Term Two Sabbatical Week

Term two sabbatical week was held on week nine, 17- 21 May 2010. Sabbatical week is an event that happens in Term one. two and three. It gives students a chance to pick up a new skill or experience something. There is a list of programs to choose from and I chose guitar.

In this course, we learnt about the guitar, the basics of playing a guitar and even had to learn a simply song and play it with the drummers on the last day of the course. We learnt C, G, A minor, B minor, F and B minor cords. Actually, we only had to learnt the first four cords i mentioned earlier. However, as I said, we had to learnt a song and the song required F and B minor cords (which will only be learnt intermediate level). The song is 'Photograph' by Nickelback. Of course, we played a shorter version of it. Overall, this is a good experience for me and I plan to continue learning guitar as it would quite wasted after learning guitar for a week and not continuing. The song below is 'Photograph' by Nickelback.

Cheers

Jun Yi.

Projects Day Preliminary Judging

It was held on the 7th of April. The projects day is something that only Hwa Chong has. Lower secondary must participate while upper secondary can choose to participate if they want. There are various categories that you can choose to take part in for example, inventions, experimental research, language arts.

My group chose mathematics and it is based the history of mathematics. Our mentor is Mrs Chang. On the 7th of May, we were at the classroom of 3Q for our preliminary round. Before we presented, we were pretty nervous as it was our first time participating in projects day.

However, after we presented, we felt normal as the pressure was already off our chests.

The results were out a few weeks after the preliminary round the outcome is that we have passed! We were were quite shocked as the judges remarks were not what we expected but we will work hard for the semi-finals next term!

Cheers,

Jun Yi.

Combine Sports Meet with Nanyang Girls' School

On 14 May 2010, our school together with Nanyang Girls' school had our annual Combine Sports Meet( CSM). The CSM had track and field events such as sprints, pole vault and high jump. On that day, the CSM started at about 8am, if I'm not wrong, and ended at roughly 10.30am. There most anticipated event was the 4x100m relay run. Lots of people went down to the track to support their classes. For our class, Zi Han was our first runner, then Yu Xiang, followed by Kevyn and lastly, Jack.

Other than all the excitement on the track, there were also games held on top of the terraces and in front of the clock tower. There also booths selling food and drinks. Also, there was event a band playing and singing music for everyone present. After the CSM was over, our class, 1O2, 1P2 and 1P3 went to little India to have some Indian food. Personally, I enjoyed the experience but the food was just too spicy! I could hardy consume it but in the end, I did. So that was the day when the last CSM would be held in our school's track before the Tan Kah Kee MRT Station finish building.

Cheers,

Jun Yi.

Founders' Day

Hey everyone,

The Founders' is on 21st March. On this day, Hwa Chong Institution became 91 years old! To celebrate this, there was a dinner in the evening. However, on this day in this year is a Sunday. So, the students were not able to celebrate on the actual day. Thus, we celebrated this occasion on Wednesday, 24th March 2010. For the Secondary ones like myself, we went for beach for beach cleaning. My class and a few others went to East Coast Beach.

We arrived there and were given garbage bags to each groups. Everybody started going around the beach collecting all kinds of rubbish. I mainly picked up the common ones like cigarette butts and bottles. My classmate even found a SHIRT and a PANTS! How unbelievable is that! You can practically find anything at the beach. However, at the end of the day, I notice that there is seriously a LOT of rubbish at the beach. This is pretty scary as a beach is suppose to be a nice and relax place but after seeing all the rubbish, it could just ruin your mood. Overall, it was a pretty nice experience as it was my first time doing beach cleaning and there is a sense of achievement in me for the fact that I think I have done my part in cleaning the beach but I will do better if I ever go for beach cleaning again.

Cheers,

Jun Yi

Hey all,

Its been quite a while since I posted on this blog. The previous two posts are the assignments that I am suppose to do for LA(hope you like them, especially the poem, I racked my brains to create that poem) in the Home Learning that I have currently, 25th and 26th May 2010. There was a couple of school events this term. They consist of Founders' Day, Combine Sports meet with Nanyang Girls' School, Projects Day Preliminary Judging and Term Two Sabbatical Week. I will give you more details on the above events by the end of this week as I have to do my research for my Humanities Home Learning assignment. BYE~~

Cheers,

Jun Yi

My Poem

Sitting in a quiet classroom
Nobody talks
Nobody chats
Nobody whispers
With a fierce teacher staring right into everybody's eyes

Dozing as the teacher speaks
Staring at the clock as the minute hand ticks
Waiting for the last period to end
And 'rrriiiinnnnnnggggg' goes the bell as the clock strike 1.30pm

Students pack up bags
Dashes to the crowded canteen
Grab a bite
And off they go for their Co-Curriculum Activities

Perspiring after the activities as they walk out of school
Hop on a bus and head home
Reaches home an hour later
Wasted no time bathing and eating

Started on the pile of homework
Ended at 2am and sleeps immediate
Wakes up in the morning at 5.30am
And there it goes again

Analysis of a Poem

The Son is in Secondary School by Affian Sa’at

My badge has a Latin motto
Hope for the future
The future is hope
Or something

At times black crows try to interrupt
When we sing the National Anthem

It is difficult to maintain
The whiteness of my shoes
Especially on Wednesdays

I must admit there is something quite special
About the bare thighs of hardworking scouts

The Malay chauffeurs
Who wait for my schoolmates
Sit on the car park kerb
Telling jokes to one another

Seven to the power of five is unreasonable

On Chinese New Year
Mrs Lee dressed up
In a sarong kebaya
And sang Bengawan Solo

The capital of Singapore is Singapore

My best friend did a heroic thing once
Shaded all A’s
For his Chinese Language
Multiple-choice paper

In our annual yearbook
There is a photograph of me

Pushing a wheelchair and smiling
They caught me
At the exact moment

When my eyes were actually closed


So the poem above is the one that I am going to analyse for Home Learning(e-Learning). Honestly, I really don't know how to analyse a poem so for this, I will try my best to analyse it. Don't laugh!

So basically, this poem is a free verse type of poem, it does not have any rhyme or regular rhythm. It also sounds like a daily conversation you have with your friends. The poet is actually reflecting back on his secondary school life. He sang the National Anthem in school, finds that it is difficult to maintain the whiteness of his shoes, feels that the bare thighs of hardworking scouts are somehow special. The poet even remembers the sarong kebaya that his teacher, Mrs Lee, wore on Chinese New Year. I do not know why but the poet feels that his friend shading all his questions on the answer sheet 'A' was a heroic act. Maybe because of the fact that nobody but his friend dares to do this in an examination thus calling his act 'heroic'. The poet remembers that the annual year book had a photograph of him. At the end of the poem, the poet says,'When my eyes were actually closed.' This explains that he was reflecting on his secondary school life with his eyes closed.