To this end, it is of utmost importance that I address the abstruse issue between Humanities and Sciences.

Indeed, Humanities and Sciences are world’s apart. There are aspects that the Humanities strongly possess while on the other end, Sciences lack in. An obvious point would be one of attitude. It is evident that people around the world differ in their aims, personalities, expectations and aspirations. Hence, while the Humanities and Sciences serve to offer differing studies and skills, we must be cognizant that both fields, by nature, perceive this world of ours differently. With this in mind, we know that people who, for example, strive to create an appreciative and beautiful world to live in, would chose to pursue the Humanities, whereas those who stand their ground on a transition to a new world order with answers and explanations to everything questionable, would rather pursue the Sciences. Therefore, on this note, I am of full acclamation and plaudits for what both the Humanities and Sciences can offer for us.

With the previous point in mind, it seems to not make sense that the relevant superiority between the Humanities and Sciences is impugned simply because this comparison is obsolete. The world needs both the Humanities and Sciences to channel their expertise into aspects of life, thus making the world better all. For instance, a world with only perspectives from the Sciences will turn ugly and amoral without the Humanities’ touch to beautify it. At the other end of the spectrum, a world with only perspectives from the Humanities will be stagnant and unstable without the Sciences’ ability to challenge current situations and strive for progress. Therefore, instead of clinging on the question regarding the Humanities and Sciences’ relevant superiority, I strongly urge all to appreciate the relative contributions the Humanities and Sciences have made and respect them in all ways for the better of mankind.

A Friendly Rebuttal

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:05:48 GMT

As a Science teacher I cannot help but let my jaw drop when I read through the previous post, which is condescending at best, and blasphemous at worst. Never in my life did I have to seen anything that blatantly undermines Science in such a casual manner. The post is nothing more than a visceral and primitive assault that conveniently ignores the wonderful possibilities that Science can bring, as well as the eventual futility of the Arts and the Humanities.

Can the latter solve the world’s problems? Take the food crisis as an example. Annually, the number of people that die of starvation is equivalent to the population of Malaysia. That fact should galvanise us into immediate action, but instead, the gourmet industry organises numerous “cuisine” competitions to encourage chefs to perfect their recipes and make their food look aesthetically pleasing, all in the name of art. Also, how will studying the agriculture revolution (in the study of humanities) increase the amount of food reserves in the world? This is a problem that needs the help of Science. Try inserting a segment of the gene of the Arctic char into the gene of the salmon. That will significantly decrease the time it takes for the salmons to attain adulthood. Or maybe one can try to genetically modify food to increase crop yield, or to make the food more nutritious. These breakthroughs in Science will solve the world’s problems, not the trivialities that make up the Arts and the Humanities.

The problem with the Arts and the Humanities is that they are all thought/talk and no action, what I would like to call the armchair critic syndrome. We can ponder on morals, analyse history and speculate on what the future could be like, but if nothing gets transferred from the cerebral realm to reality, these thoughts are ultimately futile and a complete waste of human intelligence. According to Newton’s first law, nothing will change unless we do something. Thinking how an object should move will not cause the object to accelerate (barring spoon-bending psychics), but applying a force (or a number of forces that add up to a resultant force) will definitely do the job. This analogy sums up why the Arts and the Humanities are unable to impact the human population to an extent that is comparable to Science.

Another thing about Science is that everything has to be proven (by empirical means or otherwise) before it gets accepted. Scientists have to conduct rigorous tests to prove/disprove hypotheses before a theory can be formulated. A theory then evolves into a law if further observations over a long period of time prove it beyond doubt. Thus, when there is a new scientific discovery, we can be (more or less 100%) sure that we can use it to our advantage to benefit ourselves. To bring this into context, we can use medicine as an example. Drugs (such as atorvastatin and celecoxib) have go through a battery of tests before they can be deemed fit for human consumption, so that the risks to consumers are kept to a minimum.

The same cannot be said for the Humanities. We can of course speculate on how the future should/will be like and come up with new systems that should improve our lives, but we can never be sure if they will work. There is absolutely no way of testing these systems out. The world is the laboratory of the Humanities experts, and we, the unfortunate Homo sapiens, are the lab rats. Let me borrow the example of the global financial meltdown from the previous post. With the Dow Jones plummeting to less than 8000 points, one cannot help but wonder why capitalism was exalted as an ideal ideology in the past by respected thinkers such as Ayn Rand. Surely, we do not need any more uncertain speculation on the future, especially since it can potentially wreck havoc on a gargantuan scale. What we need is certainty.

I also need to dispel any claims that Science does not require creativity (a point which the Arts and Humanities camp love to attack). True, Science at the current level you students are studying does not require much creativity (in fact I know of some students who study without using their brains actively), but things get more interesting at a higher level. A classic example would be string theory. This is a revolutionary theory that explore the possibilities that everything thing in the universe is made of tiny vibrating strings. This is an aspect of Science that needs a lot of creativity, whether is it trying to explain how the vibrations of strings within Calabi-Yau shapes could affect the world, or how this can reconcile quantum mechanics with relativity. I recommend the book The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene to those who still have doubts.

Taking the above arguments into account, we cannot deny that Science is becoming increasingly relevant in a world that is facing many problems, most of which can be solved by Science. It is therefore puzzling why some are still fiercely protective of the Arts and Humanities, especially when they are powerless to solve the world’s problems. As a Science teacher, there is no way I can stomach an argument (I’m using that word loosely) that portrays Science as if it is as inflexible and uncreative as a piece of wood. That is indeed a classic case of a charred pot calling an immaculately polished kettle black, since the Arts and the Humanities tend to be overly-idealistic and as empty as a eunuch's underpants.

Just sayin'

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:50:04 GMT

Hello everyone it has been quite some time since I last posted anything so I shall let my cerebral juices flow to appease my fans. Why was I so silent? Well, the school blessed me with mountains of activities which I accepted with both hands (manners taught by who else but our motherly figure whenever we receive our Physics papers, and whom we will never forget anytime soon) and an open mind.

Let’s see, what is there to talk about? Oh, lots. Let me start with my subject combination. Oh I do realise that I sound as childishly narcissistic as the author of Eat, Pray, Love but please bear with me. Surprise everyone! I chose H1 English Literature! *Confetti and balloons fall from the ceiling and an exotic dancer emerges from a larger-than-life cake*

In this school, there are Science teachers, and there are Science teachers. Well, at least one teacher was not exactly jumping on his sofa (a la Tom Cruise) when he heard that news. He did not want me to state that I plan to take Literature at ‘A’ Level on a scholarship application form initially. Which is, of course, not far from what I expected. Believe me, I became incredibly credulous when our motherly figure slung mud at Dinga for not having a flair for Physics. “How can the esoteric and ultimately meaningless study of words upon words upon words and pictures upon pictures upon pictures be compared to the forward-looking, life-improving and lofty ambitions of S-C-I-E-N-C-E?” their logical minds must be thinking.

My answer? Just look at the architecture of the petrochemical complexes at Jurong Island. Metal twisted into some polygon that resembles the bottom portion of an MRT train (if you’ve even been to Dover and stared at a train on the opposite platform, you’d know what I mean). And you thought concrete cuboids were bad enough. All in the name of pragmatism. So much for inspiration. If the only goal in life is to build for the future, and everything else is flung out of the window, the world would turn into Jurong Island, figuratively and literally.

Humanities and the Arts cannot solve many of the world’s problems directly, but they beautify our world, keep us from straying from our morals and ultimately make our life more meaningful. Why did the US economy fail? While you can choose to approach this question from a scientific standpoint (with all the jargon), you can also choose zoom out and see the big picture by looking at it from the ideological perspective. Philosophers like Ayn Rand have argued passionately for capitalism (Ms Rand even dedicated a book to that aspect – Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal), but the world’s most capitalistic economy has crashed and burned and caused a huge mushroom cloud to shroud the whole world. Ostensibly, capitalism is not so flawless after all. Human greed will consume us all if there are absolutely no restrictions to fetter it. Thus, just by changing our perspective, we can start to see the whole picture instead of being bothered by infinitesimal details. With this example, we can also argue that the study of humanities can help solve the world’s Herculean problems!

The Arts, obviously, makes the world more visually and mentally appealing. Come on. If our architects study civil engineering without any modicum of artfulness will fill the Singapore skyline with twisted metal and concrete blocks. Life would undoubtedly be gloomy and uninspiring. Our suicide rate would skyrocket and burst through the dizzying heights of that of South Korea’s. Another example? Well, the feeling one gets when one finishes College Physics is entirely different from the feeling when one finishes Jane Eyre. Like duh. I have yet to meet anyone who feels that College Physics is heart wrenching, emotionally impactful, fiercely passionate, awe-inspiring, and should be read once every year.

Oh, another point I would like to make. Science teachers like to harp on the fact that Science requires us to think critically in a step-by-step fashion. That is impressive, but hold your horses! Some people have the misconception that the Arts and Humanities do not require logic at all, that they are just arbitrary studies into arbitrary fields. But that cannot be any further of the truth. For example, how can one analyse the extensive use of mirrors in Wide Sargasso Sea without using one’s brains? In fact, the teachers of Arts and Humanities should be the snobbish ones instead, claiming, justifiably, that their areas of studies require both critical thinking skills and creativity, while Science just requires the former.

It is harder to excel in Arts and Humanities because they require natural talent and more than a spark of creativity. On the other hand, one can excel in Science by sheer rote. When we take this into account, we can begin to comprehend why some are so desperate to subjugate the former under the latter.

I invite Science-minded students (or teachers, for that matter) to write a friendly rebuttal. After all, I am writing this in a half-conscious state so one glance should be sufficient to spot fatal flaws in my poorly-written polemic.

My turn:

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 07:43:54 GMT

I can't believe two years has just passed together as 3/4A'o8. Time really flies! You guys have been amazing, in one way or another; I'll definitely remember you guys!

With cartons of love, Zhi Ying.
<3

PS: please email me your home address!

(it's for a secret I'm not telling!)

Class outing or Chalet?
	Chalet
	Class outing

pollcode.com free polls

Which chalet? (we probably need 2 rooms..)
	Costa Sands Downtown East $260 per night non-peak
	Costa Sands Pasir Ris $240 per night non-peak single storey
	Aloha Loyang min $200 per night peak garden terrence
	Costa Sands Pasir Ris $420 per night peak single storey

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